About: Jude

I just saw a zahtig Charlize Theron in Tully, a movie about the torture of having an infant and being pulled in every direction and overeating and sleep deprivation and depression, but don’t get me started. I told my pregnant daughter to avoid watching it at ALL COSTS.

Charlize gained fifty pounds for the role, because that’s what she does. She gives her all. She confessed that the weight gain was brutal, and that the overdosing of sugar and processed foods made her fall into a deep depression. I fall into a deep depression when I gain two pounds, just looking in the mirror, so I feel for her.

But when I got my color done the other day, and a fresh cut and blowout, despite the fact that I judged myself staring at my reflection, wearing the slice of pizza I’d eaten the night before, I felt like a million bucks.

So go for the Geo Palette Hair System, get pristine color with Lumetrix and George Mennella, and you won’t see the weight gain. You will simply see gorgeous hair.

Charlize, on the other hand, is skinny again. I will have spinach and a piece of palm-sized chicken for dinner. -JC

For some of us, the winter was tough. Sunless, cold, a barrage of snowstorms, too much shoveling, rain, and general gloom. Our senses are looking for a splash of color I call “searching for a crocus”. Just like we need a bit of bright sun to warm us, we need a splash of color to ease us into a feeling of well being. We need a pink blossom to emerge from the cold ground. A smile in the mirror to get the endorphins going. A simple compliment, told to us by a stranger. An act of kindness. A new lipstick. A hearty laugh.

Or maybe a change of hair color. The Geo Palette Hair System has joined forces with a dynamic new color brand, Lumetrix, to give you that luxurious burst of color in time for spring. We are excited by the results, which range from natural sunkissed highlights to bright beautiful runway hues.

No foil to bake the hair, reusable Clearviews, kind to the planet, brilliant results. Colorists, try it. Clients, you will never go back to foil again.

Your choice, your pop of crocus, your invitation to a more gorgeous you. JC

Charlize Theron as Marilyn Monroe? The mind boggles. Let’s compare. Tall and statuesque Charlize at 5′ 10″, versus smaller and curvier Marilyn at 5′ 5″.

  If anyone can do it, Charlize can. She won the Academy Award playing serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, in Monster, a sizzling agent in Atomic Blonde, and alpha heroine, Imperator Furiosa, in Mad Max, and so many more. She has acting chops.

 Laurence Olivier was famous for insulting Marilyn with his gaffe, “Try and be sexy”. She didn’t have to try. She simply turned on a switch and the camera fell in love, projecting her beauty, vulnerability, and innocence. She is one of those icons loved by men AND women. But damn, Charlize looks good!

And if she can pull off the essence of Marilyn, the vulnerability, the tremulous voice, all will be well.

But they have to get the hair right!

And so do you. Ask for the Geo Palette Hair System, integrated with the new technology of Lumetrix Hair Color, to achieve spectacular results. Your hair color is your crowning glory. Marilyn Monroe will never be forgotten. Charlize Theron will triumph. But the hair  has to be perfect. And so does yours. 

I recently went to the movies to escape. A thriller where the mom, played by Naomie Watts, saves the day. Halfway through the movie I was crying my eyes out. George was too, in a manly way. Twenty four dollars to go into mourning? The movie redeems itself with a happy-ish ending, but the damage was done. Which begs the question: do we need happy endings when we are young AND when we are getting older?
For the best happy ending in hair color, get Geo Palette color. No foils so no hair damage. Sublime results. No tears halfway through. Compliments to follow. JC

I rarely stand up and applaud a movie, and it’s even rarer that I “boo” one. But that’s how I felt when I finished watching Isabelle Huppert in ELLE, a movie about a woman who is assaulted, befriends her rapist, and lures him back to get raped again. I won’t give away the ending. But she’s in charge, sort of. I hated every character in it.

Which makes me wonder, if a narrative stays with you, does it mean you’ve experienced great filmmaking? No for Elle, and yes for the poetic/elegaic/hopeful/hopeless Moonlight, which has haunted me for weeks with its themes of connection, poverty, race bias, gender bias, and humanity.

Elle could possibly win an Oscar for best foreign picture. Ms Huppert certainly deserves one, and I heartily hope that she writhes on the floor and rids herself of the damages done as I hear she exorcised her demons in a past movie that she had completed. (Okay, you can see that I’m more Oscar the Grouch than Oscar award winning when it comes to THIS film.)

