Super-Hair.Net
Cutting-Edge Hair News, 2022
There's an old phrase when it comes to network TV programming: Never tamper with a hit. That's probably true with local TV stations as well. Anchor teams can become legends, spending decades together. But when it comes to individual hairstyles at TV stations, anything can happen. Consider what Amanda Curran did. The Montgomery, Alabama meteorologist became a City League champion with well-controlled mid-length hair (at least on camera). But then on a Friday in December, Curran pulled a surprise. She cut 10 inches of hair and donated it to the charity Children With Hair Loss for wigs.
We can't fault Curran's heart here. But we asked: Is Curran's coif better with a cut? An extended eight-day poll ended with two-thirds of our voters prefering the longer look (4-2). As Curran replied when we mentioned the cut on Twitter: "Five years of long hair... time for someone else to love it!" Hmmm - five years?! This may explain how impressively well she's been doing with the shorter style. She has, well, head knowledge.
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When a champion athlete takss a big risk, a lot of people notice. When a Super-Hair champion does it, we certainly do. Carolyn Peck straddles both categories to some extent. She covers women's basketball for ESPN and ABC as a former player and coach. And she has incredibly long-lasting Super-Hair, as an original Top Ten Tresses member and one of the top two members of our Ultimate 50. Peck earned our honors with soft-looking, yet perfectly-controlled mid-length hair. But in 2022, Peck has taken that big risk - showing styles with apparetly all-natural curls, occasionaly dangling very close to her eyes.
Is this change impressing Hair Fans a "bushel and a Peck"? Apparently so; our one-week poll ended with two-thirds of voters preferring Peck with curls (4-2). This admittedly is a big conflict for us. Peck's track record with the straighter look is, well, im-Peck-ible. She has decades of experience knowing how to keep that look in place. But the curls make it seem like Peck is almost daring someone or something to bring her "Ultimate" mane down once and for all. The curls could finally do that - but so far, on our watch, they have not. We'll surely keep watching!
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Right when we thought all "white" things were supposed to be wrong in the 2020s, along came The White Lotus. It's a comedy series about a chain of resorts. The cast includes Connie Britton, who's a Hair Fan's Hall of Fame member. It also includes Aubrey Plaza, who also starred in the cable TV series Legend. She's nominated for a Golden Globe Award - but perhaps to get in the running for a Crown Award, she made a hair change in November. A Hair Fan notified us that Plaza switched from brunette locks to blonde, wjhich stunned a writer on the "Vulture website. "It's essential to her star essence," Rebecca Alert wrote.!
How essential is it for Plaza? Not as much as that write might think. Our Hair Fans prefer Plaza as a blonde by a 71% margin (5-2). No one left a comment, but we think she stands out even more attractively with a blonde look. Yet that Vulture writer also suspects Plaza is pulling a prank, to promote an upcoming role. We'll see if that's true. But for now, Plaza has our attention where she otherwise honestly wouldn't.
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The University of Arizona is known in athletics for "Desert Swarm" defense (back when the football team had winning records), the phrase "Bear Down" (even though they're Wildcats, not Bearcats) and basketball teams which are national contenders. But the Arizona softball team makes national playoffs year after year - and now someone from that team has emerged as a Super-Hair star. The muscular long waves of outfielder Jasmine Perezchica premiered here as a Crown Awards runner-up early in 2022. Then she won the Tucson City League title, became "All-Star Challenge" winner there - and now she adds to that, as the "Elite Eight" winner among Best Manes on Campus Season 20!
The first eight BMOC's of the seson get together for this battle - and our week-long contest turned into a two-headed race. Perezchica wound up with 60% of the votes, holding off Syracuse's Maddy Baxter with 40%. They were 1-2 in the All-Star Challenge as well. So Baxter's rush to success on our site early in 2022 has been matched, and now eclipsed. As for the other six women in our Elite Eight: our voters have spoken - and maybe you have some work to do.
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Few things are more dramatic for Hair Fans than seeing great heads of hair on a dance floor. The turns! The dips! The quick moves! So when Dancing With the Stars began on ABC, we wanted to see how certain celebrity stars would do. But in the process, we were introduced to professional dancers with equally great styles. One of them was San Francisco-area native Cheryl Burke, who won back-to-back seasons in the 2000s. She did it with a short cut that seemed prepared to hold through anything. We even put one of her routines in Hair Pressure. But Burke lengthened her look through the years - and now that she's retiring from the series, she shows a style that's medium-long. The only way that can hold during a TV dance is with pins.
Which hairstyle of Burke is better? Our voters took the short cut, preferring it in a one-week poll by an 71% margin (5-2). We agree with that, and refer to her as proof that short hair doesn't have to be boring hair. (Spoiler alert: Occasionally Burke's short style did land in her eyes in mid-dance.)
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Some rock music fans might have wondered whatever happened to Orianthi (Pangaris) - the Australian guitar virtuoso with the oft-perfect long blonde hair. She won our Crown Award for Best Hairstyle in Music, but that was back in 2014. Yet Orianthi made a comeback at the 2022 American Music Awards, and her hair was impressive. Even though she only appeared with host Wayne Brady during the opening segment, she won Hair Fans' support as the outstanding look of the night.
