Color Me Barbra Max Factor Custom Hair Pieces

Barbra Streisand wore these custom Bob Roberts for Max Factor hairpieces in Color Me Barbra (1966). They were styled into Barbra’s natural hair using bobby pins & built up into the her French twist updo as seen on film. Barbra was fond of wearing hair pieces similar to this during her early years. They allowed her to keep her hair short and give dramatic volume to her updos. Bob Roberts was a wig designer at Max Factor who created many famous looks including wigs for “The Wizard Of Oz.”
Max Factor (1872-1938) was born in Lutz, Poland.  At the age of nine he became an apprentice to the city’s leading wigmaker and cosmetician. After four years he gained enough skills to join the staff of Berlin hairstylist Anton. He eventually moved to Moscow, where he worked for the cosmetician at the Imperial Russian Opera. At 18 he was required to halt his career to serve four years in the Russian Army. When he was discharged he opened a small shop in Moscow selling his own wigs, perfumes & makeup. His shop became so popular that he was adopted by the summer court and worked privately for aristocrats. In 1904,with anti-Jewish persecution on the rise in Poland, Factor followed his brother and Uncle to the United States with his wife & three children. Upon arrival his last name was changed from Faktor to Factor. He quickly moved to LA where he saw opportunity to make money providing made to order wigs and makeup for the growing film industry. Within 15 years virtually every major move actress was a customer of his salon near Hollywood Boulevard, where he helped to create their famous looks. In 1920 Max coined the term “make up” based of the phrase “to make up” ones face. Until then the term was deemed vulgar. The acceptable only term for society had been “cosmetics”. By 1927 Factor’s products were being distributed nationally. After his death in 1938 his son took over the company and continued to develop products. By the 1960’s the company was still in the business of renting and selling hand made wigs to film and TV productions like “Color Me Barbra.” These hair piece sold at auction in 2014 for $1021.00