The impetus for Vicki's makeover was a bad haircut. "I'd gone to a new place and gotten the world's worst cut. It was choppy with layers that are much too short," says the elementary school teacher recalling the unhappy experience. When she met Argyle stylist Alec Kara, he concurred. "He told me I can never go back to that person again," laughs Vicki.
Kara lopped off her dry ends and tried to even out the lopsided cut by sparingly adding some long layers into the hair to give it more movement and volume. He also recommended that she take 1000 milligrams of biotin (a b-complex vitamin also known as B-7 or Vitamin H) twice daily to help speed up her hair growth. "He reasoned that the faster my hair grows, the more quickly that bad cut will be gone," says Vicki.
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Her Color
Next, colorist Jeremy Tardo, who's a third generation stylist and has worked with many celebs including Miley Cyrus and Emily Deschanel, set out to impart a beachiness to Vicki's mousey brown hair. Having recently moved from Brooklyn to Santa Monica where she now spends a lot of time in the sun and surf with her two-year-old daughter, Tardo's plan mirrored Vicki's life perfectly. "I want to do something that's really big with color and has a lot of depth by the scalp that then fades through at the ends," said Tardo as he mixed the color and prepped for the balayage highlighting process (a French coloring technique that means "sweeping" -- as in sweeping the product onto the hair).
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Her Style
To style Vicki's new blonde locks, Kara had her flip her head over as he removed the majority of the moisture from her hair. Spritzing a volumizing spray (try Herbal Essences Body Envy Volumizing Hairspray, $3.53) onto the hair as she flipped her head up, Kara then used a round brush (try Goody So Smooth Ceramic Boar 53mm Round, $7.99) to add as much volume as possible. To add a bit of beachy texture, large random sections of Vicki's hair were then wrapped around a one-inch curling iron and held there briefly. A light spritzing of flexible hairspray like Pantene Pro-V Style Sheer Volume Flexible Hold Hair Spray, $3.99 followed and Vicki's new style was ready to go and stay in place for hours.
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Her Makeup
To give Vicki a clean, light-but-polished look to go with her sunny new style, makeup artist Barbara Farman wanted her makeup to be all about shimmer -- with a pop of bright lip color.
How did Vicki, who'd only hours earlier entered the salon as someone frustrated with a bad haircut, feel about the outcome? "I love it," she said, hair tousled and glimmering in the sun. "I'm so glad I did this. What a fun experience!"
On a recent Saturday morning three moms walked into the Argyle Salon and Spa on Los Angeles' famed Sunset Strip. And, while the celeb-centric spot welcomes hundreds of clients through its mahogany doors six days a week, these three were different -- none had taken the time to "maintain" their naturally good looks or spent money on being primped, in a long, long time.
And, while they may have been different from the typical Argyle client, all three working mothers -- hovering around the 40-year mark -- have loads in common with moms across the nation. Mothers tend to put everyone else's needs ahead of their own, so getting their hair done isn't necessarily a priority -- and, in these tough economic times, dropping dough on unnecessary luxuries is difficult to justify.
But for these three lucky ladies, today would be different. They were being treated to a makeover and, with the help of a team of colorists, stylists and makeup artists, would emerge looking renewed and feeling revitalized.
And, while "Bully for them" might come to mind as you read this, the good news for you at home, is that as we watched each transformation take place, we talked to the pros to get expert tips and how-tos to share -- oh, and we've also substituted the higher end cosmetics and products they used with budget-friendly ones that'll get the job done just as well. Because, after all, you don't have to be a harried mom to crave or need a little sprucing-up, me-time every now and then.
