And then there were five. Jaclyn congratulates Dee on her win and her cover on the Allure wall of fame, and Dee tells us that finally she's been recognized and the others will know she's not messing around. Yes, because all of those times that they acknowledged that you were tough competition they didn't really mean it. Paulo says with five left, "Game's on." Seriously, there is clearly nothing going on of note, because really the game has kind of been on, well, since it's been on. I am already suspicious of this week's Short Cut judge as he was responsible for Sanjaya's ponyhawks. I didn't even actually watch that show and yet I was sick of that kid and his stupid hair. The judge's name is Dean Banowetz. As their clients have "very busy schedules" they will only have 30 minutes. Insert obligatory "worried about coming up with something good in that time frame" comment here. Jaclyn tells the stylists that the clients will be picking them this week, and with a shriek the clients run in -- six-year-old girls. Before they start, Jaclyn tells them that Dean is "personal stylist" to his SEVENTY-FIVE nieces and nephews so he gets kid hair. I guess that's why he works on American Idol -- his family is the entirety of the youth of America.
The challenge is to create a kid-friendly look for all these kids to make a great first impression when they start the first grade. Paulo, I must admit, is really cute with his girl, assuring her she's going to be fabulous. Daniel's client specifically requests Jaclyn's hair -- six years old and she's got amazing taste! Everyone cuts quickly to get things done before their clients move their heads and accidentally get scissors in their eyes. These girls are all incredibly endearing -- my cold heart has warmed up to a warm, soft mush. Oh wait, hang on a sec -- Charlie's girl wants to grow up to be Paris Hilton. What is wrong with kids these days? Everyone takes turns knocking everyone else's hair (not in front of the girls themselves) but let's see the show and judge for ourselves, shall we?
Daniel's client, wannabe Jaclyn, has brown hair in big brown loose curls and layers by the face. She's ridiculously excited with it and throws her arms up with glee. Paulo cut his girl's hair up around shoulder length and cut bangs, but the waves that he tried to create now just makes it look messy. But when she's asked if she is happy with it she answers, "Super!" Nicole cut her girl's hair and gave her bangs, and then pulled the sides back with bobby pins. Once again, Nicole knocks it out of the park -- her girl looks totally appropriate but super cute and her hair is ridiculously shiny. Charlie's girl wanted ponytails, so Charlie pulled it half up and then all up in a second rubber band below, with a piece of hair wrapped around. Dee then cut her girl's hair with a very sharp, severe bang and did a pretty uneven job of it, though her girl is happy. Dean is concerned about Paulo and Dee -- Paulo because the curls don't last and Dee because of her horrible bangs. Dean was then really impressed with Daniel and Charlie. This means Nicole is deemed completely mediocre, right there in the middle (which surprises me a little bit). He loves Daniel listening exactly to his client but making it kid-friendly. He also points out how happy she is with her hair, which I think is half of his success here -- she's wriggling around with a grin on her face like a little puppy. He compliments Charlie on doing ponytails as requested but making it sturdy so it will stand up to the playground. The winner is... Daniel and mini-Jaclyn! I love, by the way, that he did a better job doing Charlie's Angels hair on a six-year-old than on a grown woman. Paulo points out that one way to win is to copy a judge's hair, and that time you see him, his client is going to look like Mini Kim Vo. The more Paulo gets lumped in the bottom, the more carefree he gets about his interviews and he's become really amusing lately.
At home that night, they toast the first-graders and then decide to do a fashion show to honor the fallen stylists. (This does not read like it's an idea planted by the producers to fill time AT ALL! Except that it's pretty amusing, so I'll let it be.) Daniel first introduces, "Oshun. He's deep." Hee! Dee plays Oshun, then Paulo comes in as Matt, and he comes out in a ton of jewelry which I don't quite get. But what he does do well is talk and talk about his wife. Nicole is Meredith with crazy eyes and then pretends to freak out. Daniel re-introduces himself and sprays some hairspray around. This is why I love him -- he's ridiculous but he knows it and embraces it and his love for giant hair and buckets of hairspray. Charlie plays Nekisa and just starts yelling "fuck you" at himself, and then last but not least Daniel calls Gail -- who is played by no one, because apparently that's how memorable she was in the house. Ouch.
In the salon the day, Rene tells them that their clients have seen them at their worst and now want to see them at their best. Paulo looks extremely suspicious as Rene calls to the clients to enter -- it's loved ones! Paulo introduces his cousin Carla (and incidentally, the Chyron subtitles in his interview calls him "Parker" -- someone wasn't proofreading!), and Daniel introduces his mom and can't stop hugging her. Dee introduces her mom, Charlie introduces his sister Kelly, and Nicole introduces her mom. Then Rene drops the bomb: they each will be styling someone else's family member. Imagine dropped jaws and unhappy silence for a couple of beats. Everyone looks actually really, truly angry about it. As winner of the Short Cut, Daniel gets to assign clients to stylists. He picks Nicole's mom because he loves blondes, and he puts his own mom with Charlie, (not because Charlie is good, but because they can both be bitches about hair. See? Love him.) He puts Paulo's cousin with Dee, Nicole gets Dee's mom and her difficult short hair, and that means Paulo has Charlie's sister. They have an hour and a half and are sent to "Shake it!"
