Need a little date night makeover? We went to LA-based celebrity stylist, Chris Greene, to get the DIY on the most coveted star looks on the red carpet. Channel some inspo for your next evening on the town.
The Stylemaker: Jennifer Lopez
Rocking similar looks: Amy Schumer, Gina Rodriguez, Emmy Rossum, Zendaya, Brie Larson
Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage/Getty Images.
- On damp hair, use oil on the ends to smooth and shine, and a volume spray on the roots to help build height and give texture and fullness.
- Dry locks upside down until they’re about 80% dry, then finish with a round brush to give hair some height at the crown and smoothness at the ends.
- Curl hair with a 1-inch or 1 1/4-inch curling iron away from your face. Clip the mids and ends of the curls so they cool in that shape. When finished curling, remove clips and brush out curls until they’re almost gone and you’re left with a soft bend at the ends.
- Part locks deep on one side and tuck behind your ear.
- Finish with hairspray and you’re ready to rock. For a curlier look, pin curls, cool and comb out with a wide tooth comb.
The Stylemaker: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
Rocking similar looks: Kate Hudson, Taraji P. Henson, Amy Adams, Uzo Aduba, Melissa McCarthy
Left: Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage. Right: Photo by Alberto Rodriguez/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images.
- On damp hair, apply oil at ends for shine and volumizer at your roots for lift and volume. Blow dry upside down until your hair is completely dry, finish by smoothing out your ends with a round brush.
- Round brush your crown and set with a large roller.
- Part your hair in the center. Take tresses in sections starting at the bottom and curl away from your face with a 1-inch curling iron. Work your way up the head curling away from the face.
- Take out the roller at your crown and curl that as well. Give each section of curled hair a light tug to loosen it and make it look more effortless and undone.
- When finished, comb through the curls with a wide-tooth comb. Finish with some texture spray and shake the curls out with your fingers. Spritz with hairspray and you’re done! Easy and so sexy!
The Stylemaker: Lily James
Rocking similar looks: Olivia Wilde (with a low ponytail) or Julianne Moore
Left: Photo by Kevork Djansezian/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images. Right: Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images.
- On damp hair, apply oil at your ends for shine and volumizer at your roots for lift and volume. Blow dry upside down until your hair is completely dry, then finish by smoothing out your ends with a round brush. Also round brush your crown and set with a large roller.
- Part your hair in the center. Starting at the nape of your neck, take 1 1/2-inch sections and bend the hair with a 1-inch flatiron, moving down the hair in an “s” shape. This creates a loose wave. You want to move slowly and with not a lot of tension, back and forth in that “s” shape all the way down the strands. The sections will have a slight bend and undone feel. Keep moving up the head. You don’t have to be too fussy with the underneath sections, as most of it gets covered by the next layer of hair.
- On top, smooth out your root with a flatiron and then bend the hair from the eye level down into the “s”shape. Remember to use light tension so you don’t leave dents in the hair.
- Tease your crown and smooth the hair over the volume you’ve created.
- Spray waves with a dry texture spray and finger comb them. Then hairspray all over to tame flyaways.
The Stylemaker: Katy Perry
Rocking similar looks: Pretty much no one
Left: Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images. Right: Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic.
- On damp hair, apply oil at your ends for shine and volumizer (moose, volumizing gel, spray, lotion, anything for volume) at your roots for lift and volume. Blow dry upside down until your hair is completely dry, finish by smoothing out your ends with a round brush. Also round brush your crown and set with a large roller.
- Make sure to blow dry your fringe section forward over your forehead so that when you part your hair in the center, it looks almost like a sexy curtain parting open to show your eyes.
- Spray hair with a light hold hair spray and curl 2-inch sections with a 1-inch iron away from your face.
- Once everything is curled spray with a dry texture spray for grit and volume. Finger tousle.
- Katy was heard on the red carpet saying she used an actual bumpit to give her that ’60s height! You could use a bumpit or hair accessory from the beauty supply store that is made to create height at the crown — some are foam, plastic or Velcro. Otherwise, use a strong hold hairspray and tease about 4 or 5 half-inch sections at the crown of your head to create a cushion, then smooth some hair from the front of that voluminous cushion over the teased bit to create that smooth high bump. Spray the hair with shine spray followed by a strong hold spray to keep everything in place.
