Try Before You Buy…

Ashley Hebert

In this week’s post, we have another crop of celebrities who have made major hairstyle changes, and it reminds us that “buyer’s remorse” isn’t just for cars. Certainly, if you’re not happy with your new look, a talented stylist and colorist can change your hair if you change your mind. But I often suggest, when a client is contemplating a drastic change in cut, color, or both, that trying on wigs is really a relatively foolproof way to “try before your buy.” I’ll bet some of the beautiful ladies in today’s blog wish they’d been able to “test drive” their new style before they committed. 

Take, for example, Ashley Hebert. Her new Cleopatra cut does not flatter her the way her former cut and color brought out her skin tones and softened her face. The new cut is too severe, the bangs too heavy and bowl-like, and her darker color too one-dimensional. She looked prettier with longer, lighter hair – younger and sexier. The new cut and color age her, and only teenagers want to look older.

Rose Byrne

Oh, Rose Byrne. So very gorgeous in her “before” haircut, and not so much in her new cut. The precision-cut bob would have been more dramatic with blunt-cut bangs, but this style just doesn’t quite “cut” it. The picture really says it all.

Jessica Szohr

Jessica Szohr also didn’t do herself any favors. Granted, her black hair is unnatural and very flat, and she would look much better with a deep brown shade with some dark dimensional highlights to break it up, but it’s really the cut that’s at issue. Her “before” style was a great shag, wispy and sexy with a lot of movement, very rock and roll. Her new bob looks bushy and coarse, and just doesn’t do anything for her; it looks too much like a wig. Better to have left well enough alone.

Fergie

Miss Fergie, what is with the roots? She went to the bother of cutting off a good bit of hair, even though it appears to be nothing more than a shorter version of the same layered cut, but why is it that she still has a head full of dark roots? Should we be pleased they’re not AS DARK as her “before” picture? As a Master Colorist, these roots just look like a mistake to me. I want to fix them every time I see a picture of her.

Kristen Stewart

Kristen Stewart is sporting a head-full of nearly waist-length black extensions to play Snow White in a movie, but all that length with no layers or a bit of wisp around the face really accentuate her inverted triangle facial shape. And strangely, her brows are darker in her “before” picture when her hair is a deep chestnut. Someone was asleep at the chair and forgot to match her brows to the extensions, so the light brows make her face look strangely unfinished – she’s lost the “frame.” 

This leads right into my usual caveat that I cannot stress enough: The makeup has to be there all the time, even if it’s just a little bit, as simple as a flick of mascara, a bit of blush, and a slick of lipgloss. Maybe it’s just your signature red lipstick. Whatever it is, you need that little bit of something to look put together, and make that great cut and color work for you. 

Carrie Underwood

Love Carrie Underwood’s bangs. They’re not too thick, they’re nice and sexy, she looks fantastic with all that movement around the face after wearing the same style for so long. It also draws attention to her eyes and covers a high forehead. This one is a total keeper.

Audrina Partridge

Audrina Partridge jumped on the ombre wagon a bit late in the trend, but it’s very pretty on her. Frankly, she looks good in both pictures, and the style is essentially the same, but the lighter hair does give her more of a glow and is sexier in that beach girl, boho way. This is the kind of change you can reverse, and that you can play with seasonally, going darker in the winter and brighter in the summer.  

  

Emily Browning

Emily Browning carries off quite an avante garde look, and it works rather well for her. We’d commented on her “before” hair in the past as being unflattering, making her already round face look rounder. With some judicious snipping and a very pretty shade of periwinkle blue, her cut is transformed into a choppy shag that accentuates her eyes doubly with the bangs and the blue hue. It’s a very striking look. You don’t have to commit to actually dyeing your hair such a shocking color – this look can be created with colored extensions so the it doesn’t have to be permanent, and you don’t have to explain your blue, green or purple hair to your boss.   

Lilly Collins

Lastly, we have a dramatic change in color and cut with Lilly Collins, daughter of musician Phil Collins. She has thick, healthy hair, but the red was too overpowering and washed her out. It would have been much more flattering had she been a medium brunette with that red as highlights. But now Lilly is a deep, mysterious brunette with a Holly Golightly fringe, and she’s changed her brows and makeup to match her new color. The deep, cool tones of the brown are much more flattering to her skin than the coppery red. Marvelous choice.

Until next week, ciao!