Lorraine viewers were left unimpressed yesterday after a woman was given an 80s-style hair makeover on the programme.
Unsuspecting viewer Matty had signed herself up in the hopes of receiving a fashionable new trim – and even said she ‘loved’ her new hairdo.
But viewers of the show were less convinced, branding her new look ‘horrendous’ and ‘ageing’ after her tresses were trimmed.
It would seem that Matty isn’t the first to have been the recipient of a disastrous haircut while bravely getting a makeover on TV.
While fashion and hair will come and go, what airs on television is trickier to grow out, as many who’ve been victims of hair catastrophes will attest to.
A number of women brave enough to get the chop under the bright lights of live television have been left gutted by choice cuts.
One woman was even left in tears after several inches of her hair were chopped off without being told.
Others who were initially pleased with the results of their transformation then quickly changed their minds seeing the reaction of those in the audience.
Here, FEMAIL takes a look at some of the worst transformations in hair history – which have seen many a haircut victim regret their decisions.
Lorraine, 2024
Yesterday morning, ITV’s Lorraine viewer, Matty headed onscreen to receive the opportunity of a lifetime – a brand new professional haircut.
The brief was for a 80s-style hair makeover, inspired by the recent releases of era shows Rivals and Joan.
Arriving on the show with her former haircut, Matty looked glamorous with a medium length blonde haircut with a middle parting and long bangs.
Her makeover was teased throughout the episode before she emerged at the end alongside the hairdresser Richard.
The result was a freshly blown dried long bob in an 80s style, which Matty appeared delighted with.
Lorraine was full of praise for the makeover, saying it made Matty look younger while fellow guest Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York thought it made her look like Princess Diana.
Richard predicted 80s-style hair could make a comeback, saying: ‘The modern twist is to have it long enough to tuck it behind your ears. I think this is really going to take off.’
But viewers took a radically different view, saying: ‘That haircut looks f***ing horrendous – like she’s been dragged backwards through a hedge!’
Another unimpressed watcher declared: ‘They’ve made her look 20 years older.’
Others wrote: ‘Bloody hell, just sing her up for a care home now, she looks so old now’… ’80s hair needs to stay in the 1980s.’
Some viewers thought they’d made Matty look like former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
‘She’s been Hillary Clinton’d, f***ing hell’… ‘She looks like just like Hillary Clinton.’
10 Years Younger, 2004
Ten Years Younger was one of a smorgasbord of gut-punching makeover TV shows from the early 2000s.
With the help of stylist, Nicki Hambelton-Jones, the show took women with ‘no style’ and attempted to transform them into age-defying beauties in just the short space of ten days.
Though not everyone on the show received the makeover of a lifetime. In a clip from the show – which has resurfaced several times since it first aired in 2004 – viewers saw Kerry transformed from a ‘frumpy’ to ‘trendy’.
At the beginning of the show, Kerry was taken into a shopping mall where she was judged mercilessly by passing members of the public, all of who deemed her ‘old’ looking.
‘The public found your age to be 61. But Kerry, your age is 35,’ Nicky told her style-aspiring client.
After initially having her style slammed by notoriously straight-talking Nicky, Kerry was then given a new look – with an outfit makeover, fresh makeup and an entirely new haircut.
During the scene where Kerry sees herself for the first time, she seemed initially pleased.
‘Oh my god! That’s never me! Who is this child, I can’t believe it. It’s just so unfrumpy,’ to which Nicky said it was ‘so now’.
‘I can go out there now and I can feel great about it,’ she declared. The narrator described her transformation from ‘dated hairstyle’ to a modern looks. He said: ‘Take a look at her now! Her hair has a completely new look with extensions and a fashionable choppy cut’.
But modern viewers have had a different take on the hairstyle which they have since compared to a ‘Rod Stewart’ cut.
One commenter wrote: ‘Her hair is still atrocious’ while another said: ‘Took ten days to create a hair style no one before had ever seen or would ever understand.’
In disbelief, a third wrote: ‘TAF was going on in the noughties?”
