A few Valley salons are hosting benefits to raise money for charities. A quick look at details, plus phone numbers if you want more information …

All month long, MANE ATTRACTION (and other salons that sell Bumble and bumble products) will donate $3 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for each 10-ounce bottle of Classic Bumble Hairspray sold. The salon is at 3156 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix. Information: (602) 956-2996 or www.maneattraction.com.

SALON ESTIQUE is hosting a Bring Your Own Blow Dryer night 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 18 to benefit the Entertainment Industry Foundation Women’s Cancer Programs. Clients who book a $40 appointment will more than get their money back: They’ll receive a Bumble and bumble conditioning treatment valued at $35 and shampoo, followed by blow-dry and styling technique lessons (read: no haircuts), plus a gift bag worth $50. Clients can bring dryers, curling and flat irons and brushes to learn how to do right what what they’ve got at home. There will also be mini spa samplings, manicures and brow design, chair massages, makeup touchups, wine and cheese. The salon is at 40 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix. Appointments and information: (602) 248-0077.PAR EXSALONCE in north Scottsdale lets you stock up on mini-treatments, offering two for $35. The menu of 10- to 15-minute treats: massage, body treatment, makeup, hair fluff or polish change. And no appointments — they’re first come, first served. Money raised will go to Sing for Life Breast Cancer Association of Arizona. I might go to the event, 4 to 7 p.m. Oct. 22, just for the food, which will be provided by Sol y Sombra (my favorite, favorite restaurant on earth right now, especially because of the chorizo tapas). Desserts and coffee will be from Wicked Bakery, and Soul Survivors, a group of breast cancer survivors and loved ones, will sing. The salon is at Market Street at DC Ranch, 20707 N. Pima Road, Scottsdale. Information: (480) 860-0717 or www.parexsalonceaz.com.

Maybe you want an Arizona Cardinals player to do your hair instead? ROLF’S SALONS will host Making the Cut 3, a fund-raiser for Cardinals Charities, 5 to 9 p.m. Oct. 23 at Rolf’s at Gainey Village, 8787 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. The $80 appointments include a haircut and blow-dry, plus a Kerastase "in-salon ritual" by a Rolf’s stylist, with Cardinals players and cheerleaders helping out — yes, even in the rinse bowl. The night also will include spa samplings, catering from Michael’s at the Citadel, and prizes. Appointments and information: (480) 730-3130.

Late last month I entered my own personal nirvana: the new freestanding Philosophy store at Casa Paloma shopping center, 7131 W. Ray Road, Chandler. The Valley skin care and cosmetics company is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and what better way than to set up shop so customers can peruse and test? A sampling of what I walked away with is after the jump.It was funny having the employees try to find something new for me to try: I’ve either got or tried pretty much everything the line has created. But they hit pay dirt with The Present clear powder ($14), a mattifying lotion that sops up any extra oil. You know that shine that pops up after a day of work and driving? This product prevents it from ever appearing.

Through sales of specially created three-in-one shower gel/shampoo/bubble baths, Philosophy champions several charities that do everything from saving the rain forest to fighting sexual abuse or paralysis. Especially topical this month is Shower for the Cure ($20), a creamy tangerine-scented product that has raised $1.4 million for breast cancer research over five years.

I love the idea of an at-home peel that sloughs off dead skin and reveals the radiance beneath. And after a single use of the Oxygen Peel kit ($45) — enzyme gel first, then oxygen foam, for a total of about 3 minutes — pores appear much smaller and skin looks better. Imagine the results after 10 treatments, which is how many the kit holds!

While I was trolling through the "This Week in Entertainment" photos on MSN.com, enjoying the mix of varying levels of star wattage — one photo Drew Barrymore, the next Stefanie Powers — when I came across this photo and couldn’t believe the change. Test yourself: Who is this, walking her kid through the airport?

The answer is after the jump.I could have given you the hint to look at her daughter’s hair, but that might have given it away. It’s Mel B, aka Scary Spice. The power of a hairstyle!

Target has announced the latest designer in its limited-time-only Go International line: New York designer Behnaz Sarafpour, who launched her first collection in 2001. Her designs will hit stores Nov. 1 and be sold for two months.Since the collection’s geared for younger women, there are a lot of looks with aggressively short hemlines, but a few pieces would translate well for other ages, too., like the white lace-trim cardigan ($29.99) at left and the twill trench ($49.99) at right. Want to try to win something for free? Keep reading.The collection also includes a charm bracelet that has little tokens of New York City life: a slice of pizza, a taxi, a pretzel, a "walk" sign, comedy/tragedy masks, letters that spell out "NYC," a subway token, a whistle, a Big Apple, even a bull’s-eye (for Target, naturally). I’m giving the bracelet to a reader who sends me an e-mail message by clicking on this link by noon Friday, Oct. 13. Be sure to include your name and mailing address, and put GO INTERNATIONAL in the subject line. I’ll announce the winner later that day in this post. Good luck!Updated: Congratulations to winner Jill Johnson of Chandler.

