"Head Masters", Allure, November 2010 - Alyssa Hertzig

Wool dress by Lanvin. 

Kid-leather gloves by Carolina 

Amato. Makeup colors: 

1 Couleur Eyeshadow in Flash 

Black, Crayon Eyeliner Pencil 

in Black, and Rouge Dior 

Lipcolor in Ara Red by 

Dior. Hair: Guido. These 

pages: Makeup, Fulvia 

Farolfi; manicure, Tatyana 

Molot. Prop stylist: 

Viki Rutsch of Mary Howard 

Studio. Fashion editor: 

Siobhan Bonnouvrier. 

Details, see Credits page. 

HEAD 

Every artist has a signature—even those whose medium is hair. 

Here, six of the biggest talents re-create the hairstyles that have made 

them famous on actress Amber Valletta. By Alyssa Kolsky Hertzig 

MASTERS 

GUTTER CREDIT 

112 

PHOTOGRAPHED BY ALEX CAYLEY

Whether it’s a big, 

glamorous updo or 

perfectly tousled 

surfer-girl waves, 

the work of an 

amazing hairstylist can be as instantly 

identifiable as a John Currin nude. 

“If I’m known for big hair, then I’m 

very happy about that,” says hairstylist 

Serge Normant. “It’s better to be 

known for something than nothing at 

all.” But don’t confuse developing a 

trademark with falling into a rut: The 

six pros on these pages have always 

struck that elusive balance between 

cultivating a distinct look and producing 

beautiful, creative innovations. 

But fortunately, unlike other 

artists, they don’t sign their work. 

GUTTER CREDIT 

Guido 

CREATING THE HAIR FOR MORE 

THAN 30 FASHION SHOWS each 

season, Guido has become one of 

the busiest runway stylists in 

the business—and the driving force 

behind many of the major trends. 

Whether he’s shellacking a pair of 

pigtails (Prada) or weaving a waistlength 

braid (Alexander Wang), 

he is known for making traditional 

styles feel radical and new. 

“My aesthetic is based on classic 

hairstyles, but I always try to 

put a new twist on them,” he says. 

This rebellious streak took hold 

during his years on the London club 

scene in the ’80s, where he was 

surrounded by offbeat characters. 

“I was always attracted to hair 

that would be perceived as quite 

badly done,” he says. Guido 

spent nearly 15 years as a stylist 

there. Then, just as the supermodel 

era was ending and the grunge 

moment was about to take hold, he 

was asked by Calvin Klein to 

work on the designer’s pivotal fall 

1994 fashion show and ads 

starring Kate Moss. “That sort of 

deconstructed beauty was kind of a 

revolution at the time,” he says. 

“It seems very tame now, but even 

16 years ago, to have a girl with no 

makeup and scruffy hair in a fashion 

campaign was something else.” 

113

Adding 

Texture to 

Your Hair 

“Showing your natural 

texture or a little 

bit of teasing—these 

are the charms in a 

hairstyle,” Guido 

says. Here’s how he 

advises mussing 

things up properly. 

TEASE IT Guido suggests 

roughly blow-drying 

the hair. Then, holding 

sections of hair by the 

ends, take a flat brush (he 

likes Mason Pearson’s) 

and gently tease each 

section toward the root. 

GO NATURAL “A lot of 

women have beautiful 

natural texture, but they 

grab a blow-dryer so 

quickly they don’t really 

know what’s there,” he 

says. Try letting hair air-dry 

Guido at the 

fall 2010 Marc 

Jacobs show 

Serge Normant 

without touching it at all. 

STAY IN CONTROL A 

little roughness is pretty; 

total unruliness isn’t. 

To tame coarse hair, 

Guido—who is the creative 

consultant for Redken— 

recommends working in 

the company’s Anti-Snap 

Leave-In Treatment while 

it’s damp. For fine hair, 

spritz Redken Forceful 23 

Finishing Spray into your 

hand, then rub it through 

dry hair for hold. 

“WHEN YOU SEE HAIR ADS, THE TEXTURES ARE ALWAYS 

BIG AND RICH,” says Normant. “That’s what women want.” 

Good thing, considering that has become this Frenchman’s 

calling card. It has also earned him a long list of famous, loyal 

clients, including Julia Roberts and Sarah Jessica Parker— 

both of whom, perhaps not so coincidentally, have become 

known for luscious, touchable waves. Normant developed 

this opulent aesthetic in the 1960s, when he was a young 

boy in the suburbs of Paris. “When I looked at women, there 

was a certain kind of glamour there on a daily basis—a 

PRADA, SPRING 

2010 “With these 

schoolgirl bunches, 

I used hair spray 

and made them look 

more sophisticated 

and newer to the 

eye than if I had 

left them soft 

and romantic. That 

was something I 

was into for 

a few seasons.” 

