A bleached blonde ‘do that caused medical problems?
A disastrous beard weave?
A look inspired by… horses?
You won't believe some of these makeovers from America's Next Top Model!
Who ordered the ramen?
In Cycle 16, Molly O'Connell was inexplicably made to look like a soba dish had been tipped
over her scalp in one of the most bizarre makeovers in America's Next Top Model history.
It all started when an outside, as the show put it, "weave specialist", was brought in
to sew the behemoth bouffant to O'Connell's scalp.
Despite saying she didn't want to be the one girl who gets the crazy hairstyle, her weave
had officially flown over the cuckoo's nest by the time it was finished.
Everyone seemed to be in agreement that it was "hideous" and "ridiculous."
In their recap, Entertainment Weekly described the look as "the weave that ate Manhattan".
They worried that the "crimped tentacles" may have also "tried to strangle her" in her
sleep.
Luckily, O'Connell survived, and the entirety of New York didn't need to be evacuated due
to the threat of her Kaiju-curls.
As Fandom recounted, the "fickle" weave was so bad, adding,
"[The weave] had to be removed after only one week."
O'Connell was then free to enjoy a successful run in the competition without having to carry
a lifetime's supply of cup of noodles on her head.
Sporting a shorter and "edgier" haircut for the finale, the model won runner-up of her
season.
From one wild weave to another, Brittany Hatch's Cycle 8 crimson catastrophe was a double hit
of horror.
While the color admittedly lent the America's Next Top Model contestant a preeminent presence
in the competition, the flame-hued fright wig became dry from over-dyeing and also grew
exponentially thanks to the model's painful-looking extensions.
The ordeal of transforming Hatch's ear-length brown hair was evidently agonizing for the
model who squirmed and squealed as they were sewing it onto her scalp.
In an interview with Reality TV World, she revealed that she was constantly in pain because
they had to dye her hair at least seven times to achieve the right color.
By the time they achieved it, she said that her scalp "was sore and blistered," a situation
aggravated by throwing extensions into the fray.
The model's hair spun out of control weeks later when she didn't know how to maintain
her damaged 'do.
Tyra Banks described the parched mass as a "hamster that died on her head," and four
episodes later it was removed.
Which meant she was no longer hidden behind a mop of hair and could let her talents be
seen.
Those talents sadly included turning up late to go-sees and blaming everyone else but herself.
She was eliminated and placed fifth in the competition.
In America's Next Top Model Cycle 21, Denzel Wells experienced some next level insanity
when he received a beard weave during his makeover.
Although he was initially nervous about the procedure, he really needn't have been considering
the weave was little more than a crescent moon of fur glued to his chin.
Still, the 23-year-old was happy with what they called his "Black Lincoln" look and enthusiastically
shared he was loving himself with the beard.
Audiences, though, didn't love it.
In their recap, Vulture lamented that "people wear better-looking fake beards in fourth-grade
Nativity plays" and noted that Wells' enthusiasm for the look, quote, "made the whole endeavor
sadder."
Cosmopolitan suggested that the cheap-looking fake beard looked like it had "been fashioned
from another contestant's offcuts."
It was, to put it politely, something of a laughing stock.
Curiously, Wells' look was short-lived with Tyra Banks admitting that the shape of the
beard weave was all wrong.
Arguably, everything about the chin toupee was an affront to humanity but sure — it
was the shape that was at fault.
In Cycle 5 of America's Next Top Model, Tyra Banks took issue with Cassandra Whitehead's
"beauty queen" attitude in the judging room and decided there was only one thing for it:
Off with her hair!
Specifically, the show host wanted to chop off the Miss USA wannabe's long locks, and
replace them with a blonde pixie crop reminiscent of that worn by Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby.
Almost immediately, and for the rest of the episode, there were tears.
The radical style looked phenomenal on the model, but she was less sold on the idea that
she should act more "mod" and "edgy" with the look… something which Whitehead took
to mean that she couldn't act feminine anymore.
