Ashville mom set to share new look
Azal-Lynn McKenzie admits that she had been stuck in the 1980s — or her hair had, anyway.
She had worn the same hairstyle for more than two decades, much to the dismay of some of her family members.
“You get stuck in a way of doing something,” said McKenzie, 55, of Ashville, about 20 miles south of Columbus in Pickaway County. “Everyone has a hard time with change.
“If I were in a bathroom with no lights on, I could still do my hair.”
As luck would have it, a makeover found McKenzie.
The mother of three grown children and grandmother of nine was unable to sleep one summer morning after working an overnight shift at the Amazon distribution center.
She started watching “Live With Kelly and Ryan” and caught a promotion for the show’s Live’s Style Regrets Contest. Despite her tired state, she applied.
Among roughly 20,000 applicants nationwide,
McKenzie was one of five women chosen to receive a new look from head to toe. (Samantha Reid of Hubbard, Ohio — near Youngstown — was also selected; her “reveal” was shown on Monday.)
The episode showcasing McKenzie’s “drastic” style changes will air at 9 a.m. Friday on WBNS-TV (Channel 10).
“I have a total new look,” said McKenzie, who has been in New York since last Thursday as part of the contest. “I went from one end of the spectrum to the other.”
In her statement to the show about why she wanted a makeover, McKenzie mentioned that she would like to surprise her youngest son, 21-year-old Anthony Paul Jones, a corpsman in the Navy whom she hasn’t seen since February.
Her son has teased her at times about her hair.
“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a new look when my son came home, and I can make him as proud of me as I am of him.’”
McKenzie’s son, who had been deployed to Australia and is currently in California, will fly home to Ohio on Nov. 1, when he will see his mother’s transformation in person.
McKenzie herself is pleased with the look, which suits her, she said.
While in New York — her first trip to the Big Apple — she has been treated to limousine rides, a day at a hair salon, shopping trips and tours of the
city (including stops at the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero and Central Park).
She will return home today after taping her episode in front of a live audience.
Mariann Sabol, a producer with “Live With Kelly and Ryan,” said that although the show does makeovers several times a year, this marked the first time it has addressed style regrets.
“Who hasn’t had a style regret with their hair or their clothing?” she said. “Lynn said to me that she used about a can of hairspray a day to get her look.”
The story of her son’s teasing made McKenzie a good candidate for the show, Sabol said, but McKenzie also sold herself to show officials.
“Her personality came through on the phone. She was someone we thought we could make a nice change for.”
McKenzie said she couldn’t help thinking that Sabol’s original call to her was a prank — until she remembered that she hadn’t told anyone about entering the contest.
“A girl from Ashville doesn’t win these things,” she said. “We felt like royalty — like princesses.”