To my regular blog readers, apologies for my absence! In the last few weeks I have been to Canada, Rome, Paris and Brazil – and now I am in Argentina. I am on a music promo and have worked many evenings during my normal blog-writing hour!
The world has been brought to a standstill air-wise by the volcanic ash storm, as we know, and it certainly turned my little hair world upside down a few weeks ago too.
The main act for the SALON SMART weekend was stuck in America: Mr Robert Lobetta – legendary hair man/god/guru.
And so I was asked to step in and do the show – a 90-minute talk followed by a 45-minute hair styling show. Well, for those of you not working in the hair world, this is the equivalent of the audience turning up to see Madonna only to find an X Factor finalist on the stage! I mean this man is a walking, talking genius!
Three days to go and I found myself making apologetic phone calls to the hen party peeps that I was meant to be spending a classy debauched weekend with, and instead sitting for four hours in the Hoxton Hotel (great place to spend four hours, fyi) with the calm, serene Joanna Andersen from Creative HEAD magazine, putting together a presentation on salon business.
In a diva-like moment I insisted on a top-class assistant team, who were to prep the models as I stood in front of the 200-plus crowd. In my many hair years I have learnt one huge fact: you are only ever as good as the team you have around you. And so Skyler, Chris Appleton and Zlata Jasenc were summoned.
For the hair part of the show (it’s amazing how much calmer I felt with a head of hair in front of me!) I took catwalk looks from S/S 10 and A/W 10 and styled them out on stage. They are some of my favourite looks, so in my next post I am going to run through them with a How-To.
The audience was made up of people with great businesses and also hairdressers who have certainly inspired me over the years. I like to think that in my X Factor moment I turned out as a Susan Boyle (albeit dressed in Comme des Garcons!).
Thank you to everyone for being a wonderful audience and for a general lack of cabbage throwing!

In the last six weeks I have tended the locks of Pixie Lott, Leona Lewis and Kimberly Walsh. I have also, of course, been with other artists and styled the hair of models on shoots, but these three women are the crucial factor to me now, having been befriended on the Facebook pages of my nieces and nephews and god-daughter.
It would appear they have dubbed me “the cool aunty”. This has led to me being updated with snap-shots of their lives, and this, in turn, has made me reconsider my own style.
On a birthday shopping trip with my 12-year-old super-cool god-daughter to TopShop I realised in horror that many of the clothes I was buying for her were size 6 versions of items in my own wardrobe!
This led to me making the change to pencil skirts and shirts and, on a recent shopping trip, to buying Comme des Garcons and Maison Martin Margiela, whereas before I headed to Marc Jacobs and Luella.
Mainly it has led me to notice the trends kids pick up on, and even wonder where some of them have come from.
My god-daughter has taken to parting her hair incredibly low on one side (an inch above her ear,) with a kind of super-sweep long fringe that she peeps out beneath with her head tilted to one side; meanwhile, two of my nephews look like they have walked through a wind tunnel backwards. Not that I would be so “un-hip” as to comment. I just wonder where the two trends came from?
Wind effects are not new to the catwalk (I was at a McQueen show where it was a main feature) but I have never seen hair like this!
I think it may have been a trend that got exaggerated – I noticed it first among the Public School tribe.
Of course, as I can help out with products to keep these styles in place, this means that I am warmly greeted on family visits as I arrive armed with a bag full of mousse, gel, hairspray and flat.
I am sure I will go back to being un-cool in time, but right now I am enjoying “my moment”.

If you can’t see the above video, please click here
James White tracked me down on Facebook and sent me this video of a blo-out. I was touched! I’m all for a good tutoria ! And sitting in my hotel room in Brussels (my fourth city this week) it was wondrous to know that I had a regular blog reader!
Instantly flattered, I watched the YouTube clip, and it’s really good! I think some ladies would find it really useful and it’s an easy way to learn a blo out. The hairstylist in me would tease it out a bit when taking out the sections, and I would brush it with a Mason Pearson at the end.
Thank you James!

