The Look: ‘Hybrid Warriors’

The hair look for the Haider Ackerman A/W ’11 show in Paris was literally out of this world as Eugene Souleiman, Global Creative Director, Wella Professionals, created an army of warrior like models.  “The look is both outer worldly and chic.  Haider Ackerman creates clothes for the connoisseur, he is all about precision and perfection, not softness, and I wanted to create a look that was strong, chic and very rich” said Eugene Souleiman.

“I wanted the girls to look like a hybrid of nature, as if they were from another planet.  So I created a hair look that morphed with the clothing to become part of the total look, almost as if it wasn’t hair but a warrior’s helmet; part of their battle dress.  There is also a reptilian element to the hair, like the beautiful armor of an insect’s shell” added Eugene Souleiman.

Eugene worked with Josh Wood, Global Creative Director for Color, Wella Professionals, to create petrol and metallic hued hair pieces, which were perfectly matched to the clothes, and then added these to the front of the hair to give a subtle color effect at the front which led to a hit of color at the back of the head where the colored piece was ironed completely flat to resemble a razor sharp sabre, adding to the overall warrior effect.  “The colored hair pieces resembled the texture of satin, where the color has a sheen rather than a shine.  Our task was not only to create color that complemented the fabric but also color with an inner depth” commented Josh Wood.

This is definitely an eye-catching look! To get your own futuristic look follow these top tips:

Start with freshly washed and conditioned hair, and apply Wella Professionals Velvet Amplifier to the hair and blow dry the hair in an upwards direction from the jaw line, away from the face, flattening the roots using a soft bristle round brush.

Create a inner circle parting on the crown of the head, around 25cm in diameter, leaving the remaining hairline loose. Tie the hair in the inner circle in to a tight ponytail and secure with elastic. Using a piece of round padding to the height of around 25cm, pull the ponytail through the centre of the padding and secure the padding in place using long hair pins. Part the pony tail in to four sections and tightly pull each section down over the padding and secure at the base with a hair pin then wrap the remaining hair around the base of the padding and again secure with hair pins.   Repeat for all four sections as this will hold the ‘padding bun’ in place securely.

Clip the loose front section of hair (just the section from eyebrow to eyebrow) out of the way.  Divide the remaining hair into three sections and pull each section up towards the top of the bun to create a ponytail and secure with elastic directly on the top of the bun.  Fold the remaining hair of the ponytail and secure against the front of the bun using hair pins.

If you are using a colored hair piece, unclip the front section of hair and glue in the colored piece (the hair piece must be straightened before putting in place).  If not, follow directions from now on… take the front section and brush through to ensure that it’s smooth and tie with an elastic at the top towards the back of the bun (this will cover the other ponytail elastic), make sure that you create tension as you pull the hair back, using Wella Professionals Stay Essential Finishing Spray – sprayed directly on to a soft bristle brush to help hold in place and create a sleek finish.  Saturate the remaining ponytail with Wella Professionals Super Set Finishing Spray, then using straightening irons, pull through the hair slowly to create a solid ‘blade’ shape at the back of the head.  Then using a large blusher brush with Wella Professionals Stay Essential Finishing Spray, brush over the head to get rid of any loose fly aways – the finished look should be absolutely smooth.

Would you dare to try out this look?

xox,

Andrea