When you’re busy with kids, work, and just life in general, it can feel impossible to turn the spotlight on yourself. We found four women who deserved to take some time out for themselves and set them up with teams at two Northern Virginia salons for a full day of beauty. Check out their incredible before-and-after photos and their reactions to their new looks.
Bonnie Tudor
City: Springfield
Age: 43
Bonnie Tudor arrived for her makeover with a mission: to donate her long, cascading hair to Wigs for Kids. It had been five years since she’d gotten her hair cut. Her second priority? To put herself right in the hands of her stylists for a whole new look. She announced she was ready to go short, much to the delight of the crew at Stylists at North in Alexandria.
The staff got to work, dividing her hair into small sections for the donation. The stylists said each was about 24 inches long.
Tudor works as an administrative assistant at an Alexandria cybersecurity company and is the mom of a 19-year-old daughter who’s studying in South Korea. She jumped at the chance to get a makeover when she saw the contest on social media. “I’ve wanted a haircut for so long, and now I can let them decide what to do,” she said. Even with the initial cut, before the styling began, she was glowing. “I feel so much healthier, so much better.”
The Goal
Tudor was ready for anything, but her team of stylists still wanted to keep her hair easy to style and maintain. Karen Windsor used a diffuser on Tudor’s hair but said she would be able to let it air-dry, using a trick of clipping her hair on one side while it dries to avoid having a severe part in the middle.
The Cut
It’s not every day that a stylist gets free rein on a client’s super-long hair. Once Windsor knew Tudor was willing to go short — and got a chance to see what her hair would do naturally after an initial cut — she had a pixie in mind. The cut happened in stages, with Windsor and her team first dividing
Tudor’s hair into small sections with rubber bands and then cutting her long locks. After that, Windsor began to shape the look before the color was added.
The Color
Tudor hadn’t had her hair colored since before her daughter was born. “Today’s the day you get a transformation,” said stylist Katherine Perez, who worked on Tudor’s soft copper color with stylist Paola Claros. After an all-over color, the staff washed and dried Tudor’s hair before sending her back to the chair and strategically painting highlights.
The Result
Tudor’s sister and her 12-year-old niece were nearly as excited about the makeover as she was. They joined her in Old Town for the day, but left the salon and came back when she was nearly finished — so everyone got a chance to see their shocked reaction. “Oh my God!” her sister, Sarah Gadow, exclaimed. “It’s so modern — it looks way better than I was expecting! The color is beautiful.” As for Tudor, she said, “I love it.”
Sally Ma
City: Fort Hunt
Age: 38
For Sally Ma, who moved to Northern Virginia from Florida over the summer, getting a makeover was a much-needed confidence boost and a way to help her with her self-
improvement goals.
Ma works as an information scientist for a defense contractor. She and her husband, who is in the Coast Guard, have two boys — a 6-year-old and an 18-month-old. “I’ve had the same look my entire life: long straight hair that gets trimmed a few inches about once a year,” she wrote in her makeover contest submission.
“I’m ready for a new look to not only update my social media (desperately needed as my dog has been my profile picture forever), but to help enhance my daily appearance and overall self-esteem.”
The Goal
“Our goal with Sally is not to give her high maintenance,” said salon owner Luis Bujia, who worked on her style with Rosa Grindstaff. The two aimed to add density to Ma’s thin hair and “bring out her natural features,” Bujia said. “We also believe less is more.”
The Cut
Grindstaff trimmed about 6 inches from Ma’s ends, but left it long enough for her to be able to pull it back when she goes running. The stylists also gave Ma some layers around her face.
The Color
“We’re not blasting her with color, but giving it tonality,” said Bujia. Ma got coffee-colored balayage baby highlights, hand-painted in parts of her hair to give it more depth. The understated color gives a warm glow, especially on the curls that it was styled with. A glaze then helped add shine to Ma’s dark hair.
The Result
Makeup artist Gus Hamberg gave her a look that brought out her natural features, too. “I wear makeup twice a year: when I go to Vegas with my girlfriends and if my husband makes me go to an Army ball,” Ma laughed. When she got to see her transformation, Ma quietly repeated, “Wow!” as she took it all in. “It’s amazing what they can do to make hair look so much thicker,” she said. “I don’t know where all this hair came from! How do you do that? It’s magic.” In the days after her makeover, Ma says she was inspired to invest in new makeup for the first time in nearly five years, thanks to the new techniques she learned from Hamberg.
