Makeover: Wild About Waves

"My hair is the bane of my existence," wrote Kathy Torrence, a 35-year-old mother of three (ages 10, 5, and 2) from Pitman, New Jersey. "No matter how much time I spend on it, it always looks kinky, fuzzy, and messy!"

We took Kathy to New York City's Elizabeth Arden Red Door Salon (212-546-0200), where she hoped to stamp out her curls for good with a chemical straightener. But once there, stylist Lee Hairston had a better idea. A straightener would last only a few months and ran the risk of leaving her hair damaged and dry, especially since she also colors her hair. Kathy heeded his advice, instead opting for a better cut and submitting to a lesson on how to coax her curls into a manageable style that was more wavy and ultra shiny. She was thrilled by the end result. "My new cut is so much easier to style. I never though I could love my hair this much!" said Torrence.

Here's how it all happened:

"Kathy's cut is too poofy at the bottom, which makes her face look too narrow," observed Hairston. His first move was to trim a few inches and add face-framing layers. Hairston then blew her hair dry with a brush, explaining, "To ensure hair won't frizz, it's crucial to get it bone dry before you re-curl and style it." The next steps -- applying smoothing serum and curling random pieces with an iron -- helped calm her curls and better shape her hair. As a finishing touch, Hairston broke up her curls with his fingers. Total styling time? Only 20 minutes, just five minutes longer than busy Kathy had normally spent on her hair.

Kathy hadn't found time to color her hair in a year, and her roots extended halfway down her head, so colorist Blanca Valladares decided to add highlights around the crown to brighten Kathy's eyes and make her roots less noticeable. Then Valladares added darker lowlights on the underside of Kathy's hair to flatter her complexion and tone down her existing color. "I made the highlights a little bit chunky," explained Blanca, "so they can be seen through the curls." She then added lowlights on the bottom of Kathy's hair for more dimension.

Makeup artist Barbara Ann Vesely zeroed in on the dark circles under Kathy's eyes. She applied concealer under Kathy's eyes to counteract the shadows and on her lids to even out their tone before applying eye makeup. To emphasize Kathy's lips, Vesely used Elizabeth Arden Color Intrigue lipstick in Flirt, a lively pink shade.