Nekisa is eliminated on Shear Genius
I am a fan of Shear Genius and I’ve read some things about this season that say the stylists aren’t as talented as last year; the challenges aren’t as exciting; and that overall tat season 2 isn’t as good as season 1. Up until last night I was saying “no, you’re wrong” that it was just taking time for the season to develop. Last night’s show left me very, very, very disappointed. Well, maybe not very, very, very. Nekisa was eliminated. I was kind of happy about that only because I thought she should have been eliminated in the do it yourself challenge a few weeks ago and that she should have also been eliminated in last week’s Charlie’s Angel’s challenge. That’s why this made me kind of happy. I’m just sorry that Glenn got the ax last week and not her.
The shortcut challenge was presented to the stylists by Jaclyn and guest judge for the round Robert Hallowell. He is known as the “kitchen beautician” for using products commonly found in the kitchen to style and treat hair. Some of his celebrity clients include Courtney Cox and Sarah Jessica Parker. The stylists were given 45 minutes to create a futuristic hair style that is beyond belief due to the cut, shape, and/or style of the hair without using normal styling products like hairspray. They had to use kitchen products that were on a table in front of them, and each stylist had to use at least two products in the final look. They chose scissors boxes to see the order in which they would pick. Here’s the order and the products they used in the final style:
Nekisa – molasses and mustard
Paulo – corn syrup and coconut oil
Charlie – flour, sea salt and honey
Nicole – caramel, sugar, squid, berries
Dee – egg whites, water, quince paste
Daniel – avocado, peanut butter, beets
Hallowell only announced his least favorite stylist, or as they said last night the loser of the challenge who was Nicole. She had a hard time with this style and admitted it. The top three were Paulo, Daniel, and Dee. Paulo ended up winning the challenge and would have an advantage in the elimination challenge being the first pick of client and the ability to pick the order in which the other stylists would select their client.
Rene Fris meets them in the park the next day to give them the elimination challenge. It was going to be a cut and style of a dog. Paulo picks first and then assigns the following order: Nicole, Nekisa, Charlie, Dee, Daniel. After the dogs are selected Rene says that they can’t walk down the runway alone, that the other part of the challenge was to give their owners a cut and style inspired by the look of the dog. One of the stylists (I think it was Paulo) that he wasn’t even looking at the owner’s hair, only the dog. The stylists would have 2 ½ hours to do both styles and would be judged on creativity, technical skills, and the similarity of the style to the dog’s style.
The guest judge for the hair show is Jennifer McCarthy, a fourth generation dog trainer with celebrity clients including Jim Carey and Rene Zellweger. In my opinion most of the dog’s styles were awful. I loved how Daniel put extensions in the dog’s hair. That was great.
The top two were Daniel and Dee, with Dee being named the winner. I thought Daniel did a much better job on the dog AND the client, while Dee’s style and cut of the client was better overall. But it’s the same cut we’ve seen several times from her. The bottom three were Charlie, Paulo and Nekisa. The three of them are holding hands when they go for judging. This shocks me because Nekisa and Charlie appear to hate each other on the show. The bottom two were Nekisa and Paulo. The judges thought that Nekisa’s style was too flat, and the wrong color and that there was no connection between the client and the dog. Paulo’s client’s color was too brassy and also didn’t match the dog. In the end it was Nekisa who was sent home.
My problems with this show last night had to do first with the shortcut challenge. What relevance at all does it have to use squid in your hair? This doesn’t make you a good stylist at all. And cutting the dog’s hair? A waste of time. Perhaps they could have done the challenge to have them create a style inspired by the dog but not doing the actual cut of the dog. I think the producers were really reaching last night. And I really hope this was just a misstep and not the actual path the show is going to take to the finale.
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