The media’s obsession with celebs has gotten way out of hand over the past decade or so, but it seemed as though the gossipees were somewhat worth the chatter back then.  Often, it was folks with an ounce of originality, or unique style who engaged the prying eyes of the public. Last we checked Rihanna was neither of those. Like some sort of pop-music experiment or style schizophrenic, Rihanna’s image is akin to that of a Dress-Me-Up Barbie Doll.  Dig this:

[Rihanna’s] revamped image is all due to a team of experts who’ve been working with the R&B songstress for the past five months: hairstylist Tippi Shorter/Ursula Stephen, makeup artist Mylah Morales and celebrity stylist extraordinaire Mariel Haenn. And the behind-the-scenes crew is everywhere with Rihanna — the limo, the dressing room, the hotel room, you name it.

“We are the team, and we always collaborate on what’s going to work best, the overall look,” she added. “It all ties together at the end. I always bring a ton of options, and I will give her my favorites and why I think they would work best. She most of the time goes with my top choice.”

Somehow, that comes as no surprise….

Showbiz media obsesses over every aspect of Rihanna’s facade down to the most miniscule detail. Of course, the Chris Brown fiasco and raunchy nekkid ‘self-portraits’ served to fan the flames of her carefully crafted stardom as well. Additionally, it’s worth noting that there is absolutely no coincidence that rampant RiRi overkill is reaching new levels of absurdity as her album release date draws near. After all, Rihanna is one of many pop stars whose publicity strategy includes traveling with a band of paparazzi to “spot” her perpetually shopping & socializing with yet another über hip ensemble and trendy hair-do (yawn…).  In the end we wish ole girl the best, but between the magazine covers, TV commercials, music videos and constant Internet media coverage, we’ve had enough already – it’s time to put the doll back up on the shelf.

We all have been in love Rihanna’s highlights since Spring and now Ms. Ursula has just let us in on her secret for Rihanna’s fabulous highlights – extensions! Check out what Ursula told InStyle about Rihanna’s blonde highlights.

“We kept saying we wanted to play around with color, but we didn’t want to do anything too sweet,” said her hairstylist, Ursula Stephen. She added blond extensions (yes, that’s right!) through the entire top of Rihanna’s head, but left the roots natural. “Why dye when you can just buy?” said Stephen.

Since Rihanna has stepped up her style in the past year, she has taken lots of chances in her wardobe, hair and her nails. From yellow nail polish to to hot pink, hot pink to baby blue and most recently green, Rihanna has made lots of women think about switching up their nail polish game.

Last year black nail polish was all the rave, then from there many of us have heard that gray is the new black and now…well who knows and we thought about asking Jay-z to see if he might know, but we know he has too much on his plate right now to weigh in.

But, what we do know is that straying away from your normal polish choice once in a while can be fun and a great way to express yourself. So ladies, next time you are at home preparing to do your nails or waiting at the shop trying to decide on the plethora of color choices you are presented with we challenge you to think of your nails as a blank canvas and your color choice as a box of Crayons waiting to help you express yourself.