With all the excitement of the Oscars red carpet it’s easy to forget that many, many more celebs are out on the town at Oscars parties than are in attendance at the actual event. One such star with a noteworthy ‘do is Natalie Portman. Celebrity stylist and Nexxus Creative Director Kevin Mancuso created her glam look.

“I really wanted to give her a Bridget Bardot meets Audrey Hepburn style,” said Mancuso. “There’s nothing like an old Hollywood style for a young Hollywood actress!”

To prep the hair, body building shampoo and conditioner Nexxus Diametress and Sublime Volume were used to help give hair lift. Paul Mitchell Extra Body Daily Shampoo and Conditioner are also a good bet.

Mancuso used volumizing spray gel, Nexxus Lavish Body, on roots to ends and blew dry with a paddle brush directing hair up and away from the face and lifting at the root. This drying technique is really key in getting the maximum volume out of your blow-out. If you’re always blowing your hair down, of course it’s going to lay super flat on your head. Mancuso switched to a round brush when roots were almost dry, to help smooth hair.

One-inch sections of Portman’s hair were rolled up in Velcro rollers and allowed to cool. Rollers were removed and hair was tousled with Nexxus Sleek Finish smoothing lotion. You could also try Tigi S-Factor Smoothing Lusterizer.

Remove a one-inch front section, you may need to use a curling iron for this piece if it doesn’t come out right from the roller. Pull the rest of the hair gently back into a mid-level ponytail, securing with an elastic and using boby pins to artfully sculpt ends into a soft updo.

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Elegant updos were a staple on the Oscars red carpet, as always. This year they were mostly a bit retro, and not too constructed or complicated. That’s great for those of us hoping to copy the look for our own special occasion.

One of my favorite looks – in fashion and beauty – came from Elizabeth Banks, seen above. I love the simplicity of the side-parted hair swept back into a chic bun, and the sparkly headband adds just enough glam for a night as special as the Oscars. (The jewels help, too.) For this look you probably want to give hair a good blow out so that it’s smooth and voluminous at the start. Then part hair on the side most flattering for your face, and brush into a low ponytail. Some shorter pieces may need to be pinned, but with this look the headband will also help keep those pieces in place. Then construct a simple bun and secure with pins. Stick to “hidden” bobby pins since you’ve already got a glam accessory going. Lots of hairspray is key to keep this looking posh and put-together, I always like Redken Workforce.

Amanda Seyfried chose a more severe, lacquered-down version of the same look, with a more feminine bun with curled pieces escaping in the back.

Both Rachel McAdams and Jennifer Lopez, above, chose more modern, tousled updos. Stylist Robert Vetica created J. Lo’s look by applying Moroccanoil Hydrating Styling Cream on locks and blow drying straight. After it was dry he pulled hair back into two pony tails, one on top of the other, just below the crown. He curled each pony tail with an iron and brushed hair out to create volume. He then pinned hair up into a bun and pulled out some strands for a textured effect. He pulled out flyaways around her forehead as well and finished with high-hold hairstpray.

By far the most complicated look, with a little bit of a ’40s feel, was Diane Kruger’s. Her side-parted and rolled hair was secured with a pretty silver clip. Unfortunately, I can’t begin to reconstruct this and when attempting at home it would probably be best to take a picture to your stylist.

It would be remiss to mention Oscars updos this year and not point out the train wreck that was Sarah Jessica Parker’s hair. The dress, while beloved by some, also didn’t do it for me, so all together it was just not pretty.

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Can you look at that hair and think it was for anything BUT Marchesa? The vision of lead stylist Renato Campora for Fekkai seems absoluately tailor made for the red carpet delectables on the runway.

