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Cutting-Edge Hair News
Reality TV "stars" can come and go at the whim of a judge or a bachelor's rose. But the young adults from MTV's Jersey Shore have lasted several seasons, thanks to.... uh, well, uh.... perhaps you can explain it to us. Some Hair Fans have been drawn to Nicole Polizzi, better known as television's best-known "Snooki" since Your Hit Parade. She made the Crown Awards ballot in 2010 for adding bangs to her long bumped-up style. And as 2010 ended, she posted a new look on her Twitter feed - declaring she's turned "mega-red" (although we're not sure where the bangs went).
Has Snooki snared your attention with this change - and in a good way? Our one-week poll found votes unimpressed, with 67 percent preferring Polizzi's brunette locks. Only 27 percent support the change to mega-red, while seven percent liked our third option suggesting she go blonde (10-4-1). "Strawberry blonde is a good color for hair," one voter wrote, "but strawberry brunette is NOT." C'mon now - we think someone like "J-Wow" still would want to get in a wrestling fight with her.
Thanks to all of you who take part in our polls! And we welcome any news tips you have on changing celebrity styles. Contact us at: SuperHair@Gmail.com .
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For the woman who plays a New Girl on Fox, it was a new kind of hairstyle - and some viewers of the 2012 Golden Globe Awards didn't quite know what to make of it. At least one fan speculated on Twitter Zooey Deschanel had put on a wig. Another asked if she'd made a big cut of her long hair. The latter guess seems closer to it for us -- and it was good enough for Hair Fans. By a narrow margin, they decided Deschanel had the best hairstyle of the night.
Zooey's cut reminded us immediately of That Girl -- the oval-shaped well-banged cut Marlo Thomas displayed on TV in the 1960s. It gained Deschanel 37 percent of the votes in our one-week poll. Salma Hayek's overflowing long curls made for strong contrast and competition, but fell short at 33 percent. Julianne Moore's thick long locks settled for third at 23 percent, followed by Laura Dern and an unknown "Other" at three percent each. (If you pick an "other," please write in a name; Super-Hair often can block us from reading minds.)
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Her university's football team couldn't win a bowl game in New York. The men's basketball team is playing well, but not quite beating the best. Yet Iowa State University gymnast Caitlin Brown is ahead of them all. Only days after her first collegiate meet, this freshperson has won the poll to be our top-ranked campus hairstyle - leading the annual "Elite Eight" contest among Best Manes on Campus.
Brown's specialty is the balance beam, and her well-balanced approach to long hair impressed Hair Fans enough to take 28 percent of the votes. She also received the only comment of support, for "one of the prettiest hair colors I've seen and great sleekness and good thickness." Brown outstretched a three-way second-place logjam involving Armstrong Atlantic State, Tulsa and Nebraska: Jessica Gardefjord, Anna Proffitt and Morgan Smejkal tied with 17 percent. Then came a late surge by Savannah State's Ariel Brooks to take fifth place at 11 percent, and Jennifer Kuroski and Allison Morris tying with six percent.
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She used to be known as a "wild child" of Latin American pop/rock. But Shakira seems to have calmed down, since becoming a worldwide music star -- and we consider her hair a good gauge of that. A messy mane of long blonde hair became smoother (although still naturally wavy) and well-controlled in recent years. But then in December 2011, Shakira pulled a surprise by having much of that hair cut. One Twitter photo from a dressing room in Tokyo showed her almost ready for a night of ballroom dancing.
Shakira's had a small but loyal following among Hair Fans here, going back to our first Cup of the Americas in 2003. We weren't sure how they'd take to this change -- and sure enough, a one-week poll ended with 76 percent crying nunca, or never (16-5). While one voter admitted he/she "just love(s) short hair," another went all the way to the other side and called this the "worst change ever. From iconic to nothing." And one comment almost bitterly asked, "When did she become a soccer mom?" Well, Colombia IS a big soccer country.
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Right photo courtesy iVillage
Longtime visitors to our site know when it's election time, every little detail matters - including hair. But we don't recall any previous race where a style issue surfaced in the year before the election. Early campaigning for the U.S. Republican presidential nomination made that happen, as Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota showed up at a couple of debates wearing a very streamlined style. In fact, some people thought she'd cut her shoulder-length locks completely. But at a December debate in Iowa (left), Bachmann's classic look was back.
So the sleek approach apparently was a pin job - but is it a "short change" Bachmann should make in the long term? Our one-week poll could have ended with the "early returns," as 85 percent of Hair Fans oppose the shorter style (22-4). One commenter couldn't resist noting the irony: "The more conservative look is NOT her best!" And judging from those other preliminary polls being taken in Iowa and New Hampshire, not even a change in cuts is improving her chances for victory.
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For 20 years, Hillary Rodham Clinton has been one of the most closely-watched women in the U.S. Her marriage has been watched, her political plans have been watched - and let's face it, her hairstyles have been watched as well. The Clinton cut was shoulder-length in the 60 Minutes "standing by my man" interview in January 1992. Then she went progressively shorter - so short that her official photo as Secretary of State from 2009 shows a tightly-cut business-like style. But in 2011, Clinton may have surprised some people by quietly growing her hair back out. During media interviews in December, she was back to a shoulder-length with a popular upturned flip (reminding us of Marilyn Quayle when her husband was Vice President.)
We wondered what the Secretary's best look is -- and our week-long poll found the shorter style winning with a landslide 75 percent of the vote (15-5). But the only person to leave a comment wished we had a third option: "Neither! Longer is the limpest, most boring look ever seen on this site!" Well, hold on - the longer style is much more likely to collapse in Clinton's eyes. And how long can those curls last? Especially in a moment of international crisis?
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Right photo courtesy The Hollywood Reporter
When she accepted an American Music Award in November, Katy Perry admitted she's been a "chameleon" in 2011. Not in terms of pop songs, but her styles in video and concerts. Perry showed enough hair color changes to play the NBC peacock, much less host Saturday Night Live. But in the week before her hosting duty, Perry made another change -- getting her usually-long hair trimmed to a blunt-cut bob.
This cut led to a record for us, as we posted a Perry poll for the third time in 14 months. Hair Fans supported her with bangs in 2010, then a blonde color earlier in the year. And this time, Perry succeeded again -- as the shorter cut won a 54-percent majority of the vote (14-12). Yet the only clear comment in our one-week poll was critical: "She has funny, sharp features that stick out with shorter hair. The long hair gave her a more complete, sexy look." Either way, we fear Perry's hair too easily collapses in her right eye -- unless she keeps her A.M.A. pinned-down look, while drew comparisons to Lucille Ball.
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Straight hair? That's old news, when it comes to young country music superstar Taylor Swift. She showed that look in public in January 2010, and Hair Fans told us they preferred that to her natural curls. Bangs? They're really not unusual for Swift, either. The early 2010 cut showed them very long, and ready to droop into her eyes -- but that wasn't the emphasis of style-watchers then. It is now, after Swift visited a stylist in the Los Angeles area. She posted a Twitter picture of long layers, with well-cut fringe across the forehead.
So are bangs something Swift should keep, or drop like one of her many boyfriends? Our one-week poll found 86 percent of Hair Fans firmly in Swift's corner (18-3). One called them "edgier, and her hair looks softer." Compared with our 2010 photo, they actually seem less edgy to us -- and we think that along with the layering makes a big difference. On the other hand, another voter declared: "Bangs were a horrible decision and I am sure she will grow them out very soon!" Given Swift's track record of the last two years, change does seem inevitable.
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