so….what you’re saying is that you guys think labron looks like a monkey. that’s what i’m hearing. would this be an issue if that was yao ming making the same face? or would it be godzilla and the white woman? how about her boyfriend tom brady? come on…labron makes the same face when he’s slamming the ball through the hoop and nobody complains that he’s hanging off the rim like king kong on the empire state building. they take pictures of that that people put on their walls….POSTERIZED!

ok so if you prefer the second one then i could argue “why does the white woman have to be standing above a brotha and leaning on him like he’s property? And is she wearing a white dress to make her even more white?”

and BTW as pale as she is, giselle is brazilian by the way….if that makes anybody feel any better.

if they put him on the cover with a black woman i could say “so they can’t have him on the cover with white people? they still have to keep up separated? they want people to think this is the Black Vogue issue or something?”

everyone is letting their subconscious get the best of them here. yes there is still racism, but we try so hard to find it sometimes and put it where it was not intended. if we can’t stop being so racially sensitive when will everyone else? i’m not saying just take whatever they give us like “oh lawdy thank you Jesus they be lettin us po negroes on the cover of a picture book.” but do we really have to make an issue out of EVERYTHING! there are so many other bigger fights to be fighting. we have enough REAL problems within our own society to make up some problems with a magazine cover.

and i saw the j-hud pic. i think she looks like chaka khan…not an animal. i think you’re letting your OWN race issues and subconscious get the best of you.

obama ‘08….and then again in 2012.

y didn’t they choose the second pic. THAT ONE IS MUCH BETTER.

Even today I just can’t stop laughing! I mean, it’s upsetting…but, really??? I saw the behind the scenes video of the shoot and he was absolutely 100% taking direction… He was like some little uncomfortable child doing everything he was told to do, including dancing with Giselle in this sort of chaotic ballroom style, beaming as she roared in laughter… He wasn’t in blackface, though… I don’t know why he wasn’t because it definitely looked like a minstrel show…
BUT I think this comes down to his being a kid with 0 life experience OR maybe being overly ambitious…Maybe this was his attempt at self-promotion… He’s made history, alright…

We may be reading too much into what went into the choosing of the cover, however I agree they could have allowed one of tne most sought after, dynamic players in the game since “The Air” to be a little bit more debonair that this I mean its Vogue for goodness sakes!!

The cover is TERRIBLE. Both of them look awful, they should’v chosen the other picture. However, I think alot of you are over analyzing it. It was, like other said, meant to be a contrast between a fashion model and the aggressive attitude of a sports player (as in an aggressive determination, not an aggressive personality). You could say it looks like King Kong rescuing a woman but that’s what you get from it, I don’t belive it was shot with that intention.

I didn’t even consider anything about the colour of either of their skin untill I started reading these comments, I thought it was just meant to be a contrast and then I thought what a terrible cover it was. I think you all need to stop associating everything you see with the colour of our skin.

Oh and I agree with Nakia. If they had put LeBron with a black model there would still be people saying ”What? we’re not good enough to pose with white people?”
I think everyone needs to take a step back and realise that not everything has racial intentions.

I canNOT take some of these comments seriously…

Honestly, READ yall. It’s the SHAPE issue of VOGUE. I believe the tag line was: “Secrets of the Best Bodies: Gisele & LeBron + the World’s Top Models and Star Athletes.” ALL the other articles referenced on the cover are about appreciating, perfecting, and accentuating the human form.

The shot used for the cover plays on how and why those two are in the shape they’re in. Gisele has to stay pretty and have one of the world’s best bodies to make her living (thus: stand there in this dress that shows your curves, be cute, don’t talk), whereas LeBron puts food on his table by being a beast on the court (hence: you don’t have curves, so show your biceps and calves, hold this ball, and show us the same on-court aggression that got you the biceps and the calves).

::shrug:: When you think about it, his picture SHOULD scream “beast,” and artistically the contrast chemistry is great.

And another note on the fight against ignorance: do you really think that with her features and a name like Gisele Caroline Nonnenmacher Bündchen this woman is WHITE?! Take off extra points if you’ve ever heard her speak…

Besides, coulda been worse, right? Ya boy coulda been shirtless.

^Obviously most these people didn’t consider the fact that she’s brazilian. If there had been a dark skinned brazilian this would not be an issue but just because her skin is lighter..it’s an outrage they got him posing with a white woman!

