Female Domination

The first challenge was so much fun this week. Not just because of the dramatic change in conditions but because you got to see how some people just squirm when they have to cut men's hair. You could tell that the male stylists were much more eager than some of the women, but the ladies ended up dominating the challenge. Dee put Glenn to shame with her work on one of the twins. And Nicole completely deserved to win -- a much needed ego boost for her. What really worked with Nicole's winning look is that it didn't seem like a fresh haircut. That guy looked like his hair was three weeks grown in, and that's when men tend to feel best about their hair. A new cut can look too clean, but after two or three weeks, guys often look in the mirror, mess around with some gel, and think, "Wow -- I look good right now."

Nicole captured that right off the bat, and it's no easy feat. As for the elimination challenge, Alopecia is a serious disease, and it's even worse for people if they don't feel comfortable or natural in their wigs. The fight to find a cure for Alopecia is something that is very dear to me. For this reason, Nexxus Salon Hair Care and I partnered with Locks of Love to create an easy step-by-step video on how to properly donate hair to this charity to make wigs for children in need. Please visit Nexxus.com/locks-of-love to view our How-To video. It's so easy for wigs to look thick, boxy and obvious, so it was nice to see how some of the stylists really brought life to fake hair. Nicole somewhat lucked out on this one. She'd never cut on a wig before, so, somewhat naively, she approached it like it was real hair. This is a common mistake. You have to treat a wig as something entirely different, and you could have very easily seen the netting of her clients' wig if she hadn't applied the right product. Using a styling lotion like VersaStyler, Nicole was able to give it a texture and spike. It disguised a cut that may have actually been too dramatic for a wig. It worked out for her in the end, but it was no match for Paulo.

Like most of the elimination challenge winners so far this season, he won hands down. That girl wanted to look sexy, young, and fun. She wanted hair she could go out to a club with, and that's exactly what she got. She looked perfect. One thing I'm excited to see in the remaining weeks is an opportunity where the stylists have to work together. In a salon, as in any work environment, you need a certain amount of friendliness and cooperation to keep everyone stimulated. Our contestants right now seem a little preoccupied with cutting each other down, and that would never work in a real salon.