Nine weeks have passed, and we're down to the three stylists who have cut and colored their way to the top. Remember all those other folks, like... whatshername? Yeah, neither do I. Surprisingly few people have made that much of an impact on me here. Charlie from Denver, Dee from Miami, and Nicole from New York are left to stab each other with scissors and see who is the last one standing.
Jaclyn and René greet them in the salon, and they all do little "OMG we're in the finals!" dances and exclaim a lot about how much they can't believe it. They aren't taking things for granted, they're going to work hard, they love fluffy bunnies. The usual. René tells them that Linda Wells of Allure will be giving each of them one-on-one advice, and Jaclyn reminds them to remember that advice going into tomorrow's challenge.
Nicole is up first, and Linda tells her that she thinks Nicole's strength is her precision. She asks Nicole what her favorite cut is in the book and Nicole points to a bob (that I actually think makes the girl's face look too round, but whatever). Linda asks, "Tell me about bobs, do you do them often?" Classic beauty school pick-up line, that. Nicole likes that haircut, and bobs in general, because they have to be perfect and she's a perfectionist. When asked, she admits that styling hair is her weakness. I know what she means, but when her job title is "stylist," it sounds like a little bit of a problem all the same. Linda agrees with her and tells her she has to work on it, most of all to expand her options.
Charlie is up , and he thinks high fashion and polish are his strengths. He admits, in a much more self-aware moment than I thought he was capable of, that he loses interest in challenges that he doesn't care about, and that might mean he has a chip on his shoulder. Linda looks delighted that he called himself out and she didn't have to. She does remind him that he has to learn to step back and take direction, and he agrees that he can now suck it up and do what he needs to do. I really never could have imagined that Charlie would be my favorite finalist, but there you go. I've said it before, I'll say it again -- when he's not putting on a show of trying to be the villain or the bitch to get airtime, he's a good stylist and an interesting character in himself.
Finally, Linda meets with Dee and asks if she thinks she's got enough of a range to be versatile. Dee tells her that her strengths are cut and color, not style, but she doesn't go so far as to admit that it's always a variation on the same cut. What Dee seems to take away from this is that she isn't good at taking risks, which hopefully she gets out of her system before that loses her the competition (before it even starts). Her favorite challenge was the rainbow hair and she loved the cut, and Linda very nicely encourages her to not overdo the same cut with the long piece in front.
Once they are all done, René sits them down to give them the challenge -- they must "tell the story of one woman through her hair." And this is different from all the others how, exactly? Oh, they're doing different hair styles, showing what this woman might wear at ages 18, 30, 45 and 60. They'll have four clients and only three hours, which elicits screams of terror from Charlie. They will also choose the wardrobe. Each of them then chooses a scissor box, Charlie's with a lock of blonde hair inside, Dee with red hair and Nicole with brown; They are to use the locks of hair as inspiration in the challenge, and with that they are sent home to contemplate.
At home that night, they all have journals and work on their ideas. Charlie sketches ideas and puts in words to describe what he's doing for, while Nicole seems to be writing out an actual story. We'll see how that goes. Charlie tells us about how he wants to win to be even more famous. Dee just talks about her idea, which is of a girl who is passionate about music. Once they've sketched and written, they sit down and muse about their difficult upbringings (Dee), wanting to take their parents on a cruise (Nicole) and paying off bills and getting plastic surgery for their boyfriend (Charlie). At least he's honest!
The morning they head to the salon. They all look like they might vomit as René again describes the challenge and then introduces their clients. Before he sends them off to shake it, he asks to hear the story that they have come up with about the woman and the four different stages of her life. Oh wow, sorry Nicole -- I didn't realize he was going to make them tell their actual stories, I thought the hair was supposed to narrate things for us. Dee tells of a redhead with a passion for music. At 18 she moves to New York, gets her big break and makes a CD at 30, at 45 she's through two divorces and has raised three children, and at 60 she has grandkids but hates being called grandma, so they call her "Mamma Red," and her spirit is still young. Charlie's story is about a blonde child star, who at 18 tries to prove herself as a serious actress, at 30 has won an Oscar, at 45 appears in a Hitchcock-type suspense film, and at 60 she directs her first film. Dude, Charlie, if you're dealing with a child star, you have to have a drug-induced downfall in there somewhere, come on. Nicole's story is about an average woman who grew up with not a lot of money but who was, and I quote, "the 'it' girl," who was a cheerleader. This must have been at age 18, because Nicole then jumps to age 30, where she decides to raise a family and meets the man of her dreams (which is so absolutely how it works, I have to say). At 45, she's raised money and become successful, and at 60 she looks at the pictures of her grandkids and feels good about herself.
