[IMG:L]Following a winning formula that did wonders for wannabe fashion designers on Project Runway, kitchen wizards on Top Chef and interior decorators on Top Design, Bravo’s latest elimination competition has a dozen scissors-wielding hopefuls vying for $100,000 and the title of Shear Genius. Playing the Heidi Klum of host and judge (alongside celeb stylist Sally Hershberger and Allure magazine’s Michael Carl) is Jaclyn Smith, a woman whose luxurious mane was her calling card even before Charlie’s Angels.
“I started my career in a Breck commercial so hair has been part of my history. I’ve worked with some of the greatest hairdressers of all time,” says Smith, a big fan of Project Runway who eagerly accepted the gig. “I loved it because I loved seeing talent at work. Making something out of nothing is what intrigued me. It’s not just about pretty dresses or pretty hair. It’s about the technical aspect as well as the artistic and these young people.”
In the eight-episode Los Angeles-based series, premiering April 11 at 11 PM and airing at 10 PM thereafter, contestants will face off in two challenges per episode–the short cut challenge for technical skill, and the elimination challenge for artistic creativity–as they work with salon manager René Fris (in the Tim Gunn mentor role).
Expect the requisite drama and hair disasters, something Smith has experienced personally. “Some color things have happened where it’s gone totally black, or they put gold streaks in it where I looked like some kind of tiger,” she remembers. “I’m a person that likes it natural and real. I don’t want to be a slave to my hair. That’s why I keep the same layered cut. It’s easy for me. I know how to handle it.”
Smith, still stunning, slim and chic more than three decades since Angels made her a star, keeps her thick tresses in shape by traveling with a stylist. “I get attached to them. They’re my friends,” she says. “When women choose a hairstylist they need to like that person and know that that person sees them as a human being and not just something to put the latest style on.”
The former Breck and Wella Balsam spokesmodel now uses “all kinds of products” on her signature ‘do. “I mix it up. I think you need to change.” She also believes in conditioner and giving her hair a time out from styling. “I don’t wash it every day, and I have curly hair so I take a round brush and iron to it, but sometimes I’ll leave it curly because it gives my hair a break.”
While she still acts in the occasional TV movie, Smith’s priority is her family (married to fourth husband Brad Allen, a pediatric heart surgeon, she has two children, Spencer Margaret and Gaston Anthony, both in their twenties) and her thriving design businesses. She has designed a line of clothing for Kmart for twenty years, “which I’m very proud of because we’ve been able to give stylish, affordable clothes to the working mother, the career woman. They want to get a good buy and you can’t beat my classic suits, blazers and slacks. They’re beautiful.”
More recently, Smith made the move into furniture design with Jaclyn Smith Home. “It’s in 200 stores across the United States. I have bedding, mattresses, an exclusive line of fabrics, and upholstery. Most of my collection is inspired by antiques that I’ve collected,” she offers. “It’s doing really well,” she says, though she acknowledges. “It’s very challenging, very time consuming.”
Nevertheless, she finds time to stay in touch with her former Charlie’s Angels cohorts. When Farrah Fawcett was diagnosed with cancer last fall, Smith, a breast cancer survivor, rushed to her friend’s side. “I just talked to her,” Smith happily reports. “She’s doing great.”