Even though we’ve been getting press releases for months, I’m not quite ready to talk about the holidays just yet. … Except the fact that the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book just landed in my mailbox last week, and one of the available gifts is a private charter into space.A six-passenger charter, to be exact, for a trip scheduled to occur in 2009, starting with three days of medical assessments, then a trip on a launching aircraft and rocket-propelled blast up to about 63 miles above sea level. … Of course, there’s also a four-night stay at Richard Branson’s island retreat for each astronaut and a guest. .. Only $1,764,000.Now, am I going to be able to buy anything in the luxury retailer’s book? Probably not. In fact, even the $100-and-below section — and yes, there is one — seems a little too fatuous in the real world. (There is a contest to win free handbags though — more on that in a second.)But it is fun to look at and imagine: If you had a bazillion dollars, what would you get for random people? For my pen-obsessed co-worker Marija, the Montblanc Boheme Skeleton 18-karat white gold fountain pen, with 1,906 diamonds, the only one in the United States and one of only three in the world. ($160,900)For the Arizona Costume Institute at Phoenix Art Museum, the Jacques Fath archives, with 26 original sketchbooks containing more than 3,400 couture designs from 1948 to 1956, plus three original dresses. ($3,500,000)But back to real life … the retailer is giving away three designer handbags — one each month to random winners who sign up for the store’s e-mail updates. The first one is a Kooba Lena bag valued at $625, which will be given away Nov. 1. The other bags/dates: A Chloe Edith bowler worth $1,660, Dec. 1, and an Yves Saint Laurent Muse satchel that sells for $1,895, Jan. 2. (In the fine print, it says you’ll have to pay taxes on your prize, though) More info is at www.neimanmarcus.com/sweepstakes.

My friend and co-worker Jess was so upset that they didn’t kick a designer off the last episode of "Project Runway" — "a total cop-out," he said, "and a waste of an hour of my life" — that he vowed he wouldn’t watch tonight’s reunion special.And to him — and everyone else — I say: You didn’t miss much.In order, here’s what you did miss:1. Heidi, because she is pregnant, has what the politically incorrect male would call "big knockers." And they’re pushed up in a little black dress.2. In his segment previewing the program, Tim Gunn makes the episode sound about as thrilling as an essay assignment: "We’ll be using clips, conversations and questions from viewers."3. Bradley has a close-cropped haircut and is clean-shaven. He is still mildly insane.4. Bonnie, on her interaction with fans: "One ran up to me and said, ‘You were on "Project Runway"’! And I said, ‘Yeah!’ And she said, ‘You suck!’ and ran away! And I was like (facial expression), I was like (same facial expression), I was like (still same facial expression)!"5. Laura’s version of jeans and sneakers is riding pants and boots. No, really, she said that.6. Keith still holds a grudge about being disqualified. If he weren’t so peevish about everything else, I might believe his accusation that someone took his books for a week, then returned them in time to be there when he was kicked out. (Really, wouldn’t the producers look inside the books to see what was in them and whether it could lend him an advantage? What if they were like diaries with fake covers?)7. In his response to that, Tim calls the producers "unimpugnible." Which leads to a montage of Tim’s Big Vocabulary, in which he uses "mitigating," "faux bois," "consternation," "sturm und drang," "circuitous," "consternation" and my favorite, "caucus." My other favorite part is them showing the designers snickering like little kids when he says it — just like I did the first time.8. Laura overuses the phrase "serious ugly." Robert: "boring." Vincent: "turn me on." Bradley just made weird noises.9. In trying to criticize the other designers, Vincent says, "It takes a certain level to be at a certain level." Others laugh at him.10. Kayne talks fast. And a lot: When he pitched his pageant gown to Miss USA, the final count was Kayne 932 words, Miss USA 7.11. Robert says Malan is like "Cary Grant meets Eddie Munster." Malan’s laugh is unnerving, especially when given the never-ending montage treatment.12. Angela still holds a grudge about the mom challenge. The more I have to watch Angela’s mom, the more I lean toward Jeffrey’s side. And that’s hard to do.13. Then Angela says she thinks if she and Jeffrey had met under different circumstances, they could have been friends. Everyone laughs at her stupidity.14. Vincent pitched a profanity-laden fit after the producers washed one of his shirts. A really long one.15. Michael Knight wins the "fan favorite" award and gets $10,000. 16. Michael Kors says each week the judges don’t take into consideration the total body of work, but only focus on that particular challenge.17. Michael Kors is a liar, because if it weren’t for total body of work there’s no way they would have kept Michael Knight after that last challenge.18. Angela asks the judges if she would have been safe had she changed her story about the outfit in the dog-walking challenge. They all laugh at her stupidity. The words "hoochie" and "hooker" are used by separate people to describe said outfit.19. Talkative Model is just as big a drama queen as the designers, getting panicky and almost passing out if she’s put at risk. "You have that a lot," you hear Heidi telling her. "Why do you have that a lot?"20. A lot of people, including previous winners Jay McCarroll and Chloe Dao, think that Michael Knight will win.21. I suspect these people were interviewed before they watched that last challenge and when the producers realized they only had sound clips about Michael, Michael, Michael, they decided they had to keep him on rather than go back and reinterview.22. Yeah. "Unimpugnible." Right.

