Celebrity Hair: A to Z

GET THE LOOK: Fergie’s stylist has achieved this particular look with either a large barrel tong or a straightening iron and Velcro rollers. This latter method is very popular with celebrity session stylists for creating waves and movement and body.

To create this style yourself, all you need to do is take roller sized sections of hair and using your ceramic iron glide the plates through the hair section from root to tip. While this section of hair is still red hot, take a Velcro roller and fold the hot ends over it and begin quickly rolling towards your roots. Because the section of hair has been heated by the iron it’s still mouldable when you apply that roller. As the hair cools around the roller, this newly straightened hair will set into a big sexy curl.

Continue with this method across your whole head, ironing a section and then quickly winding around your Velcro roller. Once you have wound all the sections across your hair, spray a good mist of firm hold hairspray (from a distance) over the rollers and take your hairdryer and gently rotate the warm airflow across your head for a few minutes. The hairdryer will ensure your roots are given that additional boost of heat to create the volume.

Leave the Velcro rollers in your hair for 25 minutes and then remove. Because you straightened those sections of hair before winding on the rollers, you will find you have smooth, shiny hair that falls into big waves and movement. Finish by running your fingers through your hair, throwing your head down and directing some more hairspray toward your roots. This will charge your hair with that additional boost of volume and make the finished style appear sexy and unstructured.

GET THE LOOK: Here Gaga is wearing yellow clip in wefts, which I believe are created with synthetic fibres to achieve this deep yellow. You can use crazy colour on very bleached blonde hair to obtain yellow (or any other fashion colour). The problem is yellow tends to look brassy as opposed to a deep sunshine tone.

Synthetic fibres are now able to withstand heat so they can be curled or ironed, however you only have limited opportunity to do this before they start to mat. In Lady G’s case her synthetic hair would no doubt be used once and then discarded. The rest of her style has been achieved by simply tonging round the head using straightening irons (notice the square shape of the curl). As Lady Gaga’s hair is bleached it would hold a curl well due to the texture.

All that said, it’s impossible to know if the entire head of hair is a wig, as lady Gaga seldom seems to show her own hair. If this is a wig, her own hair would be very dark and untreated, and a far cry from any of the dramatic manes she flaunts. Wigs are a great fashion choice for people that change their hair to match their outfits.

GET THE LOOK:  Geri achieved this look by clipping in lots of human hair extensions, and then curling sections (with both her own hair, and the wefts intermixed) with a large barrel tong. She would have applied hairspray to each section before curling.

When you use clip in human hair wefts to give height and length, the hair takes on a really full textured appearance. Clipping a few stray sections up at the crown like Geri has done gives even more height.

However, be careful with hair extensions because if you look closely you can see the hair extensions on Geri are a calmer softer blonde and her roots are more honey. If you’re thinking of using hair extensions, try to keep your overall shade as neutral as possible (neither cool, nor warm) and then introduce those subtle honey warm tones  with the extensions.

GET THE LOOK: Kate’s stylist has blow dried her hair using a light styling cream to give shine and control. They would then have taken a large barrel tong and curled the parting section of the hair away from her face and pin curled. When you take this section of hair and roll it away from the face, it creates as S shape when its released, which looks soft and elegant on most face shapes. Remember many up do’s and pulled back styles can look incredibly hard, unless you have really soft bone structure, like Catherine Zeta Jones. Because Kate is very natural, she needs that element of ‘lack of structure’ to all her hairstyles.

Pin the front section in place. To create the elegant twist at the back of the hair, simply apply a light style cream to the hands and pull the rest of the hair back towards the nape of the neck. Use flat pins to fix it into a ponytail position. Once fully secure, split the hair into two even sections and neatly flatten and round the hair over the back of the hand, and spray. Once sprayed, carefully role the hair upwards and round into a doughnut formation. Carefully and securely pin it in place. Remember to keep the hair as sleek as possible. Repeat the action on the other side, however this time, roll it the opposite way and secure.

You should now have two rolls arranged above the nape of the neck. Finally remove the pin curl from the top side and gently position into an S from the hairline and down the side of the face. Once it’s neatly positioned, use hairspray to set the style in place.

Kate’s colour is spot on in these pictures. Kate is very much a soft, warm, summery blonde (similar to Kylie Minogue). She looks drab if her shade is too dark, and cheap, if it’s very light or red. Kate is naturally fair, but achieves her shade by having a mixture of golden high lifting colours and deeper warm blonde lowlights applied through her hair. If you want Kate’s colouring, you need to be a reasonably fair base shade (naturally). You should steer away from bleaches (in highlights) as they will give the blonde a sharper edge. L’Oreal casting do a great range of honey blondes which match Kate’s colouring. The warm blonde enhancing shampoos also help keep a real richness in the hair and maintain those golden tones.

GET THE LOOK: It looks like Kimberley has used clip in human hair wefts to achieve the lengths. These would have been carefully applied after the hair was blow-dried and still straight. You will need around 5 wefts to achieve a good healthy head of hair and it’s worth investing in higher quality hair as it will last much longer.

To apply the wefts, you simply section the hair horizontally across the head and starting above the bottom hair line, fix the clips to the root of your hair. Once in place, they will not fall out, you can even sleep in them

Next tong the hair. Using a medium barrel tong, take section of the hair and wind from the root downward and around the tong- use lots of tension as this will ensure the curl lasts. You need to hold the ends of the hair at the very bottom (cool area) of the tong.

Always wind downwards and away from the face. Once you have tonged each section, pin curl to allow the hair to cool and set. Always make sure you tong in the same direction if you want to create a very silky tumbling curl. Once you have tonged all the hair, release the pin clips and use a very brush to gently break up the curls and direct the sections into large tumbling waves. Try to use your palms and fingers as much as possible. Add a little shine spray to finish the look.

