Destiny's Girlfriend

 By LiLi Tan

Picture this: It's a huge Saturday night and you've just smoothed out your hair to a sleek shine, slipped on your new overpriced designer jeans that make your butt look like the money you just spent on them, and matched a long onyx necklace that compliments your sexy silk cami. You meet up with your girls and there IT is. IT, being you and your friends all looking like eerie replicas of each other: similar hair, similar clothes, maybe even the same secret underwear (if you checked). Beyonce would be proud.

So what do you do? Name yourself Fate's Triplet Terrors and practice close harmony singing? Or go back home and get a look that's all your own? "Change your hair -- that's the best way. I don't care if everyone's wearing the same clothes," says Barry Reitman, a pro hair stylist at Juan Juan Salon in Beverly Hills. "Get that hot look, get that different look, get that change, and everybody is going to notice. You can take a group of friends and individualize everything. Everyone's face is different. Everyone's hair is different."

The Trendy Individualist
Be you and be free!  According to Reitman, the trend for fall is sexy, soft, and unstructured hair with lots of volume. But work with your hair's texture -- don't try to get Mischa Barton's volume, instead see what your hair can do. You can use Velcro rollers to get soft, romantic curls. You want to give your hair fullness and lift on the sides and on top, so take large sections of your hair and pop in about five rollers. Use large metal clips to keep them in place. Blow-dry on high, then let set. After 15 minutes, take out the rollers, gently run your fingers -- do not brush -- through the curls, and apply a light mist of hairspray.

Color Yourself Unique
"There are so many exciting things that are going on with hair color now," Reitman says. "There are multi-dimensional colors. You can have bold, striking pieces of color that would are interlaced in your hair."  You can even go with hot new highlight colors like rich mahogany, cinnamon, chocolate cherry, and exotic copper. Make sure the colors complement your base color so it doesn't end up looking like stripes. "Highlights that are all over the place end up looking like all of your friends," Reitman adds. 

Total Look
Smokey makeup is so in it's practically out. Stand out with the clean face of classic Hollywood by trying noir makeup with Dietrich red lips and top-lined eyes to go with your fabulous blouse, jeans, and now-personalized hair.

Style Sessions Tip: Low on cash? Check out a hair academy. Most of the top salons offer services for free or for a low fee. Go in and get free styling, even free coloring, for offering to "model" your hair. And don't stress that your look will get botched by a student. "We train professional hair dressers in the new trends," Reitman says. "We'll take 30 models at one time and put the latest, hottest thing on each one but individualize it. That's a great way for a young woman to get an expensive haircut and color for very little money."