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A TV reporter's career can have highs and lows. Take Jasmine Minor for an example. An image search will reveal she once was arrested in southwest Florida for cocaine possession. We don't know how that case was resolved. But Minor has recovered from it, to become a member of a news team in Cincinnati and an occasional sideline commentator for ESPN. Through it all, the length of her well-placed hair has remained the same: mid-length with a bit of wave. But in mid-August, Minor seemed to make a change - appearing in live reports with the hair stopping around the shoulder.

Is Minor making a major move toward even better beauty? Our voters strongly said no, with nine out of ten preferring the longer look - and while no one left a comment, we strongly agree with them. She's used a variety of neat tricks to keep her hair firmly in place, from teasing to round-brushing. If the short cut really is her new look, we fear the tricks won't work as effectively.

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If you turn on TV to find the best Super-Hair in the world, maybe you should look in other places as well. Strong attractive hairstyles exist in the business world as well. For instance, Kim Burch sells real estate in west Georgia. Krystie Gonzales manages a television station in Austin, Texas. Both of them wound up tied in our 2019 "Who's Number One?" contest.

With all current members of the Top Ten Tresses list put together in a one-week race, Burch and Gonzales wound up tied with 30 percent of the vote. Third place was a four-way tie at ten percent, and our top three of the moment were all there. Stephanie White, Kaleigh Garris and Alyson Acklin were joined by Julia Chatterley. But four out of the ten received no votes at all, and one voter commented several unnamed people have "bland and pedestrian" styles. We thank someone for offering replacement candidates - but we'd note Danielle van de Donk was dropped in a hurry from Top Ten Tresses, when someone discovered a hair drop on Instagram.

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When a woman has a baby, a lot of things change. The sleeping schedule becomes different. The time preparing meals can expand. But should a woman's hairstyle change after a baby comes? We've seen plenty of celebrities do it over the years. And it appears you can add Weijia Jiang to that list. The CBS News correspondent became a mom for the first time in January 2019. She seemed to return from maternity leave with the same long hairstyle and protective bangs that she had before. But during the summer, a cut became noticeable - with Jiang's hair now stopping around the shoulders.

Jiang still has bangs, but is the length any better? Our voters say no. Our one-week poll found 79 percent preferring the longer look (11-3). "She should have gone even longer," one complained. "A very unflattering look for her...." Jiang spent three months on our Top Ten Treses list with the long version, and we marveled at the hold it displayed. So perhaps this is a move toward making potential Super-Hair better. Since she covers a White House where the President has called Jiang "obnoxious," he's bound to mention this change sooner or later.

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So you think you've had a topsy-turvy 2019? Consider what Megan Gustafson has gone through. She began the year as a senior basketball player at Iowa. In March, the Hawkeyes reached the national regional finals. In April, she won national awards as the best in the U.S. Then she was drafted by the WNBA Dallas Wings - only to be dropped in the final cut. After weeks of waiting where Gustafson started a religious website and planned to join men in "The Tournament," the Wings brought her back to their regular rotation. Through all of that, Gustafson kept long brunette hair which impressed Hair Fans. She raced to three wins in Super-Hair Wars, and climbed high in our Top Ten Tresses list. But in June, Gustafson dropped a big surprise about that on Twitter....

Okay people I’m really having a dilemma here, should I chop my hair or keep it long?

More than 1,800 people voted on Twitter, and the margin was 60-40 against a cut. Yet Gustafson did it anyway, asking, "Will Twitter ever forgive me?" The early returns from our voters indicate the answer is no. The longer look received 71-percent support in our one-week poll (12-5). No one left a comment, but we'd think the longer hair would be easier to keep in place. Gustafson stands six-foot-three, so her height and wide shoulders can protect a lot. A shorter cut makes that more difficult - but she's already shown she can handle a lot of change.

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Right photo courtesy InStyle

If time has taught us anything about fashion models, they're not as "real-life" as they used to be. Hair extensiuons and outright wigs make it difficult to tell which of their looks is real, and which is fake. Take Chrissy Teigen, for example. The wife of singer John Legend has displayed long brunette hair for years. But it's blonder in her current work as a "judge" on the comedy contest Bring the Funny. And in mid-July, Teigen showed off what fashion magazines called a "summer makeover" - a blonde bob, which she credited to Beverly Hills stylist Tracie Cunningham.

Are Teigen's tresses more tempting now? We decided to make her color the question, and 63 percent of our voters like her lighter (5-3). But one voter commented it was "not so much the color, but the whole package: the bangs, the bigger looking eyes, etc." We're not sure whether to trust that package or not. Teigen's hair was long again in an Instagram video, as our week-long poll concluded. But at least she's keeping things blonde - perhaps finally trying to match long-time friend Erin Andrews.

