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" American Idol is my all-time favorite show. So I was really thrilled when their hairstylist, Dean Banowetz, gave me an interview for this blog. Here&amp;amp;#8217;s what he had to say about Sanjaya&amp;amp;#8217;s &amp;amp;#8220;ponyhawk,&amp;amp;#8221; Haley&amp;amp;#8217;s extension-gate, Simon&amp;amp;#8217;s blow-dry and hair that looks generally gorgeous. &amp;amp;#8212;Tram How much time do you have to do each person&amp;amp;#8217;s hair per episode? About 30 minutes. You&amp;amp;#8217;d think once the contestants get booted, we&amp;amp;#8217;d have more time for the rest, but it&amp;amp;#8217;s always like there are more things to do. Got any shortcuts for readers? My biggest thing is, do not skip a proper blow-dry with a round brush, because then you don&amp;amp;#8217;t have to curl it and you don&amp;amp;#8217;t have to flat-iron it. When in doubt, hair accessories like wraps and headbands are genius. I hate to use her as an example, but when Paris was in court, she had a ponytail and a headband on. It honestly doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t get any more simple than that. Anytime a celebrity goes to court, they are clean and simple, which I just think is hysterical. Which eliminated contestant (I wouldn&amp;amp;#8217;t want to sway the current vote!) have you really loved doing? Sanjaya was the most fun for me because he&amp;amp;#8217;d let me do crazy things to his hair. He&amp;amp;#8217;d say, &amp;amp;#8220;I wanna do a Mohawk,&amp;amp;#8221; and I&amp;amp;#8217;d say, &amp;amp;#8220;Ponyhawks are new and fresh; Mohawks blow.&amp;amp;#8221; I always said it was a 50/50 style: 50 percent will love it, 50 percent will absolutely hate it but 100 percent of these people will always remember it. Was there ever a contestant who didn&amp;amp;#8217;t want you to change his or her hair at all? Well, I had many discussions with Chris Richardson about growing his hair out. But he didn&amp;amp;#8217;t feel comfortable with it, so he would shave it himself. He still looks great. And when it&amp;amp;#8217;s time for him to change, he&amp;amp;#8217;ll change. I also told Chris Sligh, the one with the really curly hair, &amp;amp;#8220;I would love to straighten your hair,&amp;amp;#8221; but he was like, &amp;amp;#8220;No, I don&amp;amp;#8217;t feel comfortable,&amp;amp;#8221; and that was cool. So, how do you get everyone&amp;amp;#8217;s hair so healthy- and shiny-looking? My go-to product is the K-PAK system. There&amp;amp;#8217;s a conditioner and a reconstructor, which makes hair strong. I use them all the time, and if I could, I&amp;amp;#8217;d use it on my dog. It depends on your needs, but once a week is good. What did you think of that whole controversy when you mentioned on a radio show that Haley was reusing Katharine McPhee&amp;amp;#8217;s extensions? It&amp;amp;#8217;s so not a big deal! You wash them and you sanitize them and you move on. Extensions are expensive; I have probably like $40,000 in extensions. I&amp;amp;#8217;ve also used some of the extensions I&amp;amp;#8217;ve used on Leeza [Gibbons] on Kellie Pickler. What would Ryan look like if you didn&amp;amp;#8217;t do his hair? He has this wavy texture right in the front of his hair, and it stresses him out. I&amp;amp;#8217;ve done his hair for seven and a half years, so he&amp;amp;#8217;s not really used to doing his own hair. When he does try to do his own hair, it makes him crazy. He has his natural color right now, and everybody&amp;amp;#8217;s like, &amp;amp;#8220;Where are the highlights?&amp;amp;#8221; and I&amp;amp;#8217;m like, &amp;amp;#8220;We don&amp;amp;#8217;t have time.&amp;amp;#8221; Do you do Simon&amp;amp;#8217;s hair too? Why does he part it down the center like that? I&amp;amp;#8217;ve had so many hair interventions with that man it&amp;amp;#8217;s not even worth it anymore. Simon&amp;amp;#8217;s a handsome guy. I always say this is his Donald Trump. Simon&amp;amp;#8217;s so known for his hair, and his tight T-shirts. It&amp;amp;#8217;s recognition, and I get all of that. He has this whole blow-dry thing that he does himself. I&amp;amp;#8217;ve just done the same haircut every two weeks for the past six seasons. Every single time I do his hair, I always mess with him, and I&amp;amp;#8217;m like, &amp;amp;#8220;Something new today?&amp;amp;#8221; and he&amp;amp;#8217;s like, &amp;amp;#8220;Absolutely not!&amp;amp;#8221; Simon doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t feel comfortable changing, and who am I to change him? I mean, it&amp;amp;#8217;s gotten him this far. To read more about Dean, visit his site and check out his weekly hair column on americanidol.com! Photos: Frank Micelotta/American Idol/Getty Images for Fox (3), Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images, Frank Micelotta/Getty Images for FOX"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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