ANTHONY

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vAnthony Age: 40 Hometown: Hertfordshire, England Current Salon: Londoner Salon and Day Spa in Manhattan Beach, California Signature Style: Beautiful, healthy, shiny hair Mentor(s): Vidal Sassoon When Anthony embarked on an extended vacation across America, he promised family and friends that he'd return –- but that was 17 years ago. Smitten by sun-drenched California, he knew it was the place he wanted to call home. “If you have ambition and are dedicated, you can really do well because America certainly tries to encourage and support the small businesses,â€? says Anthony. After training in London's West End, Anthony worked as a stylist for Splinters, trained at Vidal Sassoon and opened his own salon, before he made the trip across the Atlantic. Today, he runs his own hair and beauty business, Londoner Salon And Day Spa in Los Angeles' Manhattan Beach district. Anthony also travels the world educating other hairstylists and salon professionals, as well as his own team at the Londoner Academy. When he's not running his busy salon, Anthony can be found socializing with friends in L.A.'s restaurants and cafés or working out. Anthony believes in order to be a great stylist, one should not only have a great understanding of hair, but also have a strong body and a sharp mind. That's why he's up every morning at 4:15 a.m., running or working out in the gym.

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It’s down to Ben, Daisy, and Anthony and they’ll be going (cough) head-to-head for this last challenge! Who will win $100,000, an apprenticeship with Nexxus lead stylist Roy Teeluck, and the opportunity to style hair for an Allure photo shoot? More importantly, who will prove to be the “Shear Genius?” Beats me, but I expect it won’t be dear Ben. Sorry guy.The three savvy stylists enter the Shear Genius salon. Rene greets the group and congratulates Daisy for her “Wall of Fame” photo. Rene tells us about the challenges the three have faced throughout the series. (I’ll bypass this because I really want to get out and enjoy the day. Just check out my previous recaps.) In short, Ben has an eye for structure and line, Anthony’s experience and calm, under pressure, has impressed the judges, and Daisy has been strong, since the beginning, and is carrying this momentum into the showdown. Rene says they all should be proud of the work they have done. I expect they are.The Final Cut:Rene tells the stylists that their final challenge will be the ultimate test, using all the disciplines: Cut, color, and creativity. They must create three different looks. The first must include hair color, the second will be to style Vidal Sassoon’s “The Nancy Kwan” precision cut, and the third can be any style of their own choosing. Every haircut tells a story, so their looks must also tell one. There are three wardrobe collections provided, from designers Luca Luca, Dina Bar-el, and Cynthia Rowley. The stylists will each get a collection and select three outfits to design their styles around. Reserving the best for last, Rene brings out the hair legend of all times… Vidal Sassoon!Mr. Sassoon greets the stylists, with handshakes and hugs. He tells them that they must have a heck of a lot of talent to make it to the top three. “It must have been hard, hard work!” He’s had an extraordinary time during his 65 years of styling and wants to give back to the hurricane Katrina victims. Yep, old Vidal is selling a charity website. If every hairdresser gave $100 bucks… there would be lots of loot and happiness for the victims with bad hair styles, I guess. Anyway, this would be amazing. Yeah. Fine. For all you hairstylists who want to donate, check out the bravotv.com website. I’m sure you can find the charity there.Vidal departs and Rene informs the stylists that for the final challenge, the slate will be wiped clean, so they all must pick scissor boxes (to receive their placement) before selecting their wardrobe collection. Lucky Daisy gets the numero uno box, Anthony gets second, and Ben brings up the rear. (This is rather fitting.) Once the wardrobes are selected, they will have the remainder of the day to think about their styles and stories. Daisy checks out the racks of dresses and grabs Luca Luca. Anthony snares Cynthia Rowley, and Ben gets Dina Bar-el. Daisy decides that she’s going with black and white dresses, Anthony is feeling “gray,” and wants his hair story to tie in with “modern movement,” and Ben is thinking he’ll do greens, for his theme of “inner beauty to outer beauty.” Yay! Everyone’s happy!Each of our stylists drift out into the landscape of God-knows-where, and tells us what winning would mean to them. To cut to the chase, they all have sob stories and they all wants to win. Sorry… Ben doesn’t have a sob story. Strike that. BUT Anthony’s mom died during childbirth (not his), Daisy is Hispanic and an underdog, and our Ben has so much confidence he’s ready