F---ed Up Hair

Bravotv.com: The Shortcut Challenge was their first time working solely with African American hair. How do you think they did?

To be a well-rounded stylist, you have to be able to do every hair type and work with every hair texture. Every stylist should be able to work with any and every hair type. I watched each style and I watched a little of the preparation and I was kind of left with disappointment. I really didn't feel like anyone really shined. Janine's style was almost twisted and pulled back and wrapped with that gold lace and I felt that if you smoothed out the whole hairline you could basically leave the rest of it to be completely frizzy and you could wrap it around so no one would ever see. I think Brian did a decent job. She looked a little bit high school prom. Quite honestly, I disagreed with the guest judge. I don't think a half-up, half-down makes a girl look younger necessarily. I just think the way he left those curls was very hair-do on top and then the length underneath was kind of prom-like. If he had taken the curls out and smoothed them out and left them hanging, put them up and secured them and then leaft it hanging down, that's a very hot Brigitte Bardot meets early Diana Ross look. There's nothing too young about it. It's very sophisticated and sexy. I just think that Brian, again, wrong execution. However, I think he smoothed out the hair pretty well. None of them smoothed it out so it was actually perfect. I thought they were all decent and everybody did work where you could basically go to a salon, pay them money, and you would get your moneys worth. None of them were cover-ready hairstyles and that's the way it's got to look. With the skill set of these stylists and the number of people left, you really got to step up to the plate now and you've got to make it happen.
You have to bring everything you've got to the plate and you've got to shine. I just didn't see that from the Shortcut Challenge.
 
Bravotv.com: What did you think of the Elimination Challenge?
Bryan was doing that Edie Sedgwick thing. Her hair was so far from Edie Sedgwick. Edie Sedgwick's hair was a classic example of perfectly f---ed up hair. There's a difference between f---ed up hair and perfectly f---ed up hair. Her hair was just f---ed up. Edie's hair was perfectly f---ed up. I do this kind of hair from time to time, where I do a perfect cut, and then I'll go back in and perfectly f--k it up. It's basically like you're going to go in and texturize it, beat it up a little bit. I actually use the phrase "f--k it up." I say it all the time, there's a difference. With Brian's hair the color was treacherous, and the girl wasn't the prettiest in the world so you really have to overcompensate. In the hair category, you have to lend a bit of beauty. When you're working with a girl who doesn't have the strength and features on the face you have to compensate for that in the hair. He made her look worse. He made her look less pretty than she actually is. She looked harder, miserable, and I think I said something about her looking like a heroine addict. She just looked terrible. And then there was Matthew, who did the Madonna-like bouffant. I really felt like Matthew's hair was perfect architecturally and symmetrically. Technically, the shades of colors didn't quite match exactly. In order to really get all the blondes to really match up, I'm not so sure they had the exact amount of time they needed. I probably would have needed three hours to get that perfect and styled for the cover of a huge magazine. As a matter of fact, I would have prepared the color the day before in the salon and then styled it for the shoot and it would have been perfect. He didn't have the luxury of that time but that's the way the challenge was designed. He did the best job he could have with what he had. His hair was by far the smoothest and as difficult as anyone's, if not more. If I were the only judge, he would have won that competition.
 
I think that Brig did nothing. She gave the girl some separation and definition in her curls, wrapped it up on the back of her head into a loose updo and let all the curls hang. There was nothing special and nothing that requires high level of skill. I thought it was nothing but it looked good. Sometimes less is more, but not when you're on a show competing for $100,000 to do the most interesting style.
 
I think Janine was by far the most cool and edgy, for lack of a better way of putting it. Bringing back that Diana kind of look, that's not an easy hairstyle to create. To build that much volume and width is old school hairstyle and there is a serious level of difficultly to that, without making it a big ball of frizz. To have a real bit of controlled frizz with direction in it with it still looking symmetrically sound on someone's face, I really think she did a great job. I think if anyone of them were to be the cover of the magazine, that's always what I go back to. To me, that's how I make my decision. If I were a photographer I would have chosen Janine's to shoot for the day. It had that nostalgic, really cool and edgy Diana Ross vibe and it was, technically, a very difficult style to do. I thought it was great. It was no more difficult and no more technically sound than Matthew's. I thought it definitely would look better on the cover a magazine or the red carpet. For a red carpet I thought it was a great look. Matthew's was a little bit more for the stage than the red carpet.
 
I think Jon did a great job. If it was a cutting and coloring competition, Jon wins all day long. I think that Matthew and Janine have an edge on him when it comes to styling. I think that Jon exceeds them in cutting and coloring. I think Jon did a great job and he did what he was asked to do. He got this girl ready for the red carpet. Her hair was smooth, it had volume in the back, it had the bump, and it had all the bells and whistles that the red carpet requires.
 
Bravotv.com: Anything you would like to add?
First of all, I want to apologize to the fans and bloggers that I haven't blogged the last few shows. I've been extremely busy with a new venture of mine. This is the first place I’m actually going to mention this and it's the first time anyone's going to hear anything about this although there is a press release going out I'm going to say this on Bravotv.com first. I have sold all of my shares in Jonathan Product. I have moved on, and I am no longer affiliated with Jonathan product. Jonathan Product can no longer use my name or my likeness and I am getting ready to sign a big new deal with a big new company or come out with Jonathan Antin professional haircare. I am also, quite possibly, going to open up a Jonathan Antin hair care that is going to be off the charts, literally groundbreaking hair care. That's why I've been unavailable so sorry to the bloggers. That's it!

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