Ok ladies, this round we have been deliberating via Google hang out and email. In conclusion all three of us judges agreed that:

1. Suzu’s shoot was off the chain but the focus on the hair was not as prevalent and you were way passed the deadline.

2. The hairstyles of Lydia Onimo and Tiffany were super impressive, creative, head turning and everything more but the photos themselves, the quality that we expect, is not there yet.

3. Jayme had an overall good shoot but there is a lot of room to improve as a model.

4. We need more from Lydia and Farah.

The good news is you are all safe because we had two early eliminations; one model couldn’t make it any more because of her obligations and Emily told me too late that she is French and didn’t understand the instructions.

So you are safe this round and I am sure you’ve learned a lot this time. Next round there will be another elimination and believe me it will only get tougher from here. I hope you are all inspired to bring your AAA-game. Here is the feedback from the judges. Hopefully you can use it to improve.

Dajuan

Lydia:

• Photos: Lydia, you have a great advantage of working with a stylist and photographer. But that also raises my expectations. Images 2, 6, & 9 best showed the detail of your hair. I need to be able to see the detail of your hair. 3 stars

• Interpretation: Good 4 stars

• Hairstyle: Nice variety of styles. 4 stars

• Write Up: “… beauty is indeed an abstract quality” I couldn’t agree more. I looked forward to hearing how this all related to bridal related sets, but it just wasn’t there. 3 stars

• Connection: Image #6 portray connection. Give us more of that! 3 stars
   

Suzu:
 

• Photos: I love that you are working with a MUA & photographer. The vision was clear, and the images portrayed it. But the focus (the hair) was second to the overall style (the 1920s). 3.5 stars

• Interpretation: Good 4 stars

• Hairstyle: Was that one hairstyle or two? Nice hat! 3 stars

• Write Up: Your write up was concise and on point. You offered a unique style description and executed to it. 4.5 stars

• Connection: Yes! 5 stars
   

Lydia Young

• Photos: Only one photo? 3 stars

• Interpretation: Good on the single image I saw. 3 stars

• Hairstyle: Good, but again, only one photo? 3 stars

• Write Up: You’re write up went a long way in communicating your entry. You talked about the products, how you achieved the style, and more. Best of the week! 5 stars

• Connection: Nice single expression, but again, only one? 3 stars

Angela:

• Photos: I didn’t love your photos, but they did show me your hair. That I can appreciate. 4 stars

• Interpretation: Great. You delivered on the idea! 5 stars

• Hairstyle: I enjoyed the variety of styles and adornments. Nicely done. 5 stars

• Write Up: Your write up articulated the challenges of many, “what should I do with my hair.” You then offered solutions. Nicely done 5 stars.

• Connection: Not much via the images. I’m judging connection based on the images. However you connected very well in the write up. 3 stars
   

Tiffany:

• Photos: Wow, I didn’t want to love your photos either, but they did communicate the message. Why? My background is that of a professional photographer. But I can’t deny that you are showing just what I want to see: your hair, your style, and your connection. You’ll want to step up on the delivery of the message, please.

• Interpretation: Great 5 stars

• Hairstyle: I loved your many styles. It’s not because you offered so much variety (quantity), but because each style delivered (quality). Between hair style and adornment, you did it very well. 5 stars

• Write Up: “As a natural bride the possibilities for styles are infinite and walking down the aisle you will truly feel like a Nubian Queen.” Concise isn’t bad, but 20% of your write up was a shout out to your hair stylist 🙂 Not that you shouldn’t have one (build your team), but deliver on topic, provide some how to, or why, etc. 3 stars

• Connection: Major improvement from last week. Keep working on expression. Much is expected if you’d like to be ANNM! 4 stars

Jayme:

• Photos: I think your photos were among the best in this weeks challenge. Encourage your photographer to utilize a hair light. 4.5 stars

• Interpretation: Great 5 stars

• Hairstyle: Variety from one base, but with 10 looks, it felt a little lacking. 3.5

• Write Up: I was hoping you could sell me on your entry this week. At least offer something for your reader: how to, products used, etc. 3 stars

• Connection: Good, but as a model, you’ve got to give us much more. 4 stars
   

Farah:

• Photos: Your images were cleaner than most, show us your hair, but weren’t as interesting as the previous week’s. 4 stars

• Interpretation: Good 4 stars

• Hairstyle: I like your style choice, but would have loved to see variations of it like many of the other contestants put forth. 3 stars

• Write Up: I like that you weren’t afraid to provide a glimpse of what brides go through on their wedding day. 4 stars

