Hair There and Everywhere has moved over there ->

Hi all,

This'll be my last post here at the blogspot. I've moved all the posts and my blogging to Posterous.

GO THERE! http://hairthereandeverywhere.posterous.com/

It's easier for me to update on the move and as you know I'm on the move a lot, bringing you the latest from all over the show(s).

Cheers!

how much moose can your hair take?

Annah Stretton Hair:

For Annah Stretton's S/S 2010/11 RAFW show we created two distinct hair looks.

The show was presented in two completely separate sections, Chameleon, where 10 models wore one dress styled in 10 different ways. And, Slaughter, where the models wore items from the latest collection.

For Slaughter, the muse and reference was a young Brigitte Bardot, who, in her time was a strong activist against the wilful mistreatment of animals. Annah herself wanted to send a message about the carelessness with which we treat pigs in particular in our part of the world.

Taking these references, inspiration was drawn from the rockabilly bikers of the 50s and 60s and the hair was blowaved back and off the face with a large bristle brush after applying lots of Touch Control 05 mousse layered with a little Woolshake 12 to give the hair a strong pliable texture with a slightly matt almost powdery finish. the hair was then backcombed through the top section for height and smoothed over with a Mason Pearson brush before spraying heavily with Forceful 23 strong hold finishing spray to lock the shape into place and add a shiny almost helmet like finish. the lengths of the hair were left free so that when the girls moved, their hair swung and danced for them. the look was finished by attaching a small hair covered animal to the front of each of the girls hairdos. These animals were sourced from toy stores, individually matched to each of the girls and then a team of five spent approximately 60 hours gluing and trimming colour matched hair to each animal.

For Chameleon, the reference images we worked from were of a young pop punk princess and they gave us the essence of the woman that would wear this look. We really wanted to embrace this feeling and push into a more fashion forward and slightly more grown up look while still encapsulating the rebellion of the references.

The hair was prepped by applying Touch Control 05 mousse to the hair section by section so that the hair was damp with product then layering Woolshake 12 for extra grit and texture before blast drying the hair. Hair was then brushed through with a large cushion brush, parted on the side and raked back with the hands into a ponytail at the nape. this ponytail was then twisted into a flat bun secured with pins and fixed into place with loads of Forceful 23 to give a shiny, lacquered finish to the slightly unruly looking bun. the parting was then messed up and the fringe was arranged carefully over the face and right eye before being fixed into place with Workforce 09.

I borrowed some of these pics from Bellasugar and StyleIcons and washed them down with a Redbull or two...

At this point I'm living on Redbull and cake

Sara Phillips Hair:

For Sara Phillips’ RAFW S/S 2010/11 collection my brief was to emulate the look from their upcoming lookbook. I wanted to make it a little more runway so we pushed the size of the hair and also the texture to make it a little more dramatic and romantic as the girls walked.

The inspirartion for the look was a combination of rockabilly trucker meets country girl home on the range. Rather than being androgynous, the hair was more of a fusing of feminine texture with a masculine shape to create a paradox of sexuality.

First, the hair was prepared by applying a large handful of Redken Touch Control 05 styling mousse to dry hair, and blasting dry with a hot hairdryer. Then the hair was brushed thoroughly with a large Mason and Pearson cushion brush to create a romantic flyaway texture before creating the shape.

The hair is then split into three distinct sections. 1: Fringe, which is a large rough triangular shaped section which starts at the highest point of the head and goes to the front hairline. 2: Sides and crown, which is created by taking a rough horizontal parting from the back of the left ear to the back of the right ear. 3: back, which is the hair left at the bottom of the back after creating the sides and crown section.

Take one side of section 2 (the sides and crown) and sweep it up onto the crown. Pin it flat to the head at the crown with a couple of crossed bobby pins. Sweep the other side up and mush it flat onto the crown. Secure it into place hooking french or U-pins into it. Fix it into place with Redken Forceful 23 strong hold finishing spray. Next, lightly backcomb the fringe section, drag it forward and roll it back into a coif shape and pin into place. The back is left natural and loose. Finish by pulling bits of the hair into place with your fingers until it has a rough disheveeled feel and fix with some Redken Workforce 09 pliabe working spray.

