FLORIDA WIGMAKER HELPED SEW UP REAL EVITA'S IMAGE.

Byline: Elinor J. Brecher Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

The snippets of hair arrived in plain packages.

Seventh-generation wigmaker Joseph Rozini unwrapped the golden strands and studied them, then went to his stock of fine human hair and selected batches that exactly matched the locks.

With his daughter and partner, Ruth Regina Rozini, he fashioned braids, chignons and knots fit for a first lady - in this case, Eva Peron of Argentina.

For years, the Rozini hairpieces were as critical to Evita's fabled glamour and fashion sophistication as her jewelry and hats. Odds are, when you see a photo of her from her heyday - she died in 1952 - she's got one securely pinned to her own tresses.

``I know what she wore and how she looked,'' says Ruth Regina, as the wigmaker's daughter and her own Bay Harbor Islands custom wig shop are now known. ``Daddy told me what to do, and I did it. I did a lot of the styling.''

Peron, she recalls, ``had long hair, but there were times she added pieces to it. ''

Regina keeps the Evita styles on display at her shop, atop a sextet of serenely half-smiling mannequin heads. Look for similar pieces on Madonna in the new movie ``Evita.''

Eva Peron is one of the few celebrity clients not represented in a photo gallery at Ruth Regina's shop, where scores of heads model women's wigs in every color and style, and scores more hairpieces for both genders lie in glass cases like small, slumbering mammals.

Most of the wigs are indistinguishable from an actual head of hair, even to close observers. They're handmade in the shop by sharp-eyed wigmakers wielding tiny needles called ventilating tools, slipping strands in and out of gossamer-light lacy bases fitted to the scalp.

On one table, two identically styled fluffy wigs in slightly different shades of blond await their wearer. She's a local woman involved in charity events and community affairs who will remain nameless. Over the years, Ruth Regina has developed the discretion of a society plastic surgeon.

Unless, of course, the subject is one of the show-business types she made up for screens large and small, as recently as ``Striptease.''

In addition to hairpieces, Regina has been doing makeup for movies and TV since the '50s. She was makeup director for ``The Jackie Gleason Show,'' produced in Miami Beach from 1966 to 1970. With her paints, brushes and false mustaches, she transformed the Great One into the snooty Reginald Van Gleason III, Joe the Bartender and bus driver Ralph Kramden for the show's ``Honeymooners'' skits.

A small sampling of the stars she's pictured with on her walls: Steve Allen, Loni Anderson, Frankie Avalon, Lucille Ball, Tony Bennett, Milton Berle, Bing Crosby, Tony Curtis, Bobby Darin, Dom DeLuise, Barbara Eden, Elvis Presley, Eddie Fisher, Robert Goulet, Judy Garland, Joel Gray, Bob Hope, Gene Kelly, Al Pacino, Jack Paar, Burt Reynolds, Phil Silvers, Red Skelton, Kate Smith, Tiny Tim, Marlo Thomas, Sophie Tucker and Andy Williams.

Regina made up Herbert Hoover for the former president's appearance on the TV show ``Person to Person,'' in his 90s; Richard Nixon, when the Republican convention came to Miami Beach in 1972; and 14 Miss Universes who ``always had to be made up after they won the title because they always cry.''

When a certain mop-haired rock group from Liverpool played ``The Ed Sullivan Show,'' Ruth Regina made sure their noses didn't shine.

The Beatles, she says, ``were very sweet and polite, and I was under security where I would have to be with them from early morning to late at night. We were surrounded by police, but no matter how many police or what security, the girls popped out of the walls.''

Regina, the youngest of four sisters, says she was born to make wigs.

``At 7, I was already learning the craft from the old school,'' she says. ``It was the family craft. My father taught me. His father taught him. My father worked in Italy for many years ... When I was a little girl, I used to sit and sew hairpieces. Instead of going home from school, I went to my parents' place of business and started getting my education.''

Most of her clients are neither celebrities nor society swells; they're women who use hairpieces as accessories, people with medical conditions that cause hair loss, or cancer patients anticipating chemotherapy.

``Usually, as soon as they know they're going to go through chemo, they come in, so I can take measurements of their head, take samples of the hair, decide on the style and put it into work before they even start.''

A first-quality, European human hair wig runs $1,800 to $3,000, she says, ``depending the size of your head'' and the style.

This hair comes from European ``peasants who keep their heads covered from the sun. They raise their hair, and at a certain time, hair buyers come by, and they cut it off and purchase it. Then it is divided by lengths, cleaned, sorted by colors.''

Less-expensive hair comes from Southeast Asia, but must be bleached and re-dyed.

As for synthetics, Ruth Regina chooses her words carefully: ``Everything has its place in life.''

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Photo

Photo: Ruth Regina shows off the hairpiece designs she worked on with her father for Eva Peron. ``Daddy told me what to do, and I did it. I did a lot of the styling,'' says the Miami wigmaker.

Knight-Ridder Tribune Photo Service