Our week-long vote ended with Orianthi's solid sidepart gaining 60% support. Kelly Rowland's precise bob provided her only opposition, receiving 40% of the vote. That was surprising, considering how much buzz Taylor Swift received on social media when she accepted awards with throwback waves. A Twitter feed dominated by male K-pop singers suddenly shifted to "Swifties." And we must give honorable mention to Carrie Underwood. She received no votes, but she dangled above the audience upside-down to prove she wasn't wearing extensions.
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Right photo courtesy Cable News Watch
If she was on NewsMax, the news might have caused an uproar. But then again, Jessica Tarlov is unlikely to ever appear on NewsMax. She's what some would call a "token liberal" on Fox News Channel - and her signing of a talent agency contract was a big deal during the U.S. fall. We weren't familiar with her, but her thick wavy look caught our interest. But then "Dr. J." showed up on the air one evening with a bone-straight, perhaps shorter look.
Since Tarlov appears most often on The Five, we turned this change into a five-day question. The waves won the support of Hair Fans by a two-thirds margin (4-2). We think they're tougher to move or muss - and in 2022, the only person who might get away with that is the late Fox News chair Roger Ailes.
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What could be more "country" than a song titled, "You're Drunk, Go Home"? That's the song Kelsea Ballerini presented at the 2022 Country Music Association Awards. She had help from Kelly Clarkson and Carly Pearce, but Ballerini's long flowing blonde hair had center-stage. Many Hair Fans apparently liked what they saw, because she goes home with the most votes for the best style of the night.
Our six-day survey saw Ballerini take an early lead, then hold on for a 44% victory. Country newcomers followed, with Caylee Hammack receiving 33% and Pillbox Patti (which sounds like it ought to be a wrestling name) taking 22%. We were surprised that Reba McEntire's short style, which had never been thicker or bigger, received no support. And if you're surprised that Carrie Underwood wasn't on the ballot, we smelled extensions during her songs - although we appeal to the CMA's to bring her back as a co-host, in place of Luke Bryan.
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She was selling earrings. At least, that's what we were told. That's why Ariana Grande supposedly posed on Instagram in October facing the heavens. Her iconic hairstyle certainly makes them easy to see, because Grande is a Crown Award winner for Best Ponytail. But some Hair Fans actually checked her hair and noticed something else. Grande had turned it blonde, instead of her normal brunette shade.
Grande has played color games with us before - but is this blonde look better for her? An extended 10-day poll showed voters very divided: 38% for blonde, 25% for brunette and 38% for "another color" (3-2-3). Hmmm - maybe red? So Grande can have a fiery launch into space, a la the album where she wore a mask?
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Her birthplsce was Scotland. Yet actress Charithra Chandran reflects how Britain has changed in recent decades, as her heritage is east Indian. She's been part of the blended cast of the Netflix drama Bridgerton for two seasons, but reportedly is stepping away to work on things like Amazon Prime series. One of those things seemed to bring a major change in Chandran's hair. She posted pictures of a pixie cut, as she promoted a new fashion store in London. Stylist Patrick Wilson called it a cross between "Lady D" (Diana, we think) and "Halle B" (Berry).
But celebrity websites called foul - and it turned out Chandran was wearing a wig. Yet the question remains: which look is better for her? Our voters say she should end the Chandran charade, with two-thirds preferring the long style (4-2). No one left a comment, but we think the long look is more "hands on" - as in Hair Fans wanting to get hands on it. If that adds to the "period drama," so much the better.
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Left photo courtesy Houston Chronicle
Hockey players started it with their "playoff beards." Now major league baseball players seem to have their own tradition. As John Smoltz put it on Fox: "We've got some big hair." That was in the National League Championship Series, with pithcers from Philadelphia and San Diego. But in the American League... well, it may not be like doctoring a baseball, but some Houston Astros are playing tricks with their tresses. Pitchers Luis Garcia and Framber Valdez admitted they've added extensions to their hair for the playoffs. Garcia explained when he adds braids to his hair, "everybody knows me more, because it's not a normal look."
We know many Hair Fans frown on women adding extensions - but what about baseball players doing it for motivation? The outcome was fitting for the Houston pitching staff: a 2-0 shutout. Except the voters said NO to the extensions in our one-week poll. In fact, they seemed to say NO to this question in general - as if they're longing for MLB.com's Alyson Footer to bring her award-winning curls out of seclusion.
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What is Hailey Baldwin Bieber doing these days, after marrying Justin Bieber? She keeps busy modeling, as she's done for years. But some of her recent words were part of a tense pop culture pot that involved Kanye West, an editor of Vogue magazine and which people groups in our society "matter." West called Bieber names. He was suspended from some social media outlets. And through it all, some Hair Fans longed for the days when a simple hairstyle change would be big Hollywood news. It actually was for Bieber during October - as she visited a hair colorist to change from a blonde look to a "richer" chocolate brunette for U.S. autumn.
We're not always sure that a different color of hair matters. But we asked you about it for a week, and two-thirds of voters came back saying she should remain a blonder Bieber. No one left a comment, perhaps fearful of what West might say. But we'll dare to comment on something else Bieber did during our poll. Turning your skin "witch green" for Halloween probably is not the ultimate answer to the racism debate in the U.S.
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Courtesy Daily Mirror
British music fans came to know her in the 90s group "Eternal." But that's not the eternal story of singer Louise Redknapp's career. As a solo artist, she had hit songs such as Naked (we dared not watch the music video of that) and her own magazine called Icon. And through it all, Redknapp was sonewhat iconic for long blonde hair. But in September, she dropped a "chop chop" hint on Instagram - then emeeged from a British salon with what one tabloid called an "edgy chopped bob," stopping at her shoulders.
