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Hairy Competition on Bravo’s “Shear Genius”

The most recent addition to Bravo’s family of creative profession-based reality shows, Shear Genius, is the hairstylist version of Top Chef, Project Runway and Top Design. But while all of these series featured many intriguing characters, only the Shear Genius cast includes two out lesbians – Tabatha, 39, and Daisy, 31 – which is all the more significant given the higher visibility of gay men in the hairstyling industry.

Shear Genius, airing Wednesdays on Bravo, is an eight-week competition with a Nexxus apprenticeship, an Allure magazine photo spread, and $100,000 in “seed money” at stake. The cast members include stylists from South Africa, France, the U.K., Australia (Tabatha) and throughout the United States.

“I think we were quite a mixed bag in that some had a lot of years of experience, some didn’t,” Tabatha told us. “Some do private work, some work in salons. It was a real cross-section of the hairdressing industry.”

From the first episode, neither Tabatha nor Daisy gets lost in the middle of the pack. Tabatha gets the lowest ranking when she gives a mannequin head her signature style in the first challenge of the show, but then makes it into the top three in the elimination challenge with her feathers-and-tulle Mohawk. The two women manage to each capture one of the judges’ top votes in the second challenge, and Daisy is the first runner-up for both challenges.

While some of the other stylists blend into the background with their milder personalities, both Tabatha and Daisy stand out as two of the gutsier competitors. Tabatha’s comments are bleeped for profanity at least twice in the first episode. And in the previews for the second week of the competition, Daisy is seen crying and Tabatha vows to beat one of the other contestants with her mannequin head, so clearly we’re in for more drama with these two.

The series is hosted by Jaclyn Smith of Charlie’s Angels and Kmart designer fame, and is judged by Allure fashion director Michael Carl and hairstylists Rene Fris and Sally Hershberger, who is the lead judge. Hershberger, whose client list is as star-studded as the Kodak Theater on Oscar night, is said to be the inspiration for Shane’s character on The L Word, although her hair – unlike some of Shane’s coifs – is perfectly presentable.

In the series premiere, the judges didn’t hold back – Michael Carl in particular. He comments that he half-expected cockroaches to crawl out of one stylist’s masterpiece and says that another stylist’s model looks as if she had fallen asleep for three hours, then didn’t bother to fix the back of her hair when she got up. It’s catty candor familiar to anyone who has watched Top Chef and the like.

As Daisy pointed out in an interview with AfterEllen.com: “It’s a show. Of course they’re going to rip you a new a–hole! That’s what it’s about.”

Tabatha concurred. “The criticism was harsh at times, and probably rightly so,” she said. “It’s a competition at the end of the day.”

She continued: “It’s always really hard to stand there and take criticism, and you have to be up for that challenge if you’re going to expose yourself on this kind of show. At times the natural thing you wanted to do is scream, ‘What do you know?’ But when you’re looking at Sally Hershberger, you go, ‘Well, you know what? I know what you know.’ So there’s a level of respect there.”

Tabatha grew up in Australia and studied hairstyling there, which then required a four-year apprenticeship, before leaving for further training in London, “the mecca of hairdressing at the time.” Her family moved to New Jersey 14 years ago, and she currently works at a salon in Ridgewood , N.J. She is also a platform artist for Joico, so she is constantly wandering the globe doing hair shows and photo shoots.

“The years of experience that I have were sometimes an advantage,” Tabatha said, “but sometimes not, because you’re quite set in your ways. But I just kind of rolled with the punches a bit more. If I needed to blow off steam, I’d blow off steam, and I didn’t get so emotional as some of the other people did.”

“I surprised myself with how still I was able to be, sitting and meditating,” Daisy recalled, “because I am a nonstop, nervous speedball. It was almost surreal that I was able to be so calm.”

Daisy owns an Aveda concept salon in Miami and grew up in Hialeah, Fla. She said she never imagined she would take up a craft as her career choice because she always did really well in school. But after she dropped out of college, she worked her way up from receptionist to manager at a hair salon. At work, she was always antsy to get into styling. “I was sitting behind the desk,” she said, “and I just wanted to get my hands in it.”

Her interest in hairstyling, though, stems from her childhood. “I was always into it hair, ever since I was a little girl,” Daisy said. “My mom was a frustrated hairdresser, and she used to do all these crazy dos on me and make me sleep in rollers, and I loved it. I guess I had a knack for it.”

Hairstyling runs in Tabatha’s family too. Her mother and oldest brother were both hairdressers at one point in their lives, and Tabatha was always interested in that work. She said that at 14, when she got a Saturday job at a salon sweeping floors and doing the laundry, “I already knew that I liked it, but that really made me fall in love with the industry.”

One thing about the show that Tabatha did not fall in love with was having to live in a shared space with the other competitors. “It was rough,” she said. “I’m not American, so I never had the whole college experience, which some people said it was like living in a college dorm. It was tough living with a whole bunch of people you would probably never choose to live with.” But she says she got along well with the others and made some friends she will keep.

Besides having to live with 11 other people, Tabatha’s biggest challenge was keeping her patience in check. “It will be on camera for all to see: Tabatha in her finest lack-of-patience moments,” she said, laughing. “I’m pretty honest about my feelings at the best of times, so whatever happens is what I felt at that time. If someone provoked me to do something, I reacted in the moment. And I’m fine with it.”

Daisy said the other competitors didn’t get to her. “I get along with everybody,” she insisted. “When there are people with different opinions or values or personality traits, I don’t have to change who they are. I can just do my own thing. I’m a live-and-let-live kind of girl.”

She added, “I work in a salon with lots of stylists, so I’m used to all that animosity and ego.”

Both women said being gay was never addressed on the show. Tabatha said she was out to some of the contestants, but it was never really a topic of discussion.

“It was always about the hair for me,” she said, “and I was very, very focused on the hair. I tend not to talk about myself a lot. My private life I truly cherish. It’s very important to me, so it’s probably something I hold close to my heart and don’t go around spouting to people. And I think also in that situation I was really aware that it’s a competition, and it’s not the most natural environment to get to know people really well.”

Daisy offered: “It wasn’t made such a big issue — to which I say, ‘My God, it’s about time people don’t make an issue about it!’ All the cast members knew I was gay. It’s no secret. But they didn’t want to play it up or anything like that.”

Both women look back favorably on their Shear Genius experience. “In a way, it was like a huge, real-life board game,” said Daisy, “and that, for me, is so fun. It was really like an extreme hairdressing sport. I love that adrenaline rush. I wouldn’t jump off a building, but I’ll do a reality show.”

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