Snog Marry Avoid, 2011
Another to have fallen victim to the brutal critique of the hair shaming public, is Emily Kerr, who was given a ‘Karen’ cut when she went on Snog Marry Avoid in 2011.
The famed BBC3 show proved hugely popular during the 2000s.
Taking aesthetic extremists, the show would dissect extravagant looks and transform them into modest presenting plain-Janes.
Hosted by Jenny Frost – who did the voice over of the notorious ‘Pod’ – and Ellie Taylor, those on the show would each undergo a transformative ‘makeunder’.
Sporting a look of false eyelashes and big blonde hair, Emily, 19, was given a stripped back makeover that viewers have since said made her look like a ’43-year-old’.
Her previously bold blonde hair was chopped down into a ‘Karen’ cut with a cropped brunette bob and sharp fringe.
Her first impression of the makeunder was that the hair was ‘quite cool’ though she was less certain about the puffed sleeved jacket and immediately asked to take it off.
In resurfaced clips of the moment, viewers of the show flocked to the comments to offer their take on the drastically different crop.
One wrote described the look as giving ‘Karen vibes’ while another wondered ‘why did they always make them look like mids’.
A third asked: ‘Why’ve they made this 19-year-old look about 43.’ Another quipped ‘Made her look like she needs to see the manager.’
Kuaförüm Sensin: ‘You’re my hairdresser’, 2019
In 2019, one Turkish woman received the shock of a lifetime after she had 30cm of her tresses chopped off on television.
The clip attracted millions of views worldwide after the model, previously carrying Rapunzel length hair, fainted and burst into tears after seeing her axed locks.
The show, Kuaförüm Sensin – which can be translated as ‘You’re my hairdresser’ – is a reality contest in which makeup artists and hair pros compete to win a grand prize.
During the episode which aired in 219, hairdresser Bilal Ağın, had made plans to snip some of his model, İlayda’s free flow locks to then be donated to the ‘Let My Hair Be Your Hair’ project for cancer survivors.
However, the hairdresser failed to remember one key part in his plan – and that was to tell his model beforehand that he would be chopping off nearly half a metre of hair.
After swiping his scissors across İlayda’s long hair, Bilal triumphantly twirled around to reveal the locks he has shorn off.
Horrified, İlayda reached out to touch her hair, which now only reached as far as her shoulder, and immediately burst into tears..
Meanwhile, the three judges who were on the show appeared aghast, shocked by the events.
On set, the other contestants and their respective models appeared lost for words as they continued their fast less liberal snips.
İlayda then stripped from her robe in protest, marching out towards the door, not long before almost fainting to the floor in shock, and then quickly rescued by an assistant on set who caught the model.
Hundreds of Twitter users around the world weighed in with their thoughts.
‘Did you see how long that hair was, she’s gonna need counselling for that trauma,’ said one woman.
Others simply couldn’t resist weighing in about the theatrical editing.
‘Indian soap opera called. They want their editors back,’ said one user which prompted another to respond, ‘You mean tacky telenovella. She tackled her down before she even started to fall lol’.
NBC, Today, 2016
Model Malyia McNaughton was invited to appear in a segment showing quick summer hairstyles on NBC’s Today show back in 2016 – but the style she was given by stylist Deepica Mutyala backfired.
Malyia, who considers herself ‘an advocate for everything that has to do with natural hair ‘ – hair that hasn’t been altered with chemical straighteners, relaxers or texturisers – told The Cut she was excited about the style Deepica had proposed backstage.
It was supposed to be ‘a curly ponytail that kind of goes high on the head and kind of combines with the bangs [fringe],’ Maylia told the publication.
But, when Deepica came to perform the style live on air, things went awry – and Malyia was visibly unimpressed.
Rather than getting the hairstyle they had practised, Malyia ended up with a side ponytail and a fringe that Deepica had merely combed through with her fingers.
After the show, the clip went viral with Deepica reportedly receiving ‘mean-spirited’ comments on Facebook.
Malyia herself said she wasn’t upset about the style Deepica had given her under pressure – and stated that she was still happy that she, as a black woman, had been included in the segment – but she did acknowledge that the stylist may never work with a natural-hair model again.