Does Redknapp raise a red flag with this change? Not at all - as our voters gave the shorter look 86% support in a one-week poll. Perhaps this style is inevitable with age, as Redknapp is 47. But with the right hairspray, she probably will do a better job keeping the short cut out of her eyes. Maybe eternally? Some Hair Fans long for that...
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When a big star goes to a stylist and says, "I'm ready for a change," the pressure probably is on. But actress Kaley Cuoco apparently says those words often. She added bangs to her "basic" blonde hairstyle early in the year, and our Hair Fans liked the idea (see below). Yet the star of The Flight Attendant apparently wasn't satisfied with that. She went back to Tommy Buckett for an adjustment for U.S. fall. He responded with what he called a "dark golden-blonde gloss" - what some websites called a "bronde" look, as if summer sun was turned into autumn leaves.
One site called Cuoco's new look a "hair zhuzh." We're not sure what that means, but our voters support her and Buckett again. A one-week poll ended with 63% support for the darker shade (5-3) - although one wrote, "Just keep the bangs." With two divorces on her record before turning 37, Cuoco may be too impulsive to keep anything for very long - from the hair down.
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It's a little like winning a junior league sports title, then going on to big things in the majors. That's one way to explain what Emma Broyles has done in recent years. First she was named Miss Alaska "Outstanding Teen" 2017, a contest under the auspices of Miss America for younger women. Then Broyles won it all at Miss America 2021 - and her long hair impressed us so much that we put her on the Top Ten Tresses list. But when we compared her styles, we spotted something interesting. Broyles's hair was slightly below the shoulders as a teen, but she's made it fully long as Miss America.
We don't know if those extra inches helped Broyles win the national honor. But it didn't win over our voters. A one-week poll ended with a stunning 86 percent preferring her shorter style (6-1). No one left a comment, but we'd say Broyles's current look impresses us before because it's probably more challenging to keep in place. She uses a variety of tactics to prevent it from falling - and we wonder if maybe that crown on her head has something to do with it.
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Why is it that so many judges on America's Got Talent are from outside America? Are people around the world that skeptical or the U.S.? For instance, Sofia Vergara of Colombia moved to that show after ending years on Modern Family. So her appearance as a presenter at the Emmy Awards wasn't a big surprise. And on a night with plenty of great hairstyles, the locks of this 50-year-old rose to the top - voted by Hair Fans as the outstanding look of the night.
Vergara came from behind in our six-day poll to claim 50 percent of the vote. She overcame Zendaya, whose long pulled-back style (with a ribbon, which made it permissible under our definition of Super-Hair) ended at 38%. Natalie Zea of La Brea was third they-ya (trying to keep the rhyme going) with 12%. Lesser-known names Quinta Brunson and Marketta Kavenagh received no support - even though Brunson stood tall in the middle of the biggest controversy of the show, accepting an award with Jimmy Kimmel on the floor at her feet. It was an award for comedy, wasn't it?
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JoJo Siwa is not a "Dance Mom" - not at age 19. But she spent two years with her mom on the reality show with that name. And somehow, Siwa turned that attention into a place as one of the "100 most influential people in the world" in 2020 (per Time magazine). We're not sure if Siwa is influencing young women to change their hairstyles. But she made a change in August, at least on social media - switching from her usual punky pullback to what she called a "mullet daddy."
Maybe she's using extensions. Maybe it's a wig. But should Siwa have long hair all the time? Our extended eight-day poll found 75% of voters prefer the long look (3-1) - but we'd note that not many people voted at all. Could it be that they're not impressed by either Siwa style? Or are they afraid Siwa will call them out on TikTok?
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Emma Watson has grown up before the eyes of movie-watchers - from the girl in the Harry Potter films to a 30-something Ivy League graduate and women's rights activist. Watson still has enough star power that she's now a spokesmodel for Prada fragrances. And she has enough clout that she directed her first commercial for them. But Watson's concept in that ad may leave Hair Fans confused. Part of the commercial shows her with loose shoulder-length locks, but another part has her wearing e tight pixie cut.
Which Watson is worse for wear? Our voters preferred the longer look by a 75% margin in a one-week poll (6-2). No one left a comment, but we think Watson's short cut was a "cap" - as in a wig. She displayed that look a few years ago. But the best evidence of going "wiggy" is in brief shots from her three-minute YouTube film on the making of her commercial. When a film on making a commercial is longer than the commercial, we have to wonder a bit...
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"Bell is bull!" one Canadian wrote on Facebook after learning what happened to Lisa LaFlamme. The veteran anchor of CTV National News was told by Bell Media management in June she would be dropped. After some apparent negotiations, LaFlamme made the announcement on social media in mid-August. At least one report wondered if the change was due to LaFlamme's hair. (The CEO of Bell Canada denied it as our poll ended.) As a brunette, she was a Top Ten Tresses member for more than two years. But she decided to switch to her natural gray look in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic - and it's a sad reality in television news that age on-camera is not always a welcome thing with "going younger" managers.