Nancy Garcia-Henderson
City: Clifton
Age: 45
A mom of two kids, ages 10 and 12, Nancy Garcia-Henderson arrived at the Ronnie Elias Salon in Oakton ready for a well-deserved day of pampering. “It’s really nice because I have boys and I never get to do this,” she said.
She was ready to let the stylists have fun with her shoulder-length hair. “I feel like a supermodel,” she said as Aleksandra Ihara played with her hair.
Garcia-Henderson was inspired to enter the makeover contest after “lunch bunch” discussions with some of the sixth grade girls she works with as a counselor at Wakefield Forest Elementary School in Fairfax. “I teach our youth about the importance of mental health, social skills, feelings, and emotional regulation,” she wrote in her contest entry. “Most importantly, I teach students about loving themselves. You can’t give anyone what you don’t have for yourself. Getting a makeover reinforces the power of loving oneself.”
The Goal
“I envisioned a dark transformation,” Ihara said. She wanted to give Garcia-Henderson’s hair more dimension and add length with extensions. “It’s red carpet glam — classic beauty,” she said.
The Cut
Ihara gave Garcia-Henderson some layers around her face and sprinkled in lots of long extensions that she said are easy to take care of.
The Color
Garcia-Henderson came in with auburn highlights, but Ihara decided to go with a chocolaty base color for a more cohesive look. She also added soft highlights to make it “more balayage-y,” Ihara said.
The Result
Garcia-Henderson was ready to head out on a date night with her husband once her transformation was complete. “I feel good! I’ve had a lot of fun,” she said. “She felt comfortable with me, and she was ready for change,” Ihara said. “She’s a beautiful lady.” Reflecting on her experience a few days later, Garcia-Henderson said, “I felt like a vixen and seriously did not recognize myself when I saw myself. I was like, ‘Ooh lala!’” She notes that her students (and some adults) were a little puzzled by how her hair “grew so fast.”
Monica Weddle
City: McLean
Age: 38
With a 3-year-old son at home and a second boy on the way, Monica Weddle wrote in her contest entry that she’d had a stressful year and an unexpected move back to the DMV from North Carolina over the summer.
“I’m trying to get settled and comfortable not just in our new home, but in my own skin,” she wrote. “That has been made harder by the fact that last fall, in the wake of two failed IVF cycles, I chopped all my hair off. It was … not a great look. The stress kept it from growing back as quickly as usual, so I’m only just at a point where I feel a pair of scissors might be in my best interest.”
Because it’s not easy for this busy mom, who works in real estate, to get to the salon, she wanted to avoid all-over color that requires regular upkeep, or a cut that needs a lot of styling. “I’m a big air-dry-and-go person,” she said. She has been trying to grow out her hair in the year since she last cut it.
The Goal
“We’re going for Kate Beckinsale,” said stylist Kristen Sloper of Ronnie Elias Salon in Oakton. She wanted to make the look easy to take care of and to give Weddle’s hair more dimension.
The Cut
Sloper took some length off of Weddle’s hair, added layers — and later decided to add a few extensions to give Weddle more “pop and fullness.”
The Color
The stylist chose a color a little lighter than caramel for Weddle, with brighter highlights, particularly around her face. Sloper employed a combination of foiliage and balayage techniques and then added a root smudge, which would make Weddle’s hair darker at the center. “The root smudge makes it grow out better — it makes it like you don’t have roots,” Sloper said. The extensions were on the lighter side, and the hue surprised Weddle when she caught a glimpse of them before seeing her transformation. “I can’t believe that’s the color of my hair!”
The Result
Weddle was speechless when she saw her new look. “It’s like someone else’s hair,” she said. “It’s shocking.” After a few days of living with her extensions, she agreed with Sloper that it would be hard to give them up. “Even though there are only a few extensions in there, the difference is pretty incredible. What I love most is that I feel good. I feel refreshed and just … more human.”
This story originally ran in our January issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to our monthly magazine.