GET THE LOOK:  Ideally you need to find a clip in ponytail piece. To produce a seamless look between your real hair and the piece, begin plaiting your own hair on a side slant formation. Attach the clip in piece underneath your own plait at the nape of the neck and then plait your own hair into place.

When creating that tightly-wound look in the piece, simply section the hair in two, and then each of those sections in two again. Braid the plait with two prongs by simply winding the hair around the other section to create a roll. Repeat this on the other half of the hair piece. Once you have to separate ‘roll braids’ put them side by side. However at the very bottom of the hair piece break the entire amount of hair into three sections and create a traditional three pronged plait. This binds the hair, use a hairband to secure.

Leave the top/fringe are side sections out of the pony tail and simply straighten with irons to create that sleek look.

GET THE LOOK: It looks like Liz is wearing a half wig. Half wigs are fantastic, as you can simply slide them onto the back of your head (like a cap) and secure it with the grips which are in the base. In seconds you then have a long cascading head of hair. Beyonce famously uses them all the time. As does Kylie and Sarah Jessica Parker. They were incredibly popular in the 1960s, and not only give length but also height at the crown.

The top quality human hair half wigs (as sported by Liz in this picture) are rather expensive, and you could be looking around £500. BUT if you invested in such a hair piece (and cared for it) it would last several years and prove far more economical and low maintenance than having hair extensions applied.

It is also possible to get synthetic hair pieces, although these can be more noticeable, as the colour is harder to blend and they can have an unnatural shine. The secret to a great looking half wig as Liz shows, is to wear the half wig as a headband. This way only the hairline areas are exposed. On this occasion Liz has allowed some of her own hair to blend in underneath. This given an even greater natural appearance. The tiara adds that additional drama and glamour. Although for most occasions this may prove a little OTT and should be reserved for bridal hair or very dressy occasions.

GET THE LOOK: Maggie’s hair stylist has very flatteringly pulled the top sections of hair back into the bun, rather than ‘scraping’. The bun has either been intricately created in a time consuming effort by the stylist (using many pins and starting on the inside and working out) or Maggie’s stylist has cheated and affixed a bun hair piece to the back of her head.

Balmain do such pieces (for around £45) and they are great for achieving glamorous hair quickly.

GET THE LOOK: This particular shade is copper, and a very difficult one to find in the home colour market. It is a very difficult shade to get right! It’s actually a deep blonde with an orange tone added to it.

A great tip is to apply Wella Colour Fresh throughout every week or so. Wella colour fresh is a fantastic temporary colour which consists of no harsh chemicals and fades over 6-8 washes. It contains beeswax, which gives the hair a brilliant shine and condition

To achieve this 1940′s style, Paloma has blow dried large sections of hair with shine spray and a large round brush. She has then allowed the hair to set on jumbo velcro rollers. After removing, she has allowed the hair to sit in the sections that the rollers were wound it, then she has rolled up the fringe area and secured evenly (inside) with flat large hair grips. She had repeated this exercise with the side sections.

When creating these 1940′s rolls, comb the hair very smoothly and neatly and gently mist with hair spray. Then imagine you are rolling the hair round an invisible roller. Use a couple of grips to secure firmly on the inside. Once secure mist with some more hairspray to hold.

GET THE LOOK: Although Peaches’ interesting style looks complicated, its actually pretty simple and ultimately consists of sections of hair being wound around each other to create twists all over the head. These twists are the secured with pins.

If you try this look on regular hair, you will find it looks flat and odd as it uses up lots of length and brings the hair very close to the scalp. It seems Peaches has hair extensions anyway, which give that necessary length and density. To increase bulk, it looks as though the stylist has added additional synthetic hair into the twists. Although I typically recommend real human hair, American Dream does offer a range of really well priced synthetic pony tails, which are fantastic for creating exactly the look that Peaches is sporting.

To apply using just flat grips, all you need to do is take small strips of synthetic hair and grip one end next to the scalp , you then twist and roll the hanging hair, intermixing it with your own. It’s just like flower arranging and you can add as much or as little hair as you desire and get it as big as you want. Also don’t limit the twisting to the back of your head, you can just as easily transport the whole creation to the top for an even more dramatic look.

GET THE LOOK: Sandra’s hair has been sleekly and delicately arranged into an almost mermaid style side fall which supports her dress brilliantly. Her colour has been expertly done with a very deep dark brown panel sitting on top of a much warmer, conker like base shade.

I feel Sandra has probably had a Brazilian Keratin Treatment to bring such life into her locks. That’s because her hair is quite long and let’s not forget, during this hair’s life span it would have been bleached to create the blonde shade Sandra wears in her movie. Therefore, it’s been through a lot ‚Äì yet the whole lot looks moist and healthy.

For the Oscars night look, her stylist has blow-dried and ironed her hair with high quality ceramics, but rolled the ends. These ends have possibly been gathered into large pin curls which has enabled the stylist to create this subtle roll at the end very ends. This look is so doable for most brunettes – so take inspiration from Sandra and try it!

GET THE LOOK: SJP’s hairstylist has taken very long full hair wefts and attached them into the bun at the back of Sarah’s head. In all, I would hazard a guess that there were five wefts in total. These wefts (which have been expertly coloured and blended to match Sarah’s own shade) have been created from human hair and have also been hair sprayed and rolled to create those gigantic Princess Leia danish pastries in a halo around her head.

Sarah Jessica wore this look to The Oscars in 2010 – the place where you can really crank up the glamour – and she’s done it well.