LaFlamme made the Crown Awards after going silver. Most of our voters think that was a good decision, as silver received 80% of the votes in our week-long poll. Only 10% preferred brunette, with another 10% calling for another color (8-1-1). "I'm not impressed with either hair style," that caller wrote. "Any new color will be better." But another voter speaking for the majority said, "Natural is better." Maybe LaFlamme will improve it the next time we see her - even if that's on CBC Television or Global.
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Please don't get the two Browns confused. Bobbi Kristina Brown was the late daughter of Whitney Houston. Millie Bobby Brown is alive and well - a young actress born in Spain, based in England and appearing in the Netflix series Stranger Things. She endured several controveries, even during her teens. But is Brown trying to spark a debate by what she did with her hair? During August, she cut her long hair into what one website called a "super short blunt bob" - certainly not the first celebrity to go shorter for summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
One British website called Brown's cut "incredible." That word can be taken in many ways - and our voters took that in the shocking sense. In our week-long poll, four out of five said Brown should have kept her hair longer (4-1). We're not sure if Brown did it for her TV character. Then again, maybe she did it to fit in - as news came during the week of our question that Brown has enrolled at Purdue University. Maybe she wants to look scientific.
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Google reports tell us that one of the most sought-after hairstyles on our website belongs to Norah O'Donnell. A Hair Watch that we conducted in 2003-04 during her years at NBC News gets a lot of searches and views. Truly her hair has been amazing for years. O'Donnell has adjusted it at times since moving to CBS. But we saw something on the CBS Evening News in late July that looked quite surprising. It appeared O'Donnell had cut her hair above her shoulders - a summertime chop if ever there was one.
O'Donnell is 48, but if she's adopting a "mature woman" approach to hair, is it good? Our voters said no; 75% want O'Donnell to stay longer (6-2). But one visitor said we misread what we saw: "Maybe trimmed but from the side looks still long, just styled differently, brushed back behind shoulders. Interesting look." That Hair Fan found a video later in the week indicating O'Donnell did NOT cut her hair. Apparently, she simply threw it back one night. Her followers probably let out a big sigh of relief at that.
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Left photo courtesy Archive.org/KTVU
The late Roger Ailes once joked that his Fox News Channel had "all the blondes" that Ted Turner and CNN didn't hire. One of the most enduring blondes at FNC is Caroline Shively. She was a Washington correspondent from 2004-10, then became a freelance reporter while developing her own media training business. While Shively (to our knowledge) has been a blonde throughout, the length of her hair has changed. She's gradually shortened her long style - and in 2022, it stops around her shoulders, even though the basic sidepart look remains./p>
Is Shively improving her look with age? Our voters aren't so sure. A one-week poll found 60% of Hair Fans prefer Shively with long hair (3-2). We side with the "long-ings" here. There's more to admire that way - and also more potential tension, with the risk of trouble in windy conditions. Yet Shively uses her ears well for protection; we can't think of a case where the hair has collapsed on-camera. So she may be blonde, but she's certainly not dumb. ********** Left photo courtesy E Online China's government may be using TikTok to spy on us - but at least Hair Fans can tell Beijing what hairstyles are best. Mikayla Nogueira of Massachusetts used TikTok to build a posse of nearly 13 million followers, which has led to her own makeup line (even though many of her videos are makeup free). Shortly after U.S. Independence Day, Nogueira declared, "I feel free" after cuttng her mid-length waves to a shoulder-length bob. "I've been losing my hair for several years, due to health conditions," she revealed in one X-rated (for language) video. She called the extra length a "disguise" for the problem./p>
Has "Mikayla J." made a wise decision? Our one-week poll found two-thirds of voters prefer Nogueira with longer hair. But the small vote count (2-1) makes us wonder if the voters even know who she is. Here's hoping her health improves - and she finds the right formula to keep the short style strong. The waves are a good start. ********** She could have been royal... well, that was one of her first hit songs. But Lorde certainly has become a singing star, including three Grammy Awards. Her ideas in pop music are known for being unconventional. But when she went on tour in the North American summer of 2022, Lorde made a change that some might consider more as following the trend than startng one. She turned her brunette hair blonde - perhaps to fit the "Solar Power" theme of her tour. Are Lorde's locks more luxurious as a blonde? Our voters said no: three out of four prefer her as a brunette. While no one left a comment, we'd only say that we can't think of many blondes from her native New Zealand. So that makes Lorde stand out, at least. And come to think of it, maybe she's living another of her old songs - "Yellow Flicker Beat." ********** She's the only Cuban native to win a Crown Award. Yet pop star Camila Cabello gained her fame in the U.S. - along with the controversy which sometimes goes along with it. One of the issues is whether or not she "fakes it" with extensions. But Cabello's brunette color was beyond doubt... at least until late June. She suddenly posted Instagram photos indicating she's joined the "summer blonde" trend. Cabello referred to it in Spanish as honey blonde. But our voters consider the change more bitter than sweet. Our week-long poll found 80% of Hair Fans prefer her as brunette (4-1) - with one writing, "It looks awful." But someone else said we asked the wrong question. "Color isn't a factor to me. It's the former length," the comment said. "The length... helped make her famous. Granted, lots