One of the best things about being a session stylist is the amazing people that I get to work with. I thought it would be interesting to feature a few of my friends, and share with you their inspirations and thoughts.
James Molloy and I work together constantly, having met many years ago backstage. He has been a MAC senior artist for over six years and helps head up their education and training team, as well as keeping busy with edtorial, celebrity and advertising. 
We have similar backgrounds, having both worked for many years in Milan, New York, Paris and London on the shows, and I also have had a close relationship with MAC. Seasonally after the shows MAC do a presentation day for all the beauty press and I have been responsible for the hair looks on these days. Now we also work as a team with celebrity clients getting them ready for red carpet events and going on tour with them. We have a lot of fun as well!
I love picking James’ brains about the make-up side of the shows and what he’s seen coming up for the next season.  With 21 shows under his belt for AW/10 alone, including Chloe, Vivienne Westwood, Richard Nicoll and Sonia Rykiel, I’ve taken advantage of our 10-day promo trip together to get his view on all things make-up!

Liner Lover
When I started out as a make-up artist there were three things I felt I should master as soon as possible: the red lip, the smoky eye and the perfect black eye liner.
Liner, for me, is the ultimate classic eye make-up. It can be playfully kicked up at the corners, worn-in and sexy, or straight and tough-looking, but it always makes a statement about the wearer. Getting your liner right, however, is a whole other subject as many of my girlfriends will agree. Here are my top tips and products to help you get the liner you want.

1. Make sure that your liner brush is in good condition; you won’t get a sharp line if your brush bristles are bent.
2. Tip your head backwards when looking in the mirror. This will expose your eye lid and make it easier to draw your line.
3. Choose your texture. Some people feel more comfortable with a gel or a liquid but don’t be scared to map out your liner in pencil first.
4. Keep some cotton buds handy. I love using the Muji mini cotton buds for correcting any mistakes. They are really precise and can sharpen the edge of liner that’s started to get out of control.
5. For a totally jet black lash line, use an eye kohl on the upper rim of your eye lid. MAC’s Graphblack is perfect for this as it stays put for hours.
6. I love Elizabeth Arden’s smoky eye pencil in black as it’s really soft but dry so won’t smudge too much; it’s great for sketching out a rough line.
7. I’m really into using my Guerlain liquid liner at the moment as it has the perfect brush for creating a super-fine liner that’s not too over powering.
8. To make your liner really stand out set it against a beautifully creamy base.

My liner inspirations …

This is still a real liner moment for me, courtesy of Charlotte Tilbury for Louis Vuitton.

Anita Eckberg in La Dolce Vita – this liner is referenced so much backstage at the shows and I love the strength of the angle.

No season goes by at the shows without many variations on the black liner and this season didn’t fail. My favourite looks were Blumarine, who had a take on the Fierce Fellini flick of La Dolce Vita fame; and Jeremy Scott, where Val Garland created a beautifully broken 60′s eye inspired by Julie Anne Moore in A Single Man.

Blumarine – A softer take on a sharp shape. To get this black coffee eye, start with a black eye kohl inside the waterline then shape your flicks using a black gel liner and an angled brush. Soften the whole look by blending a rich brown shadow over the liner.

Jeremy Scott – This look starts with a classic 50′s flick in a liquid line, with the rest of the lines following this as a guide. Use a pencil first to get your outline then, when your happy with the shape, go over it with a liquid or gel liner.

Images taken from the German Hairdressing Awards

http://www.ichwerdeeinberliner.com/
I find it incredibly interesting how there is a site that helps you to blend into Germany using your hair! Does that really mean that if I came here as a working stylist with a tousled beachy bob I would not gain respect? Actually, I think I would change my image to work here. In the words of Jerry Devout, “You’ve got to fake it to make it!”