It goes to show two things:
1. Most the of the people that commented are extremely short sighted. Especially the person who said ”She’s brazillian but she’s still white”
1. IT’S JUST A SKIN COLOUR. They’re both people, they both have a right to be posing with each other, the only thing that’s different between these people right now is their skin colour and their culture, why is it such a big deal that they’re on a cover together?

Everybodys complaining about how bad LeBron looks on the cover but Gisele ass look hella shitty too. She looked coked out and like she having a stroke. wth is up with all those veins in her neck and her awkward ass pose and face…. the whole cover sucks from LeBrons wack ass pose to her wack ass face. Scrap it.

#83 and #85
As I said in the other post, the playing on opposites is too simple an idea for a publication like Vogue. It’s too simple an idea for any publication, actually but they definitely wouldn’t be so backward thinking. This is the thing…I think they knew the idea was a horrible stretch, the proverbial jumping of the shark BUT they couldn’t resist throwing their hats into the celebrity pool. So, like US Weekly, People, Star and all the other garden variety fluff, they used celebrities who would generate attention/move copies. But, because the second picture would have seemed a ridiculous attempt at serious pulling off a VOGUE COVER featuring LEBRON JAMES, they went with the shot of him appearing in motion, grimacing with the basketball and hooking Giselle’s waist as if he were at once rescuing her and fending off opponents on the court.. This cover is a way of seeming irreverent, a way of saying FUCC YOU to the MANY insiders who will shred this whole thing… It’s like making fun of yourself before someone else can… They wanted the money and the attention of the celebrity-obsessed, but not necessarily fashion-obsessed public, BUT they wanted to preemptively defend themselves against what they knew would be ridicule from the fashion world. And, I think it was sort of inadvertently racist, having him pose that way and going with that shot. Though, as I said, I saw a video of the photoshoot and everything he did was pretty stereotypical…but I think that was inadvertent, too…I think there was absolutely nothing to do with Lebron, nothing Vogue could really do with him but play up the strong man/athlete perspective…It’s just a racist thing to do, to always do to a black man…it’s phallic and ominous, really…but, they were being insincere from jump, so it all ended badly.

Ignorance isnt cool people. Yes, there is a tendency for people from Brazil to be mixed with African as well as Indian ancestry. BUT, this is not always the case. There is a region in Brazil with people of pure European heritage. Giselle is one of those people..in fact both her parents are German. Meaning, white!

whats all the hype about maybe im lost …. i see a beautiful top model and a top nba lpayer so wats the problem lololol

I just think the editor for Vogue magazine has a lot to answer for, as that is the person who chooses what pictures are used for the final print

I hate when people are to quick to justify WRONG doings. In some instances I do believe the RACE issue does not exist. However, in order for me to agree with this notion, for each instance I have to weigh the facts based on HISTORY….

1) The history of Vogue…. what has Vogue done in the past? Is it currently happening? Well, most likely, there is good reason to suspect something isn’t legit.

2) People kill me when they say who is WHITE vs. who is NON- White…. Well, people please research your history….

a) Brazilians can be “White” or “Non White”
b) Puerto Rican’s can be “White” or “Non White”
c) Cubans can be “White” or “Non White”
d) Americans can be “White” or “Non White”
and the list goes on….ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME???

3) The photo shoot was taste-less…
4) RACISM still exists…and it is just as strong as it was in the past…ONLY difference is it is MORE HIDDEN…..MORE HIDDEN….MORE HIDDEN…..RACISM will never be abandoned in the world… It is the strongest divider of ALL Races of People, and of all CULTURES….So, look at this way…THERE WILL BE NO END TO WHAT SOME MAY CALL COMPLAINING…I choose to call it what it is….INJUSTICE of EQUALITY…

People, please read up on your history. Once you’re more aware of your history; you become more tolerant of your plight as well as others in this world.

This totally a beauty and the beast thing….I hate the cover. So, stereotypical…

Vogue took the behind the scense video of this shoot. tells you a lot right there…

@ LisaLisa — Race in Brasil is complicated… most everyone is biracial somewhere down the line regardless of physical appearance. So she’s not white.

Giselle is a White Brazilian

Giselle’s parents are German. Her family is WHITE.

I agree with the Racist King Kong observation.