of it was probably fake. But long hair really made a difference on Camila." For us, it was actually her dramatic way with bangs - even though when they're too long, they fall in her eyes. ********** How many women have traveled to salons dreaming of the best - yet fearing the worst? How many heads of Super-Hair have faced that, too? They won't want perfection ruined with a few wrong chops. But the 2020 Champion Hairstyle of the Year may have faced a moment of angst in mid-June. Niku Kazori, who now works for a TV station in Seattle, went to a salon to have her lusciously long brunette hair trimmed. But, as she wrote on Twitter, it was "about four inches shorter" - but still what we'd call a mid-length look. Did Kazori's cutters really know what they were doing? Maybe so, based on our one-week poll about the change. Six out of 10 voters prefer the shorter style (6-4). No one left a comment, so we'll dare. Kazori clearly knows how to keep her hair looking fabulous, whatever the length (it hardly ever drops). We'd think a shorter style would be easier to handle. But we'll lean toward the longer cut, because there's more to admire. Kazori also wrote that she hopes "it'll grow out sooner than later." Borrowing from her history in San Antonio, can we be a mascot when that happens? ********** In all our years of watching for great hair at awards shows, there's one event Super-Hair never had covered - the Tony Awards, honoring the rest on Broadway. Blame it on the show's timing in the middle of June, away from the other big events. We also weren't sure exactly who would appear and how high-clsss their hair would be. Jessica Chastain took care of those last two concerns, by dancing her way to your votes for the best style of the show. Chastain showed up early with long waves, and apparently set a bar so high that no one else could match it. Chastain won EVERY vote in our week-long poll (8-0), which is something we can't recall happening in an award vote before. Not even the presence on the ballot of former world #1 Renee Elise Goldsberry seemed to matter. If the voting is this lopsided, maybe this is a show we can avoid after all. ********** photos courtesy Heavy. Arie Luyendyk, we knew: the Dutch race car driver who won the Indianapolis 500 twice. His son, Arie Jr., less so. He's also raced cars, but he's probably more famous for being The Bachelor in the U.S. in 2018. Lauren Luyendyk became his bride, after Arie Jr. had second thoughts about his first choice. The husband is now a real estate broker, while Lauren has a strong social media following. But perhaps it's no surprise that she's also wrestling with a big decision. Should her hair stay brunette, as it was at the start of 2022 - or should she go back to her more original blonde shade? Luyendyk posted an Instagram poll with "some wild color options," as one website put it. We decided to keep our poll basic - and after one week, a vote on the final day gave blonde a 57% edge (4-3). We can accept that. But if one of her color ideas is Dutch orange? ********** Right photo courtesy Elite Daily. Yes, her last name really is "Fox." Megan Fox didn't change it for a movie and modeling career. But plenty of women-watchers consider her one of the foxiest celebrities around. Her long brunette hair is part of that success. But at the Billboard Music Awards 15 May, Fox made some people look twice. There were bangs across her forehead - apparently the second step in a process, as beauty websites noted "curtain bangs" reaching Fox's lips in early April. Does Fox's fringe have your favor? It was close, but our week-long poll ended with 57% of Hair Fans supporting the bangs (4-3). Yet one voter smelled a rat with Fox: "Third option: fake bangs." She posted at least one follow-up photo with bangs, so she's trying to be convincing. Yet is it only a coincidence that the woman dating Machine Gun Kelly added some bangs? ********** Audrey Puente calls herself the "daughter of a king" - as in music's "mambo king," Tito Puente. But she's pounded out her own success, as a meteorologist on TV in New York. Our right picture shows one of the two regional Emmy awards she won in 2022. It also shows the reason why Puente impresses us - thick well-prepared mid-length hair. When we first posted Puente on our Hot List in 2012, she was a deep brunette. She's kept that look for years, and won a Super-Hair Wars match in 2016 with it. (She missed the playoffs in a year which included three Crown Award winners.) So we were surprised to see her post with a markedly lighter color. It was as Puente she traveled to Coney Island for a lot of spring sunshine. Should Puente keep things lighter? Are voters lean against it, but the turnout overall was small: 50 percent for brunette, 25% for blonde and 25% for some other color (2-1-1). No one left a comment, but we'll lean toward blonde for a different reason. The lighter hair gives us a better look at how she shapes the area around her face. It will take more than a flick of a finger to bring Puente's hair down, because the waves seem too strong. There must be a wind limit - but how much can her style withstand? ********** If not for one troublesome Independence Day at Coney Island, Alison Kosik might be a Top Ten Tresses record-setter. The CNN anchor/reporter normally has attractively strong wavy hair. It's made her a CNN business candidate that fights hard against the hair dominance of CNBC, earning several Crown Award nominations. But it appears to us that Kosik has let the curls and waves go straghter in recent years - and so they appear longer, even if they're really not. Should Kosik keep up the longer trend? Our voters think so; 86% of them supported more length in our week-long question (6-1). While no one left a comment, we're going to lean against the crowd here. Bouncy-looking curl makes Kosik's cuts more interesting, and probably tougher to jostle out of line. Yet to borrow from her Twitter feed, she makes both look "mighty" and great. ********** It sometimes seems like an annual Cutting-Edge custom to ask a question about a Kardashian. At least one of the sisters changes looks often - and let's face it: without some kind of change, they wouldn't have enjoyed a 15-year hit reality show. In May 2022, it was Kim's turn. She dressed for the "Met Gala" in New York in a dress