Cannes ’11: Gwen Stefani would like to show you The New Curls and The New Lip—now let’s all get on board!

When you look at Gwen Stefani on a red carpet, you can appreciate why a celebrity like, say, Jennifer Aniston for example, will never be a beauty editor favourite.

Gwen is so exciting! So on trend! So willing to try new things—like ditch her signature red lipstick and slicked-back hair in favour of hot pink, vinyl-finish lips with ’70s disco-girl hair!

LOVE. Especially because the hair is the street version of a runway trend we first saw at Marc by Marc Jacobs for spring—and once it trickles down to celebrities, that means the time for us civilians to play copycat is now. (You do remember that I’ve been banging on about brushed-out curls—as opposed to piecy flat iron waves—for a while now?) It’s time, folks. Here’s what you need to know.

First, a quick look back at the original hair trend at Marc by Marc:

And here’s a slightly less curly version with more sultry makeup:

So obviously, unless your hair is close to this naturally, we don’t need to go QUITE as dramatic with the curls and frizz. (Who has the time?) Gwen’s texture is actually perfect.

And how do you get it? Well, not with these:

The thing with hot rollers is that most of the rollers are fairly big, which means they’re great for soft bouncy waves and retro hair looks like the ones that we’ve been seeing lately on other red carpets. But you would need to have an entire set made up of the four smallest ones in order to come close to the curl-tightness you need here… and even then, it would be hard to achieve because the heat won’t be evenly distributed along the hair shaft.

This is better:

If you’re handy with a flat iron, curling iron or something like the spiral iron I talked about in this vid, you can definitely achieve these tighter curls IF the barrel is small enough. (The curls will also last longer, FYI.) It’ll take you a while to do your entire head, so be patient, and work in small sections for best results. Also don’t start the curl until a few inches from the scalp—see how Gwen’s hair is flat on top? That’s the key to the ’70s look.

By far the easiest way, though, is with a bunch of these:

and one of these:

Yep, I’m talking about old-fashioned pin curls. I did ‘em one night on damp-ish hair before I went to bed, rolling and pinning small sections of hair all over my head before wrapping with a scarf, and I SWEAR the effect was far better (and easier) than working with heat tools.

Here’s a vid I came across that might help, if you’ve never done them before—as you can see, she uses big sections and doesn’t roll very tightly, but you can adjust the technique with smaller, tighter and even twisted sections if you want to get Gwen’s look.

Once they’re dry and set, take out the pins and brush, brush, brush! Then you can play with pinning back just the top parts, and you should end up looking like this:

Now all that’s left is to do your eye makeup (you might not want to go this heavy) and your great big shiny hot pink lips.

I was on a press trip last week to Montreal where you just KNEW beauty editors were in attendance because there were three women sporting these lips. In what other crowd would that happen? May I suggest the very reasonably priced Joe Fresh Matte Lipstick in Fuchsia (photo courtesy The Glitter Geek)…

… Revlon ColorBurst Lipstick in Fuchsia…

…or NARS Lipstick in Schiap?

Slick on your most high-shine gloss on top, and you’re set!

Do you like Gwen’s new look?
Or do you think she should stick with her signature red lips and straighter hair?
Think you might try this trend—the curls, the lippie, or both—or is channeling the ’70s not for you?