Helen Hunt (hair stylist)

Helen Hunt was a hair stylist in Hollywood movies from the 1930s up to 1967, when she worked on Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. She was the chief hair stylist for Columbia Pictures.{{cite magazine |last1=Sargeant |first1=Winthrop |date=November 10, 1947 |title=The Cult of the Love Goddess in America |magazine=Life |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p1EEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Helen+Hunt%22+stylist+Columbia&pg=PA86 }}

Hunt fell into her career by accident. She was working as a stenographer for a costume company in Omaha, Nebraska.{{cite news |title=Presto! Blond Is Brunet-It's All Done With Wigs |newspaper=Toledo Blade |date=March 8, 1940 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19400308&id=MtJOAAAAIBAJ&pg=4327,1211835}} She began washing and arranging the company's wigs on her own time because they were being neglected. When she went into a shop to look over a display of wigs, she was offered a job by the owner, George Westmore of Hollywood. This eventually led to a position with Columbia Pictures. According to IMDb, the first film with which she was involved (uncredited) was the 1935 Party Wire, starring Jean Arthur.

She worked with Rita Hayworth before the latter became a star. According to some sources, it was Hunt who came up with the idea to dye Hayworth's black hair auburn.{{cite book |title=City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s |last=Friedrich |first=Otto |year=1986 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520209497 |page=149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0x8AFchW4JsC&dq=%22Helen+Hunt%22+stylist+Columbia&pg=PA149 }}{{cite book |title=Dance and the Hollywood Latina: race, sex, and stardom |last=Ovalle |first=Priscilla Pena |year=2011 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/dancehollywoodla0000oval/page/76 76] |url=https://archive.org/details/dancehollywoodla0000oval |url-access=registration |quote=helen hunt hair stylist. }} She also arranged for the painful, lengthy electrolysis that raised Hayworth's hairline. For the 1946 film noir Gilda, Hunt stated, "I got fan mail - and hate mail - about Rita's hair! Some clergymen declared that I would go to hell for contributing to evil because of Rita's hair in Gilda!"{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/133528 |title=Behind the Camera on Gilda |author=John Miller |publisher=Turner Classic Movies |access-date=May 18, 2013 }} When Orson Welles insisted on shortening the actress's long hair (and dyeing it blonde) for The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Hunt was flown in from New York, where she was on her honeymoon, to do the cutting.

During the course of her career, she also styled such stars as Irene Dunne,{{cite news |title=Hollywood Hair Styles |newspaper=The Liverpool News |date=October 24, 1940 |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page6497100}} Rosalind Russell, Loretta Young and Evelyn Keyes.{{cite journal |date=March 17, 1942 |title=Style Notes |journal=The Border Watch |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article80044259#pstart7751960 }} Cult movie actress Pamela Duncan credited Hunt with bringing her to the attention of the casting department of Columbia.{{cite book |title=Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde: Interviews with 62 Filmmakers |last=Weaver |first=Tom |year=2010 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9780786458318 |page=178 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=50AbUfJS6OkC&dq=%22Helen+Hunt%22+stylist+Columbia&pg=PA178 }}