that Marilyn Monroe wore 60 years ago - and even turned her normally-brunette hair blonde to match. There even are reports that Kardashian received a lock of Monroe's mane from the Ripley's museum, as in "Believe It or Not." Kardashian announced after the Gala that "blonde season is back," so she was keeping that color. Too bad, our voters say - because none of them supported the change in our one-week poll. While 83% say she should remain brunette (and one comment suggested that's "still probably a dye job"), one suggeted she try a different color (0-5-1). Kardashian did a similar change in 2009, and it had a few supporters here then. Is this a message that it's finally time for the Kardashians to settle down? ********** You can't always tell by lookng if a woman has a hair-related health issue. Chicago TV news anchor Audrina Bigos does. She showed attractive medium-long hairstyles on the air for years. But more recently, she's moved to full-time natural curls. Bigos explained to Vogue that years of "treatment and straightening" led to her losing small patches of hair. It's a form of alopecia, which became an issue in the wake of the Jada Pinkett Smith "discussion" at the Academy Awards and beyond. Bigos says some people call her current style "wild." But we found most Hair Fans are wild about it, as the curls won 71% spport in our one-week poll (5-2). "The curls rock," one supporter wrote. And while they might into her eyes at times, Bigos's natural curls are practically impossible to undo. They is why some Hair Fans are curl lovers - they can play with curls all day long and cause very little harm. ********** France has not fared well in the world of Super-Hair in recent years. Mireille Mathieu's perfect "cap" won our first EuroCup in 2004. But since then, candidates have lingered near the bottom of groups. So the closest thing we could find to a hair showdown in France in 2022 was the national presidential election. Marine Le Pen advanced to the runoff for the second race in a row - facing incumbent Emmanuel Macron, represented here by his bride Brigitte. Both are blonde. Both have rather risky styles. So whose hair is better? One commenter wrote of this contest, "It shouldn't even be close. Brigitte in a landslide!" That Hair Fan was absolutely right - as Macron scored an absolute shutout in our one-week poll (5-0). But here's what makes the vote interesting: Mrs. Macron is 69 as we post this. She's 16 years older than Ms. Le Pen - and 25 years older than her husband! It proves hair can look marvelous at any age. Even if her bangs were too long, drooping into her eyes as Mr. Macron won the runoff... ********** The way our City League is set up, a local champion could have the title for life as long as she doesn't move away and no challenger is suggested. Gourmet chef Jennifer Bushman was the hair queen of Reno, Nevada for more than a decade. But as we reviewed our lengthy list of champions in 2022, we discovered she'd left Nevada for the "north bay" city of Mill Valley, California. That's not the only change we found with Bushman. A short sidepart cut with what appear to be layered bangs was grown all the way out - still sideparted, but now medium-long with a bit of wave at the ends. Has Bushman come up with a better hair recipe? Our voters say no. Four out of five said her short style is tastier (4-1). "Shorter looks to have more bounce," one commenter said. We're not sure about the bounce, but we agree with the majority overall. Perhaps both looks can fall in Bushman's eyes, but the shorter cut seems less likely - and that makes the cut more dramatic for us. The longer style seems far more likely to droop and fall when Bushman is over a boiling pot of pasta. ********** Her name is Rachel Zegler, and she's from New Jersey. But Wiipedia says her background is Colombian and Polish. Put it all together, and you have an actress who received a dream breakout role in the remake of the movie musical West Side Story. While another actress won a Crown Award for that movie, Zegler attracted us first with long controlled hair at the American Music Awards. But something happened over awards season. For reasons not known to us, Zegler decided to chop her locks. At the Oscars and Grammys (right photo), the hair didn't even reach her shoulders. Zegler's movie character might sing "I Feel Pretty" about a change like this. And our Hair Fans would sing along happily - because in our one-week poll, 71% of them preferred the shorter style (5-2). One voter explained: "Not a fan of the slicked down look the longer style has. Hides the hair's thickness and body." Ahhh, but isn't that all the better for Zegler to turn and move dance scenes? We'd want to be a "Shark" hungry to take a bite out of that. ********** Rock singer Avril Lavigne once was Canada's great Super-Hair hope. She finished third in Super-Hair World Cup II, then had second-place group finishes in tournaments from 2007-11. Lavigne dropped off the style map in recent years, but she may be plotting a mid-thirties comeback. She appeared as a presenter at the Grammy Awards with mega-pouffy wings on either side of her face. We knew when we saw it that she could win our poll for the best style of the show - and Lavigne blew away the competition. Our weeklong poll opened as the show in Las Vegas closed, and Lavigne quckly racked up 80% of the votes. "It's her month!" a Hair Fan wrote. Well, yes - "Avril" in French means "April". (But she did announce she's engaged during the week of our poll.) Brandi Carlisle's slicked-down short cut received 20%. If comments decided the order after that, H.E.R. would be third. But the reason was not good. "You really believe that's H.E.R. real hair?" someone asked. Well, yes - that issue has come up with her before. We gave her long curls the benefit of the doubt. But perhaps the biggest surprise was that Carrie Underwood sang late in the show, but didn't gain any votes at all. Is she falling off the style map, too? ********** Who would have imagined the Academy Awards would end with a controversy involving hair? Not even the hairstyling category - but the joke Chris Rock tried at the expense of Jada Pinkett Smith's alopecia condition. At this writing, Rock has won the public vote over Will Smith for what happened on Oscar night. But we were more concerned with