Meet this week's makeovers, Karen and Lori:

Click here to see the big reveal of their fabulous TODAY Ambush Makeovers on the Plaza!

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More from Louis Licari

• Try on hairstyles by Louis Licari on Makeover-O-Matic!

As I stumbled back to my apartment from a brutal shopping day on "Black Monday" with shopping bags in hand, I was hit by the reality that the holiday season has arrived. It's here! Shopping time, party time, and time to be sure that you have acknowledged friends, family, and everyone that has helped you throughout the year.

It sounds like fun until you look at your "to do" list and your very full calendar. Then you realize your life has turned into an endurance race. Panic kicks in as you think of all your responsibilities. So much to do, and so little time! You feel like running home and jumping into bed and hiding under the comforter. (Sorry to say this doesn't work.)

You can make it through the holiday season with grace, and dignity. Not to add extra pressure, but I am sure you will want to look great for every party and family get together from today to New Year's Day. We tend to see more old friends, go to office parties and get-togethers with the neighbors. Nothing feels better than hearing the occasional "You're looking great" from someone you haven't seen recently.

I know you are thinking, “This guy has to get a grip. This ‘glam’ time will not fit in my life," but it can! So take a moment to chill, and let's figure out how you can make it through the holiday season looking great. The first step is to have a plan so you will be prepared for any and every occasion. It's not a big deal.

Here are five easy points to get you through the season:

1. If you color your hair, do it now. Nothing looks more festive than a fresh touch up. Even if you wear your color with roots showing, make sure your ends are bright. You might think about kicking up your color a shade or two. Remember, a small change can make a big difference.

2. Cut your hair. The only exception would be if you are on a mission to grow your hair long. It doesn't have to be a dramatic hair cut. Your hair cut must be a great shape for your face. Are your layers too long? Does your hair only look good when you tie your hair back? Call for your hair cut appointment today.

3. Come up with three party styles. They don't have to be elaborate. (Check out the pictures below for some simple yet stunning ideas.) Remember you will often be running from work to party without time to go home. Time is of the essence. You must be able to do each one yourself.

One could be your every day style looking perfect.

TIP - The smallest amount of backcombing can transform your day hair to party hair.

The second could be your hair with a different texture. This is the perfect time to experiment making your hair wavy, curly, or straight.

TIP - Bring your curling iron or flat iron to work. Five minutes in the ladies room can do wonders to make hair more glamorous. Concentrate on the top layers of your hair. That's what people will notice.

The third should be an updo that you can do yourself and without a mirror. It can be as simple as a twist with the ends of your hair fanning out.

TIP - Updo's work best on days that you don't shampoo your hair.

4. Add a bit of bling. A delicate headband or ornament will instantly brighten your face and give your hair more of an evening look.

TIP - Less is more. The most understated clip or headband can look the most glamorous.

5. Carry a small bag of supplies that can prepare you for any occasion. It should be small enough to toss in your purse, so you can keep with you at all times. You never know when you will have to give yourself an instant makeover for an impromptu get together. It should contain your favorite mini size styling products, bobby pins that match your hair color, clips, and that touch of bling.

TIP - Be sure to include and spray your hair with a smidgen of your favorite fragrance.

Now you are ready to party! Sometimes at the last minute we all have the feeling, "Do I really have to go out tonight?" The answer is yes, and getting ready will help put you in the mood.

Once you are there, you will have a great time. Kick back and have fun! You know you are the best looking woman at the party!

• Try on hairstyles by Louis Licari on Makeover-O-Matic!

Do you need to update your look for 2008? Do you want to get a jumpstart on the new year? Are you of Baby Boomer age, and looking for a makeover? Tell me about your fashion and hair challenges of 2007 and TODAY might choose you for a makeover on December 6th!

Please include:
Your photo (attached to email)
Name
Email
Location
Phone number (in case we need more information)

Send us an email telling us your story!

Get ready for a new year and a new you!