Britain’s Next Top Model 2016
Georgia Butler was 19 years old when she became a contestant on Britain’s leading modelling TV programme.
She arrived on the show with golden locks of hair but it seems she got the short straw when it came to the makeovers.
The fashion student from Norwich had the most drastic image-overhaul and looked like a completely different person.
Judge Abbey tried to offer her some warm words of encouragement at the time and said: ‘You have the most dramatic look out of all the girls. You have to trust us’
The hair team decided to do-away with the her glossy shoulder-length strands in favour of a retro, Seventies-inspired mullet.
To take Georgia’s look up another notch, they decided to get rid of her beach blonde hair and give her a purple rinse.
America’s Next Top Model, 2007
Hailing from Savannah, Georgia, Brittany Hatch was a contestant on the eighth season of America’s Next Top Model, which aired in 2007.
Brittany, who arrived on the show with a cropped style that complemented her feminine features, was given one of the most dramatic makeovers ever.
Her highlighted brown hair was apparently seen as too boring while her pixie style was given short shrift.
Rather, Brittany was given a curly, flaming red hairstyle – but that wasn’t even the worst part.
While other contestants had their own hair cut and coloured, Brittany’s makeover proved physically painful when she was given a weave.
Unimpressed by her new hair, she also found that it was making her scalp itchy.
Eventually, the stylist saw that the weave was making her scalp red and itchy and removed it just before the competition entered its final stages – but by then Brittany had already suffered weeks of discomfort.
America’s Next Top Model, 1990
The 21st season of America’s Next Top Model, which was only the second to include men, featured Denzel Wells from Texas, Houston.
When Denzel’s hair wasn’t touched during his makeover, he may well have thought he was going to come through the process unscathed.
Yet, unfortunately for him, Denzel was actually subjected to one of the most extreme restyles of the entire series, which started in August 2014.
The five foot ten aspiring model was given the show’s first ever ‘beard weave’.
But, rather than an actual weave, the beard was glued onto Denzel’s face and then trimmed into shape.
Denzel’s ‘toxic masculinity’ didn’t serve him well in the series – he finished ninth – but his chances surely weren’t aided by the wig-like weave.
America’s Next Top Model 2012
More often than not, transformations on America’s Next Top Model centred on their hairstyles, with long, luscious locks cut off to reveal cropped styles and straight tresses replaced with tight curls.
Yet it was contestant Laura LaFrate from season 18 of America’s Next Top Model who suffered the most at the hands of the show’s gung ho hairstylists.
Laura, who started modelling at the age of 15, was scouted with light brown hair – but her natural style was seemingly much too nondescript for the often avant-garde world of high fashion.
While Laura was not told her hair would have to be chopped off like some of the other models, she was handed over to a colourist who had absolutely no qualms about giving her a radical new look.
As part of the ‘British Invasion’ season, which aired in 2012 between February and May, she was left with no choice but to embrace her American roots when she was given a red, white and blue hairstyle.
Laura’s locks were dyed platinum blond before sections were dyed bright red and bright blue, making the model’s hair look like a US flag.
Still, the bold hairstyle appeared not to hamper her progress in the competition – she finished in second place!
Venga la alegría: ‘What haircut suits you?’ 2018
Professional stylist Julio de la Torre was invited to come on the Mexican TV show Venga la alegría (VLA) to demonstrate that some haircuts simply don’t suit everyone.
He said that it is dependent on face shape and brought on three different women, Lupita, Fatima and Silva to demonstrate this.
At 10am, Julio began harshly brushing through their hair intensely before he started hacking off their brunette tresses – without sectioning off their strands.
The hairdresser then moved on to Silvia and wrapped a large hairband around her neck to measure where he was going to cut.
The model – who had long chocolate locks – didn’t appear best pleased when she ended up with a shoddy bob.
When she swivelled around on the chair to face the audience, many could see her new haircut was slightly uneven.
Julio cut all three models’ hair within less than an eight minute slot.