whose hairstyle would win the night - and we're delighted to say there were more contenders than we've seen at any awards show in years. So perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that the winner is a woman from an animated movie. And to make matters worse, we put the wrong name on her! That's not Maria Cecilia Botero - it's a Colombian reggaeton singer named Adassa. Her bubbling curls wound up with 38% of the votes, followed by Jennifer Garner and Marlee Matlin in a tie wth 25% each. Oscar and Crown Award winner Ariana DeBose received 13%. And in a surprise, longtime hair contender Penelope Cruz received no support at all. ********** Laura Wright had a big accomplishment in 2021 - as the two-time Crown Award winner became only the second woman with an exclusive "daytime drama" background to be voted into the Hair Fan's Hall of Fame. But someone else from General Hospital leapt ahead of her months later, in the 2021 Crown voting for Best Hairstyle in a Soap Opera or Telenovela. Perhaps it was due to a cut Wright made to her thick loose hair. She showed it off on Twitter as a shoulder-length bob. "Disappointingly," one comment said; "not the best move." So is this change, well, Wright or wrong? Our voters disagreed with that comment, as 63% of them supported the cut in our one-week poll (5-3). The only comment during the vote was a bit puzzling to us: "If that's what she really looks like now, it looks like she had more than just a haircut." Do we have any Hair Fans who double as plastic surgeons? ********** CBS kicked the Academy of Country Music Awards to the TV curb after the 2021 show. We think it's because CMT and its "Music Awards" are part of the CBS family of networks. The ACMs finally found a place on Amazon Prime - where, even with a commercial-free webcast from a domed stadium, it still didn't reveal all the winners. If great hairstyles appeared on stage, we didn't hear about them. But the celebrities off-stage included Scheana Shay of the restaurant reality series Vanderpump Rules - and she made news by showing off a shorter style. A style that normally is bust-length or longer had become a flexing shoulder-length bob. Is Shay doing OK with her hair now this way? Our voters think so; 83% of them preferred the shorter style in our week of voting (5-1). No one spoke either way, but this was actually a second chop by Shay. She explained on Instagram that the first cut "wasn't short enough." We'll see if that's still the case when she becomes married later in 2022; we've noticed many brides like to walk down the aisle that way. **********
She once appeared in a Netflix series called Everything Sucks! But Sydney Sweeney may be living proof to the contrary. She's a young actress gaining a good bit of attention, most recently on HBO in Euphoria. Sweeney came to fame as a blonde, but she's not insisting on keeping her hair that way. For the upcoming film National Anthem, she has what one website calls "honey red" hair. She told Teen Vogue during our week-long question that she hid it under hats and hoodies for a while, before making the (somewhat) big reveal. Do you swoon over Sweeney more as a redhead? Our voters do; four out of five of them preferred the red shade in our poll. While no one left a comment, Sweeney revealed in that magazine interview during our week that red is closer to her real hair color. "I feel more Syd in this color," she said. Maybe, somehow, Hair Fans felt it as well?! ********** Photos courtesy Scottish Sun. Scotland may not be known as a sun-drenched place. But it has a TV series called A Place in the Sun, about hot properties. One of the hosts has been a "hot" former model named Danni Menzies. Yet in January, she announced she's leaving the program after six seasons. And as if to make the break official, Menzies posted a change of hairstyles on her Instagram account in February - going from relatively straight mid-length strands to well-rounded curls. Has Menzies traded up by going wavy? Our voters say she has, by a 75% margin over one week (6-2). "Straight look is limp and flat," one voter wrote. Based on the photos we posted, we understand - but check her Instagram account, and you'll find Menzies feels so free with her curls that she's letting them drop across her face. They'll block the sun. Is that a good thing? ********** Long-time Hair Fans may have wondered whatever happened to Brittany Jeffers. She emerged as a Miss America contestant and TV news anchor in Lincoln, Nebraska in 2010 with hair that was the perfect combinaton of thick well-placed beauty and tremendous hold. She deservedly reached #1 in the world in Top Ten Tresses. When Jeffers moved to Tulsa, it took a lot of Oklahoma wind to muss and finally defeat her style. After a few years in Dallas, Jeffers now is a reporter in the ultra-competitive hair city of Houston. But she's adapted to the challenge - and much to our surprise, she posted a Valentine's Day Twitter photo with her hair longer than we've ever seen it. It's bust-length, as opposed to her classic shoulder-length cut. Is long hair more daring for Jeffers? Perhaps so, but our voters like it. A week-long poll ended with 63% of you supporting the change (5-3). No one left a comment, but we still marvel at the fullness that Jeffers has - with added curl only making the hair tougher to undo. She may be "off the radar" for a lot of people, but we still think Jeffers can compete on a championship level against the best styles at any time. ********** If anyone qualified to be a model for the recent "curtain bangs" trend, we think it was Jennifer Aniston. After all, she's aurrounded her face with her famous mid-length hair for years. She once called her hair "my shield," and something she hid behind. For all of that, Aniston easily enterred your Hair Fans Hall of Fame. So when Aniston indicated she'd added bangs to her hairstyle in Instagrem photos in February, it was a big deal for style-watchers. One website gave it an exclamation point right away. Did Aniston make the right move, away from her classic look? Our six-day poll found 71% support for the bangs (5-2) - but at least one skeptic. "When Jennifer had bangs on 'Friends,' they always looked fake. [We don't even remember them.] I need a clearer photo to tell for sure, but I'm saying thumbs down because of her history." As