• Connection: Minimal. You’ll want to draw in your viewer visually. Give it a try, you can pull it off. 3 stars

~~~~~ 0 ~~~~~

Michelle’s Feedback

Fara – Simply Radiant:(3)
Great summary and painting the picture of your wedding day! You left me feeling like I am there with you! Very cute and realistic hair styles for loose or locked beauties really won me over-all natural beauties could implement this style and set it off with some ‘pearls’. I would have liked to see more than one picture. I was left trying to look around the side/back view for more of your beauty. The pose/shot limited your potential impact, left me wondering if this was the only ‘best’ shot? What could be missing? or What is she hiding? Everything was so beautiful, focus on giving more and you will shine through!

Jayme – Let’s Start With Forever:(3)
Such a cute, creative style. Great use of accessories with an earthy kick. I wanted more because your hair style was so pretty and creative. Only side and back shots available. I was left trying to look around your poses for more of your beauty. The poses/shots limited the potential impact, left me wondering if these were the only ‘best’ shots and what could be missing? or what is she hiding? Everything was so beautiful, focus on giving more and you will shine through! I can see your effort, you left me wanting more of you. Give it to us!

Angela
Love your honesty and expression of the vulnerabilities that we all go through in a season of becoming natural. You are beautiful inside and out. The best poses were those with the headrest. They were particularly stunning! I love the headband, Barrett and how you created multiple hairstyles with the use of the accessories. You left me forgetting that your hair was medium length. Work on lighting and picture quality if you can to help us really see the beauty of your coils. Great work and please keep coming up with creative poses and shots of your gorgeous hair!

Tiffany (5)
Ms. Tiffany brought her A game this time and killed it with the win. I am so glad to see your pretty face in this round of the competitions. You obviously took the feedback from the last competition and turned your frustration into motivation and I love it when I can see lemonade out of lemons! It speaks of your character and the fact that you won’t let life defeat you; but you will come out swinging like Bey did at the super bowl and ‘shut ’em down!’

Awesome hair styles, bone structure and poses! I can see all of you! Love it! Very creative use of rings and other jewlrey in textured hair, showing the diversity of our hair and ability to complement and beautify the intrinsic character of even a precious metal. Marketers are missing out on this secret weapon you’ve unleashed! Love it! You gave us multiple poses and I felt that I could visually see your wedding day and walked with you from set up to the alter, then throwing down at the after party/reception. I liked the poses with accessories over the other without, but that’s hardly anything to critique. You hit a home run. Awesome job! Keep shining!

~~~~~ 0 ~~~~~

My feedback

Lydia
Love, love, LOVE your hairstyles! Can’t believe that it’s just one hair do. You truly did an amazing job of showing the versatility of just one natural hairstyle. Thank you for that.

However, although your hair is fabulous in every shot, not all of your photos tell me wedding or special valentine. Your best shots for me are nr 1, 4 and 6. I think every man would want to marry you looking at picture 4. Not only does your hair look fabulous, your skin looks radiant and your smile is beautiful. I truly believe that you are getting married. Nr. is nice because how relaxed you look and the beach background adds something special. Same in photo 6. You laugh playfully, you look happy and I can imagine you would stop your Valentine’s heart beat for at least a couple of seconds.

Your 2nd shot is also worth mentioning because I really love your hair in that image, your smile is gorgeous as well but the background gives the whole photo a very average look. So beware of the backgrounds that you choose. They can be distracting. You should make sure that you, the model, your hair or whatever you want to cell, is in the center of the shot. If you have a busy background, make sure it’s blurred. Like in your 4th shot.

Overall good nice happy photos but there is room for improvement. I think you can still get a little more relaxed in front of the camera. Some photos can make it in magazines but we need many more of those.

Suzu
Shot nr. 2: Absolutely special shot. This could be used in a commercial for perfume. Love the accessories. Same goes for 7. Is the guy a pro or does he really love you? In any case your chemistry is amazing. He makes you shine even more just by the way he looks at you. I am very impressed.

Shot nr. 3, wow! It’s such a great shot you know. I would think the flowers cover a bit too much of your face and the coat adds too much, so you only see that little head of yours but I just love that shot! The way you look, straight into the camera seductive and playfully and your man just adds to it as does the environment. I really think it’s a lovely romantic shot. You can sense love and Valentine. 

Shot nr 8, I totally believe you are a happy bride. Your hair, your smile, your pose. Great shot. Your whole shoot is really good. It is so unfortunate that you were late sending your images. I don’t know what troubles your photographer had with sending them but that is really the only critique I have. Your images are not just magazine ready, they are commercial ready. Good job!

