Cool, current, connoisseurs of a camera angle… when we were planning our April shoot centred around ‘gram worthy colour, the Wella Professionals Passionistas were the only port of call. Armed with Zoë Irwin’s menu utilising the latest Illumina Color innovations, this trio put their stamp on blonde. We took five on-set to chat with the glazing squad!
Thomas Frear
@thomasfrearhair
I LOVE BEING A PASSIONISTA BECAUSE… Oh my goodness, everything. It’s just been such an incredible experience to meet so many people who are like-minded. I’m around so many creative individuals that have such a distinctive mindset of how they want to do things and how they feel about different trends, hair, fashions, cultures. It’s awesome.
APPS TO SWEAR BY… I love Boomerang! I feel very sassy! I love Snow, it’s really cool.
MY SOCIAL MEDIA RULE TO LIVE BY… Don’t think about it too much. As long as you’re producing things you like to produce, do that. Don’t feel pressured to churn out everything. And take a break!
WHAT I’VE LEARNT FROM THIS PROJECT… Is to bring my own style through. Zoë’s taught me to remix things and put my own spin on them.
MY ULTIMATE FILTERLESS BLONDE… It’s got to be Gaga!
Tom Badger
@tombadgerhair
YOU’LL FIND ME AT… Mark Jeffs Hair in Lincoln.
I LOVE BEING A PASSIONISTA BECAUSE… of the amazing opportunities that are given to us in all aspects of hairdressing! Whether that’s doing hair or giving us opportunities to network and get more experience we probably wouldn’t have had otherwise.
APPS TO SWEAR BY… I really love Unfold. I love the effects. When you’re cropping a picture you can add a paper effect. And I can get artistic with Stories and take my audience on a journey with me.
MY SOCIAL MEDIA RULE TO LIVE BY… Be honest and kind. Always be genuine.
WHAT I’VE LEARNT FROM THIS PROJECT… Take every opportunity possible, make it work, put yourself out there!
MY ULTIMATE FILTERLESS BLONDE… Carrie Bradshaw.
Katie Ottolangui
@katieotto______
YOU’LL FIND ME AT… Flint Hair, Norwich.
I LOVE BEING A PASSIONISTA BECAUSE… It gives me opportunities, to be more creative, to meet lots of different people from different places, and I’m learning lots of different things that I’ve always wanted to do in my career so this is the best thing ever!
APPS TO SWEAR BY… Snow and VSCO.
MY SOCIAL MEDIA RULE TO LIVE BY… If you’re going to post a hair image, it’s got to be strong. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a strong colour or cut, but it’s got to be strong. It’s got to make the point you’re trying to get across.
WHAT I’VE LEARNT FROM THIS PROJECT… To think on your feet and to think about what’s in front of you. I’m in situations where you can’t really plan too far ahead, because until the model is in front of you, you don’t know what you’re going to do, so just keep open-minded and focus on what’s there.
MY ULTIMATE FILTERLESS BLONDE… Michelle Williams. She always has a scalp bleach and it just looks effortless and cool.
Zoë Irwin on… curating the perfect Instagram feed
“I swear by the photo app Snow, which has so many features on it. I tend to work with different filters from it to help curate whatever “world” I’m within. So I can add a soft warmth, I can give something a very 90s feel by adding an old style VHS feel, it’s endless and really worth spending time with. I also love VSCO. I spend a lot of time with beauty and fashion bloggers and Instagram influencers and this is one they all use! The reason that it’s so good is that you can find a filter and customise it in lots of different ways, and play with the saturation. When you find ‘The One’ that you feel represents you, if you put that on all of your images, then your Instagram feed is a flow and is somehow more pleasing to the eye. I’ve been taught the ultimate importance of that by the beauty influencers, how you can make something quite simple, fit in with your brand.
“I think the most important one to me is actually Mosaic, which is a planner. My Instagram flows in colours – I will have a blue story going into a pink story, so in my last two images of blue it will have a tiny bit of pink when you really look at it. I get an awful lot of jobs almost because people like the feel of it, and everything I’m doing is planned. I might play with 10 different images on Mosaic before I’ve decided what I’m going to drop the next morning. I used to have to drop in an image, have a look at it and quickly delete it if I thought it didn’t work. You can also remove images that you’ve placed before and then see what effect that has.”
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