Talk about old Hollywood glamour, Roberts stunned at the 73rd Annual "Academy Awards" in 2001 when she wore a vintage Valentino gown and a hairstyle so structured and elegant it made everyone else on the red carpet look like a schlub. She won Best Actress for her hard work in "Erin Brokovich" that year along with our vote for best hairstyle.
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Kate Winslet
In 2008, Winslet wore a seriously sculptured wavy hair roll reminiscent of the '40s when stars like Katharine Hepburn reigned as queen. The old-school glamorous hairstyle coupled with the modern neckline of her dress was a winner, just like Kate was that night for her Best Actress performance in "The Reader."
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Marion Cotillard
Having brilliantly played Edith Piaf (strange eyebrows and all), Best Actress winner Cotillard was truly the belle of the ball in 2007 where she showed off soft, side-swept curls. There is a reason American women secretly want to be French, and we don't think it's just because they don�t get fat.
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Penelope Cruz
Updos are often seen on the red carpet, but this perfect chignon was so on point for Cruz the night she won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" in 2008, that it had to get an honorable mention. The flawless bun would have made Audrey Hepburn proud.
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Halle Berry
Berry won the Oscar for Best Actress in 2001 for her performance in "Monster's Ball," becoming the first, and only (to date), Black woman to have won the award for Best Actress. Her cropped pixie isn't quite as an important achievement, but it's up there.
We've heard through the celebrity hairstylist and makeup artist grapevine that before factoring in skin care, Botox, or manicures, it usually takes about three hours for a female nominee or presenter to get ready for the Oscars.
That is some serious "this could be my career-defining moment"-hair and makeup Oscar prep time.
And it's time well spent, as the "Academy Awards" ceremony is arguably the most prominent awards show. Broadcasting live in more than 200 countries, it makes sense celebrities spend the better half of the day primping -- there's a whole lot of people judging their chignons.
So what do all of these countless hours of hairstyling actually do for these celebrities? It makes or breaks their livelihood. OK, not really. But bad celebrity hairstyles make big news come Monday morning. (Remember the 2000 Oscars when Angelina wore an Elvira-inspired hairstyle or when Jennifer Lopez in 2002 thought that huge bouffant was a good idea?)
On the other hand, if an actress wears a pretty, yet subdued style, it usually goes unnoticed. But sometimes, just sometimes, a celebrity hairstyle is so perfect, so gorgeous, so Oscar-worthy itself that it gets just as much water cooler time as the awful dresses or horrid hairstyles.
