Wigging Out on Shear Genius

Time for the weekly recap of Bravo's Shear Genius. I must say I'm liking the whole Project Runway at 9:00 pm and Shear Genius at 10:00 pm scheduling. It means I only have to devote 2 hours a week to "must see" TV.

So...here's the skinny on all the drama from this week.

SHORT CUT CHALLENGE
The contestants headed to the beach to trim some surfer dudes in the short cut challenge. No big deal, right? Wrong! The stylists had no access to fresh water, thus no hair washing, and they had no blow dryers. They had to give their surfer a more sophisticated look that did not require a lot of extra fussing. Some stylists seemed confused about cutting men's hair.

Oscar Blandi was the special guest judge for the challenge. As a side note, Blandi's Trattamento D'Alternanza Exfoliating Treatment for hair was the very first Beauty Product of the Week here at Kiss-and-Makeup! It seemed like Oscar hated everyone's cutting job. Charlie's look was too conservative, Daniel's cut was too scary, Glenn gave her model a woman's cut which made her surfer dude look like a lady. In the end, Glenn lost the challenge while Nicole rightfully won with an appropriate cut that flattered her beach bum.

Here's the losing short cut look (Glenn):
And the winning short cut look (Nicole):
ELIMINATION CHALLENGE
It was a "very special episode" of Shear Genius this week as the contestants' challenge was to cut and style wigs for people suffering from Alopecia. Many of the contestants became very emotional during the experience and really wanted to give their clients something new, something flattering, something fun. Nicole and Paolo came out on top--they connected best with their clients and weren't afraid to push the limits to finish their looks. Paolo ultimately won but did not get immunity for the next challenge.

The bottom three were Gail, Nekisa (suprise, surprise!), and Charlie. Nekisa...a woman who's lasted this long because she looks good on camera and is an egomaniacal drama queen...gave her model a box, unflattering Peg Bundy cut; Charlie's look was too heavy and too boring; Gail's style aged her client. In the end, Gail went home, the victim of not having as strong a personality as the other two challenge losers.

Here's the winning look from Paolo. Click here to learn how to get this look:
And here's Gail's losing 'do:
RANDOM THOUGHTS
The contestants are really being thinned out and, like I said last week, I have yet to pick a favorite...a person to root for. For some weird reason, I like Paolo. Maybe it's the tattoos? I just don't know.I was slightly happy to see that Season 1 mega-bitch, Tabitha, will be starring in a show that is reminiscent of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. She'll be going to salons and telling them, in her gentle, delicate way, what needs to be done to make them better. We in America like bossy people with accents coming in and showing establishments how to be better!