You know those confused, dark-haired girls who look, to the uninformed observer, like they have had a rather unfortunate encounter with a similarly confused, and possibly drunk hairdresser? Why is their hair longer at the front than the back? Why has it been shaved on the left side but left shoulder-length on the right side? What’s with all this asymmetry? And more to the point, did she actually pay for this?
Not so fast, Auslander! What you might think is the result of being dragged through a hedge backwards by Edward Scissorhands is actually a post-modern deconstruction of the very concept of a haircut – a statement so radical that it shakes the very foundations of human grooming. It’s Existentialism in a haircut. Also it’s €10 a snip. This might be 10 too much for what is essentially an accident, and clients might be tempted to do it themselves at home. Just make sure that they use the Existentialist scissors (like Occam’s razor, but without the logic bit), or failing that, some seriously ironic clippers.

taken from http://www.ichwerdeeinberliner.com/

So here I am in Germany for a week of work with a music artist. What have I noticed?

I am intrigued by the space and design here in Hamburg – the amazing buildings and architectural style. And, equally, by the lack of floaty, beachy-soft hair that I am so used to looking at back home in East London.
Sitting in my hotel room I have decided to investigate blogs on German hairstyling, and have taken this piece from a blog that describes post-modern hair:

The older women (50-plus) have the strongest of short looks. It must be all about the cut and less of the blo-dry.

 taken from http://www.ichwerdeeinberliner.com/

But in the last week I have seen haircuts that have made me do a double take; these women look strong and have an untouchable glamour

Are we influenced so much by the architecture around us? Hamburg feels a million miles away from London in terms of design, and just as far from the hair trends that I quote on regularly.

Red, red hair… Ellen Burney is my colour muse. I may have the hunch, but she makes it real – she’s like a style endorsor for me. We have a colour relationship that has fluttered along with many a shade romance. We have happily been everything from a soft blonde to a bleachy mussed-up, and all the way through to a Gothy matt-brown. Most of our looks have been written up and documented for Elle and her blog http://vagabondiana.blogspot.com/.

Recently, we have been playing with tones of orange and red. We swoon over images from Lula magazine www.lulamag.com/, where she is now contributing editor, and from a zillion fashion images – but mostly of Karen Elson. 
So for me, living as I do in a half hair world (advising stylists what trends they should embrace) and half fashion beauty world, deciding on which shade of red hair colour is a bit like choosing a red lipstick. There are so many tones! There are so many methods!

My final choice for Ellen is a blend of colours: a permanent colour with a vegetable glaze. After the permanent (I’m happily floating through Wella Professional’s Koleston range), I mix up a vegetable tone – Ellen and I are using different tone on tones over the top when she feels like changing hues. I’m leaving her with a bag of vegetable colours so she can just be who she feels…
Maybe these are broken colour rules but it’s working for us. After all, doesn’t a woman have many different personalities? I am sure she has many a different red inside her, too!
 Anyway, if I were at a salon I would be making up a red fashion board right now! Using beautiful images of redheads! Ellen NEVER gets it wrong!

So the celebration of hair roots is far from ending, and how happy am I? I spotted some pictures of Sienna Miller last week and if I am not mistaken, she has had her roots toned down to give her that grown-out rooty colour. I think it’s way more edgy than her normal beautiful nude/ beige lights (equally cute, I just love this more right now).
A year ago, when I was at Hari’s, I launched a colour menu featuring fashion techniques, and one of those was called “Cobaine chic” – it was featured in Vogue in October. I know the Hershesons also have a rooty technique that is loved by many.
My main inspiration at the time was from a 1996 shoot by Juergen Teller of one of my all-time favourite models, Annie Morton.
My other inspiration was of course the legendary Kurt Cobain. To me, the root god. As I was launching the look for a tres chic salon in Chelsea, I called it Cobain Chic (not wishing the name to put off the clients!).
Anyway, I spent the afternoon with Jemima French of Frost French fame, and I coloured her hair with this technique. I back-comb the sections and use three shades of colour in each meche, going from a light blonde tint to a super lightener. I then wash it through with an ashy tone. It suits Jemima’s strong bob and great clothes.
Cobain Chic is a trend that’s here for a least another season, and I think it’s a great way to give a modern edge to a client’s look.

