Living vicariously through celebrity hairdresser Robert Hallowell, I managed to catch him via cell literally minutes after he had just spent close to three hours painstakingly blow drying, flat ironing, curling, clipping, unclipping, finger picking, pinning and spraying the long chocolate brown tresses of Mary Louise Parker into a fun, flirty and fabulous half up/down do for the Golden Globe Awards. 

(Image of Mary Louise Parker (r) with Adam Duritz (l) at 62nd Annual Golden Globe Awards - NBC Universal Photo/Chris Haston - 2005 - all rights reserved).

I could not believe my luck.  I asked Robert if his hands and wrists hurt from hours of marathon hairstyling.  “No, he replied, but I burnt one of my fingers on my curling iron”.  But hey, isn’t that a very small price to pay for creating a Golden Celebrity hair moment?

That's Show Business

Actually it is just all in the business of being a celebrity hairdresser for Robert who has been coiffing an amazing array of famous stars for various Hollywood award shows like the Golden Globes and Academy Awards for years.  Robert pointed out “creating spectacular styles for the Red Carpet is a very carefully planned and timed activity”.  After all, besides having their strands coiffed into Red Carpet worthy styles, the stars have to juggle visits from fashion designers, make-up experts and famous jewelers with borrowed baubles for the evening.  Being ready for limo pickup requires precision planning akin to military maneuvers.

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Robert has known Mary Louise Parker for many years.  He has also been styling her hair off and on for the past year. Not only does he adore her personally, he’s had lots of experience working with her tresses.  Over time he’s learned what works best with her strands and how to create styles that dove tail with Mary Louise’s personal tastes.  Of course every hairstyle has to be designed to showcase the gown that has been carefully selected. 

Matching Tresses To Gown

Ahhh yes.  The gown.  So what was Mary Louise wearing and how did Robert get inspiration about what type of hairstyle to create to compliment it? Mary Louise was resplendent in a stunning pale pink champagne Armani silk gown with beautiful spaghetti straps crossing seductively across the back.  The star, while looking at her gown with Robert mentioned “she felt like wearing her hair up”.  Because the Golden Globes tends to be “less formal and more fun” according to Robert, it was agreed to create an up/down hairstyle that was dressy, but with a definite hint of fun and flirty.

Tying together the influence of the Armani, the fun and playfulness of the event along with Mary Louise’s attitude, Robert decided to go with a half up/half down do with sexy volume along the crown for the up part and heavily deconstructed curls for the down part.  He also kept in mind that the star was wearing gold jewelry with gorgeous white and yellow diamonds.

I asked Robert if he and Mary Louise looked at some photos for ideas or whether they actually did a hairstyling dress rehearsal.  “Not really, since it was very clear that she wanted a fun and playful look for her sleek gown and wanted her hair, in some sort of updo style”.

Let The Hairstyling Begin

So what time did the hairstyling events begin? Robert Hallowell arrived at Mary Louise Parker’s hotel at approximately 11:45 am where the gorgeous brunette star met him with damp hair that had been freshly washed with Robert Hallowell Shine Booster Shampoo and then conditioned with matching Shine Booster Conditioner.

Mary Louise’s current hair, according to Robert, is “dark dark brown, slightly wavy and curly and cascades halfway down her back”.  I asked Robert if any hair extensions had been used.  “No need, he replied, because he "was able to create tons of volume with the  styling products and curling techniques he used”. 

So what was the next step towards Golden Globe hair nirvana? The next thing that Robert did was apply a liberal amount of Love That Shine Treatment Elixir  to Mary Louise’s damp strands.  Robert mentioned that to be precise he used “a glob that was about the size of a 50 cent piece”.  He applied it to Mary Louise’s strands using his fingers to distribute well.