I’m so over tired-ass American Vogue. Completely irrelevant to me and so many others who refuse to patronize, too much subliminal white supremist bullshit in white fashion mags.

Many of the people commenting on this post are morons. I say that with sadness, yet unapologetically, because I won’t go with “ignorant” just for the sake of selecting the word with the “safer” connotation. No matter how often the two are treated as interchangeable, they aren’t. Ignorance is lack of knowledge or information; there are many things I am ignorant of, and I always welcome the opportunity to be educated. Stupidity, however, is the lack of intelligence or common sense.

I cannot believe how many people refuse - REFUSE - to be an example of the non-racism they profess to espouse. Here people are, INFORMING you that Gisele is NOT White (an attempt to remove ignorance), and instead of applying knowledge you already have, i.e. a life of “hyphenated” ethnicity, you cling to the same views you had when you were uninformed (lack of desire to improve upon one’s base of knowledge = stupidity). Her parents (#88) and the vast majority of the people in her hometown are of German DESCENT.

I’d be hard pressed to find any one of you who is of purely African descent. Her last name is Bündchen the same way yours might be Jones. Her eyes are blue the same way yours might be green. Amerie’s last name is Rogers. Are her eyes any less slanted, her hair any less straighter, jet blacker, or longer (until a couple weeks ago)?

[...] Concrete Loop weighs in and so does Sandra [...]

If Vogue used the 2nd image, where would the cover lines and the Vogue banner go? From a design perspective, the 2nd shot isn’t viable because you’d have to crop Lebron at the knees or higher, so he’d be barely peeking out from the bottom of the cover. Giselle’s head would then be sticking up in the middle of the Vogue banner. Visually it would be a disaster. They probably had a dozens of shots to choose from, and possibly tested three with online focus groups before settling on this one.

The good news is that people are talking about it, which will surely increase newsstand sales, and that’s the entire point of the cover after all.

Damn EVERYBODY on the net AGREES… that cover is RACIST as hell. But WTF can you expect from VOGUE… they did the SAME shiznit to Jennifer Hudson!

I don’t have a problem with the racial composition of the cover. It’s 2,008 years after the birth of Christ, if we haven’t evolved to a point that two different minorities can’t share a cover then we are fizucked…..That said, remember that the magazine industry is in a scramble to make their heydey money and one of the best selling magazines of last year was “Time” magazine’s ‘Exercise & The Brain’ issue with a woman smiling and sprawled on an exercise ball. I think Annie Leibovitz is iconic and earned her stripes but is getting soft—perhaps those lame ‘Vanity Fair’ yearbook-style spreads where you have to make Jude Law look ‘hot’ or ‘rakish’ or whatever. Lebron doesn’t look like an ‘ape’ to me–he just looks like he got slipped a mickey and no one told him to look at the camera. It’s just not a flattering shot. Shaq could have killed it! ……Loving this discussion, can’t wait until ‘Meet The Browns’ comes out and we see if it raises any racial ire, re: ebonics and black slapstick. I’ll check back! Peace and love y’all….I.D.

Check out this blog post about the vogue cover as well…

http://evilbeetgossip.fil...es-on-the-cover-of-vogue/

I think it’s offensive that some people are saying Lebron looks like an Ape…I wonder if people would be speaking that King Kong mess if that was Melo or Kobe on there??? and yea they could have found an African American but a Giselle is the business…how many of yall read Vouge anyway?? i swear Giselle is all over that magazine…b/c she is a great model…one of the best and Tyra and Iman are doing other ventures so they don’t model as much and dont need to…Eva is wayyy too short for this shoot…and Giselle is not even white she’s hispanic, so what is the big deal??? America really does have race issues and it’s really sad…instead of over analyzing shit people need to stop thinking about color and just see people as people…not black people, white people …asians… indian… etc..

Uh-oh! glad to get some love from Angel. I’ve already commented so I’m done with this mess…I will say however, that we have to get our voices heard if we want change.

I emailed VOGUE and posted on their comment board. Y’all should hit them up if you really want to see something different.

Hit them up here: talkingback@vogue.com

I really don’t think this picuture should be made as a big of a deal as some people do! I mean come on seriously let it go with some of the comments. Is just a picutre that they wanted to do and if it would of been a bad one then the photographer wouldn’t obviously ditributed and put it out in the open like that

Get it concrete loop they had you on Today this morning! I also like how you pulled the notable comments.