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Her last name may be "Bullock," but actress Sandra's career has included plenty of birds. She won an Oscar and a Crown Award for her role in The Blind Side, mentoring a young man who eventually played for U.S. football's Baltimore Ravens. Then in 2018, Bullock produced and starred in the thriller Bird Box on Netflix. July 2019 found Bullock back in the world of sports bird nicknames, presenting the "Best Team" award at the ESPYs. The short Bird Box look was gone, replaced by shoulder-length "lob" waves which were in one way elegant and in another way beachy.

Bullock's current look is certainly shorter than in the 2000s, but should it stay that way? Our voters said no; six out of ten prefer the long hair of Oscar nights gone by. One voter explained it's "because the center part sucks." Another didn't buy into the fashion magazine gushing, writing: "Both hairstyles are terrible." At least Bullock improved her score from January; we'd forgotten we'd asked about her lob the last time magazines gushed about it at the Golden Globe Awards.

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You know you're a leading U.S. TV news reporter when you're assigned the White House beat. Over the years, many of those reporters have displayed leading hairstyles as well. Norah O'Donnell was there, before becoming CBS Evening News anchor. She and current CBS colleague Weijia Jiang became Top Ten Tresses stars. NBC gave us O'Donnell, then the amazingly strong hair of Hallie Jackson. But you may have overlooked Kristen Welker, whose styles tend to stay well in line on-camera. They've tended to be cut around the shoulders. But the middle of 2019 has shown Welker growing out her hair; it was near the bust line when she anchored the evening news on Independence Day.

Is Welker doing well by going longer? Our Hair Fans absolutely agree. Unanimous votes are as rare here as they are in 2019 Washington politics - but Welker received one in our week-long poll (7-0). What looks like a mix of curl and tucking-back on the right side has a strong chance of holding outside the White House, although we think we've seen wind do her hair in at some point. Let's send her outside and investigate, shall we?

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In the middle of the 2010s, Alison Brie was a rising star in the world of Super-Hair. She won five [corrected] Crown Awards, primarily for her role on the TV comedy Community. Her medium-long styles had Hair Fans longing to sit right behind her in a classroom. But when that series went away, her fame here faded. A few years later, Brie could make a comeback thanks to GLOW, the story of a one-time women's wrestling troupe. The hair is shoulder-length now, but still is adjustable. Brie made a big adjustment in late June, by adding long bangs - although she emphasized something else on Instagram: "Baby was brunette again."

Do bangs make Brie's hair tastier? Our voters don't think so; 75 percent perfer her without them (6-2). That surprised us, because we think the bangs look playful and fit Brie's on-screen personality. In fact, Brie went for thicker bangs a few years ago. We didn't ask about them then - but they would have been great for a TV wrestling match.

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The last week of June 2019 may become the most memorable week of Ida Tedesco's life. She already had amazing moments as a TV reporter in Toledo, Ohio - as a City League champion, Top Ten Tresses member and Super-Hair Wars playoff entry. Now as a morning news anchor in Lansing, Michigan, she had two HUGE events in six days...

She became engaged to a Detroit TV reporter. AND her move to grow her curl-loving mid-length hair toward the middle of her back became the topic of a week-long poll on our home page!

OK, we think we know which event Tedesco will remember more. For one thing, the proposal came on her birthday. For another thing, the vote on the style change was rather close. It ended with six out of ten Hair Fans liking the longer locks. "Shorter has more body!" wrote one critic. We agree with that - as if the power in her hair is more compact, to accentuate her waves. The waviness is still there, only looser and riskier. But Tedesco seems to know how to take great care of her hair, and we marvel at that. Based on that ring photo, we may not be the only ones.

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Photo courtesy Just Jared

Like mother, like daughter - right?! Hair Fan's Hall of Fame member Cindy Crawford has brought up a daughter who's an emerging model. When they walk around New York together, the paparazzi have twice the fun.

Kaia Gerber even has shown great hair genetics at age 17, with long thick locks that could make any Hair Fan tremble along a runway. But "baby Gerber" did something in June that we're not sure her mother would dare to do....

She cut the long hair to a bob that's above the shoulders, and sometimes may not have any product at all. We're not sure our choice of an Instagram picture showed the cut well. But it's good enough for our voters, who prefer the shorter style by a 58-percent margin (7-5).

No one commented on Gerber's change, but someone asked a side question about our Top Ten Tresses list. We'll answer it this way: we've never paid anyone for interviews or inclusion on our site. No woman ever has paid us for inclusion, either. Sometimes we wish they did, but....

