"Beauty Shop"

SGVN

March 29, 2005

By Kyra Kirkwood

It is a tossup between the time I permed my hair into a waist-length afro in high school, and the purple mess called "chocolate burgundy" that became my hair's color in college. Either could qualify for my bad-hair-day hall of fame.

How satisfying to find out that even Hollywood's finest suffer such beauty traumas, just like the rest of us.

At a press event for MGM's latest film "Beauty Shop," with Queen Latifah, I walked in to the Regent Beverly Wilshire a little hesitant. I mean, this was a movie about getting all dolled up and beautiful, and there I was, running a hand through my freeway-whipped mane (no longer plum-colored or curly, thank you very much) on a Sunday morning, feeling anything but. Besides, I'm still emotionally scarred from my eggplant-frizz days. I knew the actresses who portrayed beauticians attended "Beauty School Boot Camp" to prepare for their roles, and this only fueled my trepidation. How could I sit in a room with Queen Latifah, Andie MacDowell, Mena Suvari, Golden Brooks, Keshia Knight Pulliam (remember little Rudy from the "Cosby Show?") and Alicia Silverstone without feeling self-conscious?

But within moments of meeting them, it became clear we were on the same page. The lush room at the famed hotel could have substituted for a hairspray-shellacked salon as talked turned away from scripts and production notes, and towards curling irons and hair wax.

All we needed was some snack food and tabloid magazines, and we'd be fit for an afternoon of show and tell at the beauty shop.

"I tried to get this California curl," said Queen Latifah. Oh! Beauty Sin Confession Time. Turn up the volume! "So she cut all my hair off, then she tried to put this curl in and the curl wouldn't take, so it's just this wave. She cut so much of my hair off I couldn't even put it into a ponytail. And I was a freshman in high school. That's not a good time to be messing with people's hair. It's a very tender age. It was rough for a month or two."

Don't I know it, honey. But you've recovered nicely. Aren't you now a new Cover Girl model? How fun to basically play beauty shop all the time.

"I'm way too low maintenance [when I'm not working]," she said, shaking her head and making her chandelier earrings jingle. "Maybe some lip gloss, some mascara or something. But it's going to be a ponytail day."

Oh (disappointment). Well, do you at least get any good stuff from Cover Girl?

"I got the hookup," she laughed. "You need something? Girl, I got you covered."

Sweet! I am running low on some lipstick, andä..

Rudely, my beauty-shop banter is interrupted by talks of (sigh) movie logistics. After more questions and answers about producing and on-set antics, we got back to the meat of the story.

So, Andie MacDowell. You've been a model for about 25 years, possess a 20-year-old's body even though you're in your late 40s and have birthed three children. And your hair never looks bad. What's the deal?

"I exercise a lot," she said in her Southern drawl that makes insults sound charming. "I do all forms of exercise. I love yoga. Bikram yoga. Lift weights. Work on my butt."

What about skin-care products? I mean, your wrinkle-less face is still seen in at least one magazine every month.

"L'Oreal, L'Oreal, L'Oreal. And a little more L'Oreal."

OK, you had to say that. Aren't you like a spokesperson for the line? I'm sure that plug doubled your bank account.

She shook her curls authoritatively. "Revitalift Nighttime Cream. It's better than La Mer. And it is. You're wasting your money [on the pricey stuff]."

What do you think, Mena Suvari, you new brunette you? (By the way, this "American Beauty" ex-blonde said she's having more fun with brown tresses. Ha! It's what I've said all along. Brunettes rule! Sorry. Sidetracked.)

"I really try to take care of myself by eating really well," she said, disregarding the fact she was born genetically blessed. "We are what we eat. I think that manifests itself on the exterior." No wonder everyone keeps calling me Skippy! That peanut-butter addiction must be painfully obvious.

Now I was inspired. As Golden Brooks, who plays the sassy Maya in UPN's "Girlfriends," weighed in on the benefits of salons, I had no choice but to ask her about her ebony waves. I've tried that style too often to count, and instead of glossy bends, I get furry kinks, as if I slept in wet braids.

Brooks animatedly showed me how to wrap chunks of my hair around a large-barreled curling iron, starting at the top and winding down. Don't brush, just finger-style when done, she instructed.

"You should do it," she said. "It would look great."

My shopping list grew: L'Oreal, a nutritionist, a large-barreled curling iron, Bikram yoga classes. Hopefully, no one would reveal a must-have beauty product I couldn't afford, because right then, I was so high on advice, I'd be apt to buy just about anything these gals recommended.

Luckily this time (lucky for my bank account, that is), conversation turned back to business, what it was like to make the movie, how to overcome obstacles, blah blah blah. I wanted the scoop on wrinkle cream to the stars! But all anyone wanted to talk about then was how much fun it was to make this "Barber Shop" spin-off.

In it, Queen Latifah (who is also a producer) plays the feisty Gina, first seen in "Barber Shop 2." Here, she's working at a posh salon run by the hated Jorge (a gut-busting performance by Kevin Baconãa casting decision that thrills Queen Latifah because now she's a "first degree of Kevin Bacon"). Finally mustering up the courage to run her own beauty shop, Gina sets examples for her young daughter and the other gals in the salon who bond, despite their differences.

"We just had so much fun from day one," said Knight Pulliam. "Then, to find everyone being just as humble and nice as they were talented, that's rare."

What's more rare is that the film, though a comedy, had a global message. No, not some world-altering moral, but a common theme. Anyone who has been inside a beauty salon knows that no topic is too taboo to discuss, no secret too dark to reveal. Inside those walls where magic takes place is an atmosphere of bonding, mystery, community, sisterhood. "Beauty Shop" exemplified that, say the stars.

"It really is like church in a way," said Brooks. "It's like fellowship. It's a place where women come and feel empowered because they're stripped of everything. It really is about communion."

Well, I say a holy "amen" and "halleluiah!" Now I know how to curl my hair, moisturize my skin and defy my age. Blessed be. Now if only I could get hooked up with some of these must-have productsä.