[...] Links: - Is the Vogue Cover racist (video link) - COMMENT SPOTLIGHT: LEBRON & THE VOGUE COVER (link) - Is Vogue’s “LeBron Kong” Cover Offensive? [...]

I came here after catching “The View’ this morning, which sucked. I just started to read the comments, but I HAVE to say - that other picture looks pretty racially motivated to me as well!! It is certainly more elegant, but for god’s sake, she’s wearing WHITE, he’s wearing BLACK (subtlety is NOT Annie Leibowitz’ game), Giselle is standing over him, while he’s gripping her knees, looking VERY subservient. White woman with power over the black man. I’m an art historian, and believe me, THAT is the message. Both images are racist. Leibowitz is a hack.

Ok, done reading comments. I want to say also that for all you who say “it’s just a picture”, you do yourselves a disservice when you dismiss it. Pictures are composed and planned, just like comments or literature. If someone made a veiled “king kong” reference in conversation, I’m sure you wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss it, nor accuse those who noticed it of racism themselves. Visual references exist, and even cheesy hacks like Leibowitz are professionals and visually literate, so are VERY aware of what they’re doing. I’m not saying everyone needs to be persoanlly offended, that’s up to you, but what’s going on SHOULD be recognized.
god bless.

So… anger over a cover for a mag that wouldn’t COULDN’T exist if women were happy with themselves and their bodies, a magazine that regularly features half-nude, underage models made up to look like Holocaust victims, shilling fur, blood diamonds and thousands of dollars in near-useless designer goods made by slave laborers. Pick your battles, I guess…?

[...] Vogue is getting flack for their recent cover of LeBron & Gisele. In the April Issue, Vogue does a pictorial of [...]

Until Vogue, Lebron, Gisele, and anybody else with a shit load of cash decides to write me in on their fortune I could care less who, how or why an image graces a magazine cover. Get real folks.

How can anyone black fix their minds and mouths to holler offense to this? Look at a rap video, you love and support the hell out of those entertainers and they make black women look like human sex toys all day! But you wanna holler because a black dude got his arm wrapped around a white woman? This is outrageous. I don’t see hordes of black folk crying ‘offense’ to the imminent amount of black ass and boobs on TV and all the negative, derogatory and defaming lyrics of our own people. Why not boycott that mess that is Flavor of Love. One of the only reality shows that has a damn near full cast of black women every season and those girls on there are absolutely insanely ignorant and belligerent and whether you like it or not DO represent how ‘others’ see black women as generally behaving. Its sad how we pick and choose our battles. Vogue and anyone else should continue to insult black people, because we do it to ourselves.

[...] and other bloggers, like Concrete Loop, make the argument that African-Americans have long been photographed like they are animals or [...]

Lebron being on the cover in this manner is no different than Halle winning an oscar for being a whore and denzel winning one for being a gangster..its not the first time we’ve been portrayed this way and it certainly won’t be the last…just like winning an oscar was a big deal for our history, lebron gracing the cover is a big deal, but at what expense do we want to be recognized

This cover is not offensive whatsoever! This cover is capturing a top basketball player and a top model doing what they do. Him bouncing a basketball and looking pumped for a game, and her looking beautiful and glamorous. Many wonder why they didn’t use the other pictures for the cover. Well, my best guess is because he’s not a model. Why would you make the cover of a popular magazine of a basketball player pretending to be something he’s not? I mean he pulled it off in those pictures but that’s not who he is. He makes money by playing basketball, so don’t you think that should be what he’s doing on the cover. Others also say, “He’s got this good ole prize, a white woman on his arm.” To that I say WHATEVER!! If LeBron didn’t have his arm around Gisele they wouldn’t look like they should have been in the same picture. In other words, it would have looked funny. This picture is amazing. LeBron doesn’t look like an ape. I wouldn’t have even have thought about that unless I had heard it from someone or read it, and even so it’s not true. I don’t think Vogue just decided one day they wanted to insult the black community. I just don’t think that is what they strive for. So just get over it and accept this picture for what it is, a brilliant and beautiful cover.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Image is everything.