Charlie plans to warm up Sandra's (Daniel's mom) blonde hair and do it like Sharon Stone's short 'do. Paulo wants to keep Kelly's curls, cutting the back shorter and leaving it longer in front. Dee's mom Linda wants highlights but Nicole talks her out of it and explains she wants to cut all of her hair off. Dee runs over to say hi, since she doesn't get to see her mom that often and shows off her poster. Daniel's plan with Sharon is to keep her bright around the face and to bring it up a bit. Rene asks about lowlights and Daniel assures him that he's doing that. Dee wants to go edgy and modern with Paulo's cousin Carla. She can't get the black out of Carla's hair, so she's going to dye it burgundy and tells Rene she doesn't plan for it to look natural. She thinks this is going to show her versatility -- I think that it could go versatile or it could go horrible. Paulo hand-paints in some highlights and Charlie runs over and warns his sister that she should be prepared for crazy hair. Nicole thinks Daniel Dallas-ified her mom, and after all that time she spent breaking her out of her giant '80s bangs! He thinks that Charlie isn't doing a cut that does his mom's ears any favors. Charlie thinks Paulo's 'do is what he has always done. And Dee's mom is clearly freaking out a bit about how short her hair is now.
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Hair show time -- we know all the regular judges and are introduced to David Babaii, celebrity stylist who can only awkwardly say "hi!" He has a product line that raises money for wildlife conservation, though, so he can say as little or as much as he wants as far as I'm concerned. First up is Dee's client, Carla. She calls it "bright red," but it's really black with some awkward chunky burgundy highlights from 1994. The cut is good -- layered and flippy with thick bangs. Paulo looks horrified. Daniel's mom has yellower hair that Charlie likes better but I don't like. He left it heavy over the ears to cover them but all it does is make her hair stick out awkwardly and draws more attention to them. Daniel did Nicole's mom in a short, flippy, razored bob and the color is nice. Dee's mom... Oh, Nicole. It's way too short for her face. The dark color is great, but the cut is a total miss. Paulo, despite saying he wanted to work with her curls, made it all straight and spiky. I think without the spikes and all of the product, it could actually be cute.
Kelly looks skeptical as Dee explains her cut, and Dee looks shocked when Kim tells her that this is what Nekisa always did, just coloring on top and nowhere else. David likes the bangs, but Paulo says he would have liked deeper red. Carla herself says she likes the look but hates the upkeep of highlights. up is Charlie, and again Kelly looks skeptical. David loves both the cut and color. Sandra says unconvincingly that she likes it, but admits that she's a Texan and therefore generally likes it bigger than it is now. Kim calls her up to examine it but goes right for the ears, saying that in Beverly Hills they do cuts like these to cover up various elective surgery around the ears. Daniel says that he would have given the hair "more fluff" to deal with the ears, which is apparently what he's been doing since he was nine years old and started cutting his mother's hair. That's a picture I'd like to see. Kelly and Jaclyn both like the cut and color.
Daniel explains Sharon's cut, and Sharon says that she loves this color and that it's way better than the old color. Nicole likes the cut but not the styling and says she'd make her more blonde. Kelly agrees that it should have been brighter and even Daniel says he might have gone brighter around the face, but he points out to everyone to be proud that there is very little teasing and hairspray for once. Nicole introduces Linda, who now looks very, very much like Dee. She wishes it was longer, as does Dee. David looks at it up close and compliments the cut, but Jaclyn wishes it had more movement. Finally Paulo explains his cut, but what speaks louder than he does is the look that Kim notices on Kelly's face. He then calls Kelly up and tells Paulo he's done this same cut a million times. He seems to doubt how well it will work if she doesn't blow it straight. And Charlie admits he thinks it's not a good cut. Kelly does compliment him doing more subtle color, but he clearly isn't super-impressed. Once excused, Charlie notes to everyone that none of them had a home run this week.
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Deliberations are interesting because they start with Dee and talk about how much they all love the cut but hate the color. They like Charlie's color but not as much the cut or the styling. Kim calls it like it is -- her hair looked like earmuffs. They like the cut that Daniel did and the fact that he gave her some actual style, but the color wasn't bright enough. Poor Kelly -- they say that Paulo's cut both looks like a palm tree and won't wear well once it's curly. Jaclyn gives him praise for how it worked with Kelly's face, but everyone else then resumes crapping all over it and his doing the same cut every week. Nicole is sort of applauded for being daring, but Kim says it looks painted on and all of them don't like that she has no styling options until it grows out.
The stylists file back in for the verdicts. Dee, Charlie and Daniel are called forward as the top three and all breathe the biggest sighs of relief I've seen all season. They clearly all agreed with Charlie that no one did an absolutely flawless job. Jaclyn compliments Daniel's cut and style, Dee's flattering cut, and Charlie's color, cut and overall transformation. But Daniel is sent back in line, and it's down to the difficult decision of Charlie or Dee. And man, those judges must like keeping their ears toasty on winter days because Charlie wins for the third time. He's quick to remind everyone of that in an interview, and can't understand why Dee didn't love that he was "dancing around like a drag queen." (His words.)
Paulo and Nicole are then called forward. It's got to be Paulo, right? The poor guy almost needs to be put out of his misery after landing in the bottom two so many times. Nicole is chastised for doing too-dark color and a too-short cut. Paulo gets his knuckles rapped for giving his client a cut that doesn't work with her hair type. Though Jaclyn says it was a difficult decision, it's predictably Paulo that is going home. He takes it like a man and tells them it was a great experience and how much he loved meeting Jaclyn in person. He gives everyone a bear hug and heads on his way while Nicole cries. week, the Final Four! In the meantime, everyone get back to the Olympics. There's a lot to be learned from the gymnasts about how to keep a ponytail in place with the maximum number of hair clips physically possible.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see what the Shear Genius stylists think are the Most Hair-Raising Moments on TV!
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