"I've been in major need of hair help for awhile," says Nisa, 31, but "with a 2-year-old and 6-month-old, it's pretty much the last priority these days." While she naturally has big, soft waves, they tend to get frizzy and lose definition by the end of the day, which forces her to tuck it away into a ponytail. "I'm pretty open to anything at this point," she says. As for color, her flat brown hair needs "a little change," she points out.
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The color
Nisa's solid, dark brown and somewhat dull-looking hair gets a dose of shine thanks to the golden brown highlights colorist Jherra Moreno paints on. "She has a great base color, but the ash on the roots and the slight golden tips make her hair look flat," says Moreno. "Painting" the golden brown onto her hairline and down through her strands will give Nisa a more natural, shimmery look, says Moreno.
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The cut
Less bulk and more natural movement is what Nisa needs to keep her wavy hair from looking frumpy and out of a ponytail. Stylist Whitney Olson instructs fellow stylist Reanna Garcia to take an inch-and-a-half off of Nisa's length and reshape her layers to bring the bounce back to her waves. She accomplishes this by keeping the wavy layers long and "all falling below the jaw line (or the waves will appear too wide), and by adding a long side fringe to highlight cheekbones and give some added shape," says Olson. Basically, by removing weight below the chin, you'll get "a lighter look and help keep the style more manageable," she says.
To add definition and smooth out Nisa's natural waves, stylist Garcia uses a small-barreled curling iron on random sections throughout Nisa's hair after rough drying hair with a blowdryer. To keep curls looking loose and casual, she wraps just the middle of the hair shaft around the barrel of one-and-one-fourth inch curling iron, leaving the ends and roots untouched. She then picks up each curled section, twists it and sprays it with light-hold hairspray (try Pantene Pro-V Curly Hair Series Satin Hold Hairspray, $4.49). She holds the twist in place until the curl completely dries. Finally, she uses a touch of styling wax to add definition to her face-framing waves.
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The makeup
Sarah Uslan gives Nisa a look she can pull off in five minutes or less -- a necessity for a busy mom. She starts by perfecting Nisa's skin tone with Bobbi Brown SPF 15 Tinted Moisturizer, $40. Then she gets to work on covering Nisa's dark under eye circles by applying a concealer with pink tones (Paul & Joe Beaute Stick Concealer, $24.80) to combat the blue and purple hues under her eyes. Next, she layers a yellow tinted concealer over the pink to help better match Nisa's olive complexion. She finishes the eyes with a sweep of neutral-colored eyeshadow then smudges brown liner along her lash lines. A touch of cream blush blended onto the apples of her cheeks, a bit of lash curling and black mascara and Uslan is ready to move on to Nisa's brows and lips. She fills in Nisa's brows with a gel eyebrow pencil and completes the look by applying a chocolate-y brick-colored gloss to her lips (try New York Color Liquid Lip Shine in Cherrywood, $2).
Our makeover team at the Warren-Tricomi salon in Los Angeles, which includes hairstylists Whitney Olson and Reanna Garcia, colorists Jherra Moreno and Ashleigh Childers, and celebrity makeup artist and co-founder of the Luxe Beauty Team Sarah Uslan, gives busy mother of two, Nisa a much-needed overhaul. They transform her dull, brown, frizzy waves into luxuriously smooth, highlighted curls to give Nisa the wow-factor she deserves with the low-maintenance look she needs.
