The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders' Entire Beauty Routine for the Christmas Extravaganza

Hi Allure.

We're the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.

And welcome to the Cowboys Christmas extravaganza.

[pompoms shuffling]

[upbeat music]

Hi Allure. My name is Kylie.

This is my fourth season as Dallas Cowboys cheerleader

and my third season doing Christmas shows.

Hi Allure. My name's McKenna.

I've been a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader for three seasons

and this is my second season doing Christmas shows.

Okay, so I actually do my hair the night before.

Every single time I'd give a full wash,

dry, blow dry and curl

the night before because otherwise

my hair just won't keep up while I'm dancing.

So this is actually from last night.

I curl it pretty tight and then it loosens up

and ends up being the perfect loose curl.

I always start with my hair because

I have naturally curly hair,

so I feel like I kind of have to

wrangle it to get the curls to stay

and keep my natural curls at bay while I'm dancing.

So I will curl it

with a really like

1.25 inch, nothing crazy.

And then I'll let it sit

for the entire time while I do my makeup

and then I'll wait to brush it out.

And I feel like that helps it kind of set

and then stay curled while I'm dancing.

The makeup, I always just do a moisturizer.

This is a pretty thick one 'cause it's wintry

and really cold,

so I'm like scraping it.

But we don't usually dance outside much.

But for the Christmas show we dance outside so

we have to have more hydration for the weather.

I like a glowier base.

And for Christmas show we actually get to

have a little bit more freedom with our makeup.

We can wear a red lip

and a little more glowy

'cause it's a shorter show.

It's only really like 20 minutes.

Because we're outside,

I feel like it's harder to keep your hair volumized.

We all kind of tease our hair more or less

depending on the appearance or show.

So I would say for Christmas shows,

since it's so fast and so quick,

you kind of just like

tease it up as much as you can

and then try to keep the style to stay curled

by the finale when it's windy and humid outside.

We learned so much about makeup

just because we're photographed so much.

Like you'll do a game and you'll try something new

and the photographs will come back

and you'll be like, Oh, I'm never gonna do that again.

But we've learned a lot in four years.

I feel like I've kind of started to perfect everything

to be happy with my photos and my videos.

We kind of haven't really had an off season as of 2025

and it looks like 2026 might be similar.

So I'm a big fan of hair masks and I like to sleep in them.

So when I'll have my hair curled

and styled for multiple days straight,

I feel like it's super, super dry.

And then I also swear by water filters in your shower.

That's something that I try to put

literally every single one of my teammates on.

I like to do warmer tone first

and then I kind of carve out with a cooler tone.

And I like to do heavy contour because

we have really, really bright lights on us

that kind of make you look really flat.

So if you wanna look like you have

a smaller forehead and high cheekbones,

you have to kind of carve it out a lot.

I would definitely say we kind of have

the DCC voluminous curls

because you want your curls to show up

and stay curled during pictures,

but you also want it to have a lot of volume

and kind of bounciness.

And I also think it makes your hair look cooler

when you're doing your hair flips and choreography.

I do use two different hairsprays.

One for this and then one for one

when I brush it out.

One of them's a light hold and the other is a heavy hold.

So I feel like the light hold is more just to keep

any flyaways at bay or frizz,

since I do have naturally curly hair,

I feel like my hair's more likely to get frizzy

when I get sweaty or

when it's really humid out.

And then I like the heavy control hairspray

just to keep the curl style held.

So this is what my curls look like

before I brush them out

and then I'll leave them like this

until after I'm done with my makeup.

So it's gonna set for at least 30 minutes like this.

This is my favorite blush combo right now.

This is the

Unreal blush, Healthy Glow stick by Charlotte Tilbury.

And I love this red color

and I always put it on the back of my hand first

and I mix it with this pink one.

I just like the look of them both together

and then I mix it on my hand

and then I just focus it on my cheek.

Rosy cheeks, like Santa,

I'm gonna start with my eyes first

and then I'll do my base next.

My boyfriend hates when I get ready at his place

'cause I take up the entire bathroom.

I feel like for all the times we've had our makeup done

for video shoots or cameos

or even just live performances,

all the makeup artists I've noticed

have always started with my eyes

and so I just started doing that

because that's what they did.

I'm like, They're professionals.

They know a thing or two about it.

I think a lot of the trial and error

is kind of figuring out what your specific face needs.

Like I feel like I have a smaller eye, so I like to,

when I do my eye makeup, I like to make it,

my eyes look a lot more exaggerated and bigger.

And I like to focus on my cheekbones

'cause I feel like I have higher cheekbones.