Last night I watched this film, directed by Mika Ninagawa, a famous Japanese photographer who works in fashion and advertising and who is known for her incredible, bright images.
It blew me away with the sets and the costumes – wondrous.
Here are some of the stills and a little of Mika’s work

I’m often asked about celebrities – actresses, presenters, models and pop stars. Friends will ask, often while flicking through magazines or perhaps at a dinner party, “How do they look so good?” or, “Do they really look like that?”.
In the interest of finding out just what it is that gives that “wow” factor, I challenge you to live for a week like you are a celebrity. With the paps on your tail, waiting outside your home to get a photo of you on your way to the corner shop or when you go to a restaurant. I put it to you that based on this fact alone, your outfit choice would change. If you had Heat magazine quoting on your look, threatening to put you in the “ring of shame” or maybe rate your hairstyle or even feature you in “Who wore it best?”, would you really wear that dress you weren’t too sure about but threw on anyway? (Or is that just me?)
Beauty-wise and hair-wise, living like a celeb can do wonders for your look. As a hairstylist, to give advice on these very lines will mean you are giving a better service.
I decided to live a month like this. I am calling it “practise what you preach”. I am following every bit of advice and how-to quote that I give .

The women I meet who are in the public eye take so much care of themselves in every way. They are women who apply a hair mask three times a week and dry brush in the shower! Yes, they have people like me to help them get ready for a special occasion, but mostly they keep an amazing beauty regime.
After just one week my hair is super-soft! I am doing my final rinse with bottles of mineral water after applying a mask and after a night’s sleep with a treatment in my hair!
The thing that’s surprised me most is how much I have been amazed by the results! Of course we know these beauty regimes could work, but do we ever really keep them up?
As you swoon at Alexa’s glowing skin and wonder how models go from blonde to dark then back to blonde with shiny hair – remember this blog.
Now, I am no Alexa, but hopefully I will keep the Rehab Britney look safely at bay!

This week I met Cecile Cassel. I must admit I was very excited. A true French starlet. She did not disappoint!
Cecile was attending the Love Ball and I styled her hair in an un-done super-shiny chignon. She was dressed in Louis Vuitton, in the coolest dress and jacket.
Cecile was really relaxed and played French songs from her iPod as we helped get her ready for the night ahead. She was laughing and joking and was one of the nicest actresses I have ever met. I over-sprayed her hair to make it Gothic shiny and pinned it up in a random manner. She made it all seem so effortless to be that beautiful and looked so pretty.
J’adore Cecille Cassel!

I saw Alexa at the ELLE Style Awards. Her hair was dressed in a kinda half-up/half down, with just the right amount of height and a modern-day nod to the Sixties.
Alexa’s hair is done by George Northwood at Daniel Hersheson. I know that beauty editors and clients flock to him to get the famous “George Effect” and style advice. He has made this look his own and I think he is just brilliant. To come up with a style that is your signature piece and is loved by so many is a real achievement.
For me, “The Alexa” by George is “The Wedge” by Trevor Sorbie of our times.
As I write this, I can hear the uproar from hairdressers across the land! But to me, “The Alexa” is as big as many of the Vidal Sassoon cuts and has been worn by so many women in different versions.
“The Alexa” has the texture and length that sums up what women really want for their hair right now, and if I were heading up a salon I would hold my training evenings on this style for as long as it takes for my team to truly master it.
There are so many ways to get this style wrong.  As “un-done” as it looks, it is just as hard to master as the more technical “Wedge”.

I will not even try to explain it as “The Alexa” belongs to George. But the way the colour sits to give texture and a rooty look is as brilliant as the cut.
Often in salons lots of time is spent achieving the perfect blonde highlights – all creamy and right to the root – but no time is spent on how to do un-done hair. And yet, in my experience, it is often just as difficult for stylists to create a look that is uncontrived.
This is the reason why George Northwood probably has a waiting list stretching out till next Christmas!
George, I salute you! You are a true inspiration as a stylist.