Deadline for submissions: November 29

• Try on hairstyles by Louis Licari on Makeover-O-Matic!

The Today Show's "Ambush Makeover" segment is the dream job that I have been working towards my entire career. I am probably hands down the luckiest guy in the business. It is exhilarating to pick people from the crowds at the show and completely transform them within a few hours. I am thrilled this is a weekly segment. It is a total rush. I can feel the adrenaline pumping through my body every Friday morning before my cup of coffee!

I have a couple hours to color, cut, and make two people up, over and happy. This is a beauty race to the finish and the clock never stops ticking. I am totally on the line and I love it! I want to take you behind the scenes of last Friday’s "Ambush Makeover" so you can understand how and what we do to make this happen:

The car picks me up at 6:15 in the morning. I like to be there as the crowds gather to look for potential makeovers. I am on the look out for women who don't take full advantage of their good looks. This is the first rule of any makeover: Emphasize your assets. If you have good hair texture, hair color or face shape, show it off. When things are less then perfect, you camouflage the imperfection. The biggest advantage of having a makeover is that a professional is going to look at you with a fresh eye. The professional will notice any changes that need to be made. The hardest person to see is yourself.

At 6:45 I am out in the plaza doing quick interviews with potential makeovers. I am looking for people who are interested in change. There is nothing more boring than a makeover who is not ready to make a change. The makeover ends up looking basically the same and the audience walks away without seeing or learning any beauty tips. This, in fact, is the second rule of being a makeover. You must be willing and ready to make changes if you want to update your look.

As the segment starts I am literally making my final decision on who would be the best makeovers. Then I ask the big question of the day: "Are you ready to be made over?" When I get the "thumbs up," we run back to the green room that is set up like a makeshift hair salon.

I was lucky to find two great makeover candidates, Patricia from Strawberry Plains, Tennessee and Kathy from Bismarck, North Dakota. Patricia's hair was long and its natural color. She desperately needed a hair cut that would compliment her face shape. Pat had plenty of hair, but it was overwhelming her face. Her brown hair color was good, but I knew that making her lighter would soften her appearance.

Kathy had fine hair that was begging to be colored. Hair color plus a good hair cut would create the illusion of thicker hair. Kathy's hair needed to be darker and shorter.

I am the front man, but many people are involved to achieve extraordinary makeovers in this short of a time period. The group includes the hairdresser, Arsen Gurgov, the make-up artist, Enid O, and several assistants. Arsen starts with a quick chop that he will fine tune after I color the hair. The assistants are mixing the hair color formulas while Arsen is doing his initial cut. The cut and color consultation happens while we are running back to the green room.

Makeover Rule 3: The makeover candidate must always understand and agree to the transformation. You always want a happy ending. A makeover in tears is my worst nightmare! I always pick a color brighter than I want the hair to turn out. This allows me to leave the formula on for a shorter period of time to achieve the desired hair color.

As I am applying the color, Enid O has already started the make-up. Leigh, the woman behind the man (me), is always present, making sure we keep everything moving along. I guess the process is just multi-tasking to the max. I don't think it's much different from doing your hair, applying your make-up, having your morning cup of coffee, and making it to work on time. We just have more help!

As soon as the color is finished, the makeovers are shampooed. Arsen finishes the haircuts that will most flatter their face shapes, Enid does her final touch-ups on the makeup, and I watch the end results to be sure both makeovers look beautiful. The fashion stylist dresses the women in moments and we run back to the plaza.

Makeover Rule 4: If the hair doesn't look good while dressing, running, and blowing in the wind, it's not a practical makeover.

A good makeover should look good and be relatively easy to maintain in real life. Hair and make-up have final touch-ups during the commercial before we are ready to show the reveals. I can't tell you how rewarding it is to see the women beaming with confidence as they see their before and after. I am excited for them and beaming with pride for my team. This is what it's all about.

