Backstage Beauty – From the Runway to the Red Carpet

During Spring 2011 NYC Fashion week, all eyes were on the catwalk as next Spring’s new trends, must haves, silhouettes, accessories, along with our most important accessory of all, hair, were steadily revealed. What we saw on the runway will now permeate the Red Carpets and later disseminate onto the streets. Asiance spoke to the hair experts behind the scenes who have tousled, teased, stripped, colored, and cut some of the most famous locks on the runway and red carpets from Hollywood to Paris.

Doug Macintosh, color director for John Sahag Workshop, has bleached, toned and colored the locks of top models and most recently the stars of ‘Wall Street, Money Never Sleeps’ with Shia LaBeouf, Renee Zellweger, Cary Mulligan, Abby Cornish on his client list. He has also innovated a very effective and beautiful technique for Asian hair which he calls ‘Color-Melting”. It’s especially great on long hair that goes below the shoulders. Three different formulations are used on the different target areas. The base is lightened very slightly while the shaft is lightened a bit more and the ends are lightened even further to create a subtle variation of tone along the length of the hair shaft with the goal of reaching a tea color which is trending very strongly right now. “Color Melting” gives a delicate yet modern edge to traditional dimensional hair color.

Shorter Asian hair is most beautiful with bold shape defining accents of color mimicking an anime or magna look. Highlighting violet or super red pieces to accent the shape of the cut and the face are really important for looking up to the minute. “For the runway what I’m predicting is a bit more highlighting, getting away from the monochromatic dull view. It’s a little lighter towards the ends that looks natural for that summer bleached look, a little more tone on tone dimensional color with browns mixed with caramels, a little brighter with highlights. Everything you see on the runway translates onto the street five years later. Lengths will be short hair and really long hair. Middle layered lengths will fall by the wayside. Big hair with body is making a comeback with big waves, not the 80s but more like the 90s. Hair has been so straight and flat for so long, people are putting more into it. I see that beachy, big curl just out of the ocean look coming through. People are using the rounded flat irons as curling irons these days to get those big waves. There’s also a big trend towards everything being healthy and good for your hair. We use Loreal’s INOA dye which is the first no ammonia coloring, has no smell, less chemicals, no burning sensation on the scalp. But what you see on runways and on celebrities doesn’t always translate to real life, people don’t realize that celebrities and models use tons of extensions, have stylists on hand, and in real life you can’t go from platinum to black all the time or else you’d go bald, and you have to consider your face shape, coloring and lifestyle when choosing the right look for you.” www.johnsahagworkshop.com

London based celebrity stylist Tara Smith has styled some of Hollywood’s elite on the red carpet and on the set, including Lucy Liu, Demi Moore, Rachel Weisz, Rosario Dawson, Diane Lane, as well as contributed to editorial spreads for Elle, Harpers Bazaar, and Vogue. Seeing that there was a void in the market, this year she launched her namesake hair care line in Duane Reade which features chemical free, non carcinogenic, all natural, 100% vegan shampoos and styling products at mass market prices that are on par with salon products at five times the price. Her clients are consistently in the public’s eye where her styles are viewed by millions of people and perhaps copied by thousands. She’s on top of the trends that will translate from the runway to the streets. “I see the grungy look, gelled at the top and drier on the ends, coming down the runway and will make a statement with really polished makeup or the other way around with grunge makeup and polished hair. Do not do the 2 together otherwise you will just look a bit dirty. I think one of the styles that will be big is that textured and undone ponytail that’s still sophisticated that’s off to the side where you can actually see the hair. Where you place it is very important. It’s very young and fresh looking. Also, big hair but natural looking like your fingers have gone through it. It doesn’t have to be so set, it has to have movement in it. The short hair is still in but it will have texture to it – cropped styles and piecey bangs above the eyebrows which creates a different face shape and it will come to a point in the middle. Cuts with sweeping bangs could be rolled up into a 50s roll. A lot of updos with the bun and the top knot will be placed on different parts of the head and can be as big as you want. Braids that are braided into the scalp like a snake will be coming down the catwalk. With the color, I think a lot of the blondes may decide to go to the strawberry blonde and chocolate hues and platinum blondes may go more towards fire engine red like Rihanna, but that you can only do if you have more of an edgy haircut. I think musicians like Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna can be more daring with their cuts rather than actresses because they play themselves where as actresses always have to prepare for different roles, and you also have the publicists to deal with, which has been the bane of my existence.” www.tarasmith.com