I was a bit underwhelmed and unimpressed by the looks at yesterday’s Emmy Awards show, which is why it’s taken me all day to muster the energy to write about it.  (Must I?  Sigh.  Okay.)  What I did like were the soft, artfully messy, feminine updos that abounded; what I don’t like is the “red lipstick” trend, which feels too harsh and forced. 

Debra Messing’s hair looked pretty and modern, not to mention amazingly healthy and shiny (it’s all about the shine, people!)

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Lauren Conrad from The Hills has signed a three-book deal with HarperCollins to write young adult novels loosely based on her own experiences.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict they’ll be huge bestsellers.  Sigh.  I’m currently sick as a dog (have a few different, un-fun things personal things going on) so have been spending a lot of time in bed watching half-hour shows, as that’s all my attention span can handle right now.  Last night, I watched about six episodes of The Hills in a row, and I couldn’t stop thinking how damn cute Lauren’s perfectly wavy hair is.  Below is her author’s photo, and predictably, the ringlets are utter perfection.

My favorite method for fat, juicy curls like LC’s: apply mousse and a tiny bit of grooming cream to wet hair, then quickly blowdry.  (Spend one or two extra minutes on the hair near the crown and around the face, but don’t worry about making the rest of it look sleek; just get it dry.)  Starting about five or six inches down from the roots, near the ears, use a 1″ to 1.5″ curling iron–or a newer flat iron with rounded plates, like those by CHI or FHI–and curl the hair, wrapping the front pieces outward, away from the face.  Repeat all over the head, alternating the direction of the curl, and finish with another dab of grooming cream or shine serum, on the ends, and a shot of volumizing or soft-touch hairspray.

Taylor Momsen (better known as Jenny Humphrey from Gossip Girl) chilled on location yesterday in Oyster Bay, Long Island, pictured below.  (I once nannyed for a family in Oyster Bay.  It was a truly bone-chilling summer, and I’m not talking about the weather.)  Anyhoo, I was flipping through pictures on People.com, as you do, and came across this one.  “Hmm, Jenny is so cute, even with her hair in those dorky rollers,” I thought, about to click onto the next time suck, when I realized: “Wait a minute!  Rollers!  So that’s how they get her hair so bouncy!”  Taylor doesn’t have the world’s thickest tresses, so it makes sense they’d want to pump up the volume as much as possible—but I’m jealous that her end result is sleek, smooth waves, whereas my result with hot (or even Velcro) rollers would be “Texas Beauty Queen Circa 1987.”  My best friend A. has similarly thin hair and relied on rollers for the first four years I knew her.  I was endlessly fascinated watching her roll her hair this way and that, and must confess I’m still something of a moron when it comes to them.  Ah, yes, I know roller theory, that’s for sure.  But if I were studying at Roller University and taking my practical finals?  I would—sob!—probably fail.  And then be left with bad hair, to boot. 

If I had a set of rollers at my house, you totally know what I’d be doing tonight.  Alas…I don’t.

Daria Werbowy, Kate Moss and some other hot chick (okay, Lara Stone) naked in a bed together…with fabulous hair to boot?  A fantasy that both men and women can get behind!  I cannot express to you how much I covet Kate Moss’s bangs and casual waves here.  Coaxing my cowlick-y frizz into beach babe perfection is something of a Jolie obsession, and considering how messy this style looks (and is supposed to look!) you wouldn’t believe how much flipping effort it takes.  My best method for waves after the jump:

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Just when I start thinking crazy thoughts like, “Hey, Kate Hudson and I are almost the same age.  And, you know, if you kind of squint, we even look alike!  She’s accessible!  With a little hair and makeup help, I could be as gorge!” she goes and blows every other twentysomething on the planet out of the water with a Jackie O-meets-Audrey look for the ages.  The tan alone belongs in a museum…and the perfectly tousled “angels sprout from my scalp” hair?  It makes me weep.  Well played, Kate.  Well played, indeed.

Photo from USmagazine.com

Once again, who is this girl’s colorist?  I love me some Kaz Amor at Warren-Tricomi like a maniac..but I need to know.

Fess up: did you guiltily watch—nay, love—all the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movies back in the day?  Don’t play like you didn’t see at least two seconds of When in Rome or Passport to Paris or Holiday in the Sun while flipping the channels on a lazy Saturday afternoon!  (I’d find them while babysitting and coerce the kids into watching.  Child abuse?  Nah.)  Of course, it seems like another lifetime, since MK and Ash have since grown up and gotten embroiled in scandals and gone to rehab and pioneered Homeless Hobo 2000 chic…basically doing everything in their power to make us forget they were ever two fresh-faced, apple-cheeked child stars.  Mary-Kate does July Elle, looking IMHO not as gorgeous on the cover as she can…but seriously sizzling in the other photos.  The fabulosity of her perfectly tousled hair makes me weep.

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Gwynnie is a vision in pink on the July cover of Harper’s Bazaar, although I must admit that I prefer her hair straight to the choppy, flirty waves below.  (They’re extremely pretty–don’t get me wrong!–just not my favorite as a girl with similarly textured hair who always covets sleek and straight.)  The key to rocking a style like this is texture, texture, texture: spritz a salt-spray like Bumble and bumble Surf Spray through wet hair, spend 60 seconds blowdrying roots and any cowlicks, then let hair airdry.  A one-inch or smaller curling iron when hair is dry (flip the ends haphazardly this way and that!) will add oomph to waves, and a nickle-sized dollop of grooming cream or serum will keep ends from getting too flyaway and frizzy.

These photos make me happy; she looks like she’s having a blast at the shoot. 

She’s cool!  She’s casual!  She’s a Gwyneth of the people!

Damn you and your mile-long legs, Mrs. Coldplay!  But what is with Gwyneth and her penchant for dominatrix heels?

When Olsen-twin style waves were all the rage three years ago, I looked to one girl for my hairspiration: Kate Hudson.  (Yeah, the Olsens had good hair and all, but the homeless hobbit-vibe derailed my interest after a while.)  The chick-flickalicious How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days was on TV last night, and although Kate’s hair is flatironed into oblivion for most of the movie (memo to Hollywood stylists: just because it’s straight doesn’t make it better!), she has fabulous waves in a few scenes where we’re supposed to believe her hair has airdried into such perfection.  

To get the look right requires a dispiriting amount of elbow grease, not to mention a prodigious mess of product: it’s all about the mousse, gel, and anti-frizz cream!  I’ve yet to find a mousse that I’m really in love with, although I occasionally use VO5 Curvaceous Curls Styling Mousse–really, the brand matters very little and any drugstore brand will do.  Wash and condition hair, comb out tangles and pat dry with a towel, then apply a golf-ball sized amount of mousse, followed by a dime-sized amount of gel.  Take care to blowdry the pieces around your face straight and smooth with a large round brush, then quickly blowdry the rest of your hair (this can be messy; the point is simply to get it dry).  When hair is dry, it will probably look a bit rough, but that’s okay; work a dime-sized amount of grooming, styling or anti-frizz cream through the ends, then use a curling iron to loosely curl hair at ear-level and longer.  The key to make it look modern?  Don’t curl the hair all the way up the shaft to the roots; this only results in 1980’s prom queen hair, which isn’t really the look you’re going for!  (Um, I assume.)  Et, voila.  Just like Kate Hudson…without actually being Kate Hudson.  (Half the fun, I’d bet, but you can’t win ‘em all!)