GUIDO’S FAVORITE LOOKS 

VOGUE, 

FEBRUARY 

2010 

“I originally did 

this braid for 

Alexander Wang, 

which turned 

into one of my 

most successful 

hair looks for a 

show. It has 

connotations of 

girlie-ness, 

hippiedom, rock 

and roll—all 

the things that 

girls want to be.” 

“When I see someone with that great, 

voluminous hair There’s a sensuality to it.” 

NORMANT’S FAVORITE LOOKS 

ALLURE, MAY 2008 

“This was a take on an 

uptown woman. It’s all her 

hair—and a lot of teasing.” 

PRADA, 

SPRING 2009 

“This is a classic 

chignon with the 

overuse of Redken 

Forceful 23 

Finishing Spray, 

which coated it in 

shine. It became 

this glossy 

sculpture and 

made the chignon 

look new.” 

kind of glamour that women didn’t really go out without,” 

he says, citing Catherine Deneuve and Marisa Berenson as 

early influences. “Big hair brings me back to that time.” 

After working in salons in Paris, he moved to New York City 

in the late 1980s, where his roommate, makeup artist Laura 

Mercier, took him to shoots; it wasn’t long before Normant 

became known for his ability to go big. “I love women 

looking like women,” he says. “When I see someone walking 

down the street and they have that great, voluminous 

hair flying There’s a sexiness and a sensuality to it.” 

LINDSAY LOHAN, 

ALLURE, MARCH 2006 

“She had these very modellike 

movements, and 

we used a lot of wind.” 

MARIAH CAREY’S 

BUTTERFLY ALBUM, 1997 

“That was the first time I worked 

with her. It’s that healthy hair you 

want to run your hands through.” 

JULIA ROBERTS AT THE 

ACADEMY AWARDS, 2004 

“Julia has the most amazing hair. 

I never use hair extensions with 

her for the red carpet. Never.” 

SARAH JESSICA PARKER’S COVET 

FRAGRANCE AD, 2007 “That might actually be 

one of my favorite pictures for a campaign. 

I just love everything: the dress, the gloves; I love 

the way the hair just, like, goes crazy.” 

FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS’ CREDITS, SEE CREDITS PAGE. 

★To get the inside scoop on more of the top hairstylists’ signature looks, log on to allure.com/go/signature_hairstyles.

How to Get 

Big Hair 

Normant may pull out the 

hair extensions for a model on a 

shoot, but for real life, he 

achieves volume with fewer props. 

CONCENTRATE VOLUMIZER 

AT THE ROOTS AND THE CROWN 

“You can add a little to the ends, but 

you want most of it where you’re 

going to create the lift,” says Normant, 

who prefers the weightlessness 

of spray volumizers. (His pick: 

Serge Normant Mega Lush Volumizer, 

from his new product line.) 

GRAB YOUR DRYER 

“To save time, flip your head upside 

down and blow it until your hair 

is nearly dry,” he says. Then take 

random sections, pull each taut 

with a big, round brush, and slowly 

run your dryer down it to smooth it. 

TIME TO TEASE 

“Teasing can be invisible,” says 

Normant. Work on just a twoinch 

section at the crown, then hide 

your work by smoothing an 

unteased section over it and misting 

it all with hair spray. 

SIlk-and-lace bodysuit 

by Dolce & Gabbana. 

Suede pumps by Sergio 

Rossi. Makeup colors: 

The Eyeshadow Duo in 

Stromboli, The Eyeliner 

in Black, and The 

Lipstick in Charm by 

Dolce & Gabbana. Hair: 

Serge Normant of the 

Serge Normant at John 

Frieda salon. Details, 

see Credits page.

How to Get 

Beachy Waves 

The secret is making sure 

the results don’t look perfect. “The 

goal should be those waves 

you really end up with when you’re 

at the beach,” McMillan says. 

IF YOU HAVE STRAIGHT HAIR: 

Twirl sections around a curling iron, 

then tug on the end of each curl 

as it’s cooling. “This makes it more of 

a wave,” says McMillan. Once 

you’ve done your whole head, “mess 

up the curls” with your hands 

and dab an alcohol-free mousse 

throughout to add body. 

