I love Los Angeles b-roll, since it always makes it seem like the beach, Beverly Hills and downtown are all so close to each other. For those of you who have never been here, expect to do a little driving in between. But to the matter at hand -- the remaining four stylists. Charlie gets his haircut up on the Allure Wall of Fame, which Daniel also loves, because it means a picture of his mom is up on the wall, too. With that out of the way, Jaclyn introduces this week's Short Cut guest judge, who happens to be her personal stylist: José Eber. This man is not afraid of plastic surgery, but he seems rather delightful nonetheless. Jaclyn tells the gang that they have to get to know their clients really well for this challenge, and give them a cut that shows what makes them unique. Nicole has a really cutting-edge theory that a haircut really does represent someone's personality. Take her, for example, she's short and sassy, and so is her 'do! They once again get their scissor boxes of choosing and Dee is number one so she gets first pick. Daniel observes that she's pretty single-minded in always choosing the pretty, young Latino-looking girl. He's not wrong. The other three all end up with blondes with various lengths of dark roots.
Charlie's client says that she's wild, so he's going light blonde with white streaks. Dee's girl loves motorcycles, and Dee describes her as liking '80s rock hair. Please, oh please, let's see some teasing and some Aqua Net! Daniel's girl seems rather personality-free but says if she was on TV she'd be a reporter, so he's going to keep her blonde. Nicole's client is a pop singer and her style icons are Christina Aguilera, the Girls Door and Paris Hilton. God help us all. Jaclyn then comes forward and says that there is a problem, and that they've all been double-booked and have a second set of clients waiting. Those clients turn out to be the identical twins of the clients they already have. They then have to make sure that the twins each have their own distinct hairstyle. It's a pretty good challenge, I have to say, and the winner is going to win a spot in the final three. All of them say different versions of the very same thing, that they have to really do a good job and they'd love to be the winner. Charlie's twins seem to be different but Nicole's girls are identical right down to their nauseating idols. Nicole points out that Daniel talks a bunch about himself, and she's curious if he really got to know his clients. It's a valid question, given that we're treated to a montage of Daniel Facts like that he went to a tiny Christian school, had ten people in his graduating class, and went to school for interior design for two years before deciding to do hair. Eh, clients, schmients. I love Daniel, so he can talk in his little twang all day for all I care. José makes the rounds, and Nicole repeats 20 times that she has to make it to the final. Well, she left her bubbly twin blonde and made her conservative twin a brunette, so we know she loves ridiculous stereotypes if nothing else.
Jaclyn reminds us that they had to do cuts based on their clients' personalities, but seriously, how can they really judge that? Did they have hours of meaningful one-on-one time themselves before they unleashed the twins on the final four? It seems more like they are just taking everyone's word for what personalities the girls have. Charlie gave the wilder twin a straight, bright blonde cut with thick bangs and the calmer twin (who... likes weddings? I don't know.) has longer hair that's darker with bright blonde streaks in big sexy waves. Dee's motorcycle twins don't look terribly different. '80s rocker does have, well, '80s rock hair. It's super-layered and big with purple highlights underneath. Her twin has straighter hair with big blocky red streaks. Welcome to 1997. As mentioned before, Nicole made one twin a brunette and her hair is wavy, while her blonde has straight hair. Both are really boring. Daniel left both of his twins blonde, but totally different blondes. One is brighter and straighter, and one is darker with highlights and waves. What we've learned is that if you have light blonde hair, it needs to be flat-ironed. José tells them that it was close, but that -- Nicole??? -- Nicole wins. He loved giving them two totally different looks, which I guess was weighted more than them having actual style. So Nicole is our first finalist.
At the house, Charlie, Daniel and Dee all give Nicole a bunch of jealous shit about being in the final, but Daniel admits to the camera that he's fine with Nicole being in the final because he still thinks she's the weakest. The morning, instead of going to the salon, they go to a studio set-up for a photo shoot. René is there with celebrity photographer Michael Grecco. This challenge is going to be awesome -- they each have to create an avant-garde hairstyle that represents one of the four seasons. It's like Shear Genius just married America's Top Model! Awesome. They'll be judged both on the hairdo and how well they work with Michael to "achieve his vision." The scissor boxes all have a season inside which matches one of the models, and they are paired off. Before they "shake it," they'll meet with Michael, and then they'll have three hours to work.
First up is Daniel, who has Summer. The set has a bicycle and flowers and it's good that Michael reminds us it's an avant-garde shoot because the set is very average. Daniel's technical challenge is that the hair will have to stay once they add mist to the shoot. I've been to Texas in the summer a couple of times, and I have to guess that Daniel is used to working with hair and moisture together, given that the Texas air left me looking like a giant Brillo pad. Nicole has Winter, and her model will be laying in the snow. Dee has Fall, and her model will be bouncing on a trampoline wearing flowing clothes; Michael wants flowing hair to match. Charlie has Spring, and his model will be on a swing and will also have flowing hair. Michael tells him his artistic challenge is to say "Spring" in a beautiful way. It's the most vague and unhelpful command ever. Charlie agrees with me and says that so far nothing there seems avant-garde, so it's going to be up to him to take care of that.
