Hair Spray! Lashes! Get All the Secrets to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Beauty and Style (2024)

CMT's hit series Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team is in its 11th season, and there's still so much to learn about how the ladies keep up their iconic look during four-hour games! From their bras to the boots, here are 13 things about their beauty and style that we learned from the cheerleaders themselves and their longtime squad leaders.

1) They do their own hair and makeup for games. "Most people would assume we would have it done for us!" says Danielle, a 5-year veteran of the team. "However, for photo shoots in uniform, or calendar shoots on the beach, we do have a glam squad of professionals to help us out."

2) They can't have red lips or red nails. Since the '80s, "We've gone from red fingernails to nude and natural nails. We've gone from red lips to nude," says Kelli Finglass, the Director of the DCC. They don't need to make such a dramatic makeup statement anymore thanks to the 60-yard high-definition screen they've got today.

3) They wash their own uniforms. Football players may get their uniforms laundered on-site, but not so for the cheerleaders! "It's gotten a little trickier since we added crystals to the stars," says Finglass. But now the stars sit on a velcro base, so they're removable. Says Judy Trammell, the team's choreographer, "The white fabric is a polyester and it doesn't wrinkle; You can put it in the washing machine, you don't have to have it cleaned."

4) They have to wear their hair down… even for practice. "Most dancers and cheerleaders are used to having their hair pulled back, but that is not the case if you're a DCC," says Melissa, a 3rd-year vet. "We not only have our hair styled and down the entire game, but our dances almost always have some form of 'hairography.'" Says Danielle, a 5th-year vet from Long Island, New York (below)."One thing I've learned from my experience here with DCC is setting my hair in rollers. I will curl my hair and set them in Velcro rollers up top and pin the rest until show time. This helps with volume and keeps the curls longer!"

"We love back-teasing hair at the base of the root and using hair spray to keep all that flipping hair out of our faces," says Melissa (below). "I use 'Spray and Play' or 'Spray and Play Harder' by Big Sexy Hair. Both have great holding power but be sure your hair is where you want it to be before spraying because it will be there all night! Start with the back of the crown of the head, move to the sides, and finally end at the front. Tease in layers, let set, and then smooth out for hair that lasts all game day."

ARLINGTON, TX – SEPTEMBER 3: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders perform during a preseason game against the Houston Texans at AT&T Stadium on September 3, 2015, in Arlington, Texas. The Cowboys defeated the Texans 21-14. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)

5) Finding long-lasting makeup is key. "To keep our beauty work in place we all use primers," says Jennifer, a 4th-year vet from Plano, Texas. "Urban Decay makes my favorite eyeshadow primer. A good foundation, like NARS or Makeup Forever, can seriously go a long way in keeping us Jumbotron-pretty even in fourth quarter." The ladies also all love Zinc Beauty, a makeup line created by the DCC makeup artist of more than 15 years, Peggy Segundo. Says Jennifer, "Zinc is a customizable organic beauty line for each skin tone. Each client gets a special formula that matches them 100%."

6) Lashes are really important. "Defined lashes are also a game changer," says Jennifer. "Some girls get extensions, but I personally use Ardell strip lashes, #105."

7) They have to wear sheer hosiery with their uniform. "They wear skin-toned hosiery with the uniform," says Finglass. "They've all found the brands they individually like. It's got to be sheer, and it can't peak out of the uniform, like it can't be 'reinforced' anything like that because it has to look very natural. They supply their own hosiery."

8) They get their haircuts and color taken care of for the whole year. "They do appearances year-round and they do have to maintain the look we established and the look they have in their publicity photos," says Finglass. "They go to our official salon, Tangerine, in Dallas and have appointments for maintenance all year long. That's actually kind of exciting and that's a real fun perk especially for the girls that come from small towns and went to a little local beauty parlor and then you come to this Dallas salon with two stories, 20 stylists, and equipment that looks like you could fly to the moon in it. It's really quite glamorous."

9) …And their tans! "They have memberships at Palm Beach Tan and Planet Tan in Dallas," says Finglass. "Most of them now use the spray on tans like Mystic Tan and Versa." But they're not into custom contoured temporary body makeup. "They don't have the time and they're sweating too much in the 3 1/2, 4 hours of play," she says.

10) They wear their own bras. "The girls bring their own bras in," says Finglass. "We tie the blouse around the bra and keep everything in place. We've considered and are actually maybe going to have discussions about creating custom bras, but the cheerleaders are all shaped differently and have their favorites."

11) Those boots weren't always comfortable. "When we first got them, it was more troublesome because the girls had to go through blisters. We had to figure out the best way to stretch them.," says Finglass. "But they've been so much improved they've been able to wear them and dance in them right away instead of having to go through that process of having your feet get worn out and callused. This year seems to be a big improvement." Cheerleader Robin, below, poses with this year's new, lighter boot style from Lucchese.

12) They all wear special socks under them. "We all like to wear different socks with our Lucchese Boots, it just depends how they fit individually," says Jinelle, a 5th-year vet from Australia (below). "The Lucchese team customizes our boots. They visit during the summer to properly fit each DCC and to ensure we all receive a perfect pair. Some like very thick, wooly socks for an extra snug fit, however in this Texas heat, I prefer a thinner sock, as it allows me to feel grounded on the turf and better able to maneuver the boots. Of course, my game day socks are 'Australian' themed! We all have our little superstitions for game day, and acts as a little piece of home for me, which I love getting to wear when I cheer on the boys!"

13) ...But they don't get to keep the boots! "They kind of recycle them and use them for practice boots the next year," says Finglass. "The first year we did the Lucchese boot, that year's team got to keep one trophy boot."