The Secret To Being Photogenic

Today, Cindy answers your questions about teeth whitening, silver hair, being photogenic and much much more!

Video Transcript:

Good morning. It’s Saturday and I’m back. I’m flying solo this week, and I hope you enjoyed meeting Sarah. I loved all your comments. Great to get feedback and hear what you’re thinking and feeling and all that good stuff.

I decided today I would answer a bunch of your questions as I promised last week. I’m going to start with Judy, who’s asking about dressing your age. And I say, simple; less is more. Not necessarily in adornment or patterns or colors, you have to follow your style in what turns you on.

My dilemma has always been, my whole life, is that I like everything. I want to look like that, then I want to look like that. I’d buy jewelry that only looks good on incredibly tall, long black women, that big, chunky, gorgeous stuff. And it just swallows me up. And the delicate stuff that’s kind of traditional, I didn’t relate to that. I liked the hippie stuff you get on the street. But, then when I got older, I thought it looked kind of young and kind of cheap. And I would buy and buy and buy and it would all sit in the back of my closet.

What I discovered when I started doing makeup and traveling all the time is I took key pieces for cool weather, warm weather, casual and dressy. And I’d lie there in my hotel bed looking at it going, “Interesting, this is really all I need.” What we do is we take our favorites when we go traveling. Or when everything is clean, what do you go for first? That’s what your entire wardrobe should be.

So, I think I look best and I feel the most comfortable in neutral colors; from white to beige to brown, and then some cool, very pale grays, and navy blue to light blue. I’ve got a light blue here. I’m not comfortable wearing patterns. I don’t know. I just think it’s odd for me to wear patterns on my body. I’ve discovered this over many years. Now I’ve boiled my wardrobe down to those specific colors. Maybe every once in a while I’ll throw in an orange or a pink or something fun, but usually with a scarf.

It’s interesting to pay attention to that stuff. But I think a really, really good trick is, they always say have your basics, have most of your wardrobe basics. Stuff that you feel really good in. You feel totally like yourself. That way, your clothes become you instead of you becoming your clothes or having your clothes look like they’re sitting on you and you’re displaying them as opposed to becoming a part of you.

Capsule wardrobe, that was a term she used, that Judy used. I love that, a capsule wardrobe. I think your whole wardrobe should be your capsule wardrobe. And then there’s the occasional ball gown that you wear to that formal event.

What do you have to say about it? What do you wear? What do you feel best with? If you’ve really got it down to a science and you feel good about it, give us some tips.

Okay, Nina Ann, how often do I wash my hair? Washing my hair less. Is it normal since turning grey? Got noisy trucks out there. I wash my hair every other day. I used to wash it every single day.

And many of you may not know it, but I have extensions. I started wearing them 13 years ago when I started modeling. A few of the hairdressers said they wanted me to beef up my hair a little bit because I have very, very fine hair. I’ve been having fun with them. One of these days I’ll take them out and you’ll see my short, fine, thin baby hair. I’m a fraud. I’m a fraud!

But I have been letting people know throughout my career because I don’t women to think that I was born with this long, luxurious hair. Many of you are going to be in total shock and I’m sure I’m going to get a million responses. And I can tell you more about it, but I want to hit all the questions.

Oh, my hair did not change texture when it went silver. And I notice you’re all saying grey, grey, grey. It’s silver, silver, silver. Remember, it’s valuable. As my hair started turning silver, it was the same exact texture. But many women report that their hair goes from fine to wiry and curlier. I don’t think anybody said it’s gotten straighter or softer. But it would be interesting to hear if anybody has. Your products will change. The way you cut and style your hair will change, for sure.

Jane, yes, I was in the movie “Something’s Gotta Give” with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. If you blink, if you sneeze, if you reach down for popcorn, you will miss my part because it’s just a walk through. But I get to give Jack Nicholson the brush-off. I spent an entire afternoon with him and I was all ready to flirt because I knew he was kind of sassy and flirty in real life.

He was so not like I imagined. Oh, my god. He was delightful, friendly, very gentlemanly. He was extremely uncomfortably physically. It was 103 degrees. They had to change his shirt every take. We did 11 takes. Basically, he was trying to talk to me and I’m walking down the street with groceries and I just, huh! I’m disgusted with him and I go away because he dropped me the day I turned 30. It was a lot of fun and he talked a lot. But it was like he was always on stage. And he was physically uncomfortable because he smokes like a fiend, lights his next cigarette with his last cigarette. That was interesting.

Mandy also had a concern about that. She says she gets a little itchy from Glo. And then she thought maybe if she used it a little bit, she might have a magical reduction of her allergy. Mandy, let us know. Has anything changed? Are you still using it?

Dawn said, “Write a book or an autobiography.” Well, I have been approached by a publishing company who requested that I submit an idea for a book. And it was so overwhelming at the time. It was like, “Oh, I thought you do that after you turn 80 and don’t have a whole lot to do all day every day. So you just sit and write and write and write your life story, your memoirs.” They’re encouraging me to do it. That was about a year and a half ago and I still want to. I want to put all the goodies and all the information and Saturdays With Cindy in it and so much more. I’m working my way up there, working my way up.

Oh, Sandra said, “Modeling tips.” Take a good photo. That is such a fun question. Okay, what I discovered. My ex-husband was teaching himself photography. I was young, between 19 and 25-years-old. He would just photograph me and photograph me and photograph me. “Let me try this light. Let me try that light.” And I was like, “Oh, but wait, wait, wait. I want to look really good. And I’d make a certain face, do my hair and makeup a certain way. I was not photogenic at all. I mean, my pictures were bad.

And then after a while, it was like, “Oh, enough already.” So I’d be doing the dishes, I’d just keep doing the dishes. I would look up and say, “What are you doing?” and just start to not care anymore, not try. And, lo and behold, I’d see these pictures and I’d go, “That’s not bad. That’s kind of good.”

