Oscar Countdown: Star Beauty Secrets for the Red Carpet

From mummy wraps to spray tans, stars go to extremes to look red-carpet ready.

ByABC News
February 22, 2012, 3:12 PM

Feb. 23, 2012 -- With the 2012 Oscars ceremony just days away, stars all over Hollywood are clamoring to try out the latest product, salon and trick that will get them svelte, lean and red carpet-ready in time for the big show.

"People get really neurotic," Merle Ginsberg, senior writer for the Hollywood Reporter told "Good Morning America." "It's all they think about."

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"There are a myriad amounts of treatments," she said. "The possibilities are endless. It's a case of what lengths do you want to go too?"

So just how far are stars willing to go? "GMA" lifestyle anchor Lara Spencer journeyed all over Los Angeles to find out.

Here are four extreme beauty trends hot in Hollywood this Oscar season.

The Hair: Rent-a-Do

It's no secret the designer gowns and fabulous jewels worn by even Hollywood's biggest actresses are borrowed just for the red carpet, but did you know that some of their hairstyles are rented too?

Nicknamed rent-a-do it's a service that allows celebrities, and anyone else, to rent a hairstyle for 24 hours and then return it to the salon.

Stylists Courtney Nanson and Mela Murphy are the queens of the Rent-a-Do service at the Beverly Hills salon of celebrity stylist Jose Eber.

The short-term look styled by the likes of Nanson and Murphy comes at not too high of a red-carpet price. A 24-hour hair rental from the Jose Eber salon, for example, will set you back only $250, a small price for luscious red-carpet locks. That's a fraction of what it would cost to buy a wig or hair extensions, plus you can always rent a different do the next night!

The Glow: Sculpting The Six-Pack Tan

It's true that spray tanning has been around for a while now…but have you heard of sculpting?

To look like the Golden Oscar itself…take a trip to Porotfino/Beverly Hills where you will get a custom color airbrushing that will contour your body just so to make it look as if you've spent hours in the gym. Make sure to ask for "sculpting"….a specific tanning process designed to add definition to your stomach, arms, and legs. In 20 minutes it will make you look like you've spent months in the gym and it only costs $130.

The Body: The Mummy Wrap

Don't be surprised if you bump into a leading actor or actress nominee at the LA SlimWrap salon in Los Angeles come awards season. It's the place celebs know they can go to lose inches instantly, even if it means having themselves wrapped in bandages like a mummy and bouncing up and down on a trampoline for almost an hour.

Salon owner Afsi Naim is known as "Hollywood's Body Wrap Expert" because she's been doing it for more than a decade, and the stars keep coming back.

Nai's signature Slimwrap, $135, begins with taking your measurements and then wrapping you tightly in Ace bandages soaked in various minerals like aloe and potassium designed to detoxify and contour your body.

Then your off to bounce-for nearly an hour on a trampoline….while wrapped in a blue poncho with zip lock bags tied around your feet.

The salon claims you will lose between 6 and 20 inches off your body with just one wrap but just a word to the wise out there- recommends coming back for at least three more wraps within two weeks for long-term results.

The Undergarments: Spanx

Supporting actress nominee and star of "The Help," Octavia Spencer raised a stir this awards season when she revealed she had worn not one, not two but three pairs of body shaping undergarments -- Spanx-- to last month's Golden Globes ceremony.

"I want to be comfortable and look good and have fun," Spencer told reporters at the Globes. "So I'm just going to do the normal one here, one there," she said, laughting. "Here a Spank, there a Spank, everywhere a Spank-Spank."

The control-top body shapers, available online and in stores nationwide, have become such a red-carpet must for women that the company introduced a men's only line designed to boost muscles and minimize the belly.

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