Showing women that re-evaluating your look and then making changes can make big differences in the way you look and feel about yourself. Watch for "Ambush Makeovers" every Friday, or better yet, come on down to the show. I want YOU to be my next makeover!

• Try on hairstyles by Louis Licari on Makeover-O-Matic!

It can be a perfectly brilliant day. Everything is going great, the sun is out, and you feel good about yourself. You are loving life. ...Then it happens.

You are walking down the street and glance at a pair of "must have" shoes in a store window. As you feel your body becoming full of desire, your heart stops. You see your reflection in the store window. You notice your hair. You are horrified. Your roots are out.

I am not talking about dark "rock star" roots. I am talking about "Oh no! I'm grey!" roots. Grey usually starts right at your hairline around the age of thirty something. How unfair is this? Thirty isn't old. You don't feel old. But there it is, like a breaking news bulletin for the whole world to see. You're not a kid anymore.

What is even more annoying is that you notice your grey hairs before anyone else. When you look in the mirror to comb your hair or touch up your lipstick, the first thing you see are those first coarse, wire-like grey hairs that literally pop out of your head. Not only did they show up overnight, they look like they belong to someone else's head. To make matters worst, you know more greys will follow. None of this puts a smile on your face.

But let's get real! It's not the end of the world. We just have to learn how to deal with our dreaded first few and incredibly annoying grey hairs.

Sometimes grey hairs come out in one spot. This is a good thing. This makes it easy just to cover the grey hairs and color the rest when you want to, not because you have to.

TIP - Buy disposable mascara brushes. They make it easy to apply color specifically to your new grey hairs. This is especially important at touch up time.

WARNING: Don't overlap hair color. The hair around your hairline is a finer texture than the rest of your hair. This means it will absorb color quicker and darker. I would use a permanent color, a shade lighter than your natural color. Use a color with a neutral base. The base color is labeled on the bottle. This will provide the best grey coverage. Since you are covering only a spot of grey hairs, there is no need to mix the entire bottle of color. Mix only as much as you are going to use.

Remember, once the color is mixed it will only work for a half an hour. Reseal the unmixed color and developer in their own bottles and they should last at least a year. I promise you will use the color faster than its expiration date.

Sometimes grey hair grows in scattered throughout your head. There often isn't enough of it to read as grey hair, but it does make your hair look dull and lifeless. The solution to this problem is to apply a semi-permanent color all over your hair in a lighter shade than your natural color. This will cover the grey hairs and emphasize your natural highlights. When you pick the right hair color shade, the grey hairs will appear to be highlights. This looks great and will avoid an obvious root line.

WARNING: Semi-permanent colors can appear darker and more opaque than their color description. Always color a few strands of hair at the nape of your neck before you apply color to your entire head. This will allow you to see your new color and avoid any surprise endings.

The most difficult grey to cover is usually people with dark hair who seem to have gone grey overnight. They usually have a high percentage or a large streak of grey. This color combination shows no mercy. It can require touch-ups as often as every two weeks. You can make your hair a bit lighter, so the grey hair isn't as obvious as it grows in. This only works if a lighter hair color works with your complexion.

If lighter hair washes out your skin color, you must maintain your dark hair. The solution is to cover all the roots with the appropriate color every four to six weeks. You can cover the grey you notice, usually around your face and on part of your hair, more frequently. Remember to do a shade test before you use any color on your hair. A dark hairline almost always looks harsh and artificial.

Color companies have made between time touch-up kits for this specific purpose and they do work. Read the web sites or the charts on the color boxes. Be sure to pick the right color shade. Take your time so you don't over lap color. It's easy to do and you will be loving life again when your grey is covered.

Blondes go grey too. They usually have an easier time with grey, because it's not as obvious on lighter hair. Highlights will blend away grey hair initially, but at one point you will have to do an all over color.

TIP: Don't go too blond. Your face will blend with your hair color and you will disappear. Contrast is the key to looking vital. If you look like Casper the Ghost before make-up, it's time to go a shade darker.