The model never quite found her footing with Farrow's form, so of course Banks pushed for
an extra inch and half to be cut from it.
Horrified, Whitehead walked.
"It wasn't just cutting an inch and a half of hair for me, it was the last straw in them
completely trying to change who I was."
Speaking to TV Guide after leaving the show, Whitehead defended her reality TV rebellion
by describing how her decision was about more than a makeover.
Like Rosemary having the devil's spawn forced upon her, the model felt she was being bound
by a begrudging personality transplant.
She explained,
"They wanted me to act edgy and punk and to stop being so classy.
They told me that I needed to hunch and slouch and give attitude, and I just don't think
that's respectful to other people when you walk up to someone like that.
No matter what type of image you're trying to portray."
"Ann, we decided to make you blonde."
At the very least Cassandra Whitehead's America's Next Top Model makeover looked great.
The same, sadly, cannot be said for whatever X-Men atrocity was burned into Ann Markley's
hair in Cycle 3.
Ever the optimist, the Pennsylvanian model sat in her salon chair enthusing about what
it might be like to be blonde.
"I'm very open minded about it.
I hate short hair on me"
The look in and of itself isn't exactly terrible, and in 2020 the style surprisingly became
a modern trend with stars like Kylie Jenner and Dua Lipa rocking chunky highlights with
poise.
Arguably, the problem was that the awkward combination of the shoulder-length cut with
severe blonde streaks did not totally fit Markley's face.
The model's labored hair stood in stark contrast to her easygoing, girl-next-door features,
encasing her stunning features with as much delicacy as a Lego picture frame around the
Mona Lisa.
Having finished a respectable fourth in the competition, the contestant changed her name
to Annalaina Marks and has enjoyed a thriving modeling career since.
As her Wilhelmina agency portfolio and Instagram account both showcase, the model has continuously
been at her best when her chocolate brown hair is allowed to flow long.
When it is framing her features without unnecessary fuss and distracting blocks of blonde.
"Michelle, we think that you have a very ethereal look, so we're gonna make you ice blonde girl."
Making a transition to blonde is no easy feat.
The bleaching process can be painful and damaging, and the after-care necessitates all manner
of lotions and potions to defend it against becoming a flavescent husk.
In America's Next Top Model Cycle 4, poor Michelle Deighton experienced every step of
this agonizing process during her makeover.
During the bleaching stage, the professional wrestler was in so much agony that she was
visibly shaking.
However, she was later ecstatic with the end result, saying,
"They put me through hell but I'm loving it now."
Right away, the tone appeared a little brassy and, even for all the makeup, it left her
looking washed out.
Sadly, those issues continued for the rest of the season.
On top of struggling with the stress of the competition, Deighton also developed impetigo,
a bacterial skin infection which left sores on her forehead and chin.
All the while, her yellowing hair looked like it wasn't receiving the much-needed attention
it needed.
Her washed out look only highlighted her distressed dermis and left the model feeling insecure
about whether she even belonged in the competition.
Her lack of confidence and lackluster look may have held her back, and she finished sixth.
Who said blondes have more fun?
Spare a thought for poor Marvita Washington of America's Next Top Model Cycle 10, a woman
who looked at the beauty supplies beside her in the salon and assumed they weren't for
her.
Alas not.
As Tyra Banks explained in the episode, she had a crazed plan for the model's mane — a
horse inspired look.
The ANTM host suggested she "kind of invented" the look as she'd never seen it before in
her life.
There may have been a sound reason for why the "horse man hair weave" hadn't been a huge
trend prior to this moment, however.
The equine inspired Tennessee top hat was an acquired taste, to say the least.
Opinion was divided as to whether the look was less of a win and more of a whinny, with
Ranker suggesting the hairdo looked "less like a majestic pony" and more like "a mullet
from the golden age of glam metal."
On the contrary, Entertainment Weekly, suggested the style, quote, "totally rocks" and agreed
with Washington's assertion that it made her look more feminine.
