On the Set...The Vampire Diaries

For nearly 20 years, Randa Squillacote has been tending to some famous heads of hair on the sets of movies and TV shows. Now she's doing hair on the set of the new CW show, The Vampire Diaries, and she's giving the inside scoop on working in Hollywood. All you aspiring Hollywood hairstylists-listen up!

1. How did you get involved in doing hair on movie and TV sets?
I've always wanted to do hair for movies and TV. In 1990, I was on the back lot tour at Universal Studios in Orlando. We went by the hair and make-up room at Nickelodeon, and that inspired me to want to make this happen. I moved to Orlando that year and started working at Walt Disney World doing wigs for characters and entertainers. By 1991, I was working at Nickelodeon Studios in the hair and make-up room and inspiring others on the back lot tour.

2. What has been your favorite moment on a set?
There are very many to choose from. I would say working on Pirates of the Caribbean: Black Pearl, out in the middle of the bluest ocean. And though I never did his hair, I got to look at Johnny Depp and the rest of the hot pirates for months!

3. What has been your favorite style for a movie or TV show you've worked on?
I worked on a western, The Magnificent 7, a TV series on CBS. I loved creating the hairstyles from the 1800's

4. I'm sure everyone thinks being on a set is very glamorous. What are the challenging parts? What are the difficult things about your job that people wouldn't normally think about?
The hours have got to be the most challenging. The hair and make-up department averages about 15 hours a day with sometimes only a 9-hour turn around. You can start the week off at 5 am and by the end of the week, you'll start your day in the afternoon so you can work till the sun rises, like on The Vampire Diaries, which has a lot of exterior night scenes.

5. What is the best thing about your job?
Being a hairdresser. My mom was a hairdresser and it's the only craft I've ever learned. It has been a lucrative, creative and exciting career, whether it is being in a salon or on set-and of course meeting great actors and crew members!

6. Tell me a little bit about what you are doing with the characters' hair on The Vampire Diaries.
The Department head, Daniel Curet, and I are keeping the hairstyling current, sexy and easy to manage. We mostly use flat irons or larger barrel curling irons. With constant heat on the actors' hair the right product is essential. White Sands Hair Care products are the perfect fit.

7. Any particular challenges with hair on The Vampire Diaries set and what do you do to fix them?
We shoot in high definition, so flyaways are our enemy. We always have a spray, wax, or paste on stand-by.

8. What advice would you give to a new stylist entering the industry?
Be inspired, achieve your goals. We are in the coolest profession in the world. We can do it on clients, actors, models, entertainers, kids, wax figures, the dead, with color, with wigs, with extensions, short, long, bangs, we can make people laugh and make them cry, the possibilities are endless. And some people think it's just hair…