Off with a BAng!

RAFW MAC GALA DINNER HAIR:

The MAC gala dinner was an extravaganza of Haute Couture with 10 different dresses all made from paper and designed exclusively for MAC NYC by Zaldy (Ru Paul’s costumier apparently).

I was called upon to hair direct half of the looks, while my good friend and Redken hair director Mr Todd Arndt of Vogue Nationale in Brisvegas looked after the other 5.

My five looks were: Spaghetti Dress, Heart Dress, Main Dress, Pencil Shavings Dress and Geo Dress.

For each look, it was important to keep the hair looking Very couture inspired and also to have a sense of the essence of the dress in it.

For the Spaghetti dress we set the hair on a 1” curling iron after preparing it with loads of Touch Control 05 Mousse. Then the back of the head was section off from ear to ear and a long weft of hair was clipped into the models own hair and fishtail braided. This braid was then wound around the models head on the left hand side and clipped under the curls at the crown. The rest of the hair was brushed out into a glamourous movie star wave before being rouched up into a short shape and fixed with bobby pins. The effect being a short floaty flyaway romantis looks with a strong wave falling over one eye. The look was finished with a top secret Redken product which is still in development (hint: dry shampoo).

The Heart Dress required that we fix some small paper hearts to the head. So, I pulled the hair into a really clean and polished french pleat which gave the hair the look of having a seam right up the middle from the nape to the top of the head. And then working with a triangle shaped fringe section, the hair was set on a 1.25” curling iron with Redken Hot Sets 22 before being brushed out, backcombed and then brushed into a pompadour. After pinning the pompadour into place, we finished the whole look with Redken Workforce 09 while smoothing the surface of the do with a fine bristle brush. Then we fixed three paper hearts to the side of the head.

The Main dress posed the greatest challenge as he reference we had was an amazing triangular bob that was created especially for a stills image. Days and days of testing different shapes to get the style to work in three dimensions and we finally decided on pinsetting a long wig and then clipper cutting the bootom to create a dramatic angular bob. Then we changed our mind on the day… in the end we went for a neo japanese look inspired by geisha and sumo bit with a soft flyaway romance to the hair, the hair was prepped by spraying Redken Woolshake into the hair before blowdrying with a round brush. This gave a pliable texture with a matte, powdery finish. Then the back of the hair was separated by making a vertical parting from the high point of the head to the top of each ear. This back section was pulled up into a clean ponytail at the crown and then pulled through the hair elastic to make a bow shape. The left over hair was wrapped around the base of the ponytail and pinned into place. The same was done on the left hand side of the head, only the hair from the right hand side was incorporated into this pony to give it a bit of extra density. The top was then rolled into a kind of elevated chignon which served as a base to pin the large paper hat to. The haie was left floaty and flyawya to add a sense of romance rather than following the traditional style for this type of shpae and having it highly polished and wet looking.

My favourite hair from the whole show was for the Pencil Shavings dress. For this look, we applied Redken For Men Stand Tough styling gel section by section onto the hair. Then with a clean low side parting on the left hand side the hair was combed from left to right into a strong finger wave which waved onto the face and back to the ear. The long hair was then gathered at the back of the right ear and twisted into a figure eight chignon. The hair was then smoothed with the ail of a comb and lacquered into place with Redken Forceful 23 stronghold finishing spray. The final touch was to mit Redken Vinyl Glam all over to create a patent leather like shine.

For the Geo dress the hair was blowaved poker straight with Redken Satin Wear 02 ultimate blowdry lotion and then flat ironed poker straight. A large triangular fringe section was separated out and the rest of the hair was pulled into the perfect ponytial at the nape with not a hair our of place. The fringe was then combed forward and rolled tightly around a small piece of mesh before being pinned into a short geometric bang and finished with Redken Workforce 09.