The oddball look certainly suited the model's out-there personality, but the bold aesthetic
arguably inhibited her performance options when it came to photo shoots and styling.
Washington's horse fell at the fifth hurdle and she was eliminated, placing tenth overall.
Presumably her hair was put out to pasture not long afterwards.
When Saleisha Lashawn Stowers received her strange avant-garde makeover, the America's
Next Top Model Cycle 9 contestant proved her power as a model by absolutely owning the
unusual concave crop.
Inspired by the radical bob of silent film star Louise Brooks, the look was arguably
more of a riff on the cool-girl bowl cuts of Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O and
British model Agyness Deyn.
Either way, it was an insanely difficult cut to pull off without looking like something
her mom had done for her at home with a mixing bowl and a set of craft scissors.
Not that the internet has ever appreciated that fact.
Despite winning the competition with what Mashable once described as "a sad mushroom,"
the cut has long been the subject of various memes.
Countless of which have compared Stowers' look to that of Dora the Explorer, while one
on Reddit jokingly compared the look to Octavia Spencer's odd hair in the horror thriller,
Ma.
Upon winning the coveted Top Model prize, Stowers received criticism that she had too
much prior modeling experience to even compete in ANTM.
However, the model played down her previous experiences and suggested that the judges
were actually a little harder on her because of it.
Throwing a strange Ringo Starr special on her mop top was certainly a potential obstacle
that she managed to overcome with style.
"I'm America's Next Top Model baby!
Ahh!!"
The good thing about hair makeovers is that no matter how bad the chop, it always has
the chance to grow back.
For America's Next Top Model Cycle 15's Chelsey Hersley, her makeover was a lot more drastic,
permanent, and baffling.
The model was asked to get the gap in her teeth widened for the competition, and like
a good Top Model she sat in the dentist's chair and let him shave off a quarter of a
millimeter from her front teeth.
Entertainment Weekly pondered that the shocking change made her resemble comedian Dennis Leary,
but applauded her "can-do attitude," which was still evident following the show.
In an interview with Digital Spy, Hersley suggested the aesthetic procedure was no biggie
and she trusted it would help her career.
She said,
"I didn't even blink an eye about it.
You can barely tell the difference."
All that teeth chiseling, and Hersley only placed runner-up.
But arguably, that wasn't the most shocking part of the story.
Just four years earlier, Tyra Banks had criticized Cycle 7 contestant Dani Evans for having the
same gap in her teeth, and for refusing to receive dental work on the show to change
it.
The Victoria's Secret Angel challenged her decision by asking,
"Do you really think you can have a CoverGirl contract with a gap in your mouth?"
Years later, she arguably answered the question for Hersley — and that answer was still
no.
Only this time, she'd recommended the look.
Upon entering Cycle 14 of the competition, Brenda Arens' stunning red mane was, as she
put it herself, one of her "best assets."
So of course, the America's Next Top Model goon squad of the makeover room took a sharp
razor to the devastated model's hair with feverish delight.
Tyra Banks explained that the long hair made the model look "too sexy," while Jay Manuel
asserted that it made her look "a little older" than she was.
Arens christened the inoffensive pixie cut with her own tears, but that wasn't the end
of the makeover.
Later, she was given a side-buzz undercut in an "80s pop style" which was so unflattering
that her delighted competitors were watching the cut with victorious passion.
Arens said of her fellow models,
"They're probably thinking, 'Oh yeah, my competition is not my competition any more.'"
She continued to receive criticism that she was "looking old" in her pictures, and she
placed eighth upon elimination.
Damningly, Arens told Reality TV World that the hairstyle only worsened the issue, saying,
"Short hair matures you a couple years.
I hate to say this [...] but I feel like I was set up."
Meanwhile, Manuel countered to Entertainment Weekly, that it wasn't the hair that was bad,
but the model's attitude to it.
He suggested,
"She would've gone further in the competition if she had gotten over the emotional attachment
to her hair."
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