Upper St. Clair native styles celebrities' hair for stage, screen, red carpet

NEW YORK -- When Courtney Benedetti runs her fingers through Jimmy Fallon’s hair, it’s strictly business.

“Jimmy has a great head of hair and surprisingly, I do a lot to it. It’s not like I just go in there and put some wax on it,” said Ms. Benedetti, laughing.

As head of the hair department for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” the Upper St. Clair native is responsible for more than making sure the host looks good. There might be announcer/producer Steve Higgins and guest stars to groom, a dozen wigs to prepare for the latest digital short and of course, the quick-change challenge of cleaning up after another round of “Egg Russian Roulette” or “Water War.”

Ms. Benedetti also has a list of celebrity clients through her freelance work at red carpet and awards events. Then there is her evolving business, “Brides By Benedetti;” in New York City there is never a shortage of well-staged weddings.

Add in the lovely craziness of welcoming her first child with husband Kevin Tooke, and it’s been quite a year. Ms. Benedetti, 30, returns from maternity leave Jan. 5. A few weeks back, as tiny Serena slept the morning away at home in Queens, her mother ticked off the ways her family is dealing with all the change.

It helps they live in a light-filled newer building in Hunters Point South, a reclaimed mixed-income neighborhood. Two blocks from a new park along the East River and three stops on the subway to work at Rockefeller Plaza, it’s an easy commute.

“The location of where we live and the proximity to work is really appealing,” she said. Mr. Tooke works on Wall Street, and there is a ferry landing within 10 minutes’ walk.

It’s a long way from the suburbs of Pittsburgh, for many reasons. Growing up as a “girly girl’ who liked to inline skate wearing a wedding dress, Ms. Benedetti always knew she wanted to do something creative with hair. So she took the path less traveled in Upper St. Clair circles: vocational school at Parkway West.

”My parents were so supportive and really pushed me to go to beauty school, which is so the opposite of what most parents would do,“ she said. ”It was very different. I would say five people from my whole high school went to Parkway.“

She was still active in school actitivites, including dance team and cheerleading, but at 15 she began working as a receptionist at Geno Levi salon in McMurray. From there she went from sweeping hair, to shampoo, to assisting the owner, to having her own chair.

“I kind of grew up there and they taught me so much.”

Instead of pursuing college, she came across a magazine article about celebrity make-up artist Kristi Fuhrmann-Kerr and, on a whim, wrote her a letter. They corresponded and Ms. Benedetti was offered an internship at MTV in New York City.

Living in educational student housing through the YMCA on 47th Street, she spent the next six months at Total Request Live, a live weekday program. By then, Ms. Fuhrmann-Kerr had departed for Los Angeles and the internship didn’t have much to do in the way of hair or makeup.

Her prospects of celebrity hairstyling had dimmed. But one day....

“One of the girls didn’t show up for work and it was the best thing for me because I got to do hair,” she said. La La, who was hosting TRL, was impressed and began requesting her services. Even after TRL was cancelled, Ms. Benedetti had begun making the kind of contacts that lead to other freelance jobs.

She began doing bridal hair, which she found particularly pleasing (Ms. Benedetti is a confessed addict when it comes to watching TLC’s Friday-night lineup of bride-related programming).

While working on “It’s On With Alexa Chung,” she’d worked with a woman who introduced her to the hair stylist on a new show, “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.” As it happened, there soon would be a job opening there.

Was she interested?

“That was kind of scary,” she said. “Am I going to leave MTV after all these years? It was stressful to think ‘I’ve free-lanced my whole life, I’ve been able to make my own schedule. At the same time, this is a dream job.’ ”

“Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” had re-invented itself. Sure, there were opening monologues and chit-chats with guests. But it began experimenting with running features, funny and weird games. Few were surprised when Mr. Fallon’s transition to “The Tonight Show” last February did the same.

In anticipation of his hosting “The Tonight Show,” NBC sent Mr. Fallon on a press tour of 24 different cities, including Pittsburgh. Ms. Benedetti was among the crew sent with him.

“It was a fun, bonding experience,” she said. “I was so proud of Pittsburgh; I took Jimmy to Primanti’s.”

Beyond the show, Ms. Benedetti often does hair for Mr. Fallon, who was recently named “Entertainer of the Year” by “Entertainment Weekly.” In 2010 he hosted the Emmy Awards, which included a live tribute to three shows recently departed. Ms.Benedetti and others raced to change him, on a darkened stage, from singing as Elton John, Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman and Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong.

It’s possible her personal land-speed quick-change record was set at the 2011 Tony awards. Client Sutton Foster was up for best actress in a musical but also scheduled to perform an elaborate tap number from “Anything Goes.”

Ms. Foster walked the red carpet in a green gown, with her hair in a low bun. Once the broadcast began, Ms. Benedetti had to dismantle the hairstyle and prep her for a wig. After she left the stage, there was a mad dash to get her beautiful again since her award was shortly being announced.

“I think we had 5 minutes,” she said.

And sometimes, Ms. Benedetti added, you just go with what you have. There are times when Mr. Fallon has smashed raw eggs over his head, or been doused with a pitcher of water. He’d rather keep going with wet hair than leave the audience waiting.

“He cracks eggs.... and I just try to wipe if off. And honestly, we just use it in his hair as product, because there isn’t time to wash it.”

Maria Sciullo: msciullo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1478 or @MariaSciulloPG.