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It’s no secret that the fluffy, far-away land of cinema, celebrity and Starbucks sugar-free, low-fat, iced coffee dictates much of our pop culture dialogue. Even in Australia, despite how far removed we are, our beauty narrative continues to rely on Hollywood and the celebrity culture it spawns. It’s Hollywood and LA that indeed school us on beauty trends; they do – we follow, with hair particularly following suit (or strand).
Having recently worked in the real La La land, super colourist Michael Kelly maintains it’s for good reason, and that LA is a cut – or colour – above the rest. “They use similar techniques to what we do here, but they’re elevated…big time,” notes Kelly. “But I think we’re close behind them. So it’s LA and then Sydney. And London is at the bottom of the list.”
Here, Kelly dishes the dirt on all the hairy happenings in Hollywood and beyond. California dreamin’.
THE LA LA lIFE
Lived in, gorgeous, sun-kissed and natural. There’s a few bespoke techniques that are kind of happening, like they love hairline balayage, which is a very specialised technique that not a lot of people can do beautifully. It’s basically when you paint bleach onto the baby hairs, watch it lift up, and then take it off at the exact time to make it look like children’s hair. That’s happening a lot. Every blonde client was having their hairline painted like that. It’s free hand; tapping the right pressure of bleach onto the very baby hairs.
THE RETURN OF THE CHUNKY FOIL
LA’s also got a lot of chunky and textured highlights, but it’s softened down with root shadows. There was heaps of really chunky highlights, but then they’re toned beautifully, so it looks soft, it looks beautiful. It blends. Textual highlighting strips, but softened beautifully.
THE TO TIP-OUT
There was lots of tipping-out, which is basically a take on balayage and highlights. Tipping-out is when you take a little bit of hair, we backcomb the base of it and then you put some foil on the tips, and then you paint your bleach, then close it up. So it’s like balayage in a packet. In between lowlights.
TAKE THE HIGH ROAD(LIGHT)
Heaps of highlights. Over there they call them ‘hair painters’, and each salon I went to, there was maybe two or three people who specialise in hair painting. But everyone was doing highlights. And tipping-out. So touching up the regrowth of the highlights, and then adding bits of balayage.
BAN THE BLOCK
Block colour is out, completely. Balayage – this trend that has developed over the past five or so years – it’s not going anywhere. Soft and natural. No one ever wants to go back to where they were after a week, you can see a line of regrowth. That’s not value for money.
A QUICKIE IS BEST
There’s lots of partial colouring going on. So they were coming in and just having their hairline refreshed, or maybe a few packets here, a few packets around the face and then maybe balayage at the end. And they left with a bright, fresh, creamy colour, but they were only with the colourist for like 20 minutes. So just getting coloured what you need to get coloured. I think in Australia there is this huge culture around, “I’m going to get my half head of highlights”. Now its more about looking at the hair and seeing what you need done in terms of continuity, saying, “Oh, you need a bit of this done, a bit of that done, ok done!” Completely bespoke. Anyone who tries to micromanage a consultation with me and say “Oh, I want a half head done,” I’m like just let me do what I think looks good!
A LONG TIME BETWEEN dRINKS (FOILS)
Another thing which is happening with hair colour is long appointments – as in you go four months without having anything done. You don’t come back in six to eight weeks, you go four or five months and then come back in. The way we colour hair now, it’s designed so that you can go a while without having to touch it up again. And that’s why you pay so much, you pay $500 but you get your hair done twice a year. People have heart attacks when I show them the bill but then I’m like, I won’t see you for another 6 months, literally.
YOUR CELEB CRUSH NO MORE
You can look to celebrities but don’t expect to get the same results. Celeb hair is highly curated hair that never has an opportunity to look flawed. With a team of hairstylists at hand, celebrities have all occasions covered. From looking casually done or having a runway ready ‘do, these celebs have hair extensions clipped, glued or sewn into the hair to double the density and add colours that would never naturally occur. It’s all smoke and mirrors and this should never be used as a literal reference, only an inspiration for interpretation If you see someone on the street that has gorgeous colour, ask them where they get their colour done.
