In the last six months, Ms. Lively's cut -- an exercise in studied dishevelment -- has been his most requested. "I didn't really realize the extent of it," Ms. Lively said of her hair’s popularity, though she had an inkling: fashion forerunners like Vogue staffers routinely approach her at events and fixate on her hair, she said. "That's always kind of odd, but unbelievably flattering," she said.

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"I was born with a head full of hair," said Ms. Lively, who maintains her look is mostly natural. Aside from frequently applying a conditioning masque, her stylist on the set of Gossip Girl, Jennifer Johnson, creates the unraveling curls by letting her hair dry in a simple chignon. Ms. Lively, who said she doesn't have extensions, says she has her blond hair touched up by her colorist, Rona O'Connor, every six months.

"Trouble is, some girls are born with amazing hair," said Mr. Wilson of Bumble and bumble, adding that hair like Ms. Lively's "sets an unrealistic expectation." "It looks accidental, but actually it takes work," Mr. Barrett said.

For those who haven't won the genetic lottery, Mr. Barrett adds removable extensions of human hair similar to a fall ($1,200 to $1,500 per piece) and recommends a litany of treatments to maintain Ms. Lively's look. Not including the extensions, just the cut, which costs around $500 at his salon, conditioning treatments and heat styling tally up to around $1,200 a month.

As part of that discovery process, customers will be able to choose from one of roughly five suggested styles based on different textures. Interactive images and explanations of the different 'dos -- boasting names like the Downtown Updo and Something Nice -- will be featured on a large touch-screen menu at the front of the styling bar. All looks will cost $35 and are expected to take 20 minutes to create.

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The installation will feature three styling stations and three touch-screen menus: one screen for the service menu, another to provide brand and product information and a third to serve as a salon locator. A screen video will play time-lapse films that show the hairdressing process at all stages.

The downturn has created a nation of cost, and hair- cutters. To help pare their budgets, more Americans are bypassing the salon and opting to lop off their own locks. The results, can be shear disaster -- clogged drains, fresh cowlicks and crooked trims.

"It may look easy, but it's not," says Gordon Miller, executive director for the National Cosmetology Association, which represents more than 10,000 U.S. salons. He says that middle- and high-end shops are feeling the pinch, as consumers come in less frequently or go to lower-priced salons. In a January poll of 600 salons, about 72% said they have seen a dropoff in customer spending.

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"I've seen women come in, crying hysterically," over things like too-shorn bangs, he says. "It's a big deal." Sometimes, the scene at his eponymous salon, located on the penthouse level at Bergdorf Goodman on New York City's Fifth Avenue, can resemble an emergency room: Clients with hair-dye hazards, wrecked layers, and visible signs of emotional distress. "It's a psychological disaster," says Mr. Barrett, who caters to socialites and "America's Next Top Model" contestants.

A few blocks away, at the Minardi Salon, co-owner Carmine Minardi warns against the "at-home" method. "We get a lot of people who screw up their hair," he says. He estimates that roughly a third of all business now consists of "corrective" styling. There is no mercy reflected in the bill, which dings clients as much as 50% more for a corrective color than a regular dye job. In Idaho Falls, Idaho, Melodie McBride's salon handles three or four repair jobs a week. One client "looked like his head had been through a thrasher," she says. Another man came in with an eyebrow that had been mistakenly shaved off.

Silky straight hair has long been considered by many black women to be their crowning glory. So what if getting that look meant enduring the itchy burning that's a hallmark of many chemical straighteners. Or a pricey dependence on "creamy crack," as relaxers are sometimes jokingly called.

Getting "good hair" often means transforming one's tightly coiled roots; but it is also more freighted, for many African-American women and some men, than simply a choice about grooming. Straightening hair has been perceived as a way to be more acceptable to certain relatives, as well as to the white establishment.

"If your hair is relaxed, white people are relaxed," the comedian Paul Mooney, sporting an Afro, says in the documentary "Good Hair," which won a jury prize at the Sundance film festival and comes out in October. "If your hair is nappy, they're not happy." The movie, made by Chris Rock, explores the lengths black women go to get long, straightened locks, from a $1,000 weave on a teacher's salary to schoolgirls having their hair chemically relaxed. In the face of cultural pressure, the thinking goes, conformists relax their hair, and rebels have the courage not to. In some corners, relaxing one’s hair is even seen as wishing to be white.

"For black women, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't," said Ingrid Banks, an associate professor of black studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. "If you've got straight hair, you're pegged as selling out. If you don't straighten your hair," she said, "you're seen as not practicing appropriate grooming practices."

Anyone who thought such preconceptions were outdated would have been reminded otherwise by some negative reactions to the president's 11-year-old daughter, Malia Obama, who wore her hair in twists while in Rome this summer. Commenters on the conservative blog Free Republic attacked her as unfit to represent America for stepping out unstraightened.

A growing body of research shows that people with red hair need larger doses of anesthesia and often are resistant to local pain blockers like Novocaine. As a result, redheads tend to be particularly nervous about dental procedures and are twice as likely to avoid going to the dentist as people with other hair colors, according to new research published in The Journal of the American Dental Association.

Researchers believe redheads are more sensitive to pain because of a mutation in a gene that affects hair color. In people with brown, black and blond hair, the gene, for the melanocortin-1 receptor, produces melanin. But a mutation in the MC1R gene results in the production of a substance called pheomelanin that results in red hair and fair skin.

The MC1R gene belongs to a family of receptors that include pain receptors in the brain, and as a result, a mutation in the gene appears to influence the body's sensitivity to pain. A 2004 study showed that redheads require, on average, about 20 percent more general anesthesia than people with dark hair or blond coloring. And in 2005, researchers found that redheads are more resistant to the effects of local anesthesia, such as the numbing drugs used by dentists.

"I want to be able to reach everyone with curly hair," said Ouidad, who now only goes by her Lebanese first name she said means "love" in Arabic. She estimates that 70 percent or more of Americans have curly or textured hair, and the previously limited distribution of Ouidad — until now, it was only available on the brand"s Web site, its two namesake salons and select other Web, salon and boutique outlets — restricted their exposure to Ouidad.

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Ouidad's product assortment contains 21 stockkeeping units, including bestseller Climate Control Heat & Humidity Gel and the recently released Double Detangler Comb to work through curls without tugging, priced from $15 to $50. Ouidad mentioned she is developing products for textured hair, which she described as "any hair with movement," and she could eventually delve into color items. In 2010, she projected the products would generate $3 million in retail sales.

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Ouidad stressed she wanted to stay away from celebrities in the infomercial and stick to her own story dealing with curly hair and the stories of clients whose hair is improved by Ouidad products. "I was hesitant to do an infomercial. I never looked at infomercials as quality, but it was done professionally," she said. "It was me talking to my clients about their hair. It is exciting and emotional."