to explode. Whoa! Calm down Ben. These hairdressers are ready to rumble!The next day the stylists put on their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes and make their way to the Shear Genius salon. The judges will be looking for perfection and Anthony is bringing his “A” game. Rene reminds them that they will be using “cut, color, and creativity” (WE KNOW!) AND will have three hours to create their three looks. So are the stylists ready to meet their models? Yep, they are! Rene yells back to the ladies, “Come on sexy girls! Shake it! Work it! Look at that!” (I just love Rene. The man has a bit of the devil shining through!) Rene explains that the models have already been chosen for the stylists, based on the clothing line they had previously selected. The final cut will be judged on technical skills, how the style compliments the outfit and the model, as well as creativity. Ready or not… their three hours starts now. “Shake it!”Ben is going to start with “outer beauty;” a Hollywood glam type, to a cool chick look, and then finally give us the “inner beauty” type gal. Daisy plans to take risks and she wants her models to keep their faces blank. Anthony is sticking with his “modern movement” theme. Unfortunately, one of his models isn’t loving getting her hair cut. Meanwhile, Daisy is justa yakking away! Her story will be “The “S” Curve.” She’ll be creating “S” shapes in the hair and plans for each style to be bigger and bolder. Since they all have to add color, Anthony is thinking mahogany for one of his girls, Daisy is lightening the inner layers of her model’s hair, and Ben is trying to NOT be intimidated. He’s making the ends of his model’s hair a bit lighter, AND he dares his competitors to “bring it on!”Daisy runs into a snag with her marcel irons. They’re not hot! She finally finds one that works. Whew! Anthony tells us that he doesn’t get Daisy’s bob… What’s with the wave? He’s confused. On a different model she adds a bunch of pin curls for a bit of edge. She wants something different. Finally, Daisy begins mixing her hair color ingredients and drops the bowl. Whatta mess! She plops it on her model’s head. What the heck… she’s inna hurry!Rene stops by and visits with Anthony. He asks, “Do you think the judges will like that?” (He’s talking about the mahogany hair color - I think.) Anthony tells us that he is just sooo done with Rene. As for his hair color, YES, the judges will LOVE what he’s done. He wants Rene to leave him alone. (I think he should send Rene to my house!)One hour remains. Ben is using three different techniques and realizes that he’s up against two strong stylists! He is trying to do an updo… and he’s down to the wire. He wants to create sexy and have the progression from “inner beauty to outer.” Unfortunately, his updo looks dull. Five minutes remain! We see an montage of spraying, snipping, and silliness. Time’s up! That means you Daisy! Rene has the stylists take their models to wardrobe and makeup. Aww.. Rene has a tear in his eye. Double aww.The Hair Show: (The “Nancy Kwan bob” is pictured.)Jaclyn welcomes the stylists and reintroduces them and us to judges Sally, Michael, and Vidal Sassoon. She reminds us that the styles will be judged on technical ability, overall creativity, how well they tell their story, and how well the styles go with the outfits they have chosen. That said, the first model walks the runway.Daisy: Her story is “The “S” - the basis of a curl and words that begin with “S” - (soft, sassy, sexy) and describe her styles. She’s proud of the fact that they all are all different. First we see her Sassoon cut, next a long haired style, and finally her pin curled look.My Thoughts: Her “Nancy Kwan” cut is umm…yucky. It looks thin and flat… with the exception of a ridge that looks like a lump. This red-headed model looks unhappy and the style doesn’t suit her. Come to think of it, neither does the dress. Next up, is is a brunette, wearing white. Her hair looks heavy, and it’s covering one eye. Veronica Lake perhaps? I don’t know what Daisy was thinking! Her third model is a mess. She is wearing a white dress with a little black lace color and her hair is parted down the middle with tight messy curls surrounding her ears. This is so not good. The fellows are going to have to have their models missing hair chunks to do worse than this.Anthony: His theme was “modern movement.” He took shapes and textures and applied them to hair. He’s tells us that he asked his models to “work it!” His first model is pictured (see photo), his second model has long hair and bangs, and his final girl steps out with a blonde, shoulder-length, asymmetrical bob and is also sporting bangs.My Thoughts: I really like his Nancy Kwan cut. This suits his model’s face. His long haired cut, with bangs style, really isn’t grabbing me. It is what it is… Long hair and bangs. I do like his third model’s cut and color. It’s blonde, sparkly, and sassy. Nice job, Anthony!Ben: He