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"  Photo: Courtesy of Mark Hampton All eyes might have been locked on the dramatic back of Anna Kendrick&amp;#039;s J. Mendel gown on last night&amp;#039;s red carpet, but our beauty-trained eyes were honed in on her perfectly complementary French twist. As a result, we had to call up the man responsible for her updo, Ambassador for TONI&amp;amp;amp;GUY Hair Meet Wardrobe Mark Hampton, who gave us an exclusive backstage peek at the process of getting the Pitch Perfect starlet ready for Hollywood&amp;#039;s biggest night. On Thursday, Hampton and Kendrick met for a trial run to go through visual references and discuss the whole look. &amp;quot;I literally have thousands of images on my laptop of inspiration I&amp;#039;ve gathered over the years,&amp;quot; Hampton revealed. &amp;quot;But we didn&amp;#039;t pull any specific images; we were more just thinking about the texture and decided on a more matte finish.&amp;quot; Instead of using the visuals to influence the style, Anna was inspired by the statement-making back of her gown, which resulted in her choosing an updo to show off her attire. &amp;quot;At first we did a softer updo with more textures at the trial, but we ended up doing something completely different for Oscars night,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;It was almost like we hadn&amp;#039;t even done the trial since the look ended up being a bit stronger and tougher, although it still had a bit of romance with the French twist and side part.&amp;quot; The day of the main event, he started at 11:30am at Kendrick&amp;#039;s house where they had another chat, agreed on a new look for her hair, and aimed for a cleaner style. Anna watched Striking Distance with Bruce Willis and Sarah Jessica Parker while Hampton went to work. First, he washed Anna&amp;#039;s hair and rough-dried it with a blow dryer. Even though he admitted updos work best on day-old hair, it was important for this style that her tresses be as fresh as possible. &amp;quot;You can&amp;#039;t direct the hair as well with day-old hair.&amp;quot; Hampton said. &amp;quot;The hair has to be fresh to manipulate the shape and get a perfect hairline.&amp;quot; After evenly raking TONI&amp;amp;amp;GUY Hair Meet Wardrobe Prep Volume Plumping Mousse throughout strands, he drew a side part and blow-dried each section in the direction it would ultimately be going. &amp;quot;I dried it with the front pulled forward and across the forehead, and the back of the hair was dried perpendicular to the neck so it&amp;#039;d be easy to direct the shape of the French twist,&amp;quot; he explained. Photo: Hampton&amp;#039;s TONI&amp;amp;amp;Guy setup. Courtesy of Mark Hampton. Next, Hampton added TONI&amp;amp;amp;GUY Hair Meet Wardrobe Glamour Volume Plumping Whip at the crown and lightly teased it for an elegant shape with some extra height. &amp;quot;That product also gives hair the more modern and authentic matte finish we were looking for so it didn&amp;#039;t look too shiny and done,&amp;quot; he added. Finally, he secured the French twist with U-shaped pins and finished by spraying TONI&amp;amp;amp;GUY Hair Meet Wardrobe Glamour Firm Hold Hairspray on his fingers and running it over any stray strands to preserve the matte texture. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s hard to do a French twist with long hair because of all the excess length,&amp;quot; he admitted. &amp;quot;So I folded Anna&amp;#039;s hair in half back on itself before I twisted it, then used a tail comb to tuck in the ends and pinned it in place.&amp;quot; Photo: Mastering the French twist. Courtesy of Mark Hampton.  Photo: The final touches. Courtesy of Mark Hampton. After Hampton had finished, Anna&amp;#039;s father, who showed up while she was getting ready, complimented her on how beautiful she looked, but she humbly downplayed her stunning transformation. &amp;quot;She was understated the whole day,&amp;quot; Hampton said. &amp;quot;We have a nice respect for each other and she just let me do whatever I wanted. She&amp;#039;s a totally low-key gal.&amp;quot; Check Out Anna Kendrick&amp;#039;s July ELLE Cover Shoot       "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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