I haven’t written for a while. I’ve just been trying to get my head around the amazing experience I had working with Guido in NYC, Milan and Paris.

After doing a couple of shows with the guys in Paris, they asked if I’d be joining them in Milan. Rude not to I thought. So I did.

First show off the plane: Prada. Shit. Amazing! What can I say? Guido is a man with a vision, a talent and the tenacity to see it through. He surrounds himself with incredibly and diversely skilled hairstylists and works hard to get the best out of everyone. I was priveleged to be a part of the team for a season and to work on some of my all time favourite designers’ shows.

Nuff said?

I’m in Sydney for Rosemount Australian Fashion Week and have been living on redbull and biscuits. It’s been mad twenty-hour days prepping, testing, doing shows and more shows. On Friday I have 4 shows and two of them are on at the same time!

Anyhoo, here's a few pretty pictures from the MAC gala dinner. Todd Arndt and I designed five hair looks each. Pretty eh?

More photos and stories to come hopefully…

Diesel at NYFW AW10

REDBULL TAKES YOU BACKSTAGE:

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK A/W 10 FEBRUARY 2010.

Day 7

One word. Guido for Diesel. I know, I know, technically that’s 3 words but you know, one word give or take…

Today I got to work on Guido Palau’s team backstage at Diesel.

It was the sort of hair that some people may look at and ask how come it took 25 hairdressers 4 and a half hours to do nothing?

But it’s the sort of hair that requires just the right products, just the right technique and just the right touch…

Effortless beauty is far from effortless.

I have to thank my friend Louise Pilkington of Servilles in Ponsonby, a regular on Guido’s team for the hook up. Thanks Loulou.

The models’ hair was first sprayed down with water (although we could have just sent them outside to stand in the snow for a few minutes) and then layered with Redken Fabricate 03 and Redken Woolshake before it was very lightly air dried with a blowdryer (guess what brand I was using? No? OK, it was Richard Kavanagh) while manipulating the hair into a beachy tousled wave. Then it was brushed lightly with a mason pearson and tousled a little more to give it texture and bounce with a little height at the crown…

Same deal with the boys.

The show was run at a cracking pace (which may explain why my photos are a little soft). the models fiercely strode from behind a shiny metallic cubist backdrop and caned it down the catwalk and back. any faster, they would have cracked into a full run...

O for awesome!

Thanks DimitySO

REDBULL TAKES YOU BACKSTAGE:

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK A/W 10 FEBRUARY 2010.

Day 6

There’s one problem with only being tall on the inside. And that’s being short on the outside.

I was lucky enough to get along to Marc Jacobs’ (one of my all time fav designers) show today. Only I was too short to see over the people standing in front of me.

I think I may have seen Anna Wintour standing too actually, she could probably see.

The show itself was amazing. It was in a giant cardboard box inside the Armoury. I couldn’t see the clothes. I’m sure they were real pretty. His clothes always are.

I did manage to sneak backstage and I saw that the guys were blowdrying lots of Redken Woolshake into the hair to give it a real lived in texture.

This fashion week, it’s all about lived in, second day feel, romantic glamour.

Oh, except for Carolina Herrera. Her hair was blowdried smooth and shiny and ironed straight into a highly polished look. Still floaty and feminine though.

Carlos Miele, the Brazilian designer, blew me away last season with his sexy, feminine, and elegant designs and this season, his collection was equally sexy but a whole lot more playful with bright colours, short skirts and high heels.

Texture was created in the long hair by blowing Redken Workforce into it with a blowdryer, then pulling all the hair back into a ponytail and twisting it into a seashell shape before securing it with french pins and finishing with a touch more Workforce.

If fashion week gives us a glimpse of the social landscape, then I think we’re in for a whole lotta fun in the next couple of years!

Thanks DimitySO

REDBULL TAKES YOU BACKSTAGE:

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK A/W 10 FEBRUARY

2010.

