Hey, y'all! I'm a long-time America's Next Top Model fan, but in the past couple years, I've fallen off the bandwagon-- not finishing off the few seasons I haven't seen, and not really re-watching episodes either. But, over the past week or so, I've been re-watching some older episodes of ANTM, including several makeover episodes, as those are my favorites. And given my love of lists and rankings, I decided that I wanted to do a blog post listing my favorite and least favorite makeovers in the 22 cycle history of the show.
Before I jump into the lists, I wanted to explain my criteria for choosing which makeovers made each list. As should be obvious, these are very subjective lists. While I typically try to be as objective as possible, I have my likes and dislikes-- and some of those will become evident pretty quickly. It should also be noted that these aren't rankings. The makeovers are listed in cycle order with only a couple exceptions.
When it comes to the "best" makeovers, the end result is not the only important factor-- how big of a change it is also plays a role. What I mean by this is that someone who walks into makeovers looking amazing and walks out of makeovers looking almost exactly the same isn't going to end up on my list. (Prime example being Kim cycle 5-- loved her look but it barely changed)
An important thing to note when dealing with the worst makeovers, however, is that I'm not taking into account "botched" makeovers. Throughout the years, there have been several cases where a girl has gotten a makeover and Tyra had to fix it because it was a disaster. You won't find those on this list, because the look itself wasn't the problem, but rather the execution. There are a couple looks on this list that technically fall under that category, but they were still awful even when they got fixed.
OK, I've rambled long enough-- let's just jump into the lists.
Top 15 Best ANTM Makeovers
Cycle 18 Makeovers
OK, it might be a bit of a cop-out to rank a whole season on the list, but the makeovers this season were seriously on-point and would've taken up a huge chunk of this list. Tyra went out on a limb and went for funky colors and interesting cuts, and it was a bold choice that really paid off for a lot of the models. Below are some of my favorites among the bunch.
Azmarie
This one technically breaks my rule of the makeovers needing to be a significant change but I really loved her look.
Catherine
Catherine has a very classic, very British look, and the bold hot pink/red hair made her look super edgy.
Laura
As you'll discover rather soon, I'm a sucker for ice blonde makeovers. The red and blue clip-ins were a little overboard with the "America" theme, but I love the overall look.
Louise
Despite her freakout over cutting and coloring her hair, the shorter hair looked amazing with her bone structure.
Sophie
By taking her slightly more blonde and adding a subtle pink, Sophie got a really cute but high fashion look.
Alisha
Alisha's short hair looked fine, but adding the hair on one side and shaving the other gave her a really cool, edgy look.
The Ice Blondes
Tyra really likes to give girls hair so blonde that it's almost white, and it almost always looks fantastic. Once again, these would've just dominated the list, so I lumped them all together. Laura from cycle 18 was a great example, but there are several more below.
Anya- Cycle 10
Taking Anya from brunette to ice blonde with matching brows gave her a really interesting look that worked really well for her.
Erin- Cycle 13
Erin might be my favorite of the ice blondes. Her pale skin combined with the nearly-white hair gave her a super edgy look.
Rae- Cycle 13
Rae was the least drastic change but bleaching her eyebrows and going even more blonde made a huge difference.
Amanda- Cycle 3
Amanda's ice blonde looked especially great because it was combined with her light blue eyes.
Laura- Cycle 19
Laura's makeover is different from the others because she's actually fairly tan, which gives the ice blonde a very different look altogether.
Shandi- Cycle 2
Now, we're moving into the single makeovers. Shandi was really the first stand-out makeover. She was really nerdy and a bit mousy, but dying her hair blonde really made her stand out from the pack and gave her a totally different look.
Naima- Cycle 4
Naima had an interesting look beginning the competition, but her honey-blonde mohawk really complemented her skintone. I went back and forth between this one and Keenyah from the same season, but the more I looked at her hair, the more I realized how much I love this look on her.
Jenah- Cycle 9
TBH, this picture doesn't do the makeover justice. This makeover really took Jenah over the top. She looked a bit pedestrian before, but the long blonde hair really made her look high fashion.
Fatima- Cycle 10
This is the single makeover in the history of ANTM that really stands out to me as the best makeover in the history of the show. Her hair was a total disaster at the beginning of the show, and her makeover looked amazing. It was such a drastic change and it completely changed her look.
Allison- Cycle 12
This is another real standout, memorable makeover. Allison is one of the favorite models through the show's history, and her makeover was the better version of Shandi's. Her hair at the beginning of the show was very basic, and the big blonde curls added to her quirky ethereal look.
Fo- Cycle 12
Fo had a lot of trouble adjusting to her short hair, but I think it's probably the best "chop all the hair off" makeover in the history of the show. It kept her cuteness but gave her a little edge and it worked really well for her face.
Lulu- Cycle 13
Lulu's look was such a drastic change and it made her look super high-fashion. I'm not usually a huge fan of bangs, but they really framed her face well.