This is the way the drama endsThis is the way the drama endsThis is the way the drama endsnot with a bang but a whimper.(With apologies and all due credit to T.S. Eliot)"America’s Next Top Model" threatens to implode upon itself, as scores of previous season never-weres* converge, wraithlike, upon this episode and manifest themselves everywhere from manor estates to the capital of Texas (and in Dani[elle]’s case, the weekly Cover Girl emotionless line reading commercial). Perhaps confronting her doppelganger is what left MONIQUE so weak and exhausted and vulnerable to illness. And, perhaps because she decided at the last minute not to participate in this week’s photo shoot, the judges decided she didn’t really have the dedication to be there and sent her packing.And perhaps because of that, I will never again have to watch a woman wipe her … intimate secretions across someone else’s bed linens.And for that last one, I’m intensely grateful._____* Calling them "has-beens" implies they had achieved some sort of success and I, unlike the show’s producers, refuse to lie to you like that.And yet, I can’t help but wonder: With such an obvious nut job dismissed, what second-rate drama will have to be cobbled together to hold viewer interest for 10 more weeks? Anchal’s insecurities? Melrose’s obsessive-compulsive cleanliness? Eugena’s facial disturbances? Twin-on-twin hostilities?But back to the present: The girls puzzle over a mysterious Tyra mail that alludes to walking the line and such great heights or some such nonsense. While trying to say that each message has hints about the next challenge, Melrose actually ends up saying, "Nothing that we do here is pointless," which really couldn’t be more wrong if she tried.When they pile out of the Tyramobile the next morning, J. Alexander meets them wearing some sort of feathery swim cap for hair. They spend a day walking on a tightrope to get their balance. This is lame but allows Monique and Melrose to talk, separately, how much each despises the other.Back home, Melrose gets to the telephone first — I wonder if she ever got that $1,000 deposit back? — while Monique objects that she had called for first phone rights. (After you spend three and a half hours on the phone out of pure spite, I think you automatically are denied first-phone privileges. For life.) So she stands in the doorway, loudly complaining about her karmic phone retribution, until Melrose shoves her out of the way and shuts the door, bumping Monique out into the kitchen.This does not go over well. You can watch Monique’s face go all dead from anger, and I can’t remember who in the kitchen watches it — maybe because I couldn’t recognize her in the defensive, crouched posture of a child from an abused home: "Please don’t take it out on me!"When Monique finally gets her phone time, she calls her mama and says, "I might have to $%#& her up, pardon my French." And, like I predicted way back in the season previews, she indeed threatens to cut someone — specifically, Melrose. Later that night, she and Eugena are in the bathroom while the others are getting ready for bed, and she tells Eugena she’s going to take her used panties and rub them all over Melrose’s bed. With Melrose in it.(Why are Eugena and Monique friends, anyway? Two episodes ago Monique stole Eugena’s bed by claiming to have urinated on it, and they were itching for a fight. Ah, bygones. …)Indeed, the camera follows as Monique scoots over to Melrose’s bed and surreptitiously wipes her underwear across the coverlet, then darts away. Melrose doesn’t see what’s going on, but feels the motion and wonders what happened. Jaeda sees the goings-on and, in the world’s biggest understatement, says, "That’s icky." Anchal interviews she’s worried about Monique going crazy and throwing lemonade on her. If lemonade is the worst thing she throws on you, consider yourself lucky, girl. I’m thinking she’d start with urine, work her way through fecal matter and move on to blood and even less-appetizing options.And before we cut to commercials, the last thing we see is Monique, eyes gleaming with glee as she curls her long fake hair in the mirror at 11 p.m., before going to bed where she’s going to lie on it and ruin the curls, talking to herself in the mirror: "Yes, yes, yes," she says, admiring herself while she wraps her tresses around the barrel, and it’s chock full of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" craziness. I expect her to break out into song like Bette Davis would: "I’m sending! A letter! To Daddy!"The next day, at some faux English manor with cobblestone paths, the girls again meet J. Alexander, who this time is wearing a masquerade-style mask and a bell-shaped dress that’s buttcheek-grazingly short and about 5 feet wide. Brooke earlier declared that J. "is a royal mess," and I cannot disagree with her. (And yet, he appears less ridiculous than Jay Manuel. How does this occur?)J. tells the girls that to practice their runway walk, they’ll be putting on dresses and high heels and trotting down the line that’s been stretched down the pavement. Oh, while wearing those masks. "We’re basically walking blind on cobblestones," one of the twins says.And, for no particular reason, there’s another "judge" for this competition: "Suddenly Psychopath" Bre, which makes me very excited because I can’t wait to see the clash of the crazy titans! I mean, it took Bre about eight weeks of competition before she was raging about granola bars and emptying other girls’ energy drinks down the drain, while after only two weeks Monique is already — and I did not want to write about this last week, but given this week’s developments I must — wiping her hand "under her towel" and flicking … fluid on other people. (And again: If she acts like this after being raised as a "child of God," her mom must have been doing some serious contraindicative parenting.)But the walking is anticlimactic: It’s not even as deliciously "I can’t watch!" as last season’s challenge with the ludicrously high shoes where we waited with baited breath for someone to not crack an ankle. (It makes news when the real pros fall: See