How did Lisa Dejardins's hair get this way?

January 25, 2023 4:24 PM

PBS News Hour journalist Lisa Dejardins is an excellent journalist and her hair is irrelevant to her remarkable professional contributions. However, I am going to be very shallow and ask how she got her hair to go from fine/thin to thick and full looking.

She always looks good, but her hair used to look like this, kind of fine and flat and now it looks like this.

Is this the result of a product or some kind of weave? Details that might be available to regular non-TV ladies much appreciated.

posted by ojocaliente to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (19 answers total)

I don’t know much about women’s hair but I’d bet there’s a blow dryer involved.
posted by kevinbelt at 4:38 PM on January 25, 2023 [4 favorites]

Yeah, that's just product and a blow out IMHO.
posted by tristeza at 4:40 PM on January 25, 2023 [6 favorites]

I think it’s just a blow out. Here’s a picture of someone with half of their hair blown out and half not.
posted by kat518 at 4:50 PM on January 25, 2023

in addition to whatever else, she cut like four or five inches of weight off the bottom to bring it up to her shoulders. that alone would do it

although I am not sure the second picture was taken after the first, even if it was used later.
posted by queenofbithynia at 4:52 PM on January 25, 2023 [3 favorites]

Best answer: While it's possible it's a weave, I think there's a much simpler answer.

The first photo appears to be one taken at her home, perhaps during COVID, likely having been done by herself, and probably not two minutes after a trim. You can tell that it's been a while since she's had it trimmed, and some layers are too long.

The second photo is a professional head shot, and I'd be willing to bet you her hair was also done professionally (at a salon) within an hour or two before the photo shoot, and she probably had a haircut during that session, even if only a trim. (It's certainly possible that she had a Dry-Bar style blow-out, but it looks freshly trimmed, and her layers are shorter and more in relationship to one another.)

Given the above two situations, and given that the only time I ever looked good on TV (both when I worked in TV and since) was when I had my hair professionally done immediately before an appearance, I believe it's a combination of professional skills with a blow dryer and a product.

I will say that while I'm adequate with a hair dryer and a round brush, my hair has looked dramatically better since I started using the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer and Volumizer a few years ago. (And yes, I realize I sound like a commercial.) I had a friend who had flat, "meh" hair who suddenly started looking phenomenal all the time, and she said it was this thing that made a change. I was dubious, but got one and it's amazing for adding volume and shine. It's a combo hair-dryer and oval brush.

I have used both Aveda and other salon products and Suave drug-store products, and find those to be hit-or-miss, but either (with a good blow-out) can dramatically achieve this look, at least for several hours.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 4:53 PM on January 25, 2023 [10 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers so far!
Just to be clear, the second picture was all I could find to exemplify fullness, but this question is bc i saw her on tonight's PBS Newshour -- her hair was really long and there just seemed to be... more of it.
posted by ojocaliente at 4:54 PM on January 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

I heartily second Cheese’s recommendation of the Revlon One-Step dryer brush to get this kind of look. I’m pretty lazy with my hair and this brush reliably delivers that kind of volume in about 10 minutes, especially now that I’ve done it for a few months.
posted by third word on a random page at 4:59 PM on January 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

It could just be a blowout or styling methods, but I also want to mention that extensions have come a long way, even for layers and short hair, and it’s entirely possible that she has a row or two of extensions that have been cut and colored right along with her bio-hair. A lot of media people have these and more regular people than you’d think, too!
posted by stellaluna at 5:05 PM on January 25, 2023 [6 favorites]

The photo in the light blue is from 2019 or even earlier. The one where she’s wearing glasses is 2022 and looks like it’s from video, so no Photoshop.
posted by Ideefixe at 5:16 PM on January 25, 2023

Nthing the blowout and styling tools but also the second photo is probably photoshopped to add additional hair in the finer spots.
posted by Pretty Good Talker at 5:22 PM on January 25, 2023

Best answer: There's a great scene in Frankie & Grace where Grace takes out her hair extensions. For a head shot, it's not out of the question.
posted by theora55 at 5:25 PM on January 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

I am a generally short hair person who has had a chinish length bob for a couple years now since it grew out during early covid. I am very lazy and put zero effort or styling into my hair. It's cut well for my head, but that's about it. I've got a double crown (cowlicks). My hair is also an odd mixture of hair types--my hair fall looks like it came from three unique contributors.

I share this just to say that almost every day one of my coworkers on a video call asks me if I've gotten a haircut. It's at the point where it's almost a meme. My hair can look WILDLY different from one day to the next. How recently did I shower? Did I sleep on it weird? Did it part itself in a slightly different place? What was the temperature when it was air drying? The humidity? Did I have it in a scruncy at any point? Did I use a brush or a comb? Did I use a small tooth comb or a fat tooth comb? Etc.

Even a truly minimal bordering on completely non effort hair like mine looks drastically different from day to day. Limp flat thin big poofy textured straight wavy volume blonde brown you name it. Imagine if I was intentional about it and styled it!
posted by phunniemee at 5:33 PM on January 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Also.
posted by phunniemee at 5:35 PM on January 25, 2023 [9 favorites]

Looks like she’s got rollers in the picture phunniemee posted. I have fine straight hair (though a decent amount of it) and I’ve discovered big velcro rollers give big volume with minimal difficulty.
posted by vanitas at 5:48 PM on January 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I saw a really amazing "false front" advertised on FB the other day. Could be that.
posted by fingersandtoes at 5:58 PM on January 25, 2023

Best answer: She very likely has extensions throughout her hair, they’re way better than they were in the Paris Hilton era and now look subtle and look fantastic. A great salon job might be $300+ for a couple of months, but you can actually DIY a set of clip in extensions for about $100 that will last a couple of years if you treat them well and don’t sleep in them. YouTube has lots of tutorials.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 6:00 PM on January 25, 2023

Best answer: If we had a better compare/contrast of her part you would see (I’m betting) a topper at the crown and/or extensions. Many many many people on TV have them in as part of their normal styling and it’s easy to keep it consistent because you color match the hair and pieces. I have fine thin terrible hair and one of my favorite things is scenes of women taking their hair off and you realize they had help (there’s a New Adventures of Old Christine where she does it and you’d never think it was fake hair especially since JLD is known for lots of hair.)
posted by kapers at 7:54 PM on January 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: ah yeah "crown topper" is the name of the thing I thought was called "false front" (which I realize now is what they called a similar thing, in Victorian times. How do you do, fellow kids?!)
posted by fingersandtoes at 10:25 PM on January 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

Might also be minoxodil use? My mother's hair got MUCH thicker after about 2 months of regular application.
posted by jeszac at 11:23 AM on January 26, 2023