Spring Break
Prima Danna: a 'Shear Genius' viewer-favorite
HADLEY RUSH
Arbiter Staff
Issue date: 7/11/07 Section: Culture
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“Don’t fight your hair,” Sachs said. “It’s going to do what it wants anyway.”
Sachs (whose first name is pronounced “Dah-nuh”) has quickly become a household name and the “It” girl du jour of hair stylists in Los Angeles following her debut on Bravo TV’s hairdressing reality show, “Shear Genius.”
Sachs, who recalls doing her older brother’s hair from an early age, was one of 12 contestants on “Shear Genius,” a competitive-hair stylist show commensurate to “Top Chef” or “Project Runway.”
Sachs competed against 11 other extraordinarily-talented hair stylists and was subjected to hair challenge competitions, one of which some contestants had to cut their model’s hair with hedge shears. In another challenge the contenders were asked to create artful do’s that incorporated everything from treasure boxes, to Styrofoam tubes and dangling globes entwined throughout their model’s hair.
She said her favorite of all the “Shear Genius” tasks was the art challenge when she created an artsy style using decorative rattan balls that she weaved throughout her model’s hair.
Sachs recalled that as she created her twine-ball-masterpiece, her love for the artistic nature of hair was the reason she became part of the show.
“I thought to myself, that’s why I’m here,” Sachs said. “The art challenge was phenomenal.”
The self-proclaimed health-nut, hair stylist extraordinaire and native South African said she was initially a bit insecure when the promotions for “Shear Genius” began to air, but as it turned out, watching herself on television wasn’t as weird as she thought it’d be.
Sachs said there was heightened drama on the show from time to time, given the high-stress challenges and the multitude of personality types the competitors exhibited. The show, Sachs said, was definitely as catty as it was portrayed on air, considering it was a competition and all the competitors considered themselves the best Sachs said above everything, though, she was most afraid of the way she’d be depicted due to production’s editing.
“I thought maybe I’d sound funny or look funny,” she said. “But then I was like ‘whoa, I look good, I sound good and my work is good.’ But you know how they portray people, the Prima Danna, the bitch - you don’t know how you’re going to be perceived.”
But luckily, this “Prima Danna” was a viewer-favorite.
Sachs said life after the show is only slightly different, in that she’s recognized more often and her number of clients skyrocketed. Sachs said she even had one client drive over an hour to Allen Edwards Salon and Spa in Brentwood, Calif., where she works, to have Sachs re-create the masterful “Vanessa Williams up-do” she’d seen on the show, a challenge she won on the show.
“People have positive input,” she said. “It’s more recognition in a really positive way. It’s given me another avenue that I would have never considered.”
So what sort of avenue is she talking about?
“I would love to have a style network show. Like makeovers, hair and fashion,” she said. “I think there’s really the need for people to get help with their hair.”
Sachs, who’s performed miracle hair works on stars such as Rita Wilson, Brooke Shields, Mark Harmon, Brittany Snow, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Erika Landin, (to name a few) can be contacted via her personal Website at www.danna4hair.com.
“I do travel rates, house calls, red carpet events, period piece hair and prom,” she said.
Above all, though, she’s been especially lucky and still has an incredible, insatiable passion for her work.
“Don’t ever be afraid of what you can do,” she said. “Because you never know. I think fear holds so many people back. And it’s frigging hard work, but follow your dream.”
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