story here, video of another incident here and a third leading off the "Oddball" segment of MSNBC’s "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" [click on "Model Epidemic"].)Here, though, we have only a few wobbles — no Danielle crawling offstage whimpering, "Ow, ow, ow" like last season. Curses! (You can find that video online, too, by the way.)The winner of the challenge, by the way, gets to work in a fashion show! (Yay! Exciting!) And will fly to Austin, Texas! (Less yay, less exciting.) And perform in a charity fashion show for some Dennis Quaid charity. (Um, I pass.) A.J. wins and picks Megg and CariDee to go with her, despite Brooke’s simpering that Austin is her hometown. Suck it up, Brooke! You’ve been gone for like a week and a half.Meanwhile, Monique has come down with something awful. At first I thought it was karmic retribution, but right then Melrose says something about Monique’s "negative energy" returning to haunt her. It makes me really, really not want to think the same way as Melrose, so I decide instead that Monique has contracted ringworm and an STD — you know, from all that under-the-towel manipulation. She ends up going to the hospital, where she gets some fluids. Maybe if she didn’t keep flicking hers at other people …. I’m just saying.Meanwhile, the winners fly to Austin to participate in their show. Their fellow models are … a passel of former "ANTM" contestants who are desperately trying to reclaim their former glory (and I use that term loosely). Does Tyra have the deed to their souls? Why would you return after six seasons for another shameful reminder of your failure? Also, the spotlight sponsor of the show is H-E-B, which is somewhat akin to walking in a fashion show sponsored by Albertson’s, or possibly even Food City. That’s glamour! They do get to meet Dennis Quaid, though, and for a while I think he is going to hit on CariDee. This does not happen, much to my dismay. (Did I ever tell you that my brother-in-law in Billings, Montana, sold Dennis Quaid an H2 Hummer? Yup. So me and Dennis, we’re like this.) The next morning they fly back to L.A. and arrive at …… This week’s photo shoot, part of a fashion show that is a zillion times worse than the one in Austin, thanks to its ludicrous setup: The girls will be walking on a runway that’s made up of sections of planks floating on a swimming pool. It’s sort of like a part of a really lame obstacle course: Any missteps and into the pool they’ll go! Of course, the "designer" cautions them they’ll be wearing terribly expensive, fragile garments that could rip at any moment! Monique decides she’s too sick and goes home.The "guests" arrive, and let me tell you, I don’t know if it’s the writers strike or what, but this group of people is the most idiotic, motley crew of fashion victims ever assembled — it’s people who can’t decide between their love of Marilyn Manson and Deee-Lite, with Day-Glo pink wigs and way too much eye makeup. Somewhere, a costume shop owner is laughing all the way to the bank.The girls in their bad makeup — Brooke looks particularly atrocious — bobble their way across the boards, and nobody takes a true tumble, although Eugena does slip and dip a leg into the water. She recovers, badly, and continues on. Let me tell you, no real designer would submit to a runway show like this — every eye trained on … the model’s feet, waiting for a slip, while your beautiful, expensive garments go unwatched or, worse yet, straight into the chlorinated pool? Fake! Fakety fake fake! As fake as Tyra’s hair and that cursed digital blurring on her forehead, which is all I see when I look at her now. (Well, that and the extra poundage.)And now for the photos … as always, click on the thumbnail to see the full picture in a new window. But can I point out how lousy the Photoshopping is on these? Some of the photos make the girls look like they’re floating in midair. I can do better digital manipulation than this, and I’m not even a professional — who the heck is in charge at "ANTM"? And while some girls got the "standing still at the end of the plank" shot, others were saddled with blurry, unflattering midstride photos. Where is the logic? Oh, yeah — this is "ANTM." Never mind.Monique didn’t participate in the shoot, but rather than let her go pictureless, here’s an incredible unflattering photo of her during the tightrope challenge. Her photo, too, is click-and-expandable…The next day, there’s enough time for Monique, apparently feeling better, to be photographed in a sun-dappled tableau — reading her Bible, naturally! — wearing a ridiculous oversize white sunbonnet, tears streaking her cheeks just so. Yes, if there’s a book that you turn to for comfort after threatening to injure someone and wiping your cooter juice on them, it would be the Bible, wouldn’t it?Anyway, onto judging. It involves — what else? — more walking. This time, with a bowl of fruit on their heads. You know, after the tightrope and the plank, by the time they get to a bowl of fruit on their head, I don’t even care anymore. Someone could show up with a Carmen Miranda basket ‘do and I would be like, "Could we fast-forward five minutes so I can see who gets booted?"Let’s fast-forward five minutes and see who gets booted: It’s down to Miss Tippy Tumbles, Eugena, whom Jay Manuel refers to as "the worst of the day," and Miss Stop Sharing Your Germs, Monique. But at least Eugena stuck around for the shoot.And like that, Monique is gone. No hugs from the other girls, no raging interview, no crazed slashing of other girls’ stuff, no broken mirrors or cursing or tirades or gunfire. After such wildly inappropriate behavior that had earned such loathing — when it had become clear those kids that made fun of her and called her Blacula when she was growing up weren’t doing it because she was dark-skinned, but because she was crazy and annoying — it’s incredibly anticlimactic.Crazy beeyotch, we hardly knew ye. But buck up: There are plenty of skeezy old men out there who’d love to pay you $5 for a pair of soiled panties. You just might have a new career ahead of you! Whenever one door closes, another opens …

