We've reached the end of the road, my darlings! Welcome to the final challenge, where our stylists are vying to be the shearest, geniusest one of all. Brig, Matthew and Janine file in, not to the salon, but to a studio of some sort where Orlando and Camila are waiting for them. Matthew is smug, having had no doubt he'd be in the final three, Brig is elated, and Janine is thinking about her one-in-three chance at winning a hundred grand. (The dollars, not the candy bar.) Camila introduces designer Henry Duarte, as they will be working with him on the final challenge -- all three are incredibly stoked. (I would link to his website to show us any of his clothes if it were actually working.) Everyone best describes his designs as very rock 'n roll and edgy. The final challenge is to design the hair of the models walking in Henry's runway show -- each stylist will be styling six models, and each will have 10 minutes to consult with Henry before heading back to the salon to pick their assistants. They will be judged on how well the styles relate to the clothing lines, and how cohesive their styles are as a collection.
Janine is up first for her consultation. Six models file in, and she goes through the clothes hanging nearby while he tells her he wants a futuristic look rather than retro. She wants to combine different textures but still stay sleek; she describes it as "rock 'n roll, but obscure." Matthew is up and Henry tells him that this part of his collection is more architectural and clean, and again mentions the future. Matthew goes through the clothes and says the same thing as Janine almost word-for-word, that he is so happy Henry mentioned the future, since he was already thinking of going in that direction. He wants to use a lot of leather in what he calls, "bondage-y" style. Finally Brig has her meeting and we are three for three with the futuristic theme. Henry wants the hair to be theatrical, and Brig wants to do something comic book-inspired. She tells him that one idea she has is to laminate the hair and then layer it. This could either be very cool or go very, very wrong.
The gang goes back to the salon, Brig gets her hairdo from last week put on the Allure Wall of Fame, and Camila tells her that she'll have an advantage for winning last week, but doesn't say what it will be.
After a commercial, the people who will be their assistants file in and... surprise! (Totally not!) It's six of our shear non-geniuses. The finalists are all super-excited, and after much squealing Camila tells Brig she gets to choose her assistants first, and then pick the order in which Matthew and Janine will pick theirs. Janine knows how this is going go. Brig chooses Faatemah for her talent, even though she knows Faatemah totally doesn't like her -- and in fact, Faatemah says she can't even stand the sound of Brig's voice -- but Brig hopes she'll be professional and get it done. She then chooses April for her experience working many fashion weeks in the past. Shockingly, Brig has Janine pick in a display of girl power, and so she picks Arzo because she knows she'll work well under pressure and execute well. Matthew then picks Amy, Janine picks Jon, and Brian, sad at being last, goes to work with Matthew. They're getting three hours to style in the salon now and then will have an additional 3.5 hours backstage before the show the day. Orlando warns them to be good leaders, Camila bids them adieu and then the models file in and their three hours begin.
Matthew wants to do two girls with bald caps (...goodness), two girls with mohawks and two girls with hair flat on top and then tons of texture. Janine plans to get the color done and pre-set all of the models' hair during this salon time. She sets the ends of their hair around pins so that it will be a tight zigzag when it's taken out. Brig goes for all of the longest extensions and tells us that she wants to laminate the hair between clear tape and colored hair. Does she mean the colored hair is going in between the laminated hair bits? Because I'm not sure what she means. She puts Faatemah to work coloring all of the dark hair black and then, once she's gone, tells April the full plan. Brig is convinced that Faatemah is too chummy with the others and will give away her plans, so she's not going to tell her the full extent of what they are doing until the day. She could possibly have a point -- Faatemah is coloring away but asks Matthew how he could possibly have let Brig win an elimination challenge.
Orlando comes in and meets with Matthew first, who explains that his models will all have the same elements to their styles, but executed in different ways. He then admits that he has no idea if the judges will get it, but he has to go balls-out, as this is the final challenge. Orlando heads over to Janine, and when he hears her plan, asks if she really wants to leave it up to the models to be responsible for the set overnight. Janine insists that if a pin comes out she can fix it the day, but looks a bit spooked and finally shoos Orlando away telling him she's too far in to change her plan now. She's going to go with looks similar to what she did in the very first challenge. Finally he goes to visit Brig, and I wish we had a still of his face when she mentions laminated hair. His eyes get wide while he almost purses his lips as if he has to in order to not make a crazy face. She describes that most of the hair will be black with some greens and magentas worked in and he finally tells her that she's definitely thinking outside the box and he's very curious to see how it turns out. Color! Set! Panic! Brig is furiously putting bunches of different colored hair into plastic bags. Spray! Curl! And with that, their time is up.
It wouldn't be an episode if we didn't have a little segment in the apartment. As the three finalists eat breakfast, Brig tells them she's happy to be there with them and knows she'll love their work. She then adds that she definitely has enough room in her suitcase to fit $100,000, but gives them each a dollar bill so they don't go home empty-handed. Janine -- who is channeling a little bit of Brig with a tiny pink top hat with a huge black feather balanced jauntily on her head -- couldn't be less amused.