IF YOU HAVE CURLS OR WAVES: 

Start by blowing out your hair with a 

round brush. Then simply apply a few 

spritzes of saltwater spray or water. 

“This will bring back the natural curl, 

but very slightly,” he says. 

Bikini top by Eres. 

Bikini bottom by Michael 

Kors. Makeup colors: 

LiquilineBlast Eyeliner 

in Black Fire and 

Continuous Color Lipstick 

in Almost Nude by Cover 

Girl. Hair: Chris McMillan 

of Chris McMillan, 

The Salon. Details, see 

Credits page. 

MCMILLAN’S 

FAVORITE LOOKS 

GWYNETH PALTROW 

AT THE ACADEMY 

AWARDS, 2005 “The 

night before, I bought 

drugstore hair color and 

did her roots, then 

highlighted it. We were 

going to put her hair 

up, but her zipper broke, 

so this hid it.” 

NICOLE RICHIE, 

ALLURE, 2006 

“Adorable. We faked 

a bob by pinning her 

hair under and letting 

the top layer hang 

over. I cut her hair 

later that day, but 

she got extensions 

immediately after 

the photo shoot. She 

doesn’t like her hair 

when it’s short.” 

JENNIFER 

ANISTON, 

ROLLING STONE, 

MARCH 1996 

“ ‘The Rachel’ is 

somewhere in there. 

This was a surprise 

for us—the fact 

that she’s naked. 

We thought he was 

shooting her face!” 

NICOLE KIDMAN 

ON THE 

TONIGHT 

SHOW WITH 

JAY LENO, 2003 

“I did a falling-out, 

haphazard ponytail 

off to the side 

with a ribbon. She 

loves ribbons.” 



Chris 

McMillan 

THERE ARE TWO SUREFIRE 

WAYS TO GET AUTHENTIC- 

LOOKING BEACHY WAVES: 

Spend an afternoon in the 

ocean, or book an appointment 

with Chris McMillan. “Loose, 

natural hair—that’s my thing,” 

he says. “I like hair that looks 

touchable and effortless.” 

That’s not to say that McMillan’s 

approach to styling is laid- 

back; he’s turned construction 

and deconstruction into a 

carefully crafted formula. “I 

hate when curls look too forced, 

so I’ll rough them up, pull them 

in different directions,” says 

McMillan, who developed this 

surfer-chick aesthetic growing 

up in Manhattan Beach and now 

dishevels some of the most 

famous California girls around, 

including Cameron Diaz, 

Courteney Cox, and Jennifer 

Aniston. His close 15-year 

relationship with Aniston started 

when he snipped some 

unassuming layers on the then 

barely known actress. That 

cut would become, of course, 

“the Rachel.” 

117

Stretch-taffeta-and-metal 

dress by Yigal Azrouël. 

Makeup colors: Studio 

Secrets Professional 

Eye Shadow in Lush 

Raven and Colour Riche 

Lipcolour in Blushing 

Bouquet by L’Oréal Paris. 

Hair: Orlando Pita of the 

Orlo salon. Details, see 

Credits page. 

How to Do 

An Undone Bun 

The simplest way to adopt Pita’s 

aesthetic is with a soft bun. “It’s 

easy because it doesn’t have to be 

perfect in the first place,” he says. 

START WITH DRY HAIR 

Spray it with T3 Elevate volumizer 

(Pita works on this line of products). 

Brush it through to produce a 

rough, thick texture. “When you’re 

putting hair up, it can’t be too 

clean,” he says. “If it’s too silky and 

smooth, it won’t hold.” 

PULL THE HAIR BACK 

Gather it into a basic bun at the nape 

of the neck, and pin it in place. 

NOW MUSS IT UP 

“Carefully pull out shorter pieces of 

hair around your face and from 

the bun,” he says. “Make it random.” 

Finish by spraying on more T3 

Elevate—it’ll keep the hair loosely in 

place without making it overly 

stiff in the way hair spray can. 