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One of our more embarrassing website moments came when we asked to do an interview with Kim Zolciak-Biermann of Real Housewives of Atlanta about her hairstyles. Her handlers disclosed she wears wigs - apparently so well that we didn't realize it. But so far, that does not seem to be true with her children. Thanks to the Bravo spinoff reality series Don't Be Tardy, viewers have learned about 17-year-old Ariana. She has a stereotypical teenage attitude (check her Twitter feed) and long hair that would delight young Hair Fans. But for the summer of 2019, Ariana trimmed it a bit - from well below the bust line to a bit above it, with some "beach waves" thrown in.

Did Ariana make a cut in the right direction? Our Hair Fans don't think so - but the vote in our one-week poll was close, with six out of ten saying "longer". No one left a comment, perhaps this change was rather subtle. Either way, we think Biermann doesn't care whether or not the hair falls in her eyes - and she doesn't follow mom's example in that.

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Right photo courtesy InStyle

Some celebrities develop one signature hairstyle, and strive to keep it outstanding for years. Natalie Portman is among the actresses who have not done that. Since she focuses on feature films, she's willing to adjust her hair to the part she's playing - from midlength and messy in Mars Attacks! to super-short in Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Portman apparently has gone short again for Lucy in the Sky, a movie about an infatuated astronaut. The style might be called "space helmet hair" - short enough to fit inside one, without any bother.

Is Portman's latest look a winner with Hair Fans? We seldom get a strikeout in our polls, but she got one here - as every voter preferred the long approach (10-0). One commented, "She's one step away from a Jane Fonda Klute mullet!" Some of us actually would consider that a compliment, as that cut was exciting to watch in the movie. Portman's hair is slightly longer on the right side - if she's not wearing a wig, and that's possible with her - but still loose enough to drop, even without zero gravity.

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The first time we heard about Game of Thrones, we speculated it might be about chess. But no - it was a lot more than that. It was an HBO phenomenon on the order of Sex and the City, only with nine dressed-up families instead of four fashionable single women. The fantasy series made England's Maisie Williams a star, as she played Arya Stark from start to finish. Her hair looked worn-out and mussed-up often in battle scenes, so that wasn't our issue. Yet style-watching websites found it interesting that Williams changed her color after the final season - moving from rich brunette (with the bangs reminding us a bit of Jenna Rosenstein at her best) to a near-blonde shade.

Which color is more amazing for Maisie? Considering all the buzz Game of Thrones received, the response from Hair Fans was lackluster. Only five votes over one week came down for the brunette color by 3-2. One person commented it was "simply because she didn't dye her roots." We noted that, too - and considering Williams also has shown pink and purple shades, maybe she was in a hurry to meet a photo shoot deadline.

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Some women can wear their hair the "usual" everyday way on a red carpet, and still attract plenty of attention. We think actress Jessica Chastain is one of those women. Her usual color is red (we'll explain that picture on the left), which helps. And when she adds some curls to her medium-long locks, she becomes quite enticing. So it was surprising in May 2019 to see Chastain make a double switch - cutting her hair to a shoulder length, and adding bangs which might remind some people of a shaggy "bowl cut" from the 1970s.

Chastain is 42 - so is this a "middle-aged" good change? We asked specifically about the bangs, and found our Hair Fans like them. They gained 64-percent support in our week-long poll (9-5). Yet there was this comment: "Mostly for the new color." Alas, we feared that kind of confusion might happen when we chose to post her Crown Award-winning look. Chastain went one-time brunette in Molly's Game, while red is her regular shade. In any case, Chastain's cut may be a step to keep her hair out of her face without much care - and since she's displayed good care all these years, that may be a great thing to watch.

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Let the record show: "Captain Marvel" wore a wig. Brie Larson's hair in the 2019 action movie was not completely hers. That disappointed us - along with the fact that the faux hair dropped in her eyes more than once in the movie. In real life, Larson's hair has tended to be medium-long. But she's slowly gone shorter with it since winning a 2015 Academy Award. And after the tour for Avengers: Endgame ended, she went all-out - cutting to a severe sideparted chin-length bob.

Does Brie's change please our Hair Fans? A one-week poll was close from beginning to end, and ended with 53 percent preferring the longer style (9-8). No one left a comment, so we'll say we agree with the majority. We prefer the softer approach that the long hair offered. But when you're a superhero like Larson has become, it may be all about getting tough, hair or no hair.

