By Shannon Sturgis Angela Justice is a local stylist who did the hair and make-up for Kris Allen's family while he was competing on American Idol.

LITTLE ROCK — The text messages started rolling in almost immediately after the climactic, unexpected conclusion to American Idol:

Oh my god, they look stunning.

Oh my god, they look so beautiful.

"That was," said Angela Justice, the recipient of the text messages and the compliments, "pretty cool."

The text messages weren't about Kris Allen, the Conway singer and upset winner of the 2009 American Idol, nor Adam Lambert, the inside favorite with his black hair and Elvis-esque stylings. The messages were about Kim Allen and Katy Allen, the mother and wife of Kris Allen and subjects of Justice's constant, all-out, 24-7 attention as a hairdresser, makeup artist and, yes, "image consultant."

Justice isn't an LA fixture. She didn't work for a major studio, she wasn't assigned to Kim and Katy, and she didn't get paid for the work. Instead, she runs a salon in North Little Rock, the city where she was born and raised. How'd the 40-year-old mom of two end up in LA running around, as she said, "like a chicken with my head cut off" trying to make both Mrs. Allens look their drop-dead best? She volunteered.

The story: Justice owns a salon in North Little Rock called Payton Place. That's where Kim Allen gets her hair done, as well as Kim's friend Kassandra Mize. Mize gets her hair done by Justice. And every step Kris Allen took toward becoming the next American Idol was duly relayed to Justice and the girls at Payton Place via the time-honored manner of beauty shop talk. First, Kris Allen had made it on the show. Then he advanced, again and again. Finally, he arrived in the final three.

"He had made it on to the show but we didn't know it," Justice said in an interview last week. "So Kassandra comes in and is like, 'Uh, Angela, my friend ... her son, nobody knows it yet but he's made it on to American Idol'. She said: 'I think his mom wants to talk to you.'"

The idea was that maybe Justice could help Kim Allen look her best for the show. She would, after all, be on camera. In front of millions of viewers.

"So I started e-mailing them every time I saw them on the show. 'Kim, I'd love to help. I'd love to be a part of this. You girls need to be looking good. Just let me come out there,'" Justice said.

At first, Kim Allen wasn't sure how to react. Communication broke down. There was a lot going on. But Justice kept asking. She offered to fly out on her own dime, pay her own way, do Kim up right.

"In the time when I was running around trying to make a whole lot of things happen ... she took care of things that made my life a whole lot easier," Kim Allen said in an interview last week. "I just can't say enough about it."

Said Kim Allen: "They are just the sweetest people ever."

Naturally, as in any good story, there was drama. And tension. And finally, a happy ending. When Justice arrived in LA, Kim asked her to take care of Katy, too. Fine, said Angela, but she didn't come equipped for Katy's long hair. After a few phone calls and a bit of networking, a salon in Los Angeles stepped in to help. And then there was the wardrobe malfunction involving a zipper, a dress, and a limo full of impatient family members. That also ended well.

And when we talk about what Justice did and does, we're not talking about just hair and makeup. There are also shoes. And clothes. And jewelry. And everything that goes into making a person into a star. It's what she calls image consulting, a skill and trade Justice has picked up from her periodic trips to the other city nearest and dearest to her heart: Nashville, Tenn.

But just for added measure, Justice said she added the extra service of cheerleader to the Allen's contingent in LA.

"I'm a huge Adam fan as is the whole family," Justice said. "But I said, you know what? Kris is going to win. I feel it in my bones. Kris is going to win."

Now that Kris has won, it's back to life. The salon on John F. Kennedy Boulevard will be expanding soon and Justice has plans to open another salon in Nashville. There's hair to cut, makeup to apply, life to live.

But how much did the whole escapade cost the Justices' and their salon? "You don't even want to know," said Keith Justice, Angela's husband for 11 years and co-owner of Payton Place. He rattles off some rough estimates of plane fare and hotel rooms but adds that they'd do it all again if they could.

The real question: Did Angela have any fun out in LA.?

"Pfffffffft." Keith blows the question off.

"She loved it."

The third degree with Angela Justice:

If you had to pick a food for your last meal, what would it be? "A cupcake. The more icing the better. A big, fat cupcake with lots and lots of strawberry icing."

If you were a superhero what would your superpower be? "I'd probably be Wonder Woman and I'd have an invisible jet and a little belt that I could push that I would become invisible."

When you were a kid, what did you want to be? "I never said I wanted to grow up and own my own salon."

If someone filmed the movie of your life, who would be cast to play you: "I could see maybe Kate Hudson. Cameron Diaz. One of those."

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be: "Other than Nashville?"