feels like Charlie with his angels! This is a cool moment and he’s great. All righty Ben! After a moment of silence, he finally begins talking, again, and tells us how he adds different colors to his blunt cuts and calls them “peek a boos.” I guess he did this with his Sassoon cut. Dunno.My Thoughts: Ben’s first gal is wearing his updo… sort of. Meaning part of it is staying up. The second look is his “Nancy Kwan” bob. Well.. it sort of is. The bangs are more feathered than they should be. His third “do” is his stylish cut. Well… it sort of is. I don’t much like it BUT his model tries to work it. Sadly, the dress she’s sporting is downright fugly. On the bright side, his styles are better than those we saw from Daisy. But will our panel of judges agree?The Discussions:The models return. Daisy explains how her story began when she met Vidal Sassoon. The letter “S” came to mind; sexy, silky, shiny” and she also realized that the “S” shape is the foundation of a curl. She whines how she colored, cut, and created three styles in only three hours! (Umm. So did the other stylists, Daisy.) Sally thinks Daisy should have focused more on styling and less on coloring. Her “Nancy Kwan” would have been lovely minus the “dent” that Daisy added. (Heh… that’s her “S!”) Vidal loves the color on her “Nancy Kwan,” and finds the cut is lovely. He has the model shake her head. (Vidal loves his signature style!)Anthony explains that his story was “modern movement.” He wanted to create styles with shape and, yes…movement! Got it! He wanted strong lines internally and externally and captured what he had envisioned. Sally says that his styles are shiny and she loves how they move. It’s like fashion! Michael likes his “Nancy Kwan,” but isn’t crazy about the third model’s cut – it looks 1980s. Vidal calls Anthony’s colors excellent. His hairstyles are alive. Anthony shares that he wishes he could have cut his “Nancy Kwan” a bit shorter. (Alas, with a model head shake, we find that Vidal loves his signature style!)Ben explains how he took high fashion and glamour, and deconstructed it for his “outer beauty to inner beauty” theme. His third model would would have been what real people can afford to do with their hair. He wishes he would have had more time to work on his updo. Michael says the back of his updo looks like an embryo… or a prune. Vidal has Ben’s “Nancy Kwan” model shake her head. Yep. It moves and goes perfectly with the dress. (Again, with a head shake from the model, we find that Vidal loves his signature style!) The models and stylists are excused.The Deliberations:Jaclyn says this is life changing for these talented stylists. Sassoon says that creating three styles in three hours with color, would be challenging!Daisy: The judges love how her bob moved. It suited her model’s face. Vidal says that all the bobs needed to be longer in the front and shorter in the back. Regarding the pin-curled model, they liked the before picture better. Vidal was impressed with what she did with the hair and dresses as well as her narrative.(Sally grunts.)Anthony: Jaclyn loved his “Nancy Kwan.” Sally calls all the models’ hair “silky” and yummy.” Michael didn’t like the mousy hair color on the “bob” and Vidal agrees. Regarding the second model – she looked great with the bangs… Like a new woman! As for his third model, they love the hair color, but Vidal wishes he had cut the back of the hair shorter.Ben: His updo looked clean and showed off his model’s pretty face. Unfortunately, Michael finds the back to be a disaster as well as the model’s dress. Ben’s second style’s precision cut looked great. Sally points out that one side is longer than the other. Oh. Sally calls the third cut “cool” and an “improvement” from the model’s “before” picture. For some reason she snipes at Vidal – reminding him that she’s been there for the entire competition! Hmm. (I think Vidal likes Daisy!) Sassoon thinks that all the stylists have talent and courage.The Judging:Jaclyn says that they each deserve to win BUT there can only be ONE Shear Genius. Daisy’s enthusiasm and passion for hair is inspiring. Anthony’s experience has held him in good stead and has consistently produced work any stylist would be proud of. Watching Ben’s progress has been remarkable and it’s great to see that he finally believes in his talent. So which of them is a cut above the rest? It ain’t Daisy. Jaclyn’s sorry, but she didn’t make the “final cut.” Daisy gets her goodbye hugs and leaves with a wave. She is proud of her work.So who is the winner and prize collector of Shear Genius? It’s Anthony! Meaning, it ain’t Ben. Unfortunately, my DVR cuts off here so I don’t get to hear Ben’s parting words nor how he didn’t “make the cut,” or Anthony’s acceptance speech nor that he is Shear Genius. Sorry. Well, the better man won… Congratulations Anthony. As for Ben? I loved this guy and and am happy he took home sloppy seconds.

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