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California used to dominate the Miss USA contest. So did Texas. So it was stunning to see neither state in the top ten at the 2019 event at Reno, Nevada. Instead, another state showed its beauty strength - as Cheslie Kryst of North Carolina captured the crown after the Tar Heel State had the first runner-up a year ago. Kryst is an attorney, so she knows the importance of a proper presentation. She went for natural curls on the final night, which worked for Miss USA 2017 Kara McCullough. But Kryst's videos reveal she also straightens her hair into long thick locks.

Kryst has several months to make a hair decision for the Miss Universe pageant. So what should she show there? Our voters were split over a week, but 57 percent came down on the straight side (4-3). "Natural is always better," wrote the only person to leave a comment. Well, maybe not in one way. Kryst's curls dropped in her right eye in the moments after she won the title.

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When she walked on stage near the end of Oscar Night 2019, we feared we had posted our hair poll too soon. Julia Roberts had a long sideparted style with a classic Hollywood swoop - a bit like Jessica Rabbit in that cartoon movie. The hair swooped into Roberts's eyes while she spoke, which technically disqualified from our ballot. But it was a reminder of the style icon she's been for decades. Celebrity styliust Serge Normant reportedly was backstage on that night - and weeks later adjusted Roberts again. Now she has waves barely touching the shoulders, in a beachy lob.

We asked Hair Fans which look makes Roberts more of a, you know, Pretty Woman. The long look was preferred by 78 percent of them (7-2). No one left a comment, and we fear both styles can fall in her eyes with little difficulty. so we'll point you to our personal favorite Roberts cut - the full polished waves of The Pelican Brief.

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Pop singer Meghan Trainor has lost her voice a time or two in recent years. But has she lost her touch with great-looking hair? Trainor spent six months on our Top Ten Tresses list for long blonde styles that she knew how to keep well-controlled. But she's played with those looks recently - first changing to a rich brunette, then appearing on the "Motown 60" music special with slightly-messy bangs across her forehead that we'd never seen before.

Is Trainor in training for a Super-Hair comeback? Eight out of ten voters thought so in our one-week poll. "More youthful looking," one declared. But another wrote, "Betting the bangs are fake.... although they do look great." Sadly, that bet may be a winner. Trainor has admitted putting on wigs at times because her scalp refuses to let her hair grow long. But the answer to the bang question is well hidden online - because a search for "Meghan Trainor bangs" kept bringing up her song Bang Dem Sticks.

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Some Hair Fans probably would buy this cover of People magazine simply for the photo. Lori Loughlin, a member of our Hair Fan's Hall of Fame, with her classic sidepart delicately placed at the edge of her left eye - staying there perfectly, somehow! They'd ignore the headlines alongside it. But those headlines are dominating the talk about Loughlin these days. She's pleaded not guilty to a criminal indictment, stemming from claims that she and her husband bribed University of Southern California officials to get their daughter admitted to college. It's quite a switch from clean-cut Aunt Becky of the Full House years on TV.

Loughlin was a lock for the Hall of Fame, winning admission in 2008 with 90-percent support. But no one in the Hall ever has been accused of this sort of criminal misconduct. So we wondered if some kind of "morality clause" should be part of Hall membership, similar to what Pete Rose has faced in baseball. Since it's your Hall, we asked if Loughlin should be removed if she's convicted and sent to prison. A week of voting ended with 64 percent saying "no, let her stay" (9-5). "What does all of this have to do with her hair?" one asked. "It's not like she was caught using extensions." If that was a red flag, at least one other Hall member would be in serious trouble. We'll let you figure out which one we mean....

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One woman is a veteran singer who's let her hair get wild and messy at big moments. The other is a young rising star who's finding ways to keep styles in line when you might not expect it. Put Miranda Lambert and Maren Morris together, and you had two of the performers at the 2019 Academy of Country Music Awards - women who shared the prize of our voters for the best hair of the night.

Lambert appeared with well-prepared mid-length hair that we knew would be very hard to muss. It weakened a bit under the lights of Las Vegas, but held. Morris went high-risk; her long center part reminded us of how exciting such a style can be in motion, even when it's behind the shoulders for protection. They wound up deadlocked with 33 percent of your votes - but with at least one voter suspicious. "Are we sure that none of these is wearing a wig, hair piece of extensions? I just saw Maren on another TV show and her hair was barely past her shoulders." In 2019, we're never really sure who's faking it. But it was long several days later at a music festival in Florida - long hair any Hair Fans would want to get behind (and pursue).

Third place in our poll went to newcomer Mickey Guyton with 17 percent - a last-minute addition, after she joined other women singing with Chrissy Metz. Then came host Reba McEntire with eight percent, tied with a mysterious "Other". (Be sure to name your "Other," as we might make a wrong guess.) While Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town didn't receive any votes, one voter gave her an "honorable mention" comment: "Karen tried to go old school big hair country, but I voted for Lambert."

