HiR 6.22: Pixar Takes on Curly Hair; Beauty Queen Shaves Head for Cancer; Cristiano Ronaldo’s Hair Gel Blues

It's been a long week in New York, with hot and muggy weather and a crazy seven days in the office, we're all ready for Friday and the weekend. But before we can get to the festivities that await us, like hanging out with our air conditioners, it's time for another HiR! —Aja Edwards

A few of the many layers it took Pixar's team to design Merida's hair.

The upcoming film Brave from Disney Pixar features the heroine Merida who has a mass of flaming red-orange curls that were strategically designed by Pixar’s team of scientists and artists. The team used 1,500 hand-placed sculpted individual curls to create the mass of ringlets, and after the hair was in place they had to figure out how to get the hair to move naturally and decipher what would happen to natural curly hair when it’s wet; in all, it took almost three years for the team to get the final look for Merida’s hair.

Beauty Queen Debbe Ebben's shaved head.

Three months ago, Debbe Ebben had no hair and this past Saturday she was crowned Miss Alaska. The beauty queen shaved her head in March to raise more than $4,000 for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, which donates money to childhood cancer research. Ebben said she wanted to let children know who lose their hair that it’s okay to be bald; she will now compete in Miss USA in January 2013.

Two beautiful supermodels fought over soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo’s use of hair gel via Twitter this week. Ronaldo’s girlfriend and supermodel Irina Shayk jumped to his defense when supermodel Bar Refaeli tweeted she believed hair gel should be outlawed because whenever she watches Ronaldo, it’s all she can think of.  

Jennifer Lopez's newly cropped, curly style.

Jennifer Lopez debuted a chopped, shoulder-length mass a curls while out with beau Casper Smart in Santiago, Chile. Since starting her multi-city tour in Panama City, Panama, Lopez has been ditching her sleek straight locks for sexy, bold curls.

Soft Sheen founders Ed and Betty Gardner are having a street name dedicated in their honor on July 12 at East 87th Street and Dobson; the site of the former home of Soft Sheen cosmetics and the current home to Black on Black Love, a non-profit the couple started in 1983 as a media campaign to end Chicago violence.