we post this, Aniston hasn't posted any follow-up photos to confirm the bangs are real. Considering the messy-hair pictures she's posting, they couldn't hurt. ********** Right photo courtesy iSpot. Apparently we focused on the wrong young woman during the years of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. Amy Davidson had the stronger hair for us, and she made the Top Ten Tresses list as a result. But Kaley Cuoco (the blonde, wouldn't you know?) has become the bigger star - appearing for years on The Big Bang Theory, then The Flight Attendant, not to mention plenty of commercial endorsements. A Hair Fan on Twitter noticed one ad for Priceline, where bangs are added to her mid-length style. They might not be, you know, big bangs, but they're there. Is Cuoco cooking better with bangs or not? A poll extended to nine days due to technical issues found 63% of Hair Fans prefer the bangs (5-3). One voter noted this isn't really a new idea for her: "She's always rocked bangs going back to season one of TBBT." We'll accept that view - but the ad speaks to one reason why we preferred Davidson over Cuoco. Cuoco's hair frequently looks limp and weak, even if they're plumped up for special occasions like awards shows. At least this look is less likely to drop in her face. ********** Are top fashion models rivals? "Frien-emeies?" Working together for the same cause? The questions go at least as far back as the Cindy Crawford-Carol Alt era. But we couldn't help asking again when two modern-day "supermodels" took opposite actions. First Karlie Kloss turned her hair from blonde to brunette (see below). Days later, Gigi Hadid changed her hair color from brunette to blonde! (Some reports indicated she actually was a redhead for several months in 2021 as well.) . One website called Hadid's latest color "sunflower blonde" - and it was a bright idea for other voters. The blonde look won 71% support in our week-long poll (5-2). One voter was focused on something else about Hadid's hair: "Waves are better." Probably atronger for her style, yes - but she still lets them drop in some photo shoots. That's why we're reluctant to call them "Super-models" nowadays. ********** Karlie Kloss describes herself on Twitter as a "giraffe", standing six-foot-two. An attractive giraffe, though, as she's considered a leading fashion model - and a bright one intellectually as well, based on other projects she's performed. Kloss's hair was bright blonde for ten years, at the peak of her fame. But in mid-January, in her words, she switched "over to the dark side" - posing in Manhattan with brunette locks. Based on one YouTube video we found, she had that color in her early modeling years as well. Katy Perry and Serena Williams praied Kloss's color change online. And to our surprise, so did our voters - ALL of them, in fact, preferring the brunette look in a one-week poll (5-0). No one left a comment, but we personally think the golden blonde makes Kloss stand out more. And notice how close Kloss put the brunette hair to her eyes. Based on her history, she's not a Super-Hair model to us. ********** The series Glee made several young performers stars - and led to a couple winning Crown Awards. Lea Michele received three, including Champion Hairstyle of the Year in 2013. She did it with mid-length styles which were especially attractive on red csrpets (such as at left). But after a couple of short-lived TV series and a best-selling book, 2022 began with Michele ready to make a serious change. She showed a cut on Instagram that she called (before taking the title away) "the Rachel" - as in Jennifer Aniston's Friends character, we assume. "2022 ready," another post from Michele said. Stylist Tommy Buckett, who cut Michele's mane, called her "brave" for making the change. But one of our voters called it "awful" - and 64 percent of Hair Fans said they prefer Michele longer (7-4). "Short hair is great," one said. But another wondered if she "thinned it out with that limp cut." Then there was the reminder of a controversy surrounding Michele's Glee years - whether she was "the Mayor of Extension City. Quote That!" In fact, a web search for Michele's name might lead you to the "long straight sexy bang layer" wig in her name, selling for more than $100. But shouldn't ********** Left photo courtesy IMDb. Someone nominated actress Elena Kampouris for a 2021 Crown Award for Best Long Hair. But there was a big problem with that. Kampouris cut the long hair at some point, and had a bouncy curly bob for most of the year. It bounces so much when she sings along to pop songs in the car that it was hard for us to stop a Twitter video for a vidcap. Great for Hair Fans to watch - but is it really better for her? Our voters are not as captivated about Kampouris's cut as we are. Two-thirds of them preferred the longer look in our one-week poll (6-3). "She looks great," wrote one supporter of the change. But one apparent slap called it a "flapper girl look.... softer and silkier when long." Another asked, "Her hair is so super-thick, why would she hack so much of it off?" Maybe because it fits better for Kampouris's role in the Netflix drama Jupiter's Legacy - a tight brunette wig reminding us of Cindy Williams in Laverne and Shirley. ********** Some of the best hairstyles in journalism in recent decades have been on duty at the White House in Washington. Ann Compton's perfect short cut set the standard for years with ABC News. NBC News then brought out several outstanding examples: Lisa Myers, Norah O'Donnell and Kelly O'Donnell. While some might debate whether the hair of Kristen Welker is on their level, she deals with changing conditions regularly outside the White House. Welker's style has changed at times as well: the transition from 2021 to 2022 found her anchoring NBC Nightly News with hair as long as we've seen on her, a couple of inches below the shoulders with nice added curl. Would Welker do well to stay with this look? Our voters think so: three-fourths of them chose the longer style in our one-week poll (6-2). No one left a comment, but that support actually was down a bit from when we last asked about her in July 2019. Maybe Welker should spray down this style and lock it in before things erode any more. ********** Review
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