After hearing these ideas, René introduces them to their models, and they're given a rack of clothes from which to dress the girls. Nicole is completely overwhelmed and can't seem to really focus on a good idea. She goes from a whole lot of black and white to something that looks like a taupe house-dress. I pray for her sake that it looks better on than I imagine it does. Charlie then goes through the clothes and seems to have much more of an idea of what he wants to do. He then gives his models all hugs since he warns them that once they get to work he'll be all serious and running around like a lunatic. Dee then grabs her clothes and like Charlie, she seems to have a pretty good idea of what looks she wants.
Dee then walks through the styles with each of her girls, and age 30 balks at having her hair cut. Dee makes do and promises to only take an inch, and then moves on to 45, who has basically the same reaction. Not for the first time this season, I wonder if these girls had any idea that they were going to be HAIR MODELS? Look, I don't want all my hair cut off, but that's why I don't volunteer to be styled with no idea whatsoever of what the person might want to do to it.
Once René sends them to "shake it," Nicole starts to do what Dee did and describes her ideas to the models. But here's the difference -- when she wants to cut one woman's hair, she asks if the woman wants honesty, and tells her that she thinks all of her length is making her look older. With that, she's got free reign to cut away. Score one for the whippersnapper! Dee seems to have talked one girl into a little bit of a cut but promises not to make her look conservative. With that, there's a lot of coloring, dashing around the salon, and looking stressed out. Dee says she's giving them all crazy orange-red color, and that the color will tie together the different cuts. She then tries again with her girl, begging to take off two inches instead of one inch. Wait, seriously?? Girlfriend is balking at an extra inch off of her 15 inches of hair? Now the hair model thing is even more perplexing.
René then gets to Nicole, who is having a trouble because one woman has tons of black dye in her hair. He's worried about Nicole taking so much time to do highlights, and she gets a little bit sassy with him about what Charlie is doing and how she has no choice, she wants to take the chance, and the like. René walks away with an air of, "It's your funeral!" The salon is a flurry of freaked-out activity, which includes Dee saying she's not going to worry about someone's roots. I can't imagine that ever being a good idea. Nicole seems short on time and Charlie notes that she seems to not totally have an idea of what she is doing. Overall, everyone is crunched for time. After some strong pressing from René, Dee finally colors her model's roots and Nicole decides to forfeit perfection for the sake of actually finishing. Basically, everyone is taking questionable shortcuts that could bite them in the ass come the hair show. Charlie declares that he'll kill himself if he's told that one of his models looks matronly. As the clock runs down, everyone seems to have left at least one model looking fairly unfinished.
The stylists have been given time to clean themselves up for the hair show: Nicole is in a red strapless dress, Charlie is in a black button-down and slacks, and Dee has combined the two looks into a black pants, shirt, and a red dinner jacket. Jaclyn introduces Kim Vo, Linda Wells, and special guest judge Sally Hershberger. Am I totally out of line to suggest she needs a little bit of product on the ends of her hair to keep them from looking fuzzy? Probably, but I just did it anyway. (To be fair, it might be the fault of the light behind her.)
First up in the show are Dee's redheads. The first girl has a layered, choppy look with a weird cowlick in back. Her 30-year-old has a layered, wavy look. Her 45-year-old looks good. Dee cut off a few inches, but it's still below her shoulders, she now has long bangs and the dark color suits her. Mamma Red has a much shorter, curly hairdo that is now darker. It looks fab. Charlie's girls come out and, unfortunately, his 18-year-old looks too old right off the bat. It might be her severe makeup, including red lipstick; it might be the updo. It's swept up into a big wave on top and then swept around the back in a way I can't really describe. It would have been great on someone older, but it just ages this poor girl by at least 10 years. He calls it "futuristic, modern '40s." His 30-year-old has big waves that look nice. His 45-year-old looks like she's supposed to be the 60-year-old. She's got a French twist and lots of bright highlights -- the color is great, but the look is awful. His 60-year-old has a darker blonde with a cute, short haircut. Nicole's girl has straight, long, dark, dark hair that looks great. The 30-year-old has longer, somewhat curled hair. It's not bad, but it's not striking either. It's good everyday hair, though. Her 45-year-old has significantly lighter hair with highlights that are so light she looks almost like she could be one of Charlie's girls. She has a loose bob with side-swept bangs. And Nicole's 60-year-old has a choppier, shoulder-length 'do with big curls that doesn't look completely finished.
