The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.  Hey, there's an upbeat opening, huh?  See, I fully expected to have the column ready about 2 weeks ago.  Sure it was going to be a bit smaller than usual (whatever that is), but darn it, I was gonna bring it in on time. 

You've got faithful readers who are counting on you, I said to myself.  You can't let them down.  They're starving for any new tidbit of info you can give them.  How can they continue to keep a firm, yet manageable hold on their celebrity hair news without your help?  You're all they've got!  For the love of God man, SHOW SOME COMPASSION!

Bolstered by a new sense of purpose, I began to work feverishly on the new column; vowing that nothing would impede my tireless efforts to finish the column for you, the loyal reader.

About an hour later, stuff came up and it took two weeks longer than I expected.  Sorry.

What?  You were expecting more?

Anyway, the good news is that the delay did result in my uncovering a few more bits of news than I previously anticipated.  So you've go that going for you.  Which is nice.

On to the good stuff... 

UPDATE: As reported last month, DOLORES O'RIORDAN of The Cranberries has used the band's brief hiatus to, amongst other things, grow her hair.  Last time we saw Doris, she was sporting some some version of a super short pixie in either blonde or brunette, as you can see in the first few of pictures.  Now, Dolores has once again let it grow out into a shoulder-length layered style with bangs, almost making her unrecognizable from before.  Believe it or not, she actually grew it out to a similar style between the groups last two albums, but promptly sheared it off again once they went on tour.  Moral?  Don't get too attached to Dolores' blonde locks.
 

Then	Now

FLEA'S CALL:  As I said in last month's column, I like it.  It softens her look a bit and looks really cute when she styles it...well, styles it more than shown in that first "Now" picture.  Then again, Dolores never struck me as the "cute" type; yet another reason that I won't be surprised the 'do has gets a bit edgier in the near future.J

UPDATE: I found a picture of BROOKE SHIELDS' new shorter 'do.  It's not a great one, but gives the general idea; plus, you've probably already seen it on TV, especially if you caught the "Suddenly Susan" season finale.  According to People, she got the new style when she stopped by her friend Frederick Fekkai's (sp?) salon.  He suggested she try something new rather than just her regular highlighting and she agreed.  Given the green light, he snipped off 8 inches, layered the bottom, and gave her blonde highlights around her face. 
 

Before	After

Not a tremendous change other than the loss of length.  But then again, hasn't she heard that you're never supposed to make big hairstyle decisions when you are under a lot of stress?

FLEA'S CALL:  The style actually looks better than the picture, which is good since I didn't like it when I saw the picture, but thought it didn't look too bad on her show.  The biggest surprise to me was the shorter length, especially since she had just recently cut about 8 or so inches off to get rid of the long layers she had last season.  In fact, this is the shortest Brooke has had her hair since the early  90s.  Since I prefer it longer, I hope this is the shortest she goes.  At least she kept the dark chestnut color. 

UPDATE: Just when I think I'm getting good at predicting what people will do, someone like RENE RUSSO comes along and blows me out of the water.  For as long as I can remember, Rene has worn her hair long, blonde, wavy, and, usually, center-parted (as in the "before" pictures below).  As I mentioned in the last column, in her new movie "The Thomas Crown Affair" (click to check out the official site from which I got the after pics), Rene's hair is short, straight, parted on the side, and, surprisingly, dark auburn/brown.   When her movie role has called for something different, she has donned a wig.  Thus, given that history, I had reason to believe that's what she did this time. 

And I would be very wrong.

Before
 

After

Much to my surprise, Renee indeed has lopped off about a foot or so of those blonde waves and returned to the neighborhood of her natural color.

FLEA'S CALL:  I've always thought Rene was a very attractive woman and that she had beautiful hair.  The caveat to that statement would be that those are two separate things.  In other words, I loved her hair, just didn't love it on her...though I had difficulty deciding quite why.  The color was fine, and though she almost always had roots to some degree or another, it still looked good.  The waves were great and the length seemed OK.  The only thing I could really point to was that the center part didn't exactly work for her.  Seeing the new 'do finally made several things click.

The new color is great.  To me at least, it very distinctly shows that Rene spent too many years as a blonde...and that has nothing to do with my thing for brunettes.   The shorter style makes her neck look longer, another feature that I wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't gotten the cut.  Plus, it's simply a great length on her, though she could probably let it grow out some if she so desired. As for the styling, she's wearing the cut styled straight, but I think it would look just as good if she let her natural waves do their thing.  And, in a vindication of the one thing I DID get right, the side part DOES make a big difference.

Caught a glimpse of REBECCA GAYHEART at the premiere of "Austin Powers" and it appears that she's already beginning to reclaim her lost curls.  Her hair was up, but was definitely pulled back in a semi-French Twist.  If it's long enough for that, then it's definitely getting longer.  Further evidence comes from one of the side shots of her in the audience at the MTV Movie Awards and photos from the arrivals, in which it appears to be back to shoulder-length (which you can see in the picture).  You'll be able to tell for sure this fall when she shows up on ABC in her new series "Wasteland" v  If you remember a few columns ago, I reported on the twin sister country act, JENNIFER and HEATHER KINLEY and that, though they both started out with very long (as in 6-8 inches below the shoulders) hair, Jennifer had been going progressively shorter over the last year.  Well, Heather still has the very long hair, but Jennifer's is now more in the vicinity of a long version of Sharon Stone's cut or the old choppier Meg Ryan bed head 'do.  Looks fantastic on her; very flattering. As for Heather that's one cool thing about being a twin: if your sister changes her hairstyle, the you get a great idea of how it would look on you without having to do anything. J

Well, after continuing to monitor The Amazing Hair Growth Phenomenon, it looks like LIV TYLER's hair didn't grow quite as much as first thought.  Either she cut it (doubtful) or those were indeed extensions (likely).  I think the shaggish style looks kinda cute on her, but still love her long hair the best v Happened to catch PRISCILLA GARITA (Gabi on "Sunset Beach") the other day and noticed she is STILL growing her hair after last summer's major crop (look for the original story in the September '98 issue of JFCHS, coming soon to an archive near you).  It's now grown to a layered chin-length bob that looks pretty cute.  I guess she must have REALLY hated the pixie  v JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT showed up at the Blockbuster Awards (which will be televised sometime this month) with her hair back to it's natural dark brown color, eliminating the blonde highlights I reported on last month.  She also had some bangs remaining from her recently completed movie role as Audrey Hepburn.  Oddly, she also appeared to be wearing extensions.  I know she didn't cut her hair short to play Audrey, but it is cut to right at shoulder-length (which was evident on the MTV Movie Awards in the picture at right). 

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