So I try to really accentuate even more.

And I specifically like to do my eye

a certain way to make my eyes look a lot bigger.

I know some people contour this part of their nose,

but I actually like to just lighten it up

as I think it makes my eyes look further apart.

Okay, and then I also do a lot under eyes

with my eyeshadow

'cause I feel like that really opens my eyes a lot too.

And then for me,

probably the biggest impact of my makeup

is using a eyelash.

This one's Main Character.

It says it's faux mink effect.

I do black eyelash glow,

which can be risky,

but I do eyelashes every single day.

So I've gotten pretty good at it

and I feel like it makes my lash line just look

fuller and deeper and darker

and it just photographs better.

And one trick I have is

if you are really bad at doing your eyelashes,

they have eyelash glue

in liner form so you can put eyeliner on.

And then I also put,

if you're really bad at it,

you know put a clear one.

And then when you put them on together,

they're both wanting to stick to each other.

And then also just letting them be really, really tacky

before putting them on

so you can place them right in the spot

and they won't move around.

Kylie, I need you to repeat that.

Have you used the eyelash glue eyeliner?

No I haven't.

I did in college and I couldn't figure out

how to do it so I just stopped using it.

I feel like it's kind of hard to use it

just on its own

'cause it's not like enough glue.

But if you use it with glue it like

melts together.

[Kylie] Oh! Yeah!

See I was just using the liner.

Okay. Yeah.

McKenna and I were just in New York together

for multiple appearances

for Giving Tuesday,

which is actually really fun.

And we are roommates.

And we are roommates.

I know, I feel like I get to hang out with you so much.

We've been getting ready together all week.

I know, really.

I feel like a lot of us are roommates.

I think Soph and I are the only ones

that live together. Oh really?

[Kylie] Yeah. I feel like it used to be

more common for girls to live together,

but now I feel like we're so busy,

sometimes you just need your own space.

But a lot of girls are married or have

long-term serious boyfriends or are engaged

so they'll live with their significant others too.

I'm going to use a super bright highlighter on the inner.

I really only do this for Christmas show

'cause I think it looks like snow

and then I go just a little bit up.

But not really for games.

I feel like a lot of girls

do maybe like a fun red lip or something

for the holidays.

That's something a little bit different that girls will do.

So when I do my like holiday lip,

I always start with brown liner

on the outside.

[upbeat jingle music]

I would never wear a red lip like this

unless it's a Cowboy's Christmas extravaganza,

but not on game day.

Okay, now that my makeup's done,

I'm just gonna go ahead and brush out my curls.

And I don't know what this brush is called,

but I really like it because it makes my hair really smooth

and all the curls really smooth.

And you don't have any like

coily curls coming together.

This is where the light hairspray comes in

and then you spray away any flyaways.

We can't really do gloss when we perform

because it'll get in your hair.

So I'll leave this on,

let it kind of hydrate

and then once it kind of dries down,

to make it look like I have gloss on,

I'll take just a little bit of highlighter

and oh okay, that was a lot.

That was a lot of it.

I can rub it in.

Just a little bit

and then it photographs like a gloss.

Okay.

And this is my final glam

for the Cowboys Christmas extravaganza.

This is my final look

for our Cowboys Christmas extravaganza.

Now that I'm all ready with my hair and makeup,

I'm gonna prep my costumes.

So we have little boxes

and we take them under the tree or backstage

where the girls that dance on stage go

and we'll have three different costume changes.

You wanna make sure your electric cowgirl costume

is plugged in because that lights up.

Then we have our Santa Baby,

which is our classic Santa costume

and that's kind of the grand finale of the show.

But we start the show in our uniforms.

That will come first

and that first dance is called Thunder Halls

and it's kind of just like a

Christmas version of Thunder,

which is really fun.

[upbeat music]

I am Michelle Sharp

and my role with the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders

is Team Operations Coordinator.

In our night season of the Christmas show

and it was the brainchild

of our illustrious director, Kelli Finglass

She always wanted a spectacular

Rockette style show.

I helped them with their wardrobe for this show.

They have two quick costume changes.

They begin the show in their

Dallas Cowboys cheerleader's uniform.

Then the cast of 22 will all go into the huge Christmas tree

for their very first quick change.

They change into their electric cowgirl outfit.

It has been quite the project

keeping 22 ladies

with all of those costume pieces lit.

But it is fun.

It's a challenge.

Once the ladies arrive,

I already have all of their costumes

plugged in on a charger

with the good old USB port.

They will pack their boxes.

The boxes go downstairs at 5:15.

