BURWELL, NE–Local hair stylist Pam Nowicki would love to do Julia Roberts’ hair, Nowicki announced Monday at the Mane Attraction Beauty Salon in downtown Burwell.
“Julia Roberts is so gorgeous,” the 41-year-old certified cosmetologist said. “I would just die to get my hands on that luscious hair of hers.”
Nowicki, who has the second-longest tenure at Mane Attraction behind owner and head stylist Janet Hunter, said she would likely take three or four inches off Roberts’ hair and layer the back.
“Whoever’s doing Julia’s hair now just isn’t making the most of her facial features,” Nowicki said. “She’s got those incredible almond-shaped eyes and high cheekbones, but her hairstyle isn’t accentuating them nearly as much as it could.”
Added Nowicki: “Pretty Woman is my all-time favorite movie. I’ve seen it, like, 200 times.”
A lifelong resident of Burwell, Nowicki has been a stylist for 17 years, spending three years at Shear Magic on Holcomb Avenue and four at Hair & Now in the Burwell Plaza strip mall before arriving at her current position in 1989.
“Personally, I think she looked best in My Best Friend’s Wedding,” said Nowicki, whose seniority enables her to get first crack at the perm and tinting appointments, leaving most of the low-tip-yielding $7.99 cut-and-style jobs for the newer stylists. “For that movie, they did her hair with a chestnut tint, which is perfect for an autumn like Julia. In all honesty, though, I probably would have dyed her hair even a few shades redder.”
“I think I could really do wonders with Julia’s hair,” said Nowicki, sifting through a plastic, teal-and-pink caddy of combs, scissors and butterfly clips. “Somehow, I’ve just got this knack for making people look their best.”
While Roberts is Nowicki’s favorite Hollywood star, she is not the only actress whose hair Nowicki would love to do. During her 10 years at Mane Attraction, Nowicki has expressed a desire to style the hair of such leading ladies as Meg Ryan, Melanie Griffith and Sandra Bullock.
“I saw Sandra on Access Hollywood last night, and it looked like she was definitely due for a shape-up,” Nowicki said. “Or, at the very least, a little off the ends.”
“It would be so much fun to work with a big star,” said Nowicki, who makes $6.50 an hour, plus tips. “Not that I don’t appreciate my customers here at The Mane.”
One such regular customer, Burwell resident Mary Klapisch, is well aware of Nowicki’s talents. “Pam is really up on the latest styles–she gets tons of magazines, including People, Glamour and Cosmopolitan, and she never misses Entertainment Tonight,” Klapisch said. “She said that with my facial shape, she could make me look just like Celine Dion.”
Among Nowicki’s higher-profile clientele are such Burwell luminaries as city-council member Teresa Bonner, PTA president Maggie Kittridge, and Burwell Post-Dispatch bookkeeper Annette Pedersen.
Though she has yet to achieve her dream of cutting the hair of a Hollywood star, Nowicki recently had the chance to work with an actual television personality.
“Two weeks ago, Katie Oberman, the news anchor for [NBC affiliate] KTNE over in Lincoln, was passing through town and got a haircut from me,” Nowicki said. “It was such an amazing experience, getting the opportunity to actually do a hairstyle for the camera. I watched her the next night on the news, and she looked fantastic.”
“I always thought it would’ve been fun to go to Hollywood and get a job as a stylist for the movies, but Dan never would have gone for that. And now, with the three kids and all, forget it,” said Nowicki, bending over to sweep clumps of hair into a dust pan. “Oh, well. I’ll bet it’s really muggy there in the summer, anyway.”
