Shear Genius Season 3 Recap

From tantrums and walk-offs to a surprise ending few viewers could have predicted, Shear Genius Season 3 was a true "tress-test," full of high-stakes competition.

Hailing from L.A. to Australia, long-time cut and colorists, salon owners, budding artists and even a few celebrity hairstylists all came to stake their claim on the Shear Genius title.

In fact, each week brought another celeb or super-stylist to sit in as guest judge for both the shortcut and elimination challenges, including: Nexxus Creative Director and celebrity stylist Kevin Mancuso, as well renowned stylists Ken Paves, Harry Josh, Kimberly Kimble, Mark Townsend, former competitor Tabitha Coffey. Allure Editor-in-Chief Linda Wells and hairstyling icon Oribe also added to the long list of heavy hitters.

But judging wasn't easy! Over the course of 10 episodes, the contestants were faced with far-out challenges that included hairstyles inspired by menu items, romance novels, making a seductive style for an "Army Wives" pin-up shoot, dry-cutting, color-correcting, and icon updating. Whew! That's a lot of styling, cutting and craziness in the Nexxus Shear Genius Salon.

In a bit of disbelief about her win, Brig said, "A girl From Simi Valley took out people from all over the world - extremely talented stylists from Hollywood to NY...you know what? Never underestimate anyone in any competition."

Thank you Nexxus fans for following along all season both on and off line. And don't forget to check out the other pages on our Shear Genius tab for more information on each episode, as well as how-to styling tips from Kevin for recreating the winning looks at home.

Winning looks