Journalism has taken me many interesting places and so it was 15 years ago in Los Angeles that I ended up at my first hair battle.

Back then, it was a fringe movement, a kind of traveling road show featuring hair of any hue coming down the runway set to music.

It was wild and fun but the creations were still recognizably hair styles.

Not anymore. The fantasy hair design world, as it's now called, is all about creation. These are artistes. The point is to tell a story on the head, through hair.

That's the premise that fuels the cheeky "Hair Battle Spectacular" (Oxygen, 10 tonight), a competition show that brings 10 stylists together and pits them in a series of battles to win $100,000.