There is no doubt that covering grey hair is a bore to maintain. The good news is that nothing you do will make you look prettier, younger, and more vibrant than covering your grey. Some at home kits only take 10 minutes and at the most a half an hour. It is the quick fix that works! Now why where we panicked about a few grey hairs? I barely remember!

Hair Credit: Arsen Gurgov

• Try on hairstyles by Louis Licari on Makeover-O-Matic!

I must admit I was tossing and turning most of Thursday night. Friday morning was the first of my new "Heads Up" Ambush Makeover series for the Today show. I had to find two people from the crowd that stands around the plaza who wanted "live time" makeovers.

Live time means all the action takes place in real time. Everything has to work perfectly. There is no time for redo's. What you see is what you get. This means I have about three hours to pick the models, color and style their hair, have their make up done, and then dress the women. The whole process is like a cross between online and speed dating. You "meet and greet" your date in a public place, in this case the plaza of the Today show. If they seem to be nice and you want to know them better, you arrange for another meeting, or in this situation, a makeover. You never really know what your are getting into, but whoever wanted a boring life, anyway!

The excitement was in the air. When the women found out they could be chosen for a complete and instant makeover, pandemonium took over. People where screaming for me to pick them. My adrenaline was immediately rushing through my body. I was thrilled and overwhelmed with the crowd's enthusiasm. I had to scout the plaza for the best possible makeovers. The pressure was on. I ran around the perimeter of the plaza to check out the crowd. I was looking for "diamonds in the rough" or women who do not take advantage of their natural good looks. I spotted the makeovers instantly.

The first woman was Joyce Runner from North Canton, Ohio. Joyce had highlights and a old perm that she crunched into shape with gel. She had worn her hair in the same style and color from the '80s. This was a woman in need. When I picked her she was so excited, she started to cry. I know it sounds bizarre, but I became a bit misty eyed myself. I guess you had to be there. It's one of those moments you never forget.

The second makeover model had a smile that was electric. She literally lit up the crowd. Louie Floresca was an Asian woman from Seattle, Washington with very long dark hair. Her hair was its natural dark color, but she had colored her hair many times in the past and always loved it. She was game for change. She was in desperate need of a cut, and dying (no pun intended) for color. I found my makeovers!

Joyce had to get rid of her perm and frosted highlights. If she had her perm and color from the early '80s and it's 2007 now, she was about 20+ years overdue for a new look. Wearing the same hair style and hair color for five years is being stuck in a rut. Wearing the same hair for twenty plus years is a major red flag.

Arsen Gergov, a stylist from my New York and Beverly Hills salon, cut into her perm. He cut off her perm and worked with her natural wave. The soft fringe and shaping around her face made her look younger and her hair look fuller. The blow dry was simple and chic. I changed her hair color with a light golden red hair color wash. Her skin color immediately came to life.

Louie was not only ready for a makeover, she welcomed it. I lightened her hair to a light golden brown color, and then I painted brighter highlights around her face. I know many of you are thinking why I would choose to make Louiei's hair so light. Louie loves to have fun with her hair color. Hair color choices don't have to be, and most likely are not, forever. Hair color is fashion. It can change as often as your hem line.

TIP - If you do want a dramatic change, always see a professional colorist.

Arsen cut a side swept fringe with long layers. Louie's cut and color worked together to change her face shape. She looked ten pounds thinner and her beautiful face glowed.

When you color your hair the right shade you don't have to wear as much makeup. I always suggest changing your lipstick with your new hair color. It the easiest way to make your new color pallet work for you.

We had a blast doing the first of the "heads up" ambush makeover series. The next one is scheduled for Friday, November 16th. I hope to see you there and I will answer as many of your beauty questions as possible when I am combing the crowds looking for the next makeovers.

Come and say hello in the Plaza on Friday, November 16th . My next makeover might be you!

• Try on hairstyles by Louis Licari on Makeover-O-Matic!