"Shear Genius" (2.03) recaplet: The revenge of Crystal Gayle!

The third episode of the second season of Shear Genius premiered on Bravo last night, and so far, our three out stylists have made the cut each week (but one just barely).

This week's first challenge had the 10 remaining stylists literally gasping (but then, they seem to gasp a lot on this show, especially gay contestant Daniel, who not only likes to gasp a lot, but also gets misty eyed for no reason, and likes to feign fainting spells. By the time the season is over, I fully expect him to have been overcome by the vapors.)

The challenge involves styling hair for ten women who, from the back, look like Rapunzel, that Land O Lakes chick, the black Solid Gold dancer Darcel, and early Cher. In other words, they have freakishly long hair.

The one stipulation the stylists have is that they can't cut any of the hair, so it's nothing but buns, bouffants, and bee-hives.

Straight stylist Matthew wins the first competition (because he used pearls), but gay stylist Charlie came in second, which was perplexing since his model's hair looked (as another stylist put it) like a "drunken prom queen who was left without a date at the end of the night".

The elimination challenge is next, and judge Rene Fris (who has the cutest, and unintentionally hilarious accent I've ever heard), announces...

"For today's challen, you will be styling hair around dwesses, reminiscent to those worns on the red cawpet. You will be jud on cweativity, glamour, and how wathy the style is for the red cawpet."

He's like a Hank Azaria Simpsons character come to life.

The stylists choose their dresses, and then meet their models. The challenge begins, and they compete to see who can come up with the greatest red carpet 'do.

See how our gay stylists did, and find out was sent home, after the break.

Charlie is obviously this competition's golden gay, because he can do no wrong in the eyes of the judges. He won last week's elimination challenge, which he means he was safe this week, and just to rub it in the faces of everyone else, he won THIS week's elimination challenge, too, which means he can't be booted off next week's show. He is undeniably a great stylist, but he suffers from a chronic case of O.P.D. (Obnoxious Personality Disorder).

Daniel is right behind Charlie in the competition, and it wouldn't surprise me if the both of them duked it out for top stylist. He's also an enormously entertaining drama queen, and frankly, I'm not sure the pearls he clutches will survive an entire season of competition.

Oh, Paolo. He tries his best, but Eddie Munster has problems. Every week he's ended up in the bottom three, and today he was once again barely able to survive. It came down to him and straight stylist Matthew, and I fully expected Paolo to be sent packing. His red carpet hairdo was cringe-worthy, and looked like a finger-in-the-socket accident.

The judges decided that Matthew committed the biggest sin, however, by not listening to his client when she told him that her hair wouldn't curl, and tried to curl it anyway (with disastrous results). He was sent packing, but as you can see from the video below, isn't too broken up over it.

Next week, the stylists get the chance to sabotage each others work (on purpose!)