Hair-owing experiences.

For a dancer, a hairdo indicates a profession and is part of your costume. Hair shows your degree of health, stress, grooming, and fashion sense. It can be your crowning glory or a disaster area. For instance, constant traction on the hair by pulling it into a ponytail or constantly wearing a tightly pulled-back coif can result in hairline hair loss in females.

You should change shampoos frequently and avoid baby shampoos which are stingless but are made of harsh detergents, not soaps. If you plan to color your hair, have a good hairdresser make the first test and choice of color, then follow the choice with that product bought less expensively in a beauty-supply store. This is especially important on tour. Knowing your formula can save you despair and expense in strange salons. Have someone help you apply the color, activated with hydrogen peroxide (if that is part of your formula), since it can be purchased in any drugstore anywhere in the world.

Here are some product suggestions: Paul Mitchell's Sculpting Spray Gel and Sculpting Foam, will form your over-the-ears Romantic-era coiffure easily and keep you looking contemporary, minus the bun, after the performance. It's recommended for male coiffures as well. Freeze and Shine Super Spray keeps your coif in place on- and offstage. And Detangler will tame long locks and smooth dry, frizzy hair.

(No stranger to dance, John Paul DeJoria, chairman of the board of John Paul Mitchell Systems, is a four-time sponsor of the International Evenings of Dance presented during the Bolshoi Ballet Academy at Vail's summer workshops in Colorado. DeJoria is impressed by the Vail workshops that involve Russian and American ballet students, and the evenings of international performing stars. "The arts and sports," he says, "are the best way for children, as well as adults, to know and appreciate different cultures.")

As a dancer, you may have to change hairdos two or three times during a performance. Practice and a few tips can save you time and anxiety. The classical nineteenth-century hairdo is part of ballets such as The Nutcracker party scene, Giselle, and Les Sylphides.

RELATED ARTICLE: NINETEENTH-CENTURY HAIRDO

This coif is neither complicated nor difficult to master. Here are some easy directions:

1. Part the hair in the center and place a bobby pin directly over each ear.

2. Swirl the hair below the pins over the ears and secure with more pins and hair spray.

3. Draw the remaining hair into a large barrette center back. (Do not use a rubber band because it tears the hair.)

4. Make a bun or attach a hairpiece with crisscrossed bobby pins or long hairpins with one end twisted upward. If your hair is fine or only shoulder--length, wrap the hair around tissue paper to make the bun look fuller.

5. Cover the entire hairdo with an elasticized hairnet, tightening the net to make a neat and almost invisible covering. Twist and tuck the extra net under the barrette.

6. Remove the bobby pins over the ears and replace with small hairpins that have a twisted end to prevent them from falling out.

7. Spray overall, and check your hairdo by shaking your head to adjust loose pins and stray ends.

You might need a more contemporary hairdo on- or offstage such as a knob at the back of the head, just above the nape of the neck, or, for jazz class and if your hair is long enough, with a long lock cascading through a knob. To avoid using tissue paper, "rats" (soft, rounded pads), and other debris usually stuffed into knobs, Teeni Hairdini[R] Magic Styling Wand. a flexible, foam-coated, washable, six-and-a-half-inch insert is easy to use.

Although the product is available in larger Hairdini[R] Wand and Mighty Big Hairdini[R] Wand sizes, the Teeni size is suitable for hair that is medium- to shoulder-length or longer, layered, straight, or curly.

Here is a basic way to use the wand:

1. After brushing, gather the hair into a low ponytail with your left hand at the center of the head or lower. Use a spray or gel now, or when you have finished your coif.

2. With your right hand, center the wand beneath the end of the ponytail and where you want your knob--at the center of the back of your head or lower. Begin rolling the ends of your hair under and onto the wand.

3. When all the hair is centered and rolled onto the wand, twist both ends of the wand until hair is firmly secured against the back of your head.

4. Bend the ends of the wand upward and form a circle slightly overlapping the right end. Tuck wand's ends into the center of the bun.

5. Finish by sliding your hair over entire wand.

Although the wand will keep your hair secure, you might want to make sure your pirouettes don't undo your coif. Add a hairnet in your hair color over the bun, and by inserting some twisted hairpins or crisscrossed bobby pins around the knob for added security. Or use a spray.

Teeni Hairdini[R], its larger sizes, as well as instructional videos are available from Angelhair, Ltd., 2970 Blystone Lane, Dallas, TX 75220; [phone].