GUTTER CREDIT 

118

Orlando Pita 

“I’VE WORKED MY ENTIRE 

CAREER TO AVOID HAVING A 

SIGNATURE STYLE,” says Orlando 

Pita. “I didn’t think I even had 

one.” Nevertheless, the prolific 

fashion and celebrity hairstylist has 

built his reputation on wildly 

inventive looks that often embrace 

what he calls a “done/undone” 

feeling. Whether it’s a soft updo 

with a few errant wisps, or a head 

full of deliberately frizzy waves, “I 

love to create something beautiful 

and then destroy it,” he says. Pita 

regularly brings that sense of 

imperfect ease to magazine shoots, 

ad campaigns including Gucci 

and Chloé, and shows for Dior, 

Michael Kors, and Oscar de 

la Renta. But it is in his frequent 

couture collaborations with John 

Galliano that he really lets loose: 

Though many stylists prefer to 

work solely with comfortingly 

familiar tools like hair spray and 

gel, Pita’s couture kit reads 

more like an art teacher’s shopping 

list. He often includes balloons, 

Styrofoam, paint, and powder, 

whether he’s piling the hair into 

deconstructed, flower-inspired 

towers or punctuating eighteenthcentury 

updos with shocking 

white streaks. “I don’t want any of 

my styles to ever look perfect,” he 

says, “because perfection doesn’t 

exist on any level—even in hair.” 

PITA’S 

FAVORITE 

LOOKS 

CHRISTIAN DIOR 

COUTURE, SPRING 

2010 “The idea was 

Marie Antoinette hair. 

I love that it looks 

contemporary, yet ’60s. 

It looks like a beehive.” 



2010 “We wrapped 

extensions around purple 

balloons, and as the 

girls walked, you could 

see flashes of purple. 

An assistant popped a 

balloon by mistake. I just 

couldn’t look.” 


MADONNA’S RAY OF 

LIGHT ALBUM, 1998 

“When Madonna walked 

in, she said, ‘Orlando, 

I don’t want to sit in your 

chair for more than 15 

minutes.’ So I said, ‘We 

haven’t seen your natural 

wavy hair in a long time, 

so let’s go with that.’” 



2004 “John [Galliano] 

asked for a square 

hairdo—and then the 

panic seeped in. It was a 

lot of hot glue, extensions, 

and burned fingers.” 


Silk gown by Versace. 

Makeup colors: Hydro- 

Powder Eye Shadow 

in Languid Lagoon, 

Automatic Fine Eyeliner 

in Black, and Perfect 

Rouge Lipstick in 

Caramel by Shiseido 

Makeup. Hair: Oribe 

of Oribe Salon Miami 

Beach. Details, see 

Credits page. 

Oribe 

EARLY-’90S FASHION LAUNCHED 

MANY ONE-NAME WONDERS: Naomi, 

Linda, Cindy—and the hairstylist 

who worked on them, Oribe. But his 

signature sex-kitten styles feel just as 

fresh on the Scarletts and Penélopes 

he works with today. “I like big, 

beautiful hair—with a richness, an 

extravagance, and a little bit of 

vulgarity,” he says. (One early—and 

unusual—muse: Elly May Clampett of 

The Beverly Hillbillies.) At 18, Oribe 

moved to New York City to become an 

actor and supported himself by 

working at a salon’s front desk. Soon 

he decided to give styling a try, and 

before long he was a backstage fixture 

at the biggest fashion shows of the 

decade, including Versace and Thierry 

Mugler. “The ’90s were all about 

creating an over-the-top woman,” he 

says. But once grunge came along, 

Oribe spent more time in his Miami 

salon than on the runways. Enter J.Lo. 

A fan of his work since she was a 

teenager, Lopez hired him to style her 

hair for her first album and brought 

Oribe back into the spotlight. (“Thank 

God for Jennifer!” he says.) Now, more 

than ten years and countless chignons 

later, he is still creating memorable 

looks—for better or worse. Case in 

point: that half-up head of curls Lopez 

wore to the 2002 Oscars. He says 

with a laugh, “That one’s on VH1’s top 

four or five worst hairdos of all time.” 


Glamorous Updos 

Made Easy 

“Updos are tricky—they can either 

make you look very old, or they 

can be incredible,” says Oribe. Here’s 

how he makes them sexy: 

ORIBE’S FAVORITE 

LOOKS 

PREPARE YOUR HAIR 

“If you have good texture, the updo 

should only take two minutes to do,” 

says Oribe. Teasing is one approach, but 

the right product can do it with less 

damage. Oribe uses his Dry Texturizing 

Spray at the roots when hair is 

dry (or all over for those with fine hair). 

PULL YOUR HAIR BACK 

Grasp it like you are going to pull it into a 

ponytail just below the middle of 

the head. Then twist it toward the top of 

your head and secure the twist with 

a U-shaped pin (you may need more than 

one if your hair is thick). Leave the 

ends free for a casual look, or tuck them 

in and pin for a more polished effect. 

“It’s a French-twist kind of idea, but it 

should be simple,” he says. 

