A Decided Disadvantage

This week began with the Press it challenge. Ben was decidedly at a disadvantage on this one. Boogie and Anthony have worked on African American hair their whole lives and Daisy deals with relaxers very often in the humid climate of Miami. I don't think that Ben has had many African American clients. Every time I looked up from my computer at the monitors, Ben was adding more oil or spray to that poor woman's head.

Now at this point I have to make a confession: I have curly hair and I don't own a blow dryer. Hairstylists usually want to blow my hair straight but honestly it takes forever and there's a whole lot of pulling and hot air and I absolutely hate it. But watching someone else suffer through it is a different story. Kiyah was great. Her comments and criticisms were straightforward and delivered with warmth that took the edge off almost everything negative she said. But even so, when she told Dr. Boogie that his model's hair looked like Tootie from "The Facts of Life," I seriously thought he might lose it. No offense to Kim Fields - the 80s was a bad hair decade for most of us.
Boogie is everything a reality television producer could want wrapped up into one package. He is outspoken, opinionated, confident, hilarious and emotional all while not being a nitwit and while having a heart underneath that showy exterior. His heart was on his sleeve when he saw his son's video later that night. If you ever want to see Boogie cry, make him talk about his son. It works every time.

I did not go to the set for the Matthew Rolston photoshoot challenge. We shot it at Smashbox Studios in Culver City and it was a pretty small space so we pared down the crew to it's bare essentials. When they returned to the Shear Genius salon for judging and elimination, I met them there to do interviews while the crew set up the stage. Daisy was confident she had performed well, but the other three were pretty unsure about who would be eliminated. Daisy is so incredibly positive and good natured. She works so hard and cares so much about doing a good job. I absolutely adore her.

During the Elimination challenge judging, there were multiple last minute script changes and we were all working at a furious speed. At one point, Jenn (one of our supervising producers) raced through the control room with new cue cards for Jaclyn at an incredible speed. It was hilarious to see her flying through the air with 900 things in her hands and her feet barely grazing the ground.
As the guest judge, Matthew got to pick the winner and it was a really close call between Ben and Daisy. Matthew really liked the photographs from Ben's session but Daisy had been so incredibly professional, easygoing and instinctively natural at what needed to be done and how to do it. In the end, that's what gave her the edge and she deserved the win.