Then we are back in the apartment, obviously earlier than it was when the Dollar Bill Incident took place. Janine is trimming her own hair as she explains that she opened her own salon at 24 and that she's very focused, which she knows can come off as a little bit harsh, but she claims there is no derailing her. It is nice to hear her admit that she's not just a perfect little pixie but then again, she's brought it consistently all season after her horrible first short cut challenge, so I just don't really care. Brig packs up as she tells us that while she's avoided the "industry side of things" she's doing this for Simi Valley and the awesome everyday women who are her clients. Matthew wants to win so that he can prove to the world and himself that he is the best.
They go down to the studio and are given their three and a half hours to get ready. While Janine and Matthew put their teams to work, Brig has a little meeting with her assistants and models to show them a book she made of her final inspiration; she's happy to see that Faatemah is working away and trying to help her win rather than, I suppose, shaving the models heads and cackling uncontrollably at her evil plan to take the orange-haired one down. Orlando walks around to express his usual light skepticism at everyone's work, and both Janine and Matthew let out the claws, just a wee little bit, against each other. Matthew thinks Janine's work is a boring retread, while she thinks he's overreached and the result is crazy. Orlando advises Brig to make sure that some of her models' actual faces will be visible in profile amid all the laminate, and she seems grateful for the advice. Henry comes in with an hour to go, and loves Janine's work, so she's stoked. He tells Brig that he thinks he likes it, so she decides that if he likes it now, she's not going to add all of the pieces she was going to, and instead add just a few. Seriously, I can't even try to describe what she's doing because I absolutely can't imagine how this is going to turn into something positive -- right now it looks like a couple of the girls have laminated placards taped over their heads to protect from rain, or something, until the actual style is unveiled. Henry also claims to like where Matthew is going, and Matthew is excited that he can show the judges that he can do a wide range of styles. As a finishing touch for two of her long-haired models, Janine used an idea that came to her in a dream -- she staples chains into the hair so that they drape along the bottom of the 'dos. After a last flurry of activity, time is up and we're ready for the show.
Linda Wells from Allure sits down in the audience with our regular judges and Henry, and Camila comes out on the runway to introduce the show. [Jonathan looks like James Bond in his white jacket and bow tie. - Zach] Brig's models are up first, and I had to pause the TV to really get a look at the first girl's hair. When she's walking, it looks to me like she's still got foils or something in her hair for coloring. Actually, she's got green and black curly hair framing her face, and then green, black and magenta laminated pieces coming from the hair and sticking straight back. Her hair is then pulled into a bun which is surrounded by another piece of laminate. I'll give her that it's really interesting, but I don't know that it works well when you don't have the ability to pause and study it. The model looks like she has extensions taped to her head and then hanging towards her face. There are more variations on those styles, and then finally a model who comes out just with a piece of laminate taped over the top of her head, with a tiny sliver of magenta hair taped to that right at one temple. As Matthew says, the styles are super creative but not very "hairy." I have absolutely no idea how the judges are going to react to these looks.
Matthew's girls are out . His first model is very similar to Janine's, actually -- her hair is all slicked back on the top and sides and then explodes into frizzy, cherry red curls. The one is really cool -- it's a mohawk made of about six ponytails, each bound with a few inches of what I think is wire and leather before the hair sprouts out, and then there are zippers laid over her head in between each of the little ponies.[It's like a bondage version of the Sanjaya. - Z] The model looks similar to the first, but the top of her hair is pulled back in cornrows with leather in between each braid and then it's been made kind of into dreadlocks. Then comes one of his skullcap models -- unfortunately, you can totally see the edge of the cap on her forehead. She's got a short, angled bob that follows the line of her chin, and then a frizzy ponytail sprouting up top. The model's cap is hidden much better, and she's got long, wavy blonde hair on either side with a tiny black fringe on her forehead that's like a Hitler moustache and then a frizzy black ponytail up top and a zipper in back. His last model has a crazy giant frizzy mohawk with extensions that go almost to the floor, and zippers from her ear to the mohawk.
Last up are Janine's models. The first has straight hair on top going into the tiny frizzy curls but is a bit longer on one side than the other which gives the illusion that it's swept to one side. There was also something that looked like an extra long piece of straight hair hanging out on one side, but as I never saw it again I'm going to just guess it was something on the clothes and move on. The three models have very similar 'dos with the chains stapled in the back. These are all a bit longer and are uniform length on each side. She then has a model with a ponytail in back that's bound with black and silver hardware so it sticks straight out, while her last model has the same type of thing but it sticks straight up and is folded over at the top to make a little fountain. The ends of her hair are coming out the base of the ponytail to create bangs, which are a bit frizzy like the first styles. And that's the show!
