With her new color already putting a spring into her step, Julie went to meet Craig Gangi -- a noted stylist who's worked with everyone from Jessica Simpson and Lauren Conrad to Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie. And, today, Julie.
"I've always had these bangs," Julie explained to Gangi, "But when you're poor, it's hard to keep them up!"
Gangi smiled and explained what he had planned for Julie's full head of fabulous hair. "We're going to add in lots of long layers to give the hair lots of life, lots of movement," he said. "Layered, razor cut has your name all over it, Missy!" If you have long, one-length hair and don't want to dramatically cut it, add a ton of long layers to totally overhaul your look without losing the length you love.
Julie says that it was "cool" watching him work with the razor. "I'd never had a razor cut before and the precision with which he wielded that thing was impressive."
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The style
To give Julie maximum volume and fabulous waves, Gangi had spritzed on a volumizing spray and had her flip her head over for the first three to five minutes of the blow dry as he removed the majority of the moisture from her hair.
He completed the blow dry using a four-inch round brush to maximize the volume, blow drying it section by section. He then added even more oomph by curling each section with a large-barrel curling iron (use a medium-sized one if your hair is shorter than Julie's) and wrapped each curl into Velcro rollers upon finishing them.
"He added big Velcro rollers to get the massive waves," Julie recalls. "I learned that you have to really pin curl each after the curling iron to get it to stay that way."
Did she learn anything else? "Oh, and use lots of hairspray!" she giggles.
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The makeup
Of course, no makeover is complete with out a fabulous face to go with a great new style.
Enter Barbara Farman, a makeup artist who's worked her magic on famous faces like Jennifer Lopez, Kate Winslet and Heather Graham.
"For Julie I wanted a very deep smoky eye," says Farman who took a black gel liner (try Therapy Systems Espresso Cream Gel Liner, $24) and smudged it across her whole eyelid before blending a charcoal matte shadow (Try Ramy Trio Eye Shadows, $19) up and outward toward the outer corners of her eyes to create a "cat eye" effect.
Then, on top of the charcoal, Farman added a very pale violet shadow (try Makeup For Ever Eye Shadow in Lavender 9, $6.99) with a lot of shimmer because, "It looks really great with blue and green eyes -- gives a lot of depth so you don't just have a 'black' eye."
Farman paired the bold eye luminous-looking skin. She applied a shimmer to her cheekbones (try Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector, $27.99) and added a pink blush with violet undertones (try Almay Powder Blush in Mauve, $5.95) to the apples of her cheeks. She completed the look with a matte pink lipstick (try MAC Lipstick in Please Me, $16).
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Julie after
So does Julie feel like her "hair bummer" has been banished? "Absolutely," she beams. "They did such a great job. I mean, I like darker hair on me and never wanted to lighten the whole thing, but I didn't realize how much of a difference just having a little bit of a lighter shade just around the face softens it up so much," she smiles.
"Same goes for the tips [of her hair], with just that hit of light, the texture shows up much more. Which is nice because I still have a darker base without the zebra-striped highlights running throughout," she says.
"And, I LOVE the eyebrows," she says. "Even though I have colored my hair every shade imaginable, I never bothered to match my eyebrows which really makes a huge difference."
The best part is that she feels like the attempt to carry summer's beachy feel through to fall and beyond really worked. "It just looks so natural. It's also nice on the days I don't feel like blowing it out. The sun-kissed color works really well when I just wear my hair messy/wavy. It could definitely pass for beachy -- even in November!"
Most women have the prerogative of being able to change their hairstyles and hair color whenever they feel like it. For actresses (especially ones that are newer to the game), however, it's not that easy. Not only do they have agents (who signed them looking a certain way) to answer to, but there's also the matter of those costly headshots to consider, not to mention that it could be very risky to gamble it all away on a whim.
That was TotalBeauty.com reader Julie's problem. She's a 27-year-old actress and is beginning to get a foothold in the business but wanted to do something to put some oomph into her long, dark hairstyle -- without making too drastic of a change. Was it possible?
"My biggest hair bummer is the weight of this mop," she said on a recent Saturday morning at the Argyle Salon & Spa in West Hollywood, Calif. "Having so much of it just looks soooo drab."
Not for long. Julie was about to meet hair colorist extraordinaire, Alfredo Lewis. He's worked wonders on celebrities like Sandra Bullock and Holly Hunter. And on this day, a series of transformations for his newest client would soon be underway. See what Lewis and the rest of the Total Beauty makeover squad did to revamp Julie's hairstyle and makeup look (because no makeover is complete with out new makeup) without making her unrecognizable. You might just be able to steal her transformation secrets and make them your own.
