Emmy's 2012- The Mad Men Women

Elizabeth Moss

Whilst Elizabeth lost out on the leading lady Emmy to Clare Danes, her role as Peggy Olson has taken her hair look from a ponytailed 1950’s teenage archetype to a Jackie Kennedy style businesswoman flip. 

Elizabeth was in my view a highly deserving nominee of Best Actress because she gives such an understated performance in ‘Mad Men’ and counter balances Jon Hamm’s male lead position demonstrating the uphill struggles women had to succeed in business in the 1960’s - during a time ignorant perception raged that being a guy, wearing a suit and just drinking with the boys made you somehow more credible, smart or a better business expert.

What excites me the most about Elizabeth’s bleached lightened hair is how remarkably well it suits her. She has very cool toned grey/blue eyes which have suddenly been exaggerated by the block blonde hair. As Peggy, she has a 6.3 (dark golden blonde) hair colour which works perfectly for the character but was subtlety muting her eyes and skin tone. 

Elizabeth’s was clearly previously artificially coloured (to Peggy’s shade) and if you take a look at her new blonde hair you can see some of the heaviness from this previous artificial colour applied is still evident in the mid-lengths and ends, whereas the new re-growth has lifted up evenly.  A great deal of the length cut has been off into a graduated bob because (quite frankly) Elizabeth’s hair wouldn’t have taken too well to this kind of all over lightening otherwise. 

A product such as Colour Restore Iced Platinum would work to keep this shade pure white and I think because Elizabeth has softness about her general appearance the overall colour would benefit from having some beige, blonde violet and deeper light blondes woven through it to take the edge of that pure block appearance. That said I’m nit-picking and actually think this whole colour and style has been created brilliantly.

January Jones

January Jones inclusion on Mad Men is like the reincarnate of Grace Kelly, her character Betty Draper is the ultimate glamorous 1960’s text book housewife yet flawed significantly in varying ways. January Jones usually sports perfect light golden blonde hair that is clearly based on her natural colouring (with some obvious enhancement). However, at the Emmy’s, she displayed a completely different look.  

January’s hair has now been coloured a light copper blonde (base 8.0) as she is currently filming the picture ‘Sweetwater’.  The colour has changed her appearance remarkably and coupled with this sleeked chignon has created a highly dramatic look for January who is usually famous for a softer edged styling. 

The hair is crucial for January’s red carpet appearance because she’s wearing a fairly dramatic Zac Posen gown, had she worn the hair softer it would have mismatched with the dress and ultimately January’s new light copper hair colour would have not particularly harmonised with the stark black of the piece she was wearing, she’s also compensated for the dark colouring of the dress with much heavier eye make-up. 

This is a great example of tailoring your usual look to suit an outfit.  Such severe hair styling is quite often a big risk, but if you have a dramatic dress to sport it’s one of the few occasions where hair can be understated to a large degree to showcase the garment you are wearing.

Christina Hendricks

By far my favourite character on Mad Men - Joan Harris is a complex lady who swings between being the series mother figure to resident shrew, giving little away as to goes on beneath the surface. Christina Hendricks has done for redheads what Harry Potter did for wizards!  

Naturally, Christina is blonde and she sports a shade that (whilst common with a lot of famous redheads) is actually very uncommon on a natural level.  In artificial hair colorants, the nearest shade to achieve this look is Feria Mango but the key is to make sure the hair has a stable base.  If applied to very blonde hair, the result could be a little fluorescent whilst attempting the shade on a darker brunette base would kick off a deeper red hue.  

The most favourable base to apply a shade such as Feria Mango is either a 7.0 (medium Blonde) or 8.0 (light blonde – which appears as a deep blonde).  With her own hair, Christina usually lets her signature colour do all the work for her (as demonstrated at the Emmys).  

Here her stylist has simply used a curling or straightening iron throughout to achieve a ‘Monroesque’ waved curl.  If you have this kind of deep auburn shade you can also create a similar look by using medium sized heated rollers.  

Sadly, Christina lost out on a deserving Emmy win to Dame Maggie Smith, who although now known as grey haired was (in her day) famous for sporting exactly the same vibrant ‘redhead’ mane Christina has now adapted.  Remember, if you are a redhead and want to retain the shade Colour Restore Deep Red is a great inclusion to your hair care regime.  Likewise, if you are planning to go red (from blonde) pre-pigmenting first with Deep Red will give you that even blanket of red colour molecules (within the hair) which will prevent colour fading in the subsequent shade applied.