| Reese WitherspoonBeautiful Brunette |
| Karen Marie Shelton |
| Date: 09/05/2004 |
Introduction
The
traditionally blonde and beautiful Reese Witherspoon recently
appeared on the Jay Leno show with a major hair color change.
The 28 year old Nashville, Tennessee native looked absolutely
beautiful in her recently dyed, dark chocolate locks.
(Image of Reese Witherspoon on Tonight Show With Jay Leno - 8/31/04
- NBC Photo: Paul Drinkwater - all rights reserved NBC).
Reese's tresses which historically have ranged from buttery blonde
(Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama) to her current brunette, seems
to take ever changing hair colors and styles with grace and good
humor.
Although
her baby blonde locks were long, lush and perfectly coiffed for
Legally Blonde, they were short and uber choppy for Sweet Home
Alabama. In both movies, Reese seemed to have the perfect hairstyle
that fit the character that she played.
(Image of Reese Witherspoon shown to the side in the original
Legally Blonde MGM film available on DVD from Amazon.com - All
rights reserved)
While many have fallen in love with the Legally Blonde versions of
the superstar, Reese confessed to Jay Leno that she had gone
brunette for her recent movie turn in Walk The Line as the
late June Carter Cash, wife of country music legend, Johnny Cash.
(Image
of Reese Witherspoon shown to the side in the
Sweet Home Alabama film available on DVD from Amazon.com).
As any busy actor or actress will tell you, constant hair style and
color changes are a major part of the acting world. While some
actresses opt to wear wigs whenever possible, many actors and
actresses discover that changing their hair to fit the role is
absolutely essential to honor the role.
Ironically Reese, who now commands upwards of $15 million for each
starring role, is currently appearing on the big screen as the
luscious redhead, Becky Sharp, in Focus Feature's blockbuster Vanity
Fair.
Although Reese, who went red for role of Becky, she also wore a
series of elaborate hairpieces, extensions and wigs. All of
Reese's wig enhanced hairdos were historically authentic based on
the actual time periods of the story. Furthermore, Reese had the
skillful assistance of Oscar winner Jenny Shircore who coiffed
and applied appropriate make-up for the Becky role. Jenny won an
Oscar for her stunning work in the film, Elizabeth.
(Image
to the side of Reese Witherspoon in her role as Becky Sharp in
Vanity Fair from Focus Features - all rights reserved.)
Reese, who also appears on the cover of September's Vanity Fair
magazine from Conde Nast, is known for her fierce dedication to her
acting craft, As a result, Reese is absolutely committed to
doing whatever it takes to portray a character role as purely as
possible.
Whether that means that she has to go dark brunette to portray June
Carter Cash or ruby red as Becky Sharp, you can be sure that Reese
will do whatever it takes to give 100% to the role.
In fact, Reese was totally determined to support her role as Becky
Sharp in her Vanity Fair turn. A news report uncovered the
fact that Reese had been scheduled way in advance to appear on the
cover of Vanity Fair, the magazine, at the same time as the release
of the Vanity Fair film. At the last minute the editor of
Vanity Fair decided to play a switcheroo and put Olympic
swimmer Michael Phelps on the cover
instead of Reese.
The
strong willed actress would have none of that last minute change,
especially since the Vanity Fair cover dovetailed nicely with her
commitment to help promote the release of the movie. As a
result, it was made very clear to Cond
Nast that Reese would be on the cover. And so she was in all
her blonde glory coiffed by famous hairdresser, Serge Normant.
(Image of September Vanity Fair cover - available by prescription
through
Amazon.com - all rights reserved).
While constantly yo-yoing of hair colors and styles can take a toll
on the strands of many actors and actresses, Reese has less to worry
about them others in her profession. Why? Reese is as
devoted to her husband and two children as she is to her movie
career and tries to limit her movies to one per year. This
gives her hair time to recover from any wear and tear induced in the
name of a screen character.
In fact, while being interviewed for the Vanity Fair magazine cover
article by Leslie Bennetts, she was actually being slathered with
"evil-looking slime" at a Los Angeles beauty salon in order to
emerge as "a smoldering brunette with glossy auburn highlights".
Do Blondes Have More Fun?
When quizzed about how
she felt about being brunette, Reese told Jay Leno that while "her
Southern Belle mother was definitely appalled by the new haircolor",
she was "enjoying being a brunette". Why? "No one seems
to recognize" who she is. In fact, Reese told Jay a story
about how she was stopped on the street "because a stranger
mistakenly thought that she was the family's babysitter".