MIST IT ALL 

Spritz with hair spray to lock in the style, 

making sure to go with light-hold. “Not 

making it too hard with a heavy hair spray 

will give it a modern edge,” he says. 

JENNIFER LOPEZ AT THE ACADEMY 

AWARDS, 2003 “I wanted the chignon to 

be big and superpolished. It was just a 

big, fabulous bun. A lot of people didn’t love 

it, but she felt spectacular.” 

SCARLETT 

JOHANSSON 

AT THE TONY 

AWARDS, 

2010 “She 

wanted a sci-fi 

kind of updo— 

supermodern 

and clean. 

It was helmetlike, 

but 

somehow, for a 

young girl, for 

the occasion, it 

really worked.” 

VOGUE, 2003 “For a story about hair 

damage, we styled wigs with rock-hard gel 

so they went straight up in the air, 

then we lit them on fire. It was crazy—and 

it smelled terrible.” 


JENNIFER LOPEZ AT THE 

ACADEMY AWARDS, 2002 

“Halle won the Oscar, but on every 

newspaper in America, it was 

a huge picture of Jennifer Lopez’s 

monstrosity. But Jennifer loved it.”

GARREN’S 

FAVORITE LOOKS 

FARRAH 

FAWCETT, 1978 

“This was when 

everything hit 

for me because I 

took the ‘Angel’ 

out of Farrah 

Fawcett and made 

her hair straight. 

She was in every 

newspaper.” 

MADONNA, 

VANITY FAIR, 

APRIL 1991 

“That’s the iconic 

Madonna when 

we transformed her 

into our version of 

Marilyn Monroe. 

The hair was set with 

electric rollers.” 

SANDRA 

BULLOCK, 

VOGUE, 

JANUARY 2003 

“That’s her 

shaggy bob with 

side bangs —it’s the 

rocker-chick look. 

Before this, her hair 

was a waist-length, 

one-length cut.” 

VICTORIA 

BECKHAM, 2008 

“I wanted to let 

her become herself, 

because before, 

her hair used to 

wear her, and now 

she was the 

centerpiece, not 

her hair. It made 

such a statement.” 

How to Get the 

Best Bangs 

Bangs alter not just your hair; 

they can change your face, too. 

Garren’s guidelines: 

EXAMINE YOUR FACE 

Ask for thick, chunky bangs if you 

have a large forehead; long ones 

that start far back on the head if your 

forehead is small. “This elongates the 

forehead and make it look deeper,” 

he says. If you’re unsure, go for long, 

side-swept bangs. “They look good 

on everybody,” he says. 

CONSIDER YOUR HAIR TEXTURE 

For curls, try a keratin straightening 

treatment at the salon first. 

EXPECT SOME MAINTENANCE 

Bangs won’t look good if you’re the 

type to wait six months between 

haircuts; most require a trim at least 

every four weeks, Garren says, 

and many salons cut them gratis. 



Garren 

THERE ARE HAIRCUTS THAT 

CLEAN UP SPLIT ENDS, and then 

there are haircuts that transform 

everything. Garren’s are the latter. 

His textured styles—often 

accentuated with thick bangs— 

make the recipient instantly 

cooler. “I like my haircuts to have 

individuality and some kind of 

punch,” he says. He first gained 

notice in 1978 when he shortened 

and straightened Farrah Fawcett’s 

famous Charlie’s Angels flip for 

a shampoo ad. “It seemed like every 

newspaper said something about 

it,” he says. In the late ’80s, 

he went on to work with fashion 

photographer Steven Meisel, 

creating looks for the period’s 

biggest models, including Linda 

Evangelista, whom he ushered 

through a chameleon-like series of 

bobs and pixies. He collaborated 

regularly with Madonna, helping 

her shake things up with retro 

waves or a rocker-ish shag. And in 

this decade, he gave Victoria 

Beckham her signature gamine 

cut. Still, Garren remains a salon 

stylist at heart. “When it comes 

down to it, haircutting is really what 

I’m about,” he says. “At the end 

of a cut, when the woman shakes 

her head and says she loves it 

You can’t get better than that.” 

Wool tuxedo by Theory. 

Makeup colors: Color 

Intrigue Eyeshadow in 

Twilight, Smoky 

Eyes Powder Pencil 

in Gunmetal, and 

Exceptional Lipstick in 

Amber by Elizabeth 

Arden. Hair: Garren of 

the Garren New 

York salon. Details, see 

Credits page. 

123

"Head Masters", Allure, November 2010 - Alyssa Hertzig

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?