Starting with wet hair, he added Fekkai Coiff Extra Control Styling Gel and combed it through evenly. Once the hair was dry he added the Fekkai Au Natural Dry Shampoo to create a matte look. He then teased the hair and placed papillottes throughout.  He allowed the hair to set and then brushed out the curls for dramatic texture. Next he pulled all the hair into a low twist at the crown of the head and secured with pins. He left the textured pieces in the front to freely frame the side of the face.  He completed the look by securing the flowing hair from the twist with grosgrain ribbon at the base and finished with the Fekkai Sheer Hold Hairspray.

The hair at the Monique Lhuillier Fall 2010 runway show was some of the most intricate I saw during all of fashion week. A very complicated updo involving long strips of fabric, this is unlikely to be recreated at home but was oh so beautiful on the catwalk.

Hairstylist Rudi Lewis wanted the look to be “nice and shiny and sticky. I don’t want to have any semblance of real hair.”

The Barex team tightly pulled the sides of the hair into two mini ponytails then pulled the front section back over the top of the head. It was then gathered into a sleek high ponytail. All the girls then went to Lewis himself for the final touches; he braided the tail with a strip of black fabric and then coiled the braid into a compact top knot.

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Carolina Herrera Fall 2010

Check out the video above of Orlando Pita explaining the inspiration and execution of the hair look for Carolina Herrera’s Fall 2010 fashion show in New York, and see my photos of the look being created, below!

For a look at how the hair turned out on the runway, take a look at this style.com gallery.

The hairstyle at the Fall 2010 Rachel Roy show sought to channel Cleopatra and her iconic stick straight bob, according to Andre Rodman, lead stylist for Frederic Fekkai. To create the look, Fekkai Silky Straight Ironless Smooth Finish Serum and Fekkai Coiff Controle Ironless Straightening Balm were mixed and applied to the entire head with fingers. Hair was dried striaght using a large round brush, sweeping the hair back so that there was no center part.

While the rest of the look may seem complicated (see below) it’s actually pretty easy. Rodman drew back a piece of hair beneath each ear to create a small hidden ponytail under the nape of the neck which added a bit of body to the crown of the head and added a bit of definition to the look. The front hair was swept back over the ponytail (probably the hardest part to make stay in place in real life) and finished with Fekkai Sheer Hold Hairspray.

I spoke with Fekkai stylist Marshall as he created the look on one of the models.

“It’s a really soft look for longer hair, an underneath pony, leave the top natural, not too done,” he said. “She’s not trying to hard. It’s a wake up in the morning, hide some of the greasy spots look.”

If you were wondering if a lot of work goes into the “effortless” hairstyles you see on the runway, as you can see from the photos above – it does. When you see three hair professionals working on a blowout, you don’t feel so bad that you can’t quite achieve that perfect hair at home.

I got to interview my hair stylist crush Rudi Lewis for Cutler backstage before the Rebecca Taylor show, and he told me all about the look.

“It’s that girl that’s not afraid to go out wearing her boyfriend’s jacket that’s too big on her, the girl you watch walking down the street and you wish you were her,” he said. “Creating a texture in the hair which basically has a static electric kind of feel, quite casual quite loose but just done enough. Gorgeous but quite minimal as well, she’s not trying too hard.”

“We blow dry the hair with Cutler volumizing spray, and then we backbrush it and spray Redken spray starch in it and flatten that with a flat iron so that when we brush it out it has that kind of static electric feel,” he said. “Then we basically put volume crème all through the length of the hair so it kind of just folds around the shoulders. Really casual, really believable, not like over the top.”

It’s a unique challenge to create a hair look for a show that features six different designers with different visions and aesthetics, but Aveda hair stylists worked with the students at Academy of Art University to create “sleek, chic and defined” look.

First, they sprayed in volume tonic and blew hair dry, then “put it all into a nice, low pony.” Stylists applied shaping wax, divided hair into two braids and wrapped it next to itself.

“It has more interest than a traditional bun,” the lead stylist said. “This will translate really great for the consumer. Just two little braids, they don’t have to make it a rectangle shape [like we did] but just wrap them together.”