All those that can not see ANYTHING wrong with this picture, do NOT know the meaning of the word SUBTLE.
kmt @ Nakia, Em, Msblacknasty1, and all other airheaded people that c nothing wrong with this pic

For those of u who say giselle isnt white, is she then a negro or a mongolid??? Blind fools, white is a SKIN colour NOT a nationality.

I read about this yesterday on a Swedish blog, and a couple of hours later I passed Coca-Cola Company’s ad campaign for Coke Zero with a black woman on all four beside a black panther (speaking of black savages). I asked Coca Cola if this campaign ran in the US, and the answer was of course no. I’m thinking that it’s not a coincidence that the woman in the Coke Zero campaign is black ….

If you want to see an image of the campaign, I’ve got it on my blog (the post is in Swedish, but the image speaks it’s own language)

I’ll try this one more time…. though it’s a bit annoying that the moderators felt the need to filter-out my previous post from Weds evening.

If you’re looking for the source of Annie Liebowitz’s inspiration for the Vogue cover photo, just check-out this WWI era (!1917) US military recruitment propaganda poster.

http://www.digitaldesk.or...aganda/destroy_brute.html

I don’t think any person could reasonably argue otherwise.

Here’s a side-by-side photo, for easier comparison…

http://home.comcast.net/~...n/du/lebron_as_brute2.jpg

I only wonder who was “in” on the concept. Was Liebowitz aware of the original, or was the idea given to her? Were LeBron and Giselle tipped to the original, or were they unwitting subjects? W.T.F. was Annie Liebowitz thinking?

[...] Concrete Loop has posted the alternate cover that they didn’t go with. Radar Magazine says: “While no one questions the historical importance of James’ cover appearance–he’s the first black man ever to be so featured–word in the black blogosphere is that the cover plays into the old stereotype of the black man as a savage in search of a prized white woman. Some have gone so far as to say it evokes the dreaded imagery of King Kong and question the choice of photo when a less highly-charged alternative was available.” This post was written by amaka [...]

[...] before I say much, here’s an image, linked from http://concreteloop.com/2...ht-lebron-the-vogue-cover (interesting mix of comments there, btw… well worth your time to [...]

It’s obvious from reading many of these comments that very few of these people are familiar with Annie Leibowitz’s work as a photographer. She has photographed many of the most famous celebrities in the world (black, white, asian, etc) and has very often brought about controversy in the resulting images.
You also have to consider what the article is about. It is their SHAPE issue. They are contrasting the power and intensity of the athletes (not just LeBron) with the sensual, lithe and glamorous models. If they posed LeBron (or some white, hispanic, asian, black athlete) in a very clean, elegant suit all cleaned up and looking pretty (as has been suggested) posing with the beautiful (white, hispanic, black, asian) supermodel in a beautiful gown, then people wouldn’t be interested in seeing what the story is about. No one would go out of their way to buy the magazine.
News Flash!! Magazines (especially Vogue) are in the business of selling lots of magazines!!
SO, athlete in suit, standing up straight and tall posing with supermodel standing straight and tall, does not sell the idea of shape.
LeBron James posing in his ’signature’ brand athletic apparel showing his power, his great strength, his imposing stature (the guy is 6′9″ tall - he is huge and imposing regardless of how he is dressed), showing his ‘best’ game face. Sports is all about psyching out your oponent (I know that I would be intimidated if I was squaring off on the court with a guy that size). He pulls this off very well. The second image he just looks like a mild and meak black man wearing athletic clothes.
Gisele is showing her ‘game face’ just as much as LeBron. You have a top athlete and a top model showing off their best ‘game faces’.
I’m sorry, but as a photographer, that second image just lacks in so many ways to hit the intended subject matter of the article. Fashion photography, like so much of the fashion industry, is an exageration of reality. Just look at any high fashion runway pictures you’ve seen. How many of these clothes have you seen women (or even men) wearing in your workplaces, or clubs, walking the streets?
Controversy draws attention, sells magazines, newspapers, books, clothes, shoes, coffee, anything.
Does LeBron look like King Kong snatching up a timid and scared Faye Wray? When I first looked at the cover, I thought “WOW, what in intense photo!” Great contrast of power and grace, light and dark skin tones. Not what I’m used to seeing on Vogue. Seeing the cover story tag stating that it was the shape issue and paring super athletes with super models - I thought “well done”, it works. Not a great image stylistically, not Liebowitz’s best, but it works. Then I read about the controversy and after being ‘told’ by the media hype that I was supposed to see “King Kong and Faye Wray”, then I could start to see the analogy. Yeah, there are similarities in the poses and the skin contrasts and sizes differences between the characters. Now, if they showed a big white athlete dressed the same way, posing in a similarly powerful, intimidating way, would we be sitting here hashing out this debate ad nauseum? I doubt it. I’m sure it wouldn’t even register the slightest ripple in the media. Not controversial enough, can’t find anything negative to raise peoples hackels over.
So, from a magazine editorial standpoint, this cover is highly successful. Annie Liebowitz does it again. Another 3 pointer from half court at the buzzer.

