CWThe single best episode of each America's Next Top Model season—sorry, cycle—is the makeover one. That's just a fact. But while sometimes Tyra Banks can find untapped potential in her wannabe models simply by changing their hair in a dramatic way, sometimes she gets it wrong. And sometimes, it's just fun to watch people break down about the possibility of a haircut. It grows back, people!
As the long-running reality competition draws to a close, with the final winner crowned on Friday, Dec. 4, let's relive some of the best—the craziest, the funniest, the most memorable—makeover moments in ANTM history.
The Haircut Freakout
Plenty of women have been attached to their long hair—poor Jennipher from Cycle 3 lost nearly two feet of her "security blanket"—but Cassandra Jean takes the cake. After getting a platinum blonde pixie cut, she left the competition rather than let a hairstylist cut a little bit more length.
She seems to be doing pretty OK, however, since she's got somewhat of an acting career and is now married to Arrow star (and total eye candy) Stephen Amell.
The Busted Weave
Honestly, there could be an entire gallery of awful weaves given to ANTM contestants, but there are a couple of egregious outliers. How about Cycle 8's Brittany, whose red extensions frizzed so much as the weeks went on that she ended up looking like a cracked-out Raggedy Ann doll, or Cycle 16's Molly, whose Twisted Sister-esque blonde monstrosity was so bad they took it out and redid it, before deciding to remove it completely because you know what? Maybe her look was fine before.
The Mushroom Cut
The mushroom haircut always looked a little strange on the stunning Saleisha, who won Cycle 9 and wisely got a new 'do. But surprisingly, one of Cycle 22's finalists, Lacey, is rocking the same cut and totally pulling it off. You can never accuse Tyra of not taking risks, that's for sure.
The "I Didn't Know They Could Actually Do That"
Cycle 15's Chelsey had a gap between her two front teeth, but Tyra wanted to make the Lauren Hutton-esque space even more pronounced, so she sent the model to the dentist to shave off some of her teeth to widen the gap. That's a thing that dentists actually do?!
The WTF Do We Do With the Guys?
ANTM got a new burst of energy when Tyra allowed dudes in the competition, but unfortunately that didn't translate to the Ty-over. After all, there are only so many options for guys. Two fails in particular come to mind: Phil's long, Jesus/Tarzan-esque weave in Cycle 20—it always looked kind of limp and busted—and Denzel's lace-front beard weave in Cycle 21. Yes, Tyra gave a man a fake beard, instead of just telling him to grow one himself.
Side note: Phil's weave might not have worked, but Tyra's instincts were right. He grew his hair and beard out IRL and is now the lumbersexual man of your dreams.
The Inexplicable Bleaching
In recent years, it seems they've been hard up to find drastic looks they've never done before. That's probably what resulted in Cycle 21's Kari getting her hair and eyebrows bleached so she looked like an alien, and Shei getting half her head bleached and half dyed jet black. They might be memorable looks, but no one said those memories were good.