Jaclyn then asks each of them to tell their hair story. While I get that they need to know what it is, it seems like a waste of time for us to hear it again. It's word-for-word the same so I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you guys all still remember the details. Kim asks Dee why she went back and forth with straight and curly, and pulls off her answer that women change their hair a lot. She gets compliments from all the judges, and Jaclyn especially likes Mamma Red's hair.
Charlie is up to talk about his former child star. He tries to explain his 18-year-old hair by saying that she's wearing hair like she had in her defining role. Kim compliments all the color but hates the 18-year-old's updo, despite Charlie's assertion that it's just like Gwen Stefani. Linda says that they all look old, but lets up on him a little bit with the Gwen and the Scarlett Johansson comparisons he throws out. I don't know if he really meant it or if he just came up with it, but it does seem to soften the "matronly" critiques.
Finally Nicole gives her story. She giggles a lot and is clearly nervous, but only Linda seems to be giving her an encouraging smile as she goes. Jaclyn then asks about her inspiration and Nicole admits that it is the story of her own mom. Nicole begins to cry as she talks about how much her mom means to her. Kim admires the shine of all of her models' hair. Linda compliments all but the 60-year-old, who looks unfinished, and Nicole admits that she isn't. Sally thinks Nicole is amazing when she learns that she is only 24. Jaclyn then says that they are all amazing, and there's a little bit of television magic because you can tell she added all of this commentary in later to wrap up the show and begin the judging. Her disembodied voice says that they are all strong, and that's why they are all in the finale, and that from 12 stylists they've come to this thee. This is a fantastic amount of repetition for only an hour-long finale. She then gives each of them a compliment: Dee is modern and fresh, Charlie always takes her to a different time and place and does technically difficult iconic styles, and Nicole always does great, sexy, wearable hair. With that, they are dismissed for the judges to deliberate.
Everyone likes Dee's story and Linda compliments that Dee actually did different styles on each of them. Kim likes the color, and agrees about the different styles. Linda loses me when she compliments the cowlick. Overall, everyone seems to like her work. They discuss Charlie , and he's complimented on making all of his models' hair look luxurious. Everyone loves the styling that he's done, and there's no debate that he is the strongest one at styling in general. But Sally thinks they all look old, and Kim hates the weird "burrito" on the 18-year-old's head. Finally they discuss Nicole. They like a lot of what she did but don't like that she didn't finish some things, especially the 60-year-old's cut. But Kim compliments her for pushing herself more than she ever has before. Jaclyn's disembodied voice then comes back to wrap things up and say that they all did impressive work, and it's been a long journey. Each of the other judges is shown nodding, but with the voice it all gives a strange disconnected air that I'm absolutely certain the producers were not intending. Whoops! But they've come to a decision, and they call the stylists back.
All three of the stylists are called forward, and Jaclyn reiterates for the 45th time this hour that it's been a long journey. She wishes each of them can win (not), but only one is shear genius. Nicole's name is called first, and while she worked hard, she's not the winner. She's genuinely not surprised but she happily laughs at everyone who doubted that she could make it to the finals. It comes off cuter than it sounds, and she then trots out of the room. Dee and Charlie are left standing, both nearly visibly shaking. Jaclyn calls Dee's name and after a beat, she is declared... the winner! She shrieks and jumps around while confetti falls, and until Charlie starts clapping it sounds very strangely empty and slightly uncomfortable. She is thrilled to be recognized for her talent and cries that she did it for her mom. It's still somewhat eerily quiet around her as she shrieks but then Jaclyn gives her a hug and all of the other judges finally start clapping to make it sound a little more like an actual finale with an actual $100,000 prize. Congratulations, Dee! You may have done the same haircut many times over, but I will say that you did it really, really well.
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