“If you love the fro so much, why don’t you go to the salon and get a real one?” said a whole lot of you. Playing on your suggestion, to host my ROCKIN for ROCKAWAY Sandy relief fundraiser Tuesday night, I did exactly that.

I called up the world’s best beautifyers at Senses: “It is time. I need an afro.” They follow my blog, and they understood immediately. After landing the perfect dress in a 45 minute shopping spree (day of… that’s how I roll), I stepped into the salon with my straight blond hair and butterflies in my tummy for an extreme makeover.

The mission was spearheaded by the wizardly Lysette Drumgold, who is known for many talents among hair and makeup for drag. For this, I trusted her completely. Here’s how the process goes: First, hair is sectioned up into small pieces and figure-eighted around metal hair pins.

I had a three-hour time limit, so it took an afro army of four to get me all pinned up (Lysette on the left, Yuval Yboogie and salon owner Bruce Conroy on the right).

After the pinning was complete, they added heat via flat iron to set the kink.

After running the iron over each pin at least twice and letting it cool, then using an abundance of various hair sprays, the unraveling began. Zig a zig-zag aaaaaaaaahhhh!

The fire-neon-orange color you see is courtesy of Kevin Murphy COLOR.BUG – I’ve demo’d this before.

Once unraveled, the kinked pieces are then separated and teased out by hand, giving it the utlimate frizz factor.

Watch the ::magic:: unfold…….

And BAM.

This was one of the most glorious moments in my Before and Afro existence. There was no wig on my head… and I had an afro. My very own fro!!!

With hair and makeup by the gods, I jetted uptown to arrive at the vene, Hudson Terrace, just in time. The obligatory cab shot:

We had only an hour from when the previous party let out until ROCKIN for ROCKAWAY began. I was as frazzled as my hair in that hour! As I met and delegated stations to a crew of awesome volunteers and met all the lovely people I’d been communicating with for weeks, I realized how much big-hearted support surrounded me and my big ass hair. Everything felt right. “Let them up!” I paged dow to the door. I was ready to rock.

Throughout the night my hair settled into various versions of my true fro. Even when it flattened up top, I still absolutely loved the volume. Insta-party!

Welcome to ROCKIN for ROCKAWAY.

Fro-ing out with two of our kick-ass Beatles jam band headliners Mark Hudson (one of the Hudson brothers, Ringo Starr’s producer) and Steve Holley (of Paul McCartney’s WINGS).

Swaying to WYATT, fronted by singer/songerwriter Maddy Wyatt

Boyfriend loved it, score!

Solange, whatup?

Familia

This is exactly how one should look with their hairdresser 5 hours later.

Dancing is always better with an afro.

Jessica and I with former Wet Hot American Summer co-star David Hyde Pierce. (I’ll explain sometime…)

Your emcees for the evening. This one is clearly towards the end of the evening.

Karma made its way back to Bruce from Senses, as he won the top prize in our silent auction, a private plane for six to Nantucket + hotel! After coiffing this Before and After masterpiece, that team deserves a getaway AND a cookie.

Two days later, the fro still stands. More to come on my real-fro experience in the next post!