A long time ago, I remember trailing a friend of mine as she desperately tried to replace a newly discontinued lipstick."What’s the big deal? Why don’t you just try a new brand?" I said. "There are like 50 million lipsticks out there.""That’s the trouble," she replied. "Each one feels different, smells different and looks different. You can’t just find an exact replacement." As I learned that day, rolling through department store counters takes a lot of time, and drugstore brands are gambles because you can’t open them … it just went downhill from there.I was reminded of this when Ulta stopped carrying my favorite brand of pomade: It was only $5, worked great, had a matte finish without a strong scent. Now I’m the one on the hunt for a replacement. Some of the contenders are after the jump.Back when I lived in Colorado, my previous go-to product had been Frederic Fekkai Pomade Cristal ($18.50), a sheer water-based pomade that leaves hair amazingly soft, considering the hold, with lots of shine. Although it’s tried and true, I decided it was worth it to try some others, just to see what’s out there. (And when I decide I need it, I can find it at Sephora or Neiman Marcus.)My favorite thing about Davines Glossy Plasteline ($22.50) — well, besides the fact it says "for wizards" on the lid, which makes me think of Harry Potter — is its supersoft consistency. Although it’s categorized as an extra-hold wax, there’s nothing waxy about the way it feels, either on your hands or in your hair. And the scent is inviting without being overpowering.When you want something that holds like H-E-double toothpicks, it’s time to haul out the big guns: Redken Concrete ($12.95). Here’s the odd thing: It dispenses like a cream (which means you can’t sculpt or define too well with it), but when it dries, there’s a reason it’s called "cement paste." Find the closest salon that sells Redken products at www.redken.com or by calling (800) 733-5368 (handy mnemonic: REDKEN-8).And by the way, my friend did end up finding an exact match for her discontinued lipstick — more specifically, she had it custom-blended. Send Three Custom Color a dime-sized smidgen of your favorite shade and brand — or if you remember the name, they might have it on file already — and they’ll match the formulation and shade. More information: www.threecustom.com.