Reese told Jay she decided to have a little fun and told the
stranger that "Reese isn't nice at all, she's actually pretty mean".
The Leno audience loved
Reese's story and the newly brilliant brunette was bubbling over
with charm, good humor and vivacious chatter. Although Reese
has claimed that she is more a homebody than anything, she
definitely shone in her appearance with Leno.
Ironically she reported
to Vanity Fair's Leslie Bennetts that going brunette did nothing to
really hide her identity. In fact, according to Bennetts,
Reese said "the minute she got off the plan, strangers were call out
that they loved the (brunette) hair".
Reese and her husband
also recently appeared at the Venice Film Festival to promote the
Vanity Fair film and again commented that it "felt great to be a
brunette" because "nobody knows who I am".
Recently the megastar was
quoted as saying that she prefers to go grocery shopping in a simply
ponytail, dressed in sweats and that in reality she is a slob like
the rest of us.
Maybe so, but Reese is
gorgeous, whether blonde, brunette or redhead.
Making The Change From Blonde To Brunette
Reese mischievously
grinned while telling reporter Bennetts "how we suffer for our art"
as she morphed from sassy blonde to beautiful brunette. Even
more unsettling, even though Reese was excited about her opportunity
to wear "June Carter Cash era 50s and 60s costumes", she mentioned
that her new brunette locks seriously clashed with her famous blonde
friendly wardrobe.
After "like an hour and a
half to find something to wear" the self-prescribed character
actress found that "purple is it so far" for her new hair color
clothing theme.
In her appearance on Leno
the actress famous for her pink outfits appeared in a more serious
and classy mocha brown dress that appeared to compliment her
brunette locks.
Newly Brunette Hair Care Tips
Besides
addressing your wardrobe and makeup when morphing from light to
dark, it is important to consider new hair care tips for chemically
treated locks.
To maintain that "just
colored" brilliant brunette shine, use a shampoo, conditioner and
styling products developed especially for cranking up the shine in
brunette locks.
(Image to the side -
John Frieda - Brilliant Brunette - Shine Release Moist Shampoo -
Amber to Maple - 8.45 oz).
John
Frieda has developed an entire line of shampoos, conditioners
and styling products that were created just for brunettes. All of
the John Frieda formulas were developed to enhance shine and
brilliance for brunettes. You can select from either the Amber
to Maple Brunette or the Chestnut to Expresso versions of the line.
(Image to the side -
John Frieda - Brilliant Brunette - Shine Release Moist Shampoo -
Chestnut to Expresso - 8.45 oz).
One
side effect of chemically treated hair may include a new level of
dryness. To keep hair shiny and lush schedule at-home or salon
deep conditioning treatments to your hair care regime. (Image
of
Rene Furterer - Karite Nourishing Conditioning Cream - 8.6 oz).
The right deep
conditioning treatments can leave hair soft, supple and silky when
used on the right type, texture and condition of hair. Using
the wrong type of deep conditioner on the wrong type of hair can
result in lank, stringy oily strands.
PhytoSpecific
Intense Nutrition Mask is ideal for many people with coarse to very
coarse hair that requires heavier deep conditioning treatments.
(Image of
PhytoSpecific - Intense Nutrition Mask).
On the opposite end of
the conditioning spectrum, Phytobaume is a very gentle conditioner
that offers some of the advantages of a deep conditioning treatment
without weighing fine, delicate or thinning strands down with
excessive conditioning properties. Phytobaume was formulated
with Mallow, which has proven softening properties and Keratin amino
acids. (Image of
PhytoBaume Conditioner).
Summary
Although
some products will advertise that they are
"deep conditioning", they may have a wide range of penetration
levels.
Phytocitrus and Phytokarite are both deep conditioning
treatments from Phyto but Phytocitrus tends to be less moisturizing
then the heavier
Phytokarite that was designed to help add moisture to locks with
chemical damage. (Image above of
Phytocitrus conditioner)
As
a rule deep conditioning products contain either amino acids,
protein, panthenol or a combination of all three to help soften and
strengthen chemically treated or damaged strands. (Image to
side of
Phytokarite ultra deep conditioning treatment).
Be sure to consider your
hair's texture, type and condition before slathering on any type of
conditioning products. If you are not sure what deep
treatments are best for your newly brunette hair, invest in the
smallest sizes and try a few conditioning products on for size
before going full speed ahead.
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