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Her hair was big enough to get anyone's attention. But it was hard for us to see Taylor Frankie Paul for a while at the Country Music Association Awards - because Bailey Zimmerman's song moments earlier included a spray of confetti which blocked a good view of the stage while she presented. Yet Paul's long hair seemed strong enough that we knew we had to put her on our ballot for the best style of the evening. We were right, as Hair Fans chose Paul's mane as the best.
Paul, who is best known from Bravo's Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (not to mention "Mom-Tok"), received 43% of the votes in our eight-day poll which started as the awards ended. Second place was a tie: CMA winner Megan Moroney was at 29% - but in a mild surprise, so was Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles with a bob. Is Biles planning a singing career, since she's now becoming an "advisor" on The Voice? We'll see - but Carrie Underwood, a judge on the rival American Idol, was even more surprising because she received no votes at all. She used to dominate votes like this.
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 - or via Twitter: @SuperHairNet.
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She may be the "middle child" in her family, but Bella Hadid has developed a great reputation by following her family's tradition. Her mother was once a model. Older sister Gigi is a model. And so is Bella - a "Model of the Year" in Britain who was named to the "Time 100" list of influential people in 2023. So are women rushing out to do what Hadid did in October? After returning to a deep-brunette shade (away from a color that our voters preferred in 2019), she had bangs cut into her long locks. They're not quite full, and they seem graduated - a variation on the "curtain bangs" trend.
Is Bella's beauty blossoming even more with bangs? Our Hair Fans are delighted - so much so that the change received unanimous support over eight days (4-0). One called it a "more youthful look." But we're not sure if it's really a long-term look. There's evidence of a "bump-it" for luxurious extra thickness from an Instagram collection Hadid posted from Dubai, yet the bangs did not appear to be affected. Could we have permission to borrow one of Hadid's hobbies - climbing on one of Hadid's horses, and trying to trap her in a show ring?
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She could have been a Hair Fan's Hall of Fame member. But Kiran Chetry fell a few votes short of induction in 2011 - despite winning two Crown Awards, one of them a stunning defeat of Bonnie Bernstein. Chetry was leaving CNN during that Hall of Fame vote, displaying short styles that were tough enough to hold in Capitol Hill breezes. Chetry hardly has appeared on television since then, so her look at the 2024 World Series may have surprised Hair Fans. Her X/Twitter account showed her at New York's Yankee Stadium with long golden locks that matched her jacket.
We could have asked you about the Chetry color change, but we asked more simply: longer or shorter? Hair Fans surprised us a bit by saying "longer" by a 75% margin (6-2). We're surprised because, while no one left a comment, Chetry's hair seems a lot thinner with the extra length. She also seems to need her ears for control. Yet we don't recall ever seeing her hair collapse - so maybe the Super-Hair from Nepal has hidden strength which rivals Yankee icon Barry Judge.
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The vote came down to the wire. It was nip-and-tuck, tooth-and-nail, hammer-and-tongs... all those cliches. There were no "battleground states," to our knowledge. It was a simple battle for first place - not for U.S. political office, but whose hair is superior. When our "Election '24" showdown ended as polls closed across the Central Time Zone, there was deadlock. Toss-up. Too close to call... all those cliches.
Democrat Kamala Harris received 50% of the vote for which woman would win a Super-Hair War. So did Republican Melania Trump (3-3). Not to overlook any candidate, we put Green Party nominee Jill Stein on our ballot - but she gained no support at all. (Maybe organic beauty lines need to be more vocal for her.)
While the vote ended in a tie, this is realistically a loss for the GOP. Its women dominated all our previous U.S. Election hair polls, and in 2020 Trump topped Harris 44%-6%. What made the difference? Was Trump too much in seclusion - or did Harris's smile wow our voters?
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Australia has many outstanding hairstyles. We recently traveled there and saw the proof. But that country has not won a major Super-Hair Cup since 2009 - and hasn't even reached our World Cup tournament since 2014. The first woman to win a City League title "down under" was Kate Collins, an evening "reader" with 9 News in Adelaide. She won in early 2013 with a short cut, then spent time on our Top Ten Tresses list. But the second half of 2024 has been a time of growth for Collins - with her style going longer, approaching the bust line in October.
With our next AAA Cup coming in 2025, could Collins contend for the Aussies? Based on our one-week vote, it's hard to tell; Hair Fans wound up evenly divided about the change (3-3). "Shorter has more body," one wrote, echoing the poll below. Collins hasn't spoken about the change publicly to our knowledge, even though some Australian publications would make a big deal about that. At least she can take comfort in knowing there's a Kate Collins Middle School - only in the U.S. state of Virginia.
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Other Brazilians have won Crown Awards through the years. Yet for decades, the unofficial standard-bearer for style in Brazil has been Gisele Bundchen - perhaps even during her marriage to U.S. football star Tom Brady. Her signature hair look has been long "beachy" waves. But in early October, Bundchen posted something very different on Instagram - blonde instead of brunette, shoulder-length instead of longer and even more voluminous than usual.
"Wig?" one of our voters simply asked when we posted a question about the Bundchen change. Perhaps so; she wrote alongside the new look she was asked to "play Monica Vitti", a late Italian actress, for a commercial. Yet the shorter style impressed Hair Fans, who preferred it by an 80% margin in a one-week vote (4-1). "Shorter has more body," one wrote, while another said the longer look "hangs too limply." Which may explain why Brazilian Pamella Azeredo is in the Hair Fans Hall of Fame, while "supermodel" Gisele is not.
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Some characters in daytime dramas live glamorous lives. Others play more stay-at-home characters. Since Melissa Ordway (Gaston) has appeared for years on The Young and the Restless, we'd assume she's on the glamorous side. Ordway has displayed longer styles on the show for years. But she decided in early October that it was time to "change it up a bit." The evidence comes from Instagram, where she says stylist Christine Pasqualone made "my hair dreams come true" by cutting her hair to a wavy bob stopping at her chin.
Maybe Ordway is fulfilling the "Restless" part of the show's title, because we assume her bosses approved this change. But do you approve of it? Our nine-day poll (extended by road trip computer issues) found Hair Fans unhappy; 90% of them think the style should stay long (9-1). "Neither," one voter said, concluding both looks were "not that impressive... limp and boring" even though Ordway's left photo comes from a Hollywood event. Another showed the educational side of our site by asking if she's related to "John Ordway, who traveled with Lewis and Clark" two centuries ago. We were unable to get a good answer to that. We think she's more logically connected to the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in Saint Paul, Minnesota, but we can't confirm that, either.
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