Day 5

New York is such an exciting city! I have had some of the most exciting news about my career in the last few days I can barely contain myself! However, I will stick to Fashion week…

Animals. It’s becoming a recurring theme for the week.

From sheep bags to cardboard cutout dogs to live leopards.

Today it was the birds turn. Feathers dominated the show from Irina Shabayeva,

winner of season 6 of Project Runway.

The hair was a simple textured updo loosely pulled up at the crown and secured with a little detailed hairpiece at the crown.

Tony Cohen’s Show saw lead stylist Staci Child create a really messy texture in the hair before simply twisting it into a french roll at the back secured with a couple of pins. She then had her team lace a criss cross of leather into the roll to accessorise the look.

All good wearable DIY type styles with a cute twist.

Then we go over to the other extreme at Chado Ralph Rucci where the hair was simply alien like.

It was pulled up over an intricate scaffold of plaits, backcombing and ponytail into a highly lacquered cone shape. Not a DIY style and probably not one you’d wear out in a hurry.

Thanks DimitySO

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK DAY 4

REDBULL TAKES YOU BACKSTAGE:

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK A/W 10 FEBRUARY 2010.

Day 4

Karen Walker is a name synonimous with New Zealand fashion. This season was her 8^th consecutive showing at New York Fashion Week and was one of my favourite shows.

There seems to be an animal theme here this week. or is it just me?

The collection was a fruity amalgamation of the sound of music and Bob Dylan with skinny trousers, curtain print fabrics, and sheepskin collared jackets.

Karen Walker is so on the money with her direction. The sunglasses range incorporates old favourites along with a good splash of round framed shapes a la John Lennon.

Not sure about the big sheepskin suitcase one of the girls was carrying...

I'm sure Heathermary Jackson must know what she's doing.

The clothes will be in stores in August.

The hair was simple. A messy textured ponytail. When I asked lead stylist Rolando Beauchamp about the hair he was quite concise. JBF hair (stands for just been f*#ed) pulled back tight at the sides into a messy ponytail so as to allow the red lip to shine and pop. It was all about the makeup.

Whodunnit?

Rachel Antinoff dunnit.

One of the coolest fashion installations yet, was the showing for new label Four. Set in a downtown apartment, the models didn’t parade on a catwalk, nor did they stand on a podium as is so often the case.

The models, dressed and tressed, were part of an elaborate play that had them acting out small scenes in a murder mystery while the guests walked through and interacted with the scene.

There was a cardboard cutout dog, a girl murdered with flaming red hair flowing and silhouetted on the floor with white tape. A girl at a desk with an old fashioned typewriter, even in the bathroom a model stood, beautifully attired and quite engaging.

Jenny Balding was in charge of the hair for Redken and Cutler. She set the hair curling irons, then pinned it up into a faux bob with a sweeping wave at the front.

Thanks DimitySO

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK DAY 3

REDBULL TAKES YOU BACKSTAGE:

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK A/W 10 FEBRUARY 2010.

Day 3

I’m at this show, and they bring out a leopard.

And give it a piece of steak (not that it looked hungry).

Then they put it straight back in the cage. I say cage, but it was more like an oversized cat carrier.

All the while, this girl sits on a broken piece of concrete on what looked like a film set and looked all scared and sexy and coy and dusky maiden.

It's cool though, we were totally safe behind the velvet rope. That cat was not going to cross the velvet rope. You just don't do that.

The only show I managed today was Generra, where I got to work with some pretty exciting new technology in hair extensions.

The lead stylist was Peter Grey whom I have had the pleasure of working with a couple of times before and the look was very 90’s grunge. Quite street style crossed with girl X (which I think is a NYC term for it girl). The girls’ hair was parted on one side and pulled back sleek and clean into a pony tail on the opposite side to give the effect of being undercut or shaved off. Then the hair that was left out was set on large curling irons (yes, we even used the Kavanagh 1.5” iron) and lots and lots of Redken Workforce 09. Then, a new technology in Hair extensions was used to add volume and length. Easiwefts, by Easihair are human hair extensions on a sticky backing tape that can be attached into the hair in such a way as to last up to 6 weeks. They can also be easily removed by spraying an alcohol based removal spray on and they simply slide out ready for re-use…

No lumps! And when it comes to extensions no lumps is not a phrase that we ever get to use.

