Shear Genius 3 - Guest Judge Harry Josh

Introduction

Image Of Harry Josh

There are so many layers to Shear Genius 3 (SG3). Of course there are the two challenges in each episode. The first challenge is the Short Cut challenge which is like a pop quiz for hairdressing.

It throws the still remaining hair stylists into a flurry of cutting, coloring, designing and styling which all takes places in the span of two hours.

Added to the mix of the unknown is the introduction of different celebrity hairstylists as the judge. Many of the celebrity hairdressers are awe inspiring hair icons who could make their own peers nervous. Imagine what their presence can do to the competitors.

Such was the case with the announcement of Episode 4's celebrity judge, Harry Josh. Not only is Harry an iconic celebrity hairdresser, he has a big personality. He is bursting with energy and experience in the world of hair.

Harry was a wonderful selection as a guest judge. My only disappointment was that he did not stay for the entire show and only judged the Short Cut Challenge which involved integrating flowers into a custom designed hairstyle on one of the female models.

Who Is Harry Josh?

Image Of Brig Shear Genius 3 Contestant

As SG3 hairstylist Brig said to the camera "Uh yeah, Harry Josh just walked in. He's a huge editorial stylist. You may know of this really small model he does named Giselle. This man knows good work." Indeed Brig had her facts right about Harry.

Harry Josh hails from Vancouver, Canada and before his freelance career took off, Harry was doing double duty as a celebrity hairdresser and casting director for Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton.

Harry is represented by the most prestigious agency, Jedroot, which includes some of the top celebrity hairdressers in the world.

Harry Josh Editorial Work

Harry's days are filled doing editorial work for such magazines as Harper's Bazaar, Numéro, British Vogue, GQ, Allure, Teen Vogue and V Magazine. The balance of his time is spent between New York City and Los Angeles (Serge Normant for John Frieda Salon) where he works a few days a month with private clients.

Harry has worked with the top photographers in the fashion industry including Patrick Demarchelier, Annie Leibovitz, Carter Smith, Nino Munoz, Miles Aldridge, Stephane Sednoui, Gilles Bensimon and Walter Chin amongst others.

Harry has appeared on many national and international daytime television programs including "Oprah" and is fast becoming a regular on "The Today Show."

Harry's Work With Gisele And Other Supermodels

Image Of Giselle

He has also worked on international advertising campaigns ranging from Zara, Anne Klein, Max Factor, Ralph Lauren, Maybelline, Bulgari to the Got Milk campaign.

Harry has touched the heads of Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Natalie Portman, Hillary Swank, Fergie, Reese Witherspoon, Renee Zellweger, Ali Larter, Al Pacino, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Hartnett, Leonardo DeCaprio, and supermodels Christy Turlington, Helena Christensen and, his number one client, Gisele Bundchen.

To view additional work by Harry Josh visit www.harryjosh.com

Harry Josh Judging In Short Cuts On SG3

I really enjoyed watching Harry as a celebrity judge on SG 3 because he seemed to really engage with all of the hairstylists. Maybe I liked him as a guest judge because he not only shared his opinions openly, I agreed with just about everything he had to say.

Although he expressed his true opinions, he wasn't rude, cutting or mean. He was actually funny, charming and showed compassion when he was dealing with Adee.

Harry laid the ground rules for how he was going to judge. He told them at the beginning of the Short Cuts challenge "I've used flowers on multiple shoots and I think the most important thing I can tell all of you guys is to think smart. It can go cheesy very quickly."

Warnings To Be Careful

Image Of Adee's Finished Model Flower Challenge Shear Genius 3

Indeed, some of the designs did turn out cheesy although Harry did warn the stylists to be careful.

During the two hours while the stylists were working on their models Harry visited each of them to ask about their visions. He told Brig her cornrow designs sounded "very interesting" but he pointed out "I hope you have enough time."

Harry also visited Jon and confirmed Jon's vision of working colored bang extensions into the model's hair as a flower.

When Adee explained his goals for cutting in waves and doing an undercut Harry said "you better get cracking. That's a big tall order."

Harry seemed impressed with April and said "oh, this is actually color happening at the same time?" when she explained she was piecing together flowers while doing color processing.

As he made his way through the room he told Brian about his facial mud mask hairstyle base "wow this is looking really interesting" and told him "to keep working.

Harry also told the hairstylists to "impress him". He also said "some of your are and some of you aren't".

Image Of Janine Jarmon's Model Shear Genius 3 Flower Short Cut

The Judging

Harry's voting was fair and reasonable. He told Matthew he loved how when he started putting the orange petals around the head "it was clean all the way around."

However, he told Matthew "I was hoping you were going to use a smaller amount. It became very big. I think it wasn't the best flower choice for you." Matthew said "I think that's totally valid."

Although facial mud mask sounded a little crazy, it turned out to be a winner for Brian. Harry said "I liked the burst of color, I thought the clay was genius. No product would have given you that texture and I loved that her head became part of the bud of the flower. Simple, chic and really nice looking."

Harry Gave Kudos To April And Amy

Harry also liked April's final look as well as Amy's. He liked the fuzz Amy built into the hair and told her the top of the flower looked like "a Philip Tracey hat on the London runway."

Harry didn't like Jon's purple color choice which he said "at the end of the day the color choice hurt you." He told Jon "purples are very tricky to make it look expensive and chic and cool. Because it's so purple it was very costume-y.

Janine Jarman won initial good remarks from Harry who said "it was nice to see a little burst of color" but then he said when the model turned to the side he said "it could easily be a drag queen's hairstyle."

Brig lost points because as Harry pointed out, she ran out of time and didn't get the flowers imbedded throughout the entire hairstyle. Indeed, it appeared that Brig became consumed with braiding and cornrowing to the point she lost her focus and took on more than the time allotted for her to do.

Final Results

Image Of Brian's Finished Model Flower Challenge Shear Genius 3

Harry said that the two hairstyles he was least impressed with were Adee and Jon.

Adee lost for his yellow and red daisy do. Harry told Adee to stop beating himself up but that the flowers he chose were "the flowers, the colors, were just not great. They looked really cheap. It wasn't that well executed. There were a lot of elements that just didn't really happen."

Of course Adee did not handle the loss well and had a bit of a meltdown when his hair design was criticized.

April and Brian were Harry's pick for the top two designs. Brian won for his original facial mud mask hairstyle.

Harry told Brian what he really liked was that "you stuck to your guns. You finished really quickly, it was simple, it was chic. You pulled it off with flying colors. I thought it was great."

Social Media Network Information

Please follow me on Twitter at: http://Twitter.com/HairBoutique. I look forward to meeting new people from all walks of Twitter and learning from their Tweets. Visit us at Hairboutique.com located at: http://www.HairBoutique.com, on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

Thank you for visiting us at The HairBoutique Blog and for leaving your comments. They are very much appreciated. We apologize in advance but must remove any direct advertisements or solicitations.

- Revised Publication Date: 11/01/10

Send this page to a friend..

If you want to talk more about this or other hair care articles on HairBoutique.com or anywhere else, please post a message on HairBoutique.com's Hair Talk Forums.

Social Media Network Information

Please follow us on Twitter at: https://Twitter.com/HairBoutique. I look forward to meeting new people from all walks of Twitter and learning from their Tweets.