FASHION Magazine

By Lesa Hannah

Photography by Jill Nefulda

There’s a saying in our department: Beauty is hard. But lately, it’s gotten harder, because we’ve started adopting beauty trends for a week. The catch is that it’s got to be something we would never otherwise consider doing. My assignment? Wearing my hair in the wet look, which hairstylists trotted out on this season’s runways. Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” girls were the inspiration at Moschino, and hair was raked back clean at Narciso Rodriguez, smoothly slick at Louis Vuitton, sleek at Gucci and super shellacked at Alexander McQueen. Plus, my editor is relishing the thought of how absurd I’m going to look.

I generally don’t use a lot of product, so I’m already nervous. Outside of a shower, I don’t like having my hair wet. On the rare occasions that I swim, I never dunk my head. And I never leave the house without blow-drying. On the upside, at least my hair is straight—crispy curl is a beauty crime.

DAY ONE I slick my hair into a ponytail with L’Oréal Professionnel A-Head Fever Long Lasting Wet Effect ($16, at salons). The bottle says it recreates the “just out of the shower look.” Gulp, here goes. Now for makeup: I follow Montreal-based hair and makeup artist Margo Ducharme’s tips. “My one piece of advice is to make your skin flawless,” she says. “You’ve basically created a spotlight on your face by taking away the emphasis of your hair.” Flawless? Being the breakout queen that I am, that’s a tall order. I apply more foundation than I’m used to, trying not to cross the line into caked-on overkill. After work, I head to an event where they’re offering lash extensions. Perfect timing. Anything to get people to focus on my eyes, not my admirable yet hardly effective attempts to cover up my zits.

DAY TWO I’m still easing into this, so I smooth my hair into a ponytail and loop it into a knot. With absolutely nothing to shroud me, the look is quite severe. I wear a ruffly white blouse to balance out the harshness. Before noon, I have to rewet and slick with Alberto Extrême Style Freeze Gel ($6, at drugstores), even though I still have gunk in my hair from this morning. In fact, this continues all day long. Who knew the wet look would require constant upkeep? I guess that’s part of why it works on the runway: It has to last only two minutes.

DAY THREE I start off the day with real wet hair. Like I said, I normally refuse to do such things, but I’m a gamer so I’m playing by the rules. I load it with more gel, along with Pantene Pro-V Restoratives Frizz Control Extra Strength Serum ($10, at drugstores). I’m a little overzealous and end up looking slightly greasy. Oops.

DAY FOUR Today, I’m doing the Alexander McQueen hair. When I interviewed runway hairstylist Eugene Souleiman, who created the look, he told me he was thinking of ’60s Bond girl Ursula Andress. “You know when she’s coming out of the water in that scene in [Dr. No], and she’s wearing that bikini, and she just looks amazing?” Gotcha. Now I’ve got to make that look work in a cubicle. I rake enough gel through the front and sides so they’re completely saturated, leaving the back down. As I study my look in the mirror, it’s obvious that this kind of hair needs context. A bikini—hell, a bathrobe. Clearly, I’m not wearing either, so I settle on jeans and a white tank, with a black silk tank layered on top. At the office, comments come forth. “I love it,” says our fashion director. “You look stupid,” says our features editor. “It looks great!” says our art director. “You should wear it like that all the time. It’s very Leo.” Huh? (I’m a Libra.)

DAY FIVE I run some ISO Daily Styling Gel ($14, at salons) through my hair and try to fashion it into a bun. I’ve grown weary of all the skin perfecting (read: lazy), so I revert back to my usual coverage regimen. Later, I meet my gay boyfriend for a movie. “I’ve never seen your hair like that. It looks elegant. Sophisticated.” He makes me feel less unattractive.

VERDICT At the end of my week, I’m glad to lighten up on the product overload. Plus, wearing my hair in a way that made me feel so exposed forced me to be at peace with all my imperfections. And you know, I did like the smooth pony. OK, maybe beauty isn’t so hard.

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