This episode’s title could be the title of the final act of any reality tv episode where one contestant gets axed. It still applies here, but have you ever had a haircut or color that made you want to cry?
I missed blogging about last week’s premier episode. Here it is in a nutshell: Outre hairstyles done with arts and crafts from Micheal’s. French stylist Paul-Jean (whom I suspect inverted his name from Jean-Paul) got the axe for doing a hideous extensions job, while maned pretty young thing Theodore won for improvising with a box on top of his model’s head.
This week’s episode involved dye jobs and celebrity hairstyles. That’s enough to make at least one stylist cry.
Their practice challenge is to bleach out their mannequin’s hair from black to a level 8 blonde (which is very coppery). Tabatha, the icily cool English master of bleach blonding who does her own hair, wins while Evangelina manages to get it right and Ben reaches the right level on a fluke. Theodore, the pretty young thing with the curls, and Danna are so overconfident about their abilities as colorists that they lounge around, chatting with guest judge Roy Teeluck of Nexus, who looks like the love child of Bono and Kyle McLaughlin. Needless to say, neither of them get the bleaching right because they should have been watching their heads. Then, the rest of them don’t get it close except for Dr. Boogie, who almost wound up with a blue-haired doll head.
There’s a loft the contestants stay in, though the show doesn’t stay there too long to show it as a living space. Homes in reality tv are usually breeding grounds for drama. The Real World is still running after 15 years because of it. This show is all work because they are taken to a wall where their clients’ photos are. Tabatha, Evangeline, and Ben get to pick theirs first with the pictures of the clients’ celebrity choices. Tabatha does an excellent Victoria Beckham bob on her model, though she preferred it shorter on the back.
Everyone else has to pick theirs without the matching photos, coming in cold the next day. Given that, Anthony is able to pull of giving his model a layered look favored by Carmen Electra. The charming English accent also helps, but he deserves the win he gets.
Some aren’t so lucky. Daisy gets a client from hell who is more Marcia Cross (in Daisy’s words), but wants Christina Aguilera’s blonde wavy hairstyle. She loses time negotiating with her model, bleaches her hair down to a shade of red (there’s no time to make it platinum), and puts it in a French twist. Jim, the flamboyantly nerdy stylist, bleaches his model’s hair down to a bright orange. Dr. Boogie’s reaction is, “Oh my god! It’s Carrot Top in drag!” At least his client tries to rock it on the runway, though the judges can infer she’s not really into it. Unfortunately for him, he’s gone.
This show right now is all work. We only get to see them at the salon for the most part, and the judges are the most professionally removed. Jacqueline Smith has a great hairstyle, but she’s detached. No Heidi Klum style “Auf Wiedersehen” or Jonathan Adler “See You Later, Decorator.” No one checks in on the departing stylist like Tim Gunn or Todd Oldham, and the axed one packs up and leaves alone.
