Page 1 | Page 2

Before I share my thoughts about last night's challenge, I would like to give a call out to the TRESemme challenge winner, Michael Knight. Michael was so much fun on set and is an amazing designer. His Pam Grier outfit was fierce and he definitely brought it all together with the modern hair style. As many of you have noted, you can't wait to see the full ad in the October issue of Elle. Well, for now you can get a flavor for it by checking out the TRESemme website. A few photos from the shoot are posted there -- and definitely show off Michael's talent!

And for all of the doubters, the hair in the ad is 100% authentic Nazri! I would definitely not hide her beautiful, textured hair with a wig. For both the Runway look and for the Elle magazine ad, I used the same products on Nazri's hair. These were TRESemme Instant Heat Tamer Spray amd TRESemme Touchable Curls along with a small curling iron. However, for the Elle ad I had an extra hour to focus on Nazri's hair. Also, I finished the look with TRESemme No Frizz Shine Spray so that her hair would glisten in the lights for the shoot.

As for Allison and the hair bow drama, when she showed me her sketch, dress and hair, I explained that her model did not have enough hair to accomplish that look and that we would do it with extensions. When completed, we put it on Alexandra's (her model) head. My entire styling team and all of the models thought that it looked amazing -- very high fashion! In fact, the consensus in the salon was that Alison had the best look. I was shocked to find that Alison was sent home! I was very sad to see her go. The hair bow was part of her design and we all thought it looked great in the salon. Sometimes the designers are not the only ones to get it wrong in the judges' eyes.

Now onto this week's challenge ....

This challenge day was extra busy since we had to film some reshoots in addition to today's Challenge. Chatter among the models was all about Alison's dismissal as she was a fave among them and it was a bit of a surprise. Such is the case with Project Runway ... you never know what curve ball will be thrown your way!

The designers were posed with the task of designing an outfit for a "real woman." To their surpsire, those "real women" just happened to be their mothers! This certainly was exciting for each designer, creating the winning outfit for another designer's mom!

I really enjoyed working with the moms. It was a refreshing change of pace. This was unlike the other challenges where I usually collaborate with each designer about their model's hair. Today I was definitely consulting more with the mothers about their 'dos than with the designers about what they envisioned. As a matter of fact, in several instances the direction was,"I like my style as it is. Just make it me BUT better."

Page 1 | Page 2