Celebrity Hairstyles for You and Me

Quote from a magazine website: “Celebrity Hairstyles Magazine spotlights the style secrets of Hollywood’s top stars. Each issue of Celebrity Hairstyles provides an up to the minute look at all the latest superstar trends, so women everywhere can copy their favorites “dos”. Celebrity Hairstyles also features style from top salons all across the country, complete with step-by-step cutting and styling how-to’s. Special offer! Two years for only $19.97! 4 Issues per year.”

While I find some of this to be true, the advertisement like the magazine is much more general to hair fashions than it is specific to helping women find a style and then reproduce it.

Oftentimes, while waiting in a salon to have your hair done, you may spend time perusing the salon’s collection of magazines. Among the “People” and “Soap Opera Digests” you will usually find a collection of magazines that show hairstyles. This is one that often is found. My husband is in the salon business and many times clients come in to have their hair styled but may want a particular style (like a celebrity’s that they saw) or may have no idea how they want their hair styled at all. Many of the magazines in a salon show hair fashions that are totally impractical and “set” looking. Maybe they look good in the magazine or on a modeling runway but they aren’t for most of us. They are fun to look at as we marvel that anyone would really wear polka dot hair anywhere. There are also hair magazines that provide step-by-step, roller-by-roller, directions to provide a certain style. I liked those in the past but currently not much is being done by curlers just curling irons.

But, magazines, such as this one, will often provide a “visual” of the type of style a client may want. Especially if a client is looking for a new “look.” These magazines are great for getting the client and the stylist on the same “page.” It is also a great visual to show clients why they may or may not be able to get their hair to look like their favorite celebrity. I, for example, would kill for the Julia Roberts hairstyle but because I don’t have thick hair (baby fine is a better description) then my stylist cannot make me look like Julia Roberts no matter how good he/she is or how badly I want to. By using a hair magazine picture, the stylist can show me how different my hair is from hers and then precede to inform me of what they can do with my type of hair that will enact an improvement. I may not be happy that I can’t be Julia Roberts but I can walk away knowing my hair has been styled for me taking in my strengths and weaknesses.
Celebrity Hairstyles provides many pictures and many types of hairstyles. The strength of this magazine is the number of pictures it displays. Don’t be fooled however by the name of the magazine. Out of the 90 pages (average) length of the magazine, only about 15 pages feature stars. The other pages use models for the styles shown.

Also, if you like or want colored photographs of the hairstyles, only the 15 or so pages of celebrities are in color. The rest of the pages are black and white. I don’t necessarily think that color is necessary to profile most hairstyles but it does seem that for the cost of the magazine, they would all be in color. Since salons color hair, as well as style it, I think it would be helpful to those clients looking for a certain color.

While I often refer to the salon and client connection with this magazine, those of us at home can purchase and peruse the magazine at home as well. It can provide us with ideas to self-style our length and texture of hair in various styles.

What I Like About This Magazine

I like that it shows hundreds of styles that are broken into seasonal categories. Since the magazine is produced four times a year, they show the trends for each season. Under one summer edition, for example, the main category heading was, “Sizzling New Summer Styles.” They then will break it down further with sub-headings such as, “Summer Curls,” “Layers You’ll Love,” “One Enchanted Evening,” “Fine Ideas,” and “The Plot Thickens.” Each of these subcategories profile styles based on your hair type. “Fine Ideas,” profiles styles for fine hair.

They also have, “Special Sections.” In this section they will showcase articles such as “The 15 Top Trends of the Season.”

“In Every Issue” they have subcategories such as “What Does Your Hairstyle Say About You?” and “Home Hair Remedies.” There is also a two-page layout of products called, “Shopper’s Guide.”

All of the articles are really just pictures of styles with a blurb of superficial information about the style and how to do it. I like that each of the styles have been done by salons from across the United States and that the salon and stylist is named.

I also like that there aren’t very many advertisements compared to similar magazines. Most of the ads are the “Lose Weight Fast” variety.


What I Don’t Like

I’m not fond of the way that the hairstyles are explained. Most of the written words found in this magazine are descriptions of the picture.
An example of what you can expect in styling directions is: “If you have shoulder length locks, turned out pieces are the perfect ending. Mike Fox at Fox & Co. Salon in Floral Park, NY cuts a dual-level ‘do to make styling simpler. Having stylists angle ends means it won’t take much work to get strands to twist out in a bouncy way. In fact, if your hair is straight, you won’t even need to blow-dry your tresses to achieve the right twist. Just smooth out frizz with shine drops. I don’t find much information that I can use there to reproduce a hairstyle I like.

The star or celebrity hairstyles found in the magazine are not the style that I often recognize as the particular star’s “look.” Many times if the star is known for wearing their hair straight and full, the style profiled on that star will show her wearing it slicked back and in an up-do. If I want a stylist to do my hair like a certain celebrity, the style profiled is not the style I’m thinking of.

Conclusion

I think that this is a nice magazine to look at occasionally to find styles that can be worn by regular people. That’s important because so many style magazines show styles that are too “constructive” and unique for daily wear.

I don’t think that many of us could follow the brief directions to obtain a certain style. The descriptions may not even be detailed enough for a good stylist to reproduce.

Throughout the magazine it is emphasized that a good haircut is the secret to the styles portrayed. I believe that is true. If you get a haircut like those styles in the magazine requires, the rest of it will be easy. So look through and find a cut you like and then you will be able to obtain the look you like.