So, over the years, seeing hundreds of thousands of models working, good ones, bad ones, photogenic ones, not so photogenic ones, I discovered that if you have no attention on looking a certain way and you’re just yourself, you will start to be photogenic. And your job, or my job as a model, but for you, being in a photograph, is to feel good. What I’m always saying over and over and over. It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing or what hairstyle you have. You’re not going to look good unless you feel good. That is the beginning. That is the essence. That’s where everything blossoms from. If you happen to have a good hair day and the lighting’s particularly great . . .

I mean, lighting is important to have a picture that’s flattering because light from the extreme side, underneath, above, ehhh. We’ve all seen ourselves or our friends in the elevators with the light coming straight down. Not so flattering. What I do is I . . . You make sure the light is coming at you, but not direct sunlight, shaded sunlight. Not under the trees where you’ve got the leaves because then you’ll have black and white spots all over. Open, clear shade with the light in front of you, number one. And then, feel good.

Take a lot of pictures. I mean, when we did covers with Cindy Crawford, we didn’t just take one or two shots. We shot hundreds and hundreds. Hundreds of frames to get one shot of Cindy Crawford, who we think is glorious and beautiful. I’m just using her name because many, many models. And she is gorgeous and lovely and wonderful. The best to Cindy Crawford. Haven’t seen her in a long time.

Alright, does that work? Modeling tips, don’t wear too much makeup. Again, wear clothes you feel like you in. Don’t try to over-style anything and get every little hair in place because then you look like you’re wearing a helmet and you’ll feel stiff and you’ll look stiff. Make faces at the camera. Stick your tongue out, blah. And look away and look back. Hi. Hi. Hi. Quiet happy. Crazy happy! Yes, you can be photogenic, too. Give it a try. Grab a friend, husband, son, daughter, girlfriend and have a photo session. It would be a blast. Put it on your Bucket List.

Alright, Kathy, organize your closet? Oh my lord! They have entire hour shows on that. Organizing closet. Well, it really helps to get rid of everything you haven’t worn in two years, right? You’ve been through two years of winter, spring, summer, fall; events, weddings, etc. If you’re not wearing it, chuck it. Chuck it out. Chuck it out. Be relentless. When it comes down to what you really wear all the time on a regular basis, it’ll really help organize your closet. California Closets, closet organizers.

My daughter puts all of her shoes in boxes and she photographs them and puts the picture on the outside. My shoes are in a big pile on the floor, the ones I’m using that season. The ones I don’t use, I put in clear, plastic boxes that I get from Bed, Bath & Beyond. Amazing. I think this video’s getting very long.

Barbara, what to do to whiten with? I drink coffee and have stained teeth. You know, I have asked my dentist and these over-the-counter whiteners are apparently safe for your teeth. So, if you use those on a regular basis, like once every couple months. My girlfriend did it. Her teeth stain really, really easily. She, they’re little like Saran Wrap stuff with the whitener in them. But I’d say ask your dentist. And I do not whiten my teeth. I did it once and they were a little whiter. But I don’t know. I don’t like them super white because I think they look really fake. I had my teeth whitened! I lucked out. I didn’t luck out in the hair department. When I take my extensions out one day, you’ll see. I lucked out in the tooth department. Except I have this tooth that sticks out and these stick up. I have an overbite because I sucked my thumb for a million years. So, that’s the story about teeth.

Plucked too much as a young woman. Anything to encourage hair growth? I don’t know about encouraging hair growth. Doesn’t sound like they’ve come up with a way to do it and it seems a little scary. What’s that chemical that would stimulate the hair growth? I don’t know. I just draw in the rest of my eyebrow with a Chanel blond eyebrow pencil. It’s a great color. Try it.

Freckles and age spots. Patricia, honey, you’re asking me about that? I love freckles. I love age spots. I love crow’s feet and wrinkles and all that stuff. It’s how you came out. It’s what you’ve become. It’s who you are. It’s the map of your life. They’re your badges. Like your merit badges in Girl Scouts, something to be proud of and something to show off. Keep your freckles. Love your sun spots. I call them sun spots instead of age spots because age has such a bad rap. But, you know.

Alright, alright. Sandy reminded me of threading. Yeah! When I was talking about all those hairs, hairs, hairs, hairs! There is also the technique called threading. A lot of people love it, but I’ve never done it. So that’s why I didn’t mention it.

And Sandy. Oh, Aunt BJ. Heat cycles and partial hysterectomy. Oh yeah, she wrote a whole long thing about it. I’m going to get back to you on that because this is getting kind of long.

Alright, I hope that was fun. I think two, three weeks ago, I got 54 comments. That was more comments than any other Saturday With Cindy I did. And I think the title was “Botox And La, La, La.” I love knowing, you know, like a scale between one and ten. This was a ten. This was a five. This was a seven. That would help me know what you like me to talk about. Oh, I know. It was the one about silver hair, growing it in, the whole process of silver hair. I think you guys were really good off of the silver hair one. So, let me know, alright? Okay, see you later.

Did I just say, “See you later?” How about next Saturday? Actually, I won’t see you next Saturday because I’m going to be in New Orleans at the AARP national event called “Life at 50+ – Your Life Reimagined.” That’s exciting. I’m going to be onstage and Jane Pauley is going to interview me. It’s so exciting. BOOM! is going to have a booth there that myself, my dear friend and my fiancé are going to man. And we’re going to talk to people all day long and sell lots of Boomsticks and have a blast. If there’s any chance that you’re going to be there, please come by. Introduce yourself. Let’s have a chat. I’ll be a blast. I’ll do a little makeup on you and we’ll have a great time.