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GET THE LOOK – HAIR BARCODING FOR KWK BY KAY KWOK S/S24

GET THE LOOK – HAIR BARCODING FOR KWK BY KAY KWOK S/S24

GET THE LOOK – HAIR BARCODING FOR KWK BY KAY KWOK S/S24

The inside spin on session stylist Nick Irwin’s otherworldly look for the futuristic designer.

Kay Kwok is a Hong Kong fashion designer known for his futuristic and contemporary designs. He combines avant-garde fashion with digital influences to create an unconventional aesthetic, perfectly exampled by a 3D-printed custom-made art piece designed for Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour.

His first time working with Kay Kwok, this season Nick Irwin transported us to another planet with a futuristic hair look centred around the concept of hair barcoding. The idea behind the show was to tap into Kay’s references towards futurism, while also maintaining the individuality of each model. With this in mind, Nick and his team were able to craft an almost barcode-like effect using a gelled strip placed in certain areas of each model’s hair. 

The Session Label hero products

The Jelly
“We’ve set the hair with a great product called The Jelly, which gives you a glossy, almost plastic, futuristic feel with the finish. It’s a lightweight gel that you can comb and manipulate the hair with.”

The Coat
“The Coat is a super, super light shine spray. If you use lots of it and spray close to the head, it makes the hair super glossy. We’ve used that with a wide-tooth comb over the surface to a give an almost barcode-like feel to the hair.”

The Strong
“To make the hair hold in the area we’ve added the gel strip, we use The Strong – a super strong hold hairspray.” 

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GET THE LOOK – SPORTS LUXE AT CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS

GET THE LOOK – SPORTS LUXE AT CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS

GET THE LOOK: SPORTS LUXE

At the annual Central Saint Martins White Show, sports luxe styling reigned supreme. Hair lead Clare Hansford shares how she created the wonderful wet-look

BA Fashion students at Central Saint Martins delivered a high energy, high impact catwalk for the annual White Show in December. ‘Sport is our fashion’ was the brief for Clare Hansford of Headmasters, who led the L’Oréal Professionnel Paris hair team. Working with ID Artists and team members from Portfolio salons, collectively they created looks for 140 models with just three hours prep time.

Hair was treated to look sweaty and damp. Depending on what the model was wearing and the hair type, with varying levels of product to reflect how hair can look during sporting activities End results ranged from damp curls around the face to a soaking, wet look finish reminiscent of “playing squash for two hours,” Clare said. Forget your next gym class, this is all the sporting action you need!

As the theme was ‘fashion is our sport’ the hair was treated to look sweaty and damp. Clare and the team created a really high gloss, high shine for a really sweaty look, or something with less product that embraced natural hair at the back but with gel round the front for a glistening hair line. Depending on the model’s hair type and what would work best with the outfit, some had tendrils and waves clinging to the skin, and for others a very high ponytail or braids, but all had a high-shine, glistening ‘sweaty’ hairline.

The hair was prepped with a diluted mix of L’Oréal Professionnel Paris Tecni.ART Fix Max Gel and about a third of water for more pliability. This was great to work with on thicker hair, as made hair easier to work with while also being hydrating. For Afro models, Clare used L’Oréal Professionnel Paris Curl Expression Curls Reviver to detangle and hydrate without weighing down the hair. Finally, any fringes or ponytails were sprayed with a little L’Oréal Professionnel Paris Tecni.ART Fix Design gel spray for a glistening finish.

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