Lydia Young
I love that you stayed true to yourself as a simple quirky girl. I enjoyed reading about how you used the products and how you loved them of course. The Twist Out Hair Milk and the Detox are also favorites of mine.

Love your hairstyles, ALL of them. They definitely say special to me. I wish I had another view on the first one with the pinwheels though. It’s not a style you see very often. I think the style suits your face. You have beautiful strong features that come out very well.

For me, your best photo is picture 5. Curls naturally have something romantic, the flower only adds to it because it’s well chosen and well placed. Your hair is beautiful and shiny, your smile is very pretty, your makeup is also gorgeous. Did you do the makeup yourself?

I also like photo 8, your homage to Kansas but overall I think you need to learn to relax a little bit. You look tense in your photos. Sometimes it’s in your fingers and it’s not easy but models have to learn to relax their face muscles because just a little bit of tension may be exaggerated in an image. You are a beautiful woman. To let your beauty be captured you have to learn how to open up and let the camera in.

Angela
I loved your write up. I applaud you for being honest and most of all I am happy that this challenge taught you to love your hair even more! Funny thing, I didn’t even noticed that your hair was short at the first glance. After your words I had to take a closer look and your hair looks just fine in all photos. Your coils are well moisturized and the styles are nice and elegant. You play well with the accessories.

I think your best shot is photo 5. I like your dress, your hair, the accessory, the way you look. Photo 2 could also have been a good shot but it’s cropped too much. I like the hair, the style, the accessory but you see just too little of you. Wen you do a head shot make sure you see at least the neck as well. You have such beautiful shoulders and skin. Use them to your advantage and let them help your hairstyle look even better. Same goes for the last two images. I know you are trying to show detail of the style but as a model when we ask for ten photos you shouldn’t waste images to just detail hairstyle images. You should show yourself.

Also the detailed photos of your hair are not executed very well. The tree and the leafs in the background are distracting. In image 8 you see more tree than you. And when you show the back of the hairstyle, try to get just a little face or profile in the photo too. You are so elegant, just include more of that during your shoot.

Tiffany
You get points for bringing a stylist to you shoot. Not only are all your natural hairstyles beautiful, I totally agree with Michelle on the way you used the accessories. Absolutely creative.

I wish I could see more of your first style. Love how the rings adorn your beautiful texture. The photo is not a good one though. Too much going on in the back. Red cars and everything, that is not good. Although I like the you, yourself look, you don’t pop out and that is just what a model needs to do. If the background was blurred and you were just a bit sharper, the image would have been sending a different message.

The photo I like best is your last one. Your hair, your smile, your eyes, you look happy. This could be Valentine happy or bridal happy. Really a lovely shot. I also like photo 8. Your neck is titled just a bit too much but I like the fact that you get a complete image of your hair and your style. Your hair is beautiful, the style is gorgeous and different and I especially like how you can see a little bit of your profile through the twist out curls.

Your hair really looks gorgeous in every photo and I applaud you for shooting without makeup. I don’t see it very often and I like it but I do think it may give you a bit of a disadvantage just because you it’s hard to get that full glamorous look. Over all I think you are going good but I am not sure that the images are magazine ready yet. You are a natural though but you can use some more practice and maybe a better camera.

Jayme
You have a few good shots, ready to be used in editorial and brides magazines. I really like photo 2, 3 and 7. You look peaceful, content, relaxed, happy and beautiful. Your hair is romantic, adorable, lovely, playful all at the same time. The curls aren’t perfectly defined and that’s what makes it even more special. It’s your day and that’s all that matters to the natural you. That is what those photos tell me.

I like how you used the pins and mixed them up with natural flowers, how you changed up your hairstyles. Your makeup l is very well done. In all honesty I can’t say anything bad about your photos. All of them are good shots but I agree with Dajuan that you have more to give.

Farah
First of all a big compliment to you Farah that you got a bridal company to sponsor your dress. You picked a lovely wedding dress and it looks great on you. Way to go! I love how you did your hair. What you do with two strand twists is so beautiful. I like how you embellished your natural hairstyles too.

Your best shot is photo 6 with the phone in your hand. You get a good look on your hair, the dress, your complete style actually and it’s very contemporary. Having said that, I agree with Dajuan. Your images are clean and professional but not as interesting as the first shoot. Some how I think the model is not fully out yet. Just dare to do it. Just bring yourself out more. Be you, don’t try to be beautiful or romantic, just do it! Just be you.