Of course, getting one’s hair colored is a different matter.  Viva the Geo Palette, with its reusable plastic Clearview subsections and no ph-altering foils. Get hair color that stays. Color that deserves applause. Oscar award caliber. No “boos”,  ever. -JC

Hair through the ages

In college, I was a long haired natural, likened to Ali McGraw and Katherine Ross, only plumper, not a hair dye in sight.

Over the summer, I spent a few weeks in Hawaii with a college friend, and my hair took on a golden hue from all the sunshine.

By the time I got married the first time and moved to England, I splurged on henna, and got a taste of red, which made my father compare me to Shawnie, our Irish setter.

I got a perm, and married a second time.

I got another perm, and found out that I was pregnant, because the wave wouldn’t take.

I got divorced, and became a blonde, because I heard they had more fun.

I found my soulmate, if soul-mates can fight, and decided that red suited me.

The Geo Palette Hair System. Is it time for a change?

My father, bless him, used to tell me that I looked like Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly. I didn’t and I don’t. If he had been alive to watch the show, The Good Wife, he might have likened me to Christine Baranski…less a movie star and more a character actress with attractive flaws.

I was mesmerized by all things Hollywood, despite my mother’s disdain for “that hoofer, Fred Astaire”, or even my all time favorite, Marilyn Monroe. My mother’s opinion resembled Laurence Olivier’s, who before his overacting debut in The Prince and the Showgirl, mortified my idol by telling her, “All you have to do is be sexy, dear Marilyn.” The camera, forever loyal, loved her, and Marilyn stole the show.

But I digress. Ingrid Bergman, my father’s favorite and at the top of my list, was a star from another era. Luminous in Gaslight, exciting in Notorious, lovestruck in Casablanca, beautiful in Spellbound, she scandalized the world by an affair and then marriage with Roberto Rossellini. Forced to remain in Europe for several years, she was denounced on the floor of the US Senate. Ed Sullivan refused to have her on his show, despite polls indicating that the public was ready.

At last, America forgave her. In 1956, she returned to make the film, Anastasia in 1956, winning her second Academy Award.

Yesterday, at the post office, I purchased a book of Ingrid Bergman stamps with genuine pleasure. Bravo, Ingrid. I have always loved you.

I was trying to cross a busy street to get to work, and a truck stopped to let me pass. Smiling, I pointed in the other direction, as another truck and several cars were speeding down the road. The second truck stopped as well.

Must be my short skirt, I thought, quite pleased with myself. But as the first vehicle passed, the driver called out, “Nice hair!”

He had a discerning eye, because I had just had my color done.

Not to be excluded, the other driver rolled down his window and said, “Keep smiling!”

I had to laugh. My hair. My smile. It had nothing to do with my short skirt at all.

But I do love my Geo Palette color. My hair looks healthier, the color more brilliant, and that makes me smile. -JC

I’m not always inspired. And if I wait for that ping of electricity to penetrate my brain, that eureka called “an idea”, it may never come.

May I recommend sheer, hard work. Pen to paper. Or fingers to computer. If you’re writing, don’t complete that paragraph…leave something for next time, so that you can avoid writer’s block. Painting, just start doodling, or paint the mailbox with flowers.

Always have materials handy. Take a class. Go to a museum. Walk in the garden. But do the work. Inspiration won’t always make you move your fingers over the keyboard.

Colorists…try the Geo Palette if you’re bored with foils. Paint hair on Clearviews. Use the handheld palette for a touch of balayage, a soupcon of color.

Force yourself. Creativity arrives like a surprise present. Embrace it, and start over tomorrow.

A friend and I saw Absolutely Fabulous on the big screen. We laughed hard at Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders… hysterical as they rolled their eyes and injected themselves with Botox as easily as they applied their lipstick. The cocaine snorting and drinking to excess didn’t make us want them to go to rehab. We were in the funny zone. They wobbled in their high heels, comical queens at fashion shows and the Riviera as they made absolute fun of themselves.

Kate Moss was the goddess of the film, “killed off” early to the horror of the fashion world. She reigns supreme, drinkng champagne with her perfect Kate Moss lips, emerging from the Thames like Botticelli’s Venus, only way thinner.

Lulu arrives, along with Joan Collins, Jon Hamm, and a cast of celebrities that I’d like help naming, but I’m too close to Eddy and Patsy in age to remember.

Go with a friend and have more than a few laughs. Then go for drinks and get catty about super model Kate. She’s still got it.