Beauty Exclusive: Ursula Stephen
Beauty Exclusive: BET Beauty Lounge with Rihanna's Stylist | Ursula Stephen
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Rih's Hot Hair Hype - <b>Ursula Stephen</b>, one of the fiercest stylists in the game right now, is the hair maven responsible for Rihanna’s envy-worthy cuts and eye-popping color.<BR><BR>She exclusively dished to BET.com about how Rihanna became an overnight red-haired rock star, the products she uses to keep her tresses healthy, and the duo’s inspiration. Take a peek.
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Wild Child - Shock value is not really the goal with Rihanna’s hair. It really comes natural for us. It just happens to have a wow factor. We don’t put that much thought into it to try to “outdo” ourselves. We’re both wild and crazy and like to try new things. It’s just us being ourselves, and the plus is that we get recognized for it.
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Make Me Over - Her hair changes all of the time because we’re always doing so many things from one extreme to the next. When we did the ‘Hard’ video, it was all military-inspired. She and I pulled up a lot of hard military cuts and it was really inspired by men’s military haircuts.
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Androgynous Angel - I love to push the bar and kind of make her styles a little masculine, but at the same time show girls that you can do a cut like that and still be sexy. I always keep a little something girly in there.
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Road to Red - We lightened the hair first to get it to its lightest stage. Not really platinum blonde, but in the blonde family. I went over it with a semi-permanent called “matador red.” When you lighten the hair, it gives you the opportunity to get the true color of a semi-permanent.
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Remain Red - You want your shampoo to be a color-restorative shampoo that is going to deposit a little color while it’s shampooing. Always use products that are specifically formatted for color-treated hair because they’re going to keep your hair healthy.
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Stephen's Stock - I used an array of different products while we were on the ‘Last Girl on Earth’ tour. I used <i>L’anza Color-Preserving</i> shampoo and conditioner, and <i>Redken</i> has a great hair mask called <i>Color Extend Rich Recovery</i>.
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Stain Free - Be careful when you do a red. Use cotton around your edges so it won’t run, and rinse your hair until the water is clear.
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Tress Talk - To slick down Rihanna’s hair, I use <i>Motions Shine Enhancing Pomade</i>. It does all of my slicking and separating. I also use a glosser. <i>Ojon Glossing Mist</i> is great for color-treated hair. It coats the hair to protect it from the sun and the environmental stresses that can sometimes damage our hair.
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Changing Manes - We’re not growing her hair out, but we’re definitely playing with other lengths right now. When you have a color that bold, your cut should be a little simpler. We agreed on that and just added some more extensions.
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Style Icon - We’ve referenced Grace Jones at one point, Kate Moss at another. Our references change all of the time.
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Mimic Rih - A short cut can work for many facial shapes; you just have to find your perfect cut. If you’re an average person trying to figure it out, look through magazines and look at the styles on the people that have your same facial shape. That’s the best way to do it.
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Lush Locks - No matter what the season is, hot or cold, you should always have a great deep conditioner. The end result of any season is dryness. <i>Motions Conditioning Protein Reconstructor</i> is a great conditioning treatment.