Jonathan Antin

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Getting Into It

Jonathan Antin doesn't hold back when sharing his opinion on male extensions and doing what you have to do on a shoot.

Feb 23, 2010

Bravotv.com: There was also Amy and Brian and they had that red feather, which you couldn't see.
Brian said at one point about the feather being on the other side of the head. I think Ken Paves said he didn’t see it and Matthew said it was on the other side. Ken Paves had that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look. Again, that was irritating to me. I've done a thousand photo shoots and you can't put a pair of shackles and handcuffs on a photographer. That's the hardest part of the job when you're doing hair. If you want to be able to see the feather at all times you have to have a feather on both sides of the head or you have to put it in the middle or the back. You either see it or you don't from either side. I just think it was kind of unprofessional and kind of showed inexperience on Ken's part to say something about that. Again, a photographer is a very mobile job and position a photo shoot. They're running all over the place and as a hairstylist you're really anticipating where he's going to be, and it's like in sports, you have to anticipate what direction that ball's coming from because it's coming so fast. It's the same thing in photo shoots -- you have to anticipate what he's going to shoot. Those of us, over the years, that have anticipated correctly have shined. Those of that haven't, haven't. There's an element of luck involved. At the end of the day, those of thus who have shined have always done great hair. That's a given. Ken not loving the hair, I agree with him on that level. He's 10 percent correct. The hair looked atrocious, it did. They both looked like they were pushing a shopping cart down the street. It looked terrible, especially the guy. Tacky and terrible. Not only would they never have been the cover of a romance novel, it wouldn't have been a cover for a bank robbery.

Bravotv.com: Onto Jon and April. April was criticized for adding the male extensions. With Jon, they thought he might have been too rough with the model.
Here's the thing: Camila was saying about him being too hard on the hair. When you do hair, you have to really get into it. You have to use every muscle in both of your arms. Hair has the uncanny ability to overtake you and manage you in the wrong direction sometimes. You really need to supersede that and rise above that, and the way to do that is a very physical process. When you're supposed to be a professional and you're getting paid to look good you have to be able to handle it. Every time I've been on a shoot and a model starts bitching and complaining about me pulling too hard, I've handed them a comb and said, "Here, bite down on this. It won't hurt as much." I mean, what do you want me to do? I'll pinch you on your waist, and then it will hurt there and your scalp wont hurt. That physical aspect of what Jon was doing was coming from him because he had to get it down, he had to do it quick, and the only way to do that was by way of speed. With speed comes force. You have to get in there and work it out. And, if you notice, what he was doing worked. At the end of the day it did work, it did make the hair look better. You didn't hear the photographer say anything about it. By the way, on a shoot, he is the ultimate. He is the final say. Unless the photographer says to go easy on the model's hair, go with it.

Bravotv.com: What about April's extensions?
She made it look a bit like a monster. It was a little Jon Bon Jovi, bad Conan the Barbarian attempt at making hair look long. It didn't work and it didn't blend. It just didn't work. It just didn't work so much that I took one look at it and said, "Nope. Sorry."

Bravotv.com: Next we have Adee and Faatemah.
Adee with his whole <i>Last of the Mohicans,</i> the f---ing haircut this, the f---ing that thing... Listen, hairstyling and hairstyling for the cover of a book have nothing to do with each other. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other. When you're on a set and hired to be the hairstylist, if that model has a job the next day for another job that they've already been approved for, you can't cut that model's hair. If they have the worst haircut in the world you have to be able to deal with that hair and make it look great. First of all, he was using all the wrong terminology when he was cutting the model's hair. He said something about a concave or an inverted this... Listen, we're not talking about skateboarding in a pool. This isn't Tony Hawk. This is hairstyling. Stop with the terminology, none of that is applicable. It was sloppy. He gave the guy a big side-swept bang and it was ridiculous.

With the team, I thought there was tension between them. They were kind of stepping on each other's toes and they just didn't want to hear from each other. If I remember correctly, Faatemah said something to the effect that she was working off of him. When I heard that I thought it was a bad idea. He's going off on this haircutting tangent again, basically just avoiding the challenge at hand and what was in front of him, which was giving these two people into characters for the cover of a romance novel. He's talking about modern-day haircutting and I thought it was so not happening.

Giacomo Was Scared Jonathan Antin gives his opinion on why he thinks the stylist went home. February 23, 2010 Shear Genius Season 3 / Episode 2 / Jonathan Antin

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Viewerkathy

I wish that Jonathan had a bigger role in mentoring these poeple during the contests.I was soooo happy to see him back on Bravo!Give us more Jonathan!!!!

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Jonathan Antin

Getting Into It

Jonathan Antin doesn't hold back when sharing his opinion on male extensions and doing what you have to do on a shoot.

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