Raina- Cycle 14
Raina's lighter hair looked fine, but the dark hair gave her a much edgier look. Combined with her thick eyebrows and her blue eyes, her dark hair helped to create what I believe to be the best picture in Top Model history:
Phil- Cycle 20
We all thought Tyra was crazy for giving Phil a weave, but the long hair really worked on him. That plus the beard really gave him a distinct look that was really current and interesting.
Nina- Cycle 20
I'm always a fan of Tyra giving a girl red hair, and I think this was the best. The blue eyes, pale skin, bangs, and vivid hair combined to give Nina a really interesting look.
Shei- Cycle 21
This was another makeover where we all questioned Tyra a little bit, but I really like how it ended up turning out. It gave her a really edgy, interesting look.
Hadassah- Cycle 22
Maybe I'm just a sucker for edgy haircuts, but shaving one side of her head took Hadassah from being almost too pretty to being pretty but with an edge.
Lacey- Cycle 22
Like I said earlier, bangs aren't always my favorite, especially heavy bangs. But they framed Lacey's face really well and really highlighted her eyes. Before, she looked pretty pedestrian, but this hair made her really high-fashion.
Top 10 Worst ANTM Makeovers
Ann- Cycle 3
I just don't understand the point of this, let alone when or why this was considered high fashion. Because those two front blonde chunks just look messy. The length is good, but that blonde can't be overlooked.
Michelle- Cycle 4
This is actually this hair at its best. Most of the cycle, her roots were growing in really dark and it honestly just looked really odd on her. This is one of the rare cases where ice blonde definitely did NOT work as it was supposed to.
Saleisha- Cycle 9/ Brittani- Cycle 16
I lumped the two of them together because they were given very similar makeovers. I'll give Tyra credit-- it definitely made them more edgy and both of them won their cycle. But, that doesn't mean the makeover was good. The general consensus is that these makeovers didn't really suit their faces, and I definitely agree. The bangs are overpowering on both of them, and the cut is much too blunt. I definitely agree that they needed to be edged out, but these styles were definitely not the right ones.
Dominique- Cycle 10
This is one where even Tyra realized it was botched. However, even after fixing it, this didn't look good. The short hair really aged Dominique. She was 23, and it made her look (as noted by a photographer) like the mom of one of the girls. The color wasn't great, the way it was styled was aging, and the cut itself was aging. Not. Good.
Stacy Ann- Cycle 10
Like with Saleisha and Brittani, I agree that Stacy Ann needed to be edged out. But this haircut was not the way to do that. Given her strong bone structure, a short cut was probably the way to go, but not this short cut. Maybe a nearly buzzed cut or a buzzed cut combined with long pieces in the front (a la Simone Cycle 14). It just seems like it's either slightly too long or slightly too short, which makes it look odd.
Brenda- Cycle 14
This makeover is one of the standout worsts for me. As with the past few, I definitely think she needed to be edged out. But this short hair aged her quite a bit. With the long hair, she was deemed "too sexy," but the short hair made her look so much older than she was. On top of that, the cut itself wasn't that great. Like with Stacy Ann, shorter was probably the way to go, but not this cut.
Destiny- Cycle 19
I feel like a broken record. Yes, an edgy cut would work well on her. But not the way they did it. But why is the hair on the left side of her head so long? Just shave the side and leave the bangs. The way they did it in makeovers just didn't look good. It didn't work with her hair texture, and it just didn't work.
Brittany- Cycle 19
TBH, I kinda liked her original look. Maybe it's the styling but I just really hated this makeover. Like with the others, I think some tweaking would really help it out. The color was off, the cut was off, and the styling was horrid.
Kari- Cycle 21
And this, my friends, is the worst ice blonde makeover the show has ever done. There were just too many aspects that were slightly off. The shade of blonde wasn't right for her skintone. It was too yellowy and not enough ice. And then combine the bleached brows with her hairline being so far back, it just didn't look good. A few tweaks could've fixed it, but it was a mess as-is.
Denzel- Cycle 21
This is probably the worst idea Tyra has ever come up with for makeovers. She decided that Denzel needed a beard, but he couldn't grow it himself so she gave him a lace-front beard. It looked about as fake as you would expect it to. And the worst part was that no one seemed to realize it looked awful. Denzel thought it looked good, Tyra thought it looked good, but it looked horrible and fake- like someone had glued fur to his face or something. It was really bad.
Ava- Cycle 22
If Denzel's fake beard wasn't the worst makeover idea ever on the show, Ava's is. Tyra literally called this the "fashion mullet" (or something very similar-- mullet was definitely in the name). The sad thing is that if they'd just gotten rid of the "mullet" part of this, it could've been good. But it looked like a mess. No one can ever make mullets look good. It's not possible. Tyra tried really hard with this, but it was horrible. No, no, no.
