The other day I watched Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, a cheeky, cult movie about a girl band written by—wait for it—Roger Ebert.

The story is silly and the cast earned master degrees in schmacting. But it’s a classic for a reason—the costumes are amazing, the makeup is pure perfection and the hair is beyond refreshing. After years of stringy and over-dyed, limp extensions, it was actually inspirational to see overdone bouffants with some serious lift at the roots. It seems like I’m not alone. Madonna’s hair has been getting higher and higher lately as has Janet’s and my fave Spanish actress Penelope (see the video below) always rocks enviably high, sexy hair.

We are so excited for September.

While the official list won’t be released until August 17th, we just received a huge rundown of events for Fashion’s Night Out, the New York City fashion celebration this September 10th. Over 300 retailers in all five boroughs have already signed up to party from 6pm to 11pm. We’re a little overwhelmed by it…in a good way.

We already told you about Alex Wang at Barney’s. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Also at Barney’s? The Olsen twins (girl crush times two!), Jonathan Adler and Lisa Perry, on hand to teach you how to knit. After you learn, you can knit a square to be included in a blanket to be sold to benefit the September 11th Memorial Fund.

To celebrate the one year anniversary of his West Hollywood store, Phillip Lim will head west to make a personal appearance this Saturday.

Grab some brunch at Newsroom and then head over to meet the designer. While shopping the current collection offerings, you’ll also be able to pre-order from Holiday and Resort. We highly suggest this look.

Bonus features: the event benefits The Art of Elysium which we just wrote about yesterday. And the first hundred guests that buy themselves a little something nice will get an exclusive Lim tote filled with goodies from NARS and Fekkai.

Oh, and there’s wine and valet too. Perfection. All the details after the jump.

Looks like this economy’s bringing even the most reclusive of the beauty glitterati out of hiding to pimp their brands.

This Thursday, April 30, celeb stylist Frédéric Fekkai’s making a rare personal appearance at the Fifth Avenue Sephora - between 48th and 49th streets. He’ll be there from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. giving one-on-one style consultations and advice to promote his at-home color line Salon Color.

They aren’t taking appointments so we’re expecting a whole lot of craziness which means you should probably get there early, with a book and some patience if you’re dying to talk to Fekkai about your ideal summer cut and color.

While you wait, we’d suggest snagging a bottle of their new Au Naturel Dry Shampoo—it’s our latest obsession and the perfect post-beach product.

And if you do get a sit down with the man, please share his style wisdom with us and let us know if he’s convinced you to go blonde. Bonus points if you send in pics.

—MEGAN MCINTYRE

Tuesday’s launch of Armani’s first beauty line for men has us thinking - who buys this stuff?

It’s been our experience (ahem), that men tend to just borrow their girlfriends’ products, often times a surreptitious act while in the shower.

But we keep reading about beauty lines intended specifically for men, especially by non-drugstore companies.

Clinique, Frederic Fekkai and Bliss are just a few beauty brands with products intended specifically “for men.” But we’ve never known any guys to actually buy themselves men’s beauty products. In fact, when we have seen guys buy skin care/hair stuff, we’ve seen them in Duane Reade, buying gender neutral options like Neutrogena.

We don’t know if this is an embarrassment of doing something “girly,” or if men’s products are sort of pointless, as if men’s skin and hair is really so much different from women’s, for whom most beauty products are made.

Do you buy men’s beauty products, either for yourself, or for a boyfriend? Or does it strike you as the same stuff but in darker packaging?