“The overall mood of the hair this year was pretty refined, polished, sleek and, for the most part simple,” says Chris Greene, an LA-based celebrity hairstylist. “We saw a lot of ’60s influences, waves were a little more tame and up-do’s had a real elegance to them.”
The Stylemaker: Lady Gaga
Rocking a similar look: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Left and right: Photo by Paul Archuleta/Getty Images.
- On damp hair, apply a volumizing mouse and blow dry upside down until about 80% dry, then finish drying the rest with a round brush.
- Curl dry locks with a 1-inch curling iron downward. (Think old-school curling iron set, like the way you used to see your grandmother set her hair in rollers.) Pin each curl to your head after it comes off the iron so that it can cool, and set in that shape. At the front of your head, your bang section, curl all of your hair in the same direction. Say you’re pushing your hair to the right, roll all your curling iron sections under, toward the right.
- After curls are pinned and cooled down, maybe 10 to 15 minutes, remove pins and brush with a bore bristle brush — or mine and most stylists’ fave, a Mason Pearson brush. Continue brushing over and over for a solid 2 to 3 minutes. Don’t be scared, the curls won’t come out, unless you have baby fine straight hair, than maybe this vintage style isn’t the best fit for your hair type, but I digress…
- Once hair has been brushed to submission, shape it. Curls will want to wrap on themselves, and with some fine tuning and manipulation of the waves, they will start to take on this Old Hollywood shape. Use clips and hairspray along the way to hold this classic Marilyn Monroe- type style in place. It definitely takes some practice, but totally do-able!
The Stylemaker: Jennifer Lawrence
Rocking a similar look: Kirsten Dunst, America Ferrera
Left and right: Photo by George Pimentel/WireImage.
The DIY
- Start with smooth, clean or semi-clean hair, spray with some dry texture spray, so it has a little grit and manageability.
- Create a deep side part like Jennifer Lawrence, an off-center part like Kirsten Dunst or slick it all back like America Ferrera.
- Pull back locks, secure with an elastic and then, twist, braid or create a chignon and secure in place with hair pins.
- You can really do a number of things in the back: 1) bundle up a few braids and pin in place, 2) gather a couple of buns together, or 3) twists pins to one another. Anything goes! Finish with a spray of shine spray and then a firm hold spray and, voila, finished!
The Stylemaker: Gina Rodriguez
Rocking a similar look: Amy Schumer
Left: Photo by Christopher Polk/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images. Right: Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images.
The DIY
- Start by blowing out the hair like the JLo instructions above, then choose whether you want no part, side part or center part.
- Tease some of the hair at your crown and below to add volume and create a cushion to put your bobby pins into. Smooth hair over your teased portion to cover it up.
- Gather the hair from in front of your ears and pull it back, securing it with a couple of bobby pins at the center of your head just below your crown in the back. Cross the pins to help keep them secure and locked in place.
- Take the hair from the top of your head and hairline and pull that all back, creating the half-up look. You can position the hair any way you like, to the side, all flowing back, or a part if you like, bring that hair to meet the other sections you have pinned back and secure those in place as well. The thing with a half-up look is that it’s okay to see some pins, just try your best to make the top look like it was softly pulled back, not too tight and not too fussy.
- Finish with shine spray and strong hold hairspray to keep tresses on point.
CHRIS’ PRO TIP: Do the Twist
Try these two fast, simple ways to add instant glam.
Rooney Mara. Photo by George Pimentel/WireImage/Getty Images.
BRAID. Pull hair half up, pulling the top half back and softly braiding the mids and ends of that hair. Secure with a small clear elastic and let fall over the bottom looks still loose. Tug on the braid to loosen and make it look more fluffy and effortless. So romantic!
TWIST. Pull hair into a sleek low ponytail then twist the hair tightly until it winds back up onto itself. Secure the twisted knot over the base of your ponytail with bobby pins. Finish with shine spray and hair spray. So chic and with minimal effort!