Once they get to work, the stylists all talk about their visions for the challenge, but the only one worth noting is that Charlie wants to do something "hedge-like." Now, has anyone seen the fine, fine film House Party? When I hear "hedge-like hair," I picture Kid of Kid 'n Play. I can only hope and pray that Charlie will actually style his model like that. His model has barely any hair, so he's not cutting it, since he barely has enough to work with anyway. Daniel's giving his model beachy, wavy texture, and assures Rene that it will be avant-garde. He's going to achieve that with a bunch of braided extensions. Nicole seems to still be stuck on the Christina Aguilera of it all from the last challenge, because she's holding a long white-blonde extension with reddish-pink ends. Dee cut her client's hair, figuring that less hair would give more movement. René looks as puzzled as I feel. Charlie is going for an afro-ish look. René wanders around and repeatedly tells people how nervous he is about their work, especially Dee, but it feels like what it is -- lots and lots of filler now that there are only four contestants left. Before they go out for the shoot, René drops the bomb that all of the judges will be there to watch, including Linda Wells, Editor-in-Chief of Allure, who is this week's guest judge.
Nicole leads her girl in and realizes she misunderstood Michael, and that her model will be laying in a bed of snow (as opposed to snow just being sprinkled on top of her). Nicole clearly wasn't listening since they showed him describe the shoot and he described it exactly as how it is now. The hair is really boring -- it's just some curls with some bright red to match the dress and Nicole spends her time picking fake snow out of it and getting mad that Michael says it looks dry and not smooth enough. Jaclyn tells the Allure ladies quietly that she thinks there's no actual style, and Nicole has enough self-awareness to realize that the shoot was a disaster. Dee brings her girl in and immediately is told that there is frizz. She fixes that and then is told that it's not moving the right way. Kim Vo notes to the other judges that he thinks the cut is totally wrong to have any movement. And what is it with these guys with the colored tips? Her girl has bright orange at the end of her hair. Dee is clearly not taking the criticism well.
Charlie's girl has wild, frizzy curls piled up on her head and while I think it looks great, Michael thinks it looks "too period" and not avant-garde enough. Those words have lost all real meaning at this point from being thrown around too much. Charlie runs up and begins just pulling pieces out all over the place, which then displeases Michael because there is frizz. But Charlie seems to take it fairly well, and by far seems the most professional, more so than airhead Nicole or seething Dee. Michael actually seems to like it now, but Kim comments on the frizz. Last up is Daniel. His girl has a big updo with flowers in her hair. In the back there are curls and braids and some red color thrown in but Michael points out that he's shooting her face and all of the detail isn't visible. In an interview, Daniel's normal cheerful tone has some bite to it and he basically comments about how Michael shouldn't have an opinion about something he doesn't do. I fear for Daniel right now. Michael talks to the judges and complains about the red and the flowers, both of which he hates. He paces angrily while Daniel tries to fix it and he claims that he made it easy to pull down just in case. Daniel then freaks out when it turns out that the "mist" is more like rain, but pats himself on the back for a good "base tease" that keeps the style in place. Michael finally, condescendingly calls it a day. Look, most of these styles were bad, but he also seems to really enjoy feeling important on top of things.
This week's judging panel looks slightly different than usual. Jaclyn and Kim are there, but Linda has taken Kelly's place and Michael is there as well. First up is Daniel -- the final photo shows a girl with lank, damp hair. Linda points out that even though the top stayed up like it should, all of the actual style was in the back. Everyone hated the red braid, but Michael does throw Daniel a bone and says he likes the style they ended up with. Jaclyn also liked that Daniel held his own and worked with them when things went wrong. Dee is up . With the straight hair and the bangs, her girl looks kind of like she's wearing a helmet once she's in the air. Kim calls her out on doing the same cut she's done every time. Linda points out that the cut was great but not good for the shoot. And Michael wanted flowing hair, which is the opposite of this cut. Nicole explains that she put in red to match the girl's dress, but Michael suggests that for winter she might have gone platinum. It's bad that the only compliment she gets is that Linda appreciates that she took the time to comb all of the fake snow out of her model's hair. Charlie explains that he wanted to counter the soft scene with angles and size in the hair. Michael, however, thinks that Charlie didn't listen to him at all and gave her period hair. Kim then tells him he overdid it with pulling pieces out to fix things and Charlie admits that he would have preferred to have the style be somewhere in the middle of what he came out with and what he did on-set. Michael thinks that he maybe jumped in too quickly and went overboard, but says he was happy with the end result. Jaclyn sends the stylists away so that the judges can choose who will be in week's final.
They start with Daniel and point out that he was clearly intimidated with the mist idea, and Michael points out that what he should have done is started out with less product and then worked his way up once he was on-set and they were changing things, rather than start with a ton at first. I think Daniel is actually physically incapable of that. up is Dee, who is knocked 1.) for having a boring cut 2.) that is a variation on what she's done each week and 3.) that didn't flow at all. Then they discuss Nicole and how her cut first got matted in the snow and then turned into a bunch of boring curls. Lastly, they discuss Charlie. Michael once again talks about his disappointment at the pretty hair, but Linda defends that she thought it was beautiful and just right. But Michael is happy that Charlie was willing to work with him to "fix" the style. With that, they call the four back in.
Nicole, as we know, has immunity that clearly saved her from going home this week. Jaclyn calls the other three forward, compliments Charlie's work and declares him the winner of the Challenge. He throws up his hands and starts dancing -- he's been happy to win before, but this is a dance of someone who is thrilled and also relieved. He hugs the others and joins Nicole. Daniel and Dee then stand together on the chopping block. After Jaclyn describes their cuts again, she tells Dee that she's safe. Daniel is his usual charming self and gives a very genuine thank you through some tears. [Even Jaclyn shed a couple! - Zach] He declares that they don't wear their hair big enough here, and that he can't wait to get back to Dallas. It's a graceful exit, and while I'm sad to see him go, I think it was the right choice (given Nicole's immunity). And with that, we have our glorious final three to head into week's grand finale.
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