Ohhh my god, where do I start?!
Maybe at the beginning of my day…
My ELLE day starts with a visit to  Miss Lisa Snowdon, where we decide to do a look from the show by Peter Pilotto, as she’s going to be wearing one of his dresses – we’d found it on a girlie shopping trip to Liberty. It’s textured hair that I wrap around pins in a bric-brac style, and then pin in an up-do.
I then dash to the Haymarket Hotel to tend to the locks of Lorraine Candy, a wonderful client and the editor of ELLE. She is wearing an incredible Alexander McQueen dress that simply mustn’t be upstaged by her hair, so I choose to do a textured side twist. I adore Lorraine. She is funny and clever and looks so beautiful in a gown that I could only dream to wear!
Time then for a quick turnaround as I’m attending the awards too, thanks to an invite from Lorraine. Lucky me!
With a David Seeta dress on, and a smokey eye courtesy of Mss Snowdon, I walk into the Grand Connaught Rooms to witness this massive awards do.
The tables are dressed in the most amazing way, with glass domes that hold butterflies and birds made of ELLE magazine pages. The menus are in snow-filled domes.
I sit on a table with Danni Minogue, George Lamb with Lisa – and just six feet away from Colin Firth. And Nicholas Hoult OMG!!!
Someone asked me the other day how being a hairstylist had changed my life. Well, if I had a night to sum it all up, this would surely be it.
The night before I had sat at home watching the Baftas, and here I am now, not 24 hours later, in the same room as incredible actors and musicians and woman and men of power.
Give me a day at a school leavers’ convention and I could give you a hundred reasons to be a hairstylist. The happy times it gives me, the people I get to meet and the drive and ambition it has always filled me with.
Now, let’s talk about the Olsen twins!
So in they walk to the reception before the awards. Maybe it’s the complete obsession I have with their dress sense and of course their hair, but I was completely floored! I wanted to jump up and down like a Beatles fan screaming at Paul McCartney (though of course completely inappropriate behaviour that would have led to me being thrown out!). They have JUST the right amount of re-growth on a blonde highlight and the MOST perfect textured hair.
They are soooooooo cool, with huge eyes and an aura that screams starlet!
Also up for hair mention:
Alexa Chung, of course, who’s tended to by the adorable George from Hershesons.
Carey Mulligan, who won a Bafta the night before, has the coolest blonde pixie cut that is a massive trend in the making.
Naomi Campbell also looked incredible in a McQueen dress and super-fine styling.
Henry Holland and Lorraine hosted the night. It was so much fun!

If you can’t see the video clip above, please click here
I am trying desperately to get over my love of this hair – but, oh, the bounce, the fringes, that youthful, sexy, clean texture! I throw myself into images of today’s styles that may nod in this direction but more often are so far removed and modern in a whole new way of texture and shape.

I was so doing so well. 15 days in Sixties hair rehab! I went cold turkey on height and backcombing. I had cleansed my round bristle brushes and withdrawn from my “kitten” brush. Then my dealer returned, with her Sixties hair crack… On a breezy Sunday morning she sent me this…

It was like a whole new supply! It was at this point I realised that not only had I just spent too much time on my boxed set of ‘The Wire’ but that as far as this addiction goes, I am beyond redemption.

This is like an insight into the wonderful world of Terry Richardson, the photographer. I have loved his work for so long and buy all his books. Keep it bookmarked – it will make you smile, giggle and gasp! I relish this daily!

If you can’t see the video clip above, click here

I thought that I would include a how-to for Katherine’s hair in Popstar to Opera Star, Week 3, just because I had some hairstylists mention that they liked the last one and found it useful. If you go to the end of the youtube clip you’ll see Katherine on the judging panel.

1) Blow-dry with a large, real-bristle brush; I use Acca Kappa (you can get them from Amazon). Apply a volumising product to the roots and a cream or leave-in conditioner on the ends. This will give tons of body but also keep the ends nice and smooth.

2) When you blow-dry, take sections from the nape of the neck and work upwards towards the crown of the head. Smooth the hair by pointing the nozzle down the hair shaft and blast the underside of the brush at the roots to get maximum lift. After each section is dry, pin up with a long sectioning clip. This part is essential as it “sets” in the volume.

3) Separate the top section from the recession line, or take from directly above the corner of the eyebrows and make two partings that reach just above the crown of the head. Back-comb this section lightly at the roots and then carefully smooth the section from the front. Pin just under the crown.