The short of the long here is that too many people are so hypersensitive about too many things and have to go out of their way to get pissed about something/everything and has to make sure the rest of us know that we are supposed to be pissed about it as well. And if we aren’t then we are being racist, sexist, religionist, faschist, insensitive, or what ever.
There is after all only ONE RACE - the HUMAN RACE (like it or not, we all evolved from one African tribe (evolutionist theory) or one man/woman (creationist theory). We are all related, we just look and act different from one another.
GET A LIFE PEOPLE!! Lighten up and smile life can be a wonderful experience if you allow it to be.

Have you all see the actual ad that has an ape in the SAME mouth open position as James and holding a woman confidentially wearing the SAME dress that Giselle is wearing? I wish I could email it to you or post it as apart of this comment…. I think the people who have see this photo understand why the cover is offensive… it took the ape out and put James in…

But I will say that I’d seen the cover in passing and thought nothing of it… but that’s just it… people are sometimes victims of perpetuating stereotypes simply because they don’t know.

Here’s the link to the other photo that it LOOKS as if this cover was fashioned after.

http://www.digitaldesk.or...aganda/destroy_brute.html

[...] through a trickle on Thursday, then a flood on Friday, that VOGUE’s cover picture not merely insinuated LeBron “King” James play Kong to Bündchen’s Fay Wray—MEDIA ASSASSIN readers [...]

Hi my comment is about the beautiful women that are advertised in the Essence Magazine that look awesom for their age those woman are all ages 40 and up which none of the ladies look their age well I have been told since the age of 16 that I dont look my age so I would like to know how do I go about being contacted to also have my photo looked at and maybe get an approval to join the ladies in the Essence I feel I dont look my age but do you agree I would like to know contact me at shonwindsor313@yahoo.com or 313-995-8294 with info about joining this article in the Essence Magazine with these beautful black women of today.

I think this is just another instance where subtle racism is at play. I detest the cover and I agree that images are very important and some of these images do in fact teach Blacks self-hatred, while leaking in drip by drop into the subconscious. To my eyes this cover is absurd, playing into stereotypes but I do not prefer the 2nd cover either. The second one looks like she is saying ” yes. white america we will always continue to hold these unsuspecting Negroes down. We will keep our foot on their necks and continue to oppress and mislead.” The whole damn world has gone mad. This shit sickens me. And to all you real clueless people who want Blacks to forgive and forget slavery and the dehuminization, rape, brutalization of Black people as a race can forget it. The whole idea that we will forget being viewed as inferior 2nd class citizens is also absurd. And please don’t ever say “Go back to Africa” I have more right to be here than anyone else. This country was built from the blood, sweat and tears of my enslaved people. Although, at times I would love to go back but apparently the natives believe I have been demonized by Europe and all their ideals to take whatever they want. Weapons devised to take, Plots and schemes developed into laws designed to take, Their whole legacy is built up on the take, b-cuz they never had anything. In the hills, robbing and killing to survive, its in thier nature. Europe was not rich with any raw materials. Africa has Gold, ivory, diamonds etc. China has silk, technology , etc

I think that those commenting that can’t see the symbolism but concede that there could be something are feeling the subconscious effect. I don’t think the intent is in the picture or the picture taker (Annie Leibovitz) but the end result is clear. This picture evoked images and feelings that can not be denied.

Hi Ursula,

Regarding big ticket items, I want to splurge on a GREAT flat iron! One that I can use, not only on my weaves, but on my natural hair as well. I hear ceramics are definitely the way to go, and I’m told that FHI’s Runway and Platform lines are really good. Exactly which type and brand of flat iron would you buy? Really need your answer to this one!! Thanx!!