Then the hair was straightend atr the ends and some Redken Glass run through to give it a worn in feel.

The boy’s hair was tough. Real tough. Think Steve Mcquuen in the Great Escape. Slicked back with lots of Redken Touch Control Mousse (and I mean lots! Like about the size of three oranges in your hand lots!) and then loosened up with the fingers, it looked as though the boys had been sweating and fighting and pushing their hair off their face. Well, apart from the fact they were all really skinny and beautiful and didn’t look like they’d had a fight in their lives.

However, it was good to see men looking like men.

A big shout out to my mate Sarah Illingworth who got over to Gwen Stefani’s show LAMB. I unfortunately was busy with the fat leopard but from her photos the hair looks super cool. In fact, probably cool enough to get behind the velvet rope where the fat leopard dwells. At Gwen’s show was Kelly Osborne looking like she’s feeding her pet glove a nice drink of whiskey and milk. Kelly’s looking pretty good in platinum blonde. And so is Gwen. The focus however, should be on the model’s clothes and the hair.

The models all wore Betty Page style waves with heavy blunt fringes above the eyebrows. This look can easily be re-created by sectioning the hair into four quarters with vertical partings all coming from the highest point of the head. Then, in each section, starting at the bottom, take a horizontal parting about 1.5” deep and comb it back away from your face. Spray it liberally with Redken Workforce 09. Give it a half a twist and then spiral wind it round a small-barreled curling tong (I know, why don’t you use a Kavanagh .75” tong?). Clip it with a dinky and let it cool while you repeat the same technique on the next section above. Do each section in each of the four quadrants and once it’s cooled, give it a good brush through with a Mason Pearson type brush.

My computer is remarkably sluggish. I am transferring 7071 photos to my hard drive as I write this so I can free up some space. Good news though, the buttons are all working fine… I’ll just go play some solitaire while the remaining 2000 odd photos transfer then I can upload this story.

It’s 2 am…

One game of solitaire and there’s a little over 1000 photos left to transfer… uh oh, it’s started going backwards! Oh man… my computer sucks.

mmm… sleep…

Thanks DimitySO

Redbull Takes you Backstage NYFW A/W 2010 day 2

REDBULL TAKES YOU BACKSTAGE:

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK A/W 10 FEBRUARY 2010.

Day 2

So I’m in New York now. I still haven’t showered and my d and m buttons are still only working intermittently…

I had to go to New Jersey via san fransisco. My flight was delayed 8 hours. No surprise. I actually pumped my fist and whooped when they announced that we were actually taking off and we would be landing in Newark, New Jersey!

2 hours sleep, a 4 hour flight, and at 4-30 am local time we touched down on a fluffy white pillow like landscape. It looks pretty, sure, but man its brutal! Cold? Hell yeah it’s cold. So glad I brought my Yohji Yamamoto pants and huffer peacoat.

A half hour cab ride into manhattan and I was at my accomodation, rearing to go. Lucky I have friends here. Lucky they get up at 5-30am to let me in the door. Lucky I’m not the cab driver who got stuck in snow curbside after dropping me off.

First show is at 9am, it’s for a new label called the falls. The inspiration behind the collection is ‘borrowed from the boys’ and it’s a fluid mix of delicate knits, floaty pleats and chunky cardies circa 1992. A little grunge a little bit pretty girl. I can imagine Chloe Sevigny wearing these clothes. A lovely Irish cahp by the name of Leon Gorman is in charge of the hair for the Cutler team and Redken. It’s a really natural hair look inspired by Sienna Miller’s do at the Academy Awards last year. The hair is lightly backcombed and then brushed out to distress it a little before being loosely pulled back into two pony tails at the nape. Each of these is plaited, then wrapped around the head and pinned into place. A light spray with redken Workforce and Robert’s your mother’s brother.