4) Working from the nape of the neck, softly tease and back-comb the hair, section by section, and then brush through with a Mason and Pearson brush.

5) Use the tail end of a tail comb to lift the top to the desired height and mist with hairspray to give a soft shine and hold. I then take a tiny piece from the edge of each side of the top section and wrap one over the other to make the crown pretty!

6) This can be as big or smooth as you wish. I always send my clients home with a tail comb and a handbag-size hairspray and teach them how to comb this through and spray it .

7) I hope you like!

This hair is from the s/s 2010 Miu Miu show, and I think we’re going to see it in so many long and short versions throughout the season.
It might seem a little late for me to express such fondness for this style as the a/w shows are now on. But so many women are asking me how it can be achieved that I thought I would include it here.
It was done by the master genius, Guido.
Now that hair pieces can be found in TopShop and Dorothy Perkins, the look can be copied more easily.
But I think salons could do well by offering a service to customise hair pieces. I’m going to sew a few and include a how-to on my blog… Until then, here are my favourite summer braids!

I thought I would share some pictures with you. I was once told by the great  Gaynor Hodge on a presenters course that to keep your mind alive you should mix up what you see each day. So, for example, if you walk to work you should take a different route each time. When I go on holiday or work away, I find taking pictures of things I love is a great reminder of home and seems to help me at times when I need inspiration – and it can be anything from shop signs to grafitti. Anyway, here are some of mine from Mexico…

I arrived back from Mexico and one of my clients, Katherine Jenkins, was working on the new TV show ‘Pop Star to Opera Star’. I arrived on Friday at the ITV studios on the South Bank, and Katherine and I went through ideas for her hair that night – but when I took a look at the dress, there was nothing “soft tong with a tousle” about it at all! It was full-length, yellow and the diamonds that she was planning to wear with it spelled “Major Glamour”.  So, I chose to do a look that I adore on her and have done versions of for things like Proms in the Park.
I thought I would write up the how-to because hairdressers ask me how to do this all the time when I am training. It seems to scare some stylists.
When I was at Headmasters I christened this “Starlet Siren” and I think it kinda sums it up. Here goes:
 
1) I blow-dry after applying Sebastian Mousse Forte (for which I am having the flushes of a new product romance) and Shu Uemura Essence Absolue on the ends. I use a big round bristle brush for this.

2) From the nape of the neck, tong with WAM tongs (the only ones I find that do this really well). Hold the tong horizontally and then slide out the tong and clip straight up.
3) Work in lines across and up the head every two inches.
4) Leave to cool and mist with spray (I use Silvikrin Hydrostyle).
5)  Take out the clips and brush through with a Mason Pearson and use the palm of your hand to push in crests.
6) Take a big blusher brush and spray it with hairspray then use over the top section to gloss the hair and smooth flyaways.
7) Sit back, satisfied there’s more to you than a paddle brush blow-dry!


So! After a busy year, I’ve been on a five-week break. (This part whispered guiltily… )Yes, I missed the snow!

Off I went to Mexico, with a rucksack. Such a traveller! I flew from town to city to beach and enjoyed five long weeks of colour saturation and texture overload… It was heaven.

I also had a real hair re-think – as you do when you’ve read all your magazines and finished your seventh novel and start wondering what happened to this particular character, only to realise they belonged to the book before last!

Anyhow, I have become inspired by a movie that I saw on the flight out: Julie and Julia. If you haven’t seen the movie, the character chooses to learn a recipe a day, cook it and write a blog all about it. This led me on my holiday to think about my own career and decide that this will be my Julie and Julia year! Armed with an ever-ready client – a doll’s head on a stand in my lounge (boyfriend not too happy as it doesn’t sit well next to his Eames chairs!) – I intend this year to learn a new hairstyle every week.

This is more tricky than it seems, as my schedule is completely nuts. But to assist me I have purchased a pile of hair books and  I am going back to hair school, in the form of a theatre hair course, and to Central Saint Martins College of Art to study Trend…
Gosh, I feel liberated just writing it! Just like the movie!

So I shall keep a diary of all I learn and I will photos of my work (as long as you promise not to leave rude comments!)…
What do you think?