They have a hard call time of those boxes being packed

and ready at 5:10.

I have to use my teacher voice

sometimes to get them focused,

but that's just part of the fun.

[upbeat jingle music]

[Producer] What is your favorite number?

Oh! Mine is Jingle Bells.

Oh my gosh.

We wear this little Santa baby costume

is what we call it.

It's like fur and just all the holiday magic

in one outfit. I love it.

It's really holly jolly and so much fun

Because you said Jingle Bells.

I would also say that's my favorite.

But we have light up costumes,

which are literally specifically tailored

to kind of like BDCC uniform but light up.

So you look like little Christmas lights

and that one number is really fun.

It's also long,

but it's really fun. Yes.

And we call it electric cowgirl.

Which is sick. And it's actually

right here. Yeah.

And there's lights throughout this entire thing

that will turn on.

Yeah.

And they turn off all the lights in the area

that we perform

and so we're the only thing lit up

and it's just so magical

and fun and really, really cute.

[Producer] What would you say is the hardest part

of the Christmas performance?

I would say starting off with Thunder Halls

makes the whole thing harder

because that's our hardest piece of choreography

that we probably have in our entire regimen.

So I would say Thunder Halls is the hardest.

[Kylie] I think starting it off with Thunder Halls

and ending Thunder Halls

with a full kick line and jump split.

And then we pretty much hop up

right after the jump split

turn around and get up

and run to the next thing.

[upbeat music]

[McKenna] Electric cowgirl. Is the hardest.

Because you just have to try so hard

to make it look really, really sharp

because everything's so heavy.

[McKenna] And because it's dark

so people can't see your expressions as much.

And I feel like that really amps up

the performance factor.

So when it's dark and you just have

all of this to get everyone excited,

you definitely have to put in a lot more effort

[Kylie] to that one. Yeah.

Compartmentalization is your best friend

this time of year.

Like I don't think of regular thunder,

I don't think of my regular spot,

I don't think of my regular forms,

even 'Baby I'm Star'.

You just push it out of your brain

and you say that's gonna be game day's problem

or rehearsal problem.

And then you come here

and we actually do a full run through

before the show

just to make sure you remember all your parts.

But for me, I have to be like,

thunder doesn't exist.

It's only Thunder Halls today.

I would say November is our busiest month

maybe of the entire football season

because Thanksgiving performance,

we start Christmas shows and other games.

And then honestly when it gets to be

November and December,

it's less practice

and more just performances. Yeah.

Like we have put in the work

throughout the beginning of the season,

you know, learning all those routines.

and we learn Christmas in September.

Yeah. Or-

Maybe beginning October. Maybe October.

And so we're ready so far in advance

so that when we get to our super busy season,

which is November and December

and we just have,

not just rehearsals every day,

but performances every day

we're ready and we can pull those things

from the back of our brains

and we're ready for it, so.

So true.

But this year there's two casts on the field.

McKenna's our point for Christmas field

and she kills it every time

and she looks so good down there.

I'm blushing.

[Kylie and McKenna laughing]

Yes, this is the last show

for current field cast

and so this is kind of like our halfway point.

This show will kind of

push us into the latter half of Christmas shows.

So next week,

I don't know if we're gonna have a full dress rehearsal,

but we'll switch field casts

and girls have been understudying this whole time.

So then they'll pull in

and then the girls who aren't in full cast this time

will be Santa's helpers

where they walk Santa out.

It's kind of a magical thing.

Here comes Santa Claus.

The kids love it. They scream their heads off.

It's adorable.

This will be a special show

'cause it's our last first cast.

[upbeat music]

[Producer] Which of your teammates from a Christmas show

is most into skincare?

I'm gonna say Kennedy.

She is a big skincare girlie.

Probably Sophie.

She is very regimented about it.

She's right here.

She's my best friend

so we go home and we live together.

So we go home and she's the first

to just take out her full glam

and do a full skincare routine.

I need to learn something from her.

[Producer] Who is most likely to give

the best beauty tips?

Best beauty tips has to go to Kylie for sure.

Or Sophie.

Megan is a makeup artist,

so she actually gives us a lot of tips.

But also Soph.

Soph is probably one of the best at makeup.

[Producer] Who takes the longest to get ready?

Carly.

Easy.

Carly.

[Producer] Who could be a hairstylist on the team?

I'm trying to think of another name but also Carly.

She's really good at hair.

Who'd you say?

[McKenna] I said Carly. Yeah.

[McKenna] She teases everybody's hair.

She does tease everyone's hair.

Allison has the best hair.

Yeah, actually Allison.

Yay. Yay.

Cut.