Everyone heads back to the normal judging digs, and after Camila introduces the regulars and Linda Wells, she reminds the stylists what's at stake: $100,000, an apprenticeship with Nexxus, the opportunity to style the hair for an Allure photo shoot, representation from the Magnet Agency and, last but not least, being declared the winner of Shear Genius. Brig's critique is first, and her six models file in to the room. She tells the judges that her inspiration was "Bjork as a superhero." [I read a lot of comic books, and I have never seen a superheroine wrap plastic around her hair. My grandmother used to, though, when it rained. - Z] She describes how she used the tape to laminate hair, and Jonathan is the first to speak up and point out that this seems to be a bunch of hats, asking why she didn't style more of the models' actual hair. Brig points out (rightly) that she figured they wouldn't have wanted their actual hair laminated. He considers what she did just accessorizing, but Kim jumps to her defense and says that the work is amazing and very high-fashion. Linda Wells feels the same way and thinks the hair enhanced the clothes, and Camila congratulates her for doing something she's never seen before.
Matthew's models file in , and he says he was going kind of Mad Max, and a lot of sleek versus matte textures. Linda Wells loves the zippers and his last long mohawk look. Kim thinks Matthew only half-committed to the bald-cap looks and could have gone more futuristic, and says that he doesn't see a story through the six styles. Jonathan keeps up his disagreeing with Kim and says he loves every one of the styles and doesn't have a single problem with any of it, and Camila mostly loves it all. She bridges Kim's and Jonathan's opinions by saying she thought it lacked a bit of consistency, and his first two looks (the ones that were long and frizzy and long and dreads) were something she'd seen before.
Finally Janine's models are brought in, and the first thing she pointedly mentions is that she used almost all of just their own hair. Kim thinks that her two ponytailed styles don't quite match with the big frizzy looks of the other four. Jonathan thinks her work is technically amazing, but he wishes she had pushed herself a bit more. Linda keeps up her positive commentary and thinks Janine did a great job going edgy but beautiful. Camila loves her work but says she's seen this before, and Janine's answer to that is she thinks the challenge is to take something that has been done and do it even better. Kim gives her a "fair enough," nod in response to that.
They are dismissed, and in the salon, Matthew takes the girls' hands and says they all need to remember that ultimately this is just four people's opinions. In other words, "This is how I'm preparing myself to accept it if I'm not announced as the winner." Brig gives him a good luck fist bump but when she offers the same to Janine, she just twirls in her chair a bit. Oh come ON, Janine, now it's over and it's fine to make brief contact. I promise your hair won't turn yellow.
When the judges discuss Brig, Jonathan immediately rips her for not actually giving them any hairstyles. Linda stands up to him to disagree, since Brig used hair in her creations and Linda loved all of it. Camila thinks she's ahead of her time, and Kim nods in agreement and compliments the "sophisticated color." Poor Jonathan is turning red under his eerily even tan in disagreement. They move on, and Jonathan loves Matthew's work as much as he hates Brig's. Linda thinks his good looks were great, but his bad looks were terrible. I was about to disagree with her until I saw a shot of the one model's visible skull cap -- yikes. Kim compliments the zippers but wishes there were more of a mohawk theme through all the looks. Finally they discuss Janine, and Linda positively gushes with love over the styles, while Camila says she's seen this too many times before in fashion shows. Jonathan falls in the middle here and calls it "good," but Kim loves the texture and thinks it was technically amazing and also beautiful. Camila wraps up the judging by saying all of the work was impressive, and then calls the stylists back in for the last time.
Camila first tells Brig that her work was beautiful, fashion-forward, and definitely original. She then tells Matthew that they loved how his different looks complemented the clothes, and ends the compliment parade by telling Janine that her styles were edited and focused, and "you put a refreshing new spin on runway hair." Clearly, she was told to say that, as we just heard her say the exact opposite thing a moment ago. All of that said, it's time to dismiss someone, and the first one to go is... Matthew?!? I didn't expect that. Brig and Janine both look sick with nerves, and Matthew says he's proud of his work and that he loves the girls before hugging both of them and leaving.
So now it's down to tiny pink top hat versus giant black bow. Which head adornment will win?? After making them wait a few more agonizing moments, she tells BRIG THAT SHE IS THE WINNER OH EM GEE. Janine manages a smile and even gives Brig a hug before stepping away, and Brig breaks down in sobs. She's thrilled and proud, and as confetti rains down she hugs all of the judges and then is joined by all of the other stylists who bring her congratulations and champagne. In her final interview she talks about how this Simi Valley girl beat people from all over the world, and tells us to never underestimate the competition. Well, she definitely went out on a limb more than anyone else and put an individual stamp on everything, and though not all of it was my cup of tea, I offer her my own congratulations. Finally, Camila gathers everyone together and one last time reminds us: Hair is important! With that, the most mystifying and ridiculous catchphrase currently on TV, my important hair and I thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed this season of weecaps!
Watch the dollar dis and discuss it in our forums, then learn from Brig how to get fake bangs!