Beauty News: Shear Genius Week 1

Are any of you watching the, well, genius that is Shear Genius on Bravo? Hosted by Jaclyn Smith -- yes, she of Charlie's Angels fame -- the show is the channel's latest answer to the Make Me a Supermodel / Project Runway / Work Out phase. This is seriously one of the best hours of television I've watched in a really long time.

Since last Wednesday was the first episode of the season, we spent a lot of time getting to know the contestants. They are:

Charlie -- a 38-year-old snarky guy from Denver, CO
Daniel -- a hilarious 28-year-old from Dallas, TX
Dee -- a punk-rock-esque 37-year-old from Miami, FL
Gail -- one of the babies of the bunch at 25 years old, she hails from Columbus, OH
Glenn -- a 36-year-old from Decatur, AL
Matthew -- 37 years old from Dallas, TX
Meredith -- a 36-year-old Barbie look-a-like from Chicago, IL
Nekisa -- 29 years old from Concord, CA
Nicole -- another young'un at 24 years old, she's from NYC
Oshun -- 31 years old from Los Angeles, CA
Parker -- age unknown! (diva much?) He's from West Palm Beach, FL
Paulo -- 37 years old from San Jose, CA

We also spent some time learning about the judges, who include renowned colorist Kim Vo! (Side note -- if he ever colored this beauty chick's hair, I think I would die of happiness.) Kim and Jaclyn filled the contestants in on the happenings for each week -- which include two challenges (a Short Cut Challenge, which tests technical hairstyling skills, and the Elimination Challenge, which tests creativity and advanced skills), a hair show, and an eventual elimination.

Rather than let the stylists coast in week one, the challenges started off at a high level of difficulty. For the Short Cut Challenge, each stylist was required to cut hair blindfolded. As in, good luck not only making a cut even but not cutting yourself in the process! (Miraculously, only one stylist ended up cutting himself with the scissors.) The elimination challenge was to take cartoon characters like Marge Simpson and Betty Boop and recreate their styles, but to make them much more wearable.

Standouts from this week are definitely Dee, who won the Short Cut Challenge, and Daniel, whose sense of humor and fabulousness with the scissors will definitely create some much-needed hilarity this season!

Booted off the first week was Oshun -- and thank goodness, because if he had stayed any longer I would have screamed. He was seriously cocky and had a bigger ego than I've ever seen in a stylist. And let's just say this -- his work definitely did not merit such an ego. So, goodbye to Oshun, and good luck to the rest of the contestants this season!

Shear Genius is on Wednesdays at 10pm on Bravo.