AI
Saturday, April 25, 2009 12:33:37 PM
Minor makeover for Susan Boyle
By Mary Jordan
The Washington Post
ANDREW MILLIGAN / AP
Susan Boyle, above, reveals a new look Friday outside her Blackburn, Scotland, home.
LONDON — Whether she should have or shouldn't have, she did.
Susan Boyle has dyed and cut her frizzy, graying locks and thinned her famous bushy eyebrows — a $57 sprucing up that has become huge news in Britain.
With the blinds pulled down at the Miss Toner salon Wednesday to give the unlikely global celebrity a little privacy, Boyle got a haircut, semipermanent color rinse and eyebrow shaping, according to a receptionist at the Whitburn, Scotland, salon.
What emerged was a freshly coifed lady in fashionable leather jacket and what looks to be a Burberry scarf.
"She looks 10 years younger," said Toni Jones, assistant fashion editor at The Sun tabloid newspaper, which featured the new look Boyle on its cover Friday.
"Compared to what she had, it's a 200 percent improvement. But our readers think this is as far as she should go. We want her to stay one of us."
Since she appeared April 11 on the television show "Britain's Got Talent," her decidedly unglamorous looks have become a subject of global debate.
Many fans urged her not to let stylists change her, while others advised her to pay more attention to her appearance.
The Sun, the best-selling British tabloid, had dubbed her "Hairy Angel" but Friday referred to her as "Brunette's Got Talent."
"I assure you, it's not a major makeover," her brother John Boyle said in a telephone interview. "She is still the same Susan."
As of Tuesday, Boyle's audition video posted on YouTube and other video-sharing sites had generated more than 116 million views, according to Visible Measures, a firm that tracks Internet video trends.
Boyle's performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical "Les Misérables" is likely to be the fastest-growing viral video of all time, said Matt Cutler, head of analytics at Visible Measures.
Boyle's showstopping success has sparked a worldwide argument about the nature of beauty and celebrity. Her fans call her a refreshing change from the parade of airbrushed celebrities on the airwaves.
Others have said there's nothing wrong with maximizing your looks, and Boyle ought to let the stylists release her inner princess. Online sites have run surveys and blogs about whether she should get a makeover. DailyMakeover.com said 75 percent said "yes" and it would not "detract from who she is."
Some online commentators had speculated the talent-show host Simon Cowell might forbid a makeover because it could kill the Golden Goose; the unvarnished Boyle is the biggest thing to happen to his TV show.
"She is a grown woman. She can get a haircut," said Sara Lee, a publicist working for the show. But, she noted, "The public has fallen in love with her just as she is."
Boyle had said last weekend that she had no interest in a makeover. "No, no, no," she said.
But with her next TV appearance not until May 23, when auditions end and the live contest begins, she apparently wanted a bit of change.
Her fan mail continues to pile up. But there are signs Boyle fatigue may be setting in, at least for some.
Thursday night on that barometer of American social trends, the animated television show "South Park," the character Ike said that if one more person mentioned Susan Boyle to him he would "puke my guts out." He was so fed up, he said, that he was running away to Somalia to become a pirate.
By Mary Jordan
The Washington Post
ANDREW MILLIGAN / AP
Susan Boyle, above, reveals a new look Friday outside her Blackburn, Scotland, home.
LONDON — Whether she should have or shouldn't have, she did.
Susan Boyle has dyed and cut her frizzy, graying locks and thinned her famous bushy eyebrows — a $57 sprucing up that has become huge news in Britain.
With the blinds pulled down at the Miss Toner salon Wednesday to give the unlikely global celebrity a little privacy, Boyle got a haircut, semipermanent color rinse and eyebrow shaping, according to a receptionist at the Whitburn, Scotland, salon.
What emerged was a freshly coifed lady in fashionable leather jacket and what looks to be a Burberry scarf.
"She looks 10 years younger," said Toni Jones, assistant fashion editor at The Sun tabloid newspaper, which featured the new look Boyle on its cover Friday.
"Compared to what she had, it's a 200 percent improvement. But our readers think this is as far as she should go. We want her to stay one of us."
Since she appeared April 11 on the television show "Britain's Got Talent," her decidedly unglamorous looks have become a subject of global debate.
Many fans urged her not to let stylists change her, while others advised her to pay more attention to her appearance.
The Sun, the best-selling British tabloid, had dubbed her "Hairy Angel" but Friday referred to her as "Brunette's Got Talent."
"I assure you, it's not a major makeover," her brother John Boyle said in a telephone interview. "She is still the same Susan."
As of Tuesday, Boyle's audition video posted on YouTube and other video-sharing sites had generated more than 116 million views, according to Visible Measures, a firm that tracks Internet video trends.
Boyle's performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical "Les Misérables" is likely to be the fastest-growing viral video of all time, said Matt Cutler, head of analytics at Visible Measures.
Boyle's showstopping success has sparked a worldwide argument about the nature of beauty and celebrity. Her fans call her a refreshing change from the parade of airbrushed celebrities on the airwaves.
Others have said there's nothing wrong with maximizing your looks, and Boyle ought to let the stylists release her inner princess. Online sites have run surveys and blogs about whether she should get a makeover. DailyMakeover.com said 75 percent said "yes" and it would not "detract from who she is."
Some online commentators had speculated the talent-show host Simon Cowell might forbid a makeover because it could kill the Golden Goose; the unvarnished Boyle is the biggest thing to happen to his TV show.
"She is a grown woman. She can get a haircut," said Sara Lee, a publicist working for the show. But, she noted, "The public has fallen in love with her just as she is."
Boyle had said last weekend that she had no interest in a makeover. "No, no, no," she said.
But with her next TV appearance not until May 23, when auditions end and the live contest begins, she apparently wanted a bit of change.
Her fan mail continues to pile up. But there are signs Boyle fatigue may be setting in, at least for some.
Thursday night on that barometer of American social trends, the animated television show "South Park," the character Ike said that if one more person mentioned Susan Boyle to him he would "puke my guts out." He was so fed up, he said, that he was running away to Somalia to become a pirate.
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