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It could have been a huge 2018 for Merry Matthews. The meteorologist with WeatherNation was selected to represent the U.S. in Super-Hair World Cup V - but she was knocked out in the final week of group play. Then Matthews received a Crown Award nomination, only to be steamrolled (with every other contestant) by Kelly Cass. But we hope one big move by Matthews went well. She left the network, and now presents the forecast at KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs. But Matthews didn't stop there. In late March, she cut her long well-styled hair to a bit below shoulder-length.

"It's just hair," Matthews pondered on Twitter as she displayed the cut for spring. Not to our Hair Fans, it's not. And after a week of voting, eight out of ten wanted the long hair to grow back. "Are you sure that's even her?" one voter asked. "Looks like another person." Well, a lack of TV maeup could do that. Another suggested a consolation prize: "Merry for top ten." Hmmmm - we think we saw her hair drop at some point. But she probably wouldn't tell us when.

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She's one of the more unlikely members of our Hair Fan's Hall of Fame. In fact, she couldn't believe it when she was nominated and inducted. But Jenny Anchondo has enchanted Hair Fans throughout the "teens" with her long hair, beginning when she won the 2011 Super-Hair Wars title. Anchondo worked in TV news in Indianapolis at the time. She went on to Dallas and worked on a couple of TV newscasts. But now she's a wife and mom, perhaps content to do podcasts and public events - so she announced in March: "So long, long hair!" With social media savvy, Anchondo let followers vote on which of three looks would be best for her.

Anchondo settled on Option 2 - a sidepart stopping a couple of inches below the shoulders. But would our Hair Fans vote for that? No, they wouldn't; 73 percent preferred the longer locks in a one-week poll (8-3). No one left a comment, perhaps reluctantly accepting the inevitable. But we're wondering if a shorter cut will be tougher for Anchondo to keep out of her eyes, She can't add as much weight to it, in terms of curl - and would a spray-down look too obvious?

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The 19th annual Crown Awards had only a couple of big winners. D'Arcy Carden took two awards - and Jameela Jamil's prize for Best Bangs made it a triple-Crown night for the TV comedy The Good Place. But when the series began, Hair Fans probably had their attention focused on someone else. Kristen Bell has a history of attractively close-to-danger hair dating from her Veronica Mars years. It's been a few inches longer on the NBC series than it was in the earlier show. But Bell made a change in March 2019, chopping her hair to a tough-looking chin-scraping bob.

Bell wrote her children on Instagram with the "new" picture: "Your mom got a haircut and she is FEELING IT." But our feeling was that she'd have a problem winning over our Hair Fans. And we were right - as seven out of ten want Bell to bring back the longer look (7-3). "Neither is anything to write home about," one wrote us, "but the new look is more boring and really limp." We suppose it could have been "watered down", and she was heading home from the salon. But we agree - if her goal is to have Crown-winning hair like Carden and Jamil, this isn't going to do it. But then again, doesn't Bell play a character who does not belong in Paradise?

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If you think the Kardashians are the only ones who change hairstyles faster than some people change radio stations, think again. Other celebrities have been "regulars" in this section over the years, for their hair adjustments. We didn't realize until writing this that actress Mila Kunis has become one of them. In 2017, she cut her long hair to a lob. Most of our voters said no to that. In 2018, Kunis seemed to add bangs to that cut. Most of our voters said no again. In early 2019, Kunis may be trying to show she got the message - growing out her hair below shoulder-length, and displaying no bangs at all during an appearance on Ellen in February.

Is Kunis on the right track this time? Maybe so - because our one-week poll found two-thirds of the voters like the latest look (8-4). "The old look lacked style," one explained. "I would say the bangs bring out her eyes, but all of that make-up negates it." Kunis still is not back to the original length of early in the decade - but if she adds some wave to it, we think the style strength of years ago can make a comeback.

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While some people went to the Academy Awards hoping to win an Oscar, other past winners went to be part of the program. And a few of them may have shown up simply to make a scene. Actress Charlize Theron carried out the last two. She helped present an award, and showed with her hair drastically different from the short blonde looks of recent years. Theron went brunette for the first time in about a decade. InStyle noted she also trimmed her bob a few inches - but let's face it, that's not what most people were noticing.

We don't know if Theron changed colors for an upcoming movie. But our Hair Fans say this change never should have happened. Eight out of ten preferred blonde, in our one-week poll. One voter who acually noticed the trim wrote, "She rocks as a blonde." We think so, too - and she had to rock her head a time or two to keep the cut from falling in her eye, both on-stage and off.