'Shear Genius': Orange You Glad You Asked?

After watching Shear Genius tonight, I am definitely re-thinking what I tell the woman who cuts my hair. Because if I am anywhere near as high-maintenance as some of this week's clients, I want to go straight out the window. Zoe, from now on, do whatever you want.

This week's short cut challenge is a -- wait for it -- short cut. As in, take your client's hair from long to short. The added fun is that Daniel, who won immunity last week, not only gets to choose his client first, but he gets to pick the order of his competitors. And he's very upset by that. I have to get this out: Daniel's gonna be annoying. He still reminds me of Project Runway's Kayne, but much less funny and far more histrionic. Not that this needs to be said, but in a street fight between him and Charlie, my money's totally on Charlie. And Daniel, if you're "not that competitive," why are you on a competition show? Sorry; you seem like a nice guy, but I had to ask.

So as our brave stylists take their clients -- some with fine, straight hair, some with frizzy thick hair, some with a lot of breakage -- they're interrupted by the arrival of this week's guest judge: Tabatha, a.k.a. last season's Resident Evil. Tabatha obviously knows her stuff, and challenges them to impress her. Then she goes down the line and insults pretty much everyone's haircut. Nicole, with her dark, adorable china-doll cut, and Charlie, with his super-short Mia Farrow cut, are singled out. Charlie's client didn't know exactly what she was in for, since she didn't know who Mia Farrow was. Oh dear. Anyway, Charlie wins.

After an evening of drinking and complaining about Tabatha, the peeps wake up the next morning to a clue in the kitchen about oranges in the county. And I cannot believe, given the crossover on Bravo, that it takes them more than 30 seconds to figure out that they'd be working on the Real Housewives of Orange County. Or, as Charlie says, "Oh my God -- Armageddon."

The challenge is to create a new look or style that best represents their vision or meets the client's expectations. Yeah. Because these ladies are so used to compromising and not getting exactly what they want.

Paulo gets Vicki, and right off the bat not only does he want to -- let's be honest -- smack her, but so does everyone else (myself included). Maybe it's because she keeps leaping up and inserting herself in between Meredith, who's working on Briana, Vicki's daughter, or because she's so completely inflexible when it comes to her own head. Or maybe both. Either way, Vicki ends up with pretty much the exact same style, with just the ends trimmed. The stylists end up giving the ladies champagne -- a brilliant idea if I've ever heard one.

Gail clearly has the biggest problem here. Her client, Kimberly, has had a bad experience with hair extensions and cuts and flatly tells Gail that she will not be cutting her hair today. Which is a shame, because there are at least three inches off the bottom that look like my childhood Barbie's stringy mess after I accidentally left her out in the rain. So Gail tries to make it work with color and styling -- and not to great effect. The look on Jaclyn Smith's face is priceless. And speaking of Jaclyn Smith, why does no one ever think to give a client her haircut? She always looks rockin'.

Parker's got another big problem. His client, Tammy, has colored her own hair a deep black, and he doesn't really know what he's doing with color. So he goes even darker and gives her a heavy fringe across her forehead that does virtually nothing to flatter her face. Rookie mistake, says Kim Vo when judging time comes around. And other ladies in the group clearly suffer from blonderexia -- you go on with your bad self, Kim Vo. I like it.

On the good side, Charlie rocks Kara's hair, creating good bangs, movement and shine -- totally age appropriate for a young woman, and she looks great. Dee did a nice job on McKenzie (Lauri's step-daughter), though she did leave her with a dark blonde stripe -- her "signature lowlight" -- which I'm ashamed to say resembled a hair mistake I made in the mid-'90s. And Glenn ends up with Tamara, the newest Housewife and self-proclaimed sex kitten. Oh brother. In the end, Charlie wins -- and deservedly so.

As the judges are figuring out who goes, Daniel starts to cry. Seriously. The guy's safe, but he's creating drama. Quit your crying buddy. Again, to quote Charlie: "I know  you want to win best supporting actor, but reeeeallly." In the end, Tammy's dark color and severe cut send Parker home.

What did you think? If you were a stylist, would Tamara scare you, or would you talk back too? Do you think Charlie should've swept the challenges? Do you question why they keep sending these stylists clients who don't want to change anything (even though that happens all the time in real life)?

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