Shear Genius Recap!

Wednesday night was a good TV night: the premier of the 5th season of Project Runway was followed by a new episode of Shear Genius. Bravo is good for mind-numbing entertainment! Quick side note: if you are looking for an awesome Project Runway blog, head over to projectrungay.blogspot.com.

Even though I was on vacation at the beach, I managed to tune in to Shear Genius to see all the backstabbing and bitchery. Here's a recap of the show, in case you missed it:

Short Cut Challenge
This week's short cut challenge was fraught with potential sabotage. The stylists had to work on a client for an unannounced period of time. When time was up, that client moved on to another stylist. This musical chairs challenge resulted in the stylist finishing up with their original client. This tested their ability to communicate to other stylists and to work as a team member. I was surprised the egos didn't get in the way too much, though there was some drama with an annoying client who at first said she was willing to have "anything" done to her hair and then later broke down into tears when she was given bangs. What gives? I would hate to be a stylist simply because of frustrating clients who don't know what they want and who don't communicate well.

Dee won the challenge, though she was later told by fellow contestant and self-proclaimed wearer of many faces, Charlie, that her resulting style was "the least worst" of the bunch. Nice. Way to rain on someone's parade! Meredith's bad red dye job landed her in the bottom, along with perennial basement dweller, Nekisa.

Elimination Challenge
As a beauty blogger and mere mortal when it comes to doing my own hair, I especially liked the challenge: stylists had to color and cut their clients' hair and show the client how to get the look on their own. The next day, the clients all came back to the Shear Genius salon and were given 30 minutes to style their own hair, without any help from the Shear Genius contestants.

I don't know how many times I have damned my own stylists for not explaining how to do my hair or for giving me a cut that was a pain in the butt to work with. It was good to see stylists being forced to actually consider their clients' needs and lifestyle before sending them on their way.

Nicole gave her client a cute cut and taught her how to do her hair in less than 10 minutes....nice! Glenn's simple-to-do style put her in the lead and she won the challenge. Charlie banked on his immunity and decided that he didn't have enough time to color and cut his client's hair. Despite the fact that he had time to chit-chat and gossip, he left his client's color as it was when she walked in: too dark, too solid, too heavy. Like I said, immunity saved his bacon. Meredith's chunky, funky style (described as looking like a squid) was bad enough to cause her to lose and be eliminated.

Whatevs. To me, Meredith seemed sorta cranky from day 1. Maybe she just got the bad edit. I have yet to pick a favorite stylist on this show. I don't hate anyone, and I also don't love, love, love anyone yet. I think Charlie is ultimately going to win it all which is a bummer since he's kind of an ass at times.

Oh, if you're interested, Nexxus is having a little Shear Genius inspired contest at the moment. Click here for all the details! Note: if you want more recaps and Shear Genius info (including tips on how to get the winning look) head over to bloggingsheargenius.blogspot.com.