Then we rushed uptown to the Altman Building to see Australian Haute Couture master, Toni Maticievski. Rodney Cutler is in charge of the hair and as always tries to extend Toni’s vision by pushing the boundaries with the hair. Toni would rather no hairdo and Rodney has managed to convince him to do a do. And do a do he does.

The hair is first flat ironed smooth and I’m happy to see a few Kavanagh irons around. Then it’s brushed into a high ponytail, twisted into a knot and folded and sprayed shiny with Redken Forceful 23. Rodney and his team then clip gold leaves into the hair with exposed bobby pins for a truly sparkly and simpy spectacular look that is both simple and striking.

But here’s the kicker… I got a call from TVNZ asking where my pics were. I was still at the second show shooting the pics for the spot. They tell me that my live cross is two hours earlier than I anticipated.

I shoot madly, taking pictures and asking questions. Jump in a cab, fang downtown, plug in the camera and start downloading pictures and emailing frantically at the same time.

I empty my pockets. My wallet is not with me. I search. No, my wallet is not with me…

Panic sets in. I’m trying to work and call the credit card control centre to cancel my credit card and email the taxi company to see if I left my wallet in the cab, but they won’t take calls and it costs 19.95 to place a lost and found on their website. Ok, but I don’t have a credit card coz it’s in my lost wallet…

And I get an email. From a hero. He’s got my wallet and he wants to give it back…

It’s a sign. The world is full of good people. Thank you.

Thanks DimitySO

Redbull Takes you Backstage NYFW A/W 2010

REDBULL TAKES YOU BACKSTAGE:

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK A/W 10 FEBRUARY 2010.

Day 1

A massive snowstorm has hit the east coast of the USA shutting down almost all of the ajor airports and preventing flights fro landing.

The d and the m button on my laptop are only working intermittently.

I arrived in LAX from New Zealand to discover that y connecting flight to NYC has been cancelled and the next available flight is the next morning at 6.16am. So I call some friends, and have them pick me up. No worries, I’ve allowed a day contingency so it’s a nice surprise and a great opportunity to catch up with them. At their place I realise that I don’t have any luggage and I’ve been wearing the same clothes now for around 40 hours…

My friends loan me a toothbrush but no underwear or socks.

I spend an hour on the phone to the airline after the internet tells that my 6.16am flight to NYC has now also been cancelled.

I can now get to Newark, New Jersey via San Fransisco. It’s not quite Manhattan, but it’s close, and the airport is open.

We go to great little Italian restaurant for dinner. There are a number of paparazzi sitting outside. They ignore us. Expected.

I sleep like a baby in my friend’s office and wake to shower and put the same clothes on again. I am starting to smell bad. Maybe I should have bought that shirt even though I didn’t reall like it…

My laptop freezes and doesn’t want to restart but with some gentle coersion and the threat of a hammer to the usb port it wakes up and the d and m buttons still only work intermittently. I’m going to get a new machine as soon as I get somewhere.

At LAX I discover my flight from San Fran to New Jersey is now delayed 6 hours. I ring my buddy in NYC. It’s a blizzard there. Shops are shut and nobody is out. I beg him to go to shows and take photos and also take photos of the street because I need to do a live cross to TVNZ and there needs to be pictures. Begging him I almost miss my flight to San Fran.

I get on my flight to San Fransisco, we taxi for takeoff, then we stop and the engines are turned off. According to the captain, they have stopped planes landing in San Fran because of the weather. Lucky y New Jersey flight is delayed. So now I am writing this as we sit on the tarmac with the engines off waiting for an hour til we can take off.

The d and m buttons still only work sometimes...

Uh Oh, hungry…

Oh look, a movie.

Thanks DimitySO