Hair takes student to L.A. after winning contest

By: Noelle Myers

Posted: 6/13/09

Summer 2009 - When Kellene McCaffrey was supposed to be finishing her homework one evening, she submitted a three-minute video to Glamour magazine for an Herbal Essences contest and was one of three finalists chosen to model the product.

The University of Rhode Island senior journalism major submitted the video in November after hearing about the opportunity from a friend.

"I always wanted to hair model," she said.

A month later Glamour magazine called with the surprising news. McCaffrey was selected out of approximately 1,000 girls to fly to Los Angeles and be part of a Glamour reality Web series called "Tressed to Impress" presented by Herbal Essences Hydralicious.

The Web series premiered on April 6 and is located on the Web site Glamour.tv.

During the series, McCaffrey and the other three finalists were competing for a full spread in Glamour magazine's June edition, and a $10,000 shopping spree. The winner could not be revealed, because it will be announced in the final episode of the Web series.

"I think the winner was based on personality, because they knew we all had good hair types," McCaffrey said.

Representatives from Glamour magazine gave McCaffrey little information about what the opportunity entailed. They seemed very secretive, she added, but McCaffrey went anyways. She called it a "prime opportunity."

McCaffrey said she arrived in Los Angeles in December with no battery left on her cell phone and was unaware who was picking her up at the airport.

"I was nervous about what was going to happen," McCaffrey said about landing in Los Angeles.

An Escalade eventually arrived and took McCaffrey to the Luxe Hotel in Bel Air. She said she was the first to arrive on the scene out of the three finalists. McCaffrey said she was told to act natural in front of the cameras as she waited to meet the other finalists Alana Rome from Warwick, N.Y. and Jesse Ladoue from Elmira, N.Y.

"Most of the time we were doing things and weren't really focused on the cameras. [We] almost didn't know they were there," she said.

The women spent a week being filmed and photographed while competing in challenges for prizes, all of which related to Hydralicious, a line of Herbal Essences' products.

In the first contest the contestants had to choose three outfits that represented their personalities. McCaffrey won a $1,000 shopping spree to the House of Petro Zillia, an upscale boutique in Los Angeles.

McCaffrey said the Herbal Essences products were never out of sight and were even in the hotel rooms.

The products were sometimes the topic of conversation during the five-part reality Web series and were also featured in the photo shoots.

"We're kind of advertising Herbal Essences through the Web site," McCaffrey said.

Before the first photo shoot, finalists were given a specific Herbal Essences product that complemented their hair type. McCaffrey's was labeled "self-targeting."

The finalists are featured in Glamour magazine's May edition. Each girl has her own full-page headshot.

The second and final photo shoot appeared in the June edition and featured a full spread of the winner and a group photo of all three finalists.

McCaffrey said she enjoyed shooting the Web series and the entire experience.

"I've never been to L.A. and it was nice to experience something completely new and different," she added.