I Have Fine Hair And It Gets Greasy Fast, What Can Help?

Question:  Hey, I have fine hair and don’t always have time to shower in the morning so its gets greasy fast, what can help?

Answer: I can understand your frustration, there are many things you can try to help slow it down or completely eliminate your greasy hair.

These are some of the factors why hair can become greasy. A greasy scalp comes from overactive sebaceous glands. These glands, at the base of each hair strand, produce sebum, an oily secretion that normally keeps your scalp moisturized and makes your hair shiny. But certain factors can put sebaceous glands into overdrive. This could be due to the hormonal changes of puberty, pregnancy, or even menopause. Having high stress levels can also affect hormones and in turn this can add to the problem. Environmental factors such as air pollution and hot, humid weather can make a greasy scalp worse.

 Below are some suggestions on how to control greasy hair, some of them might not apply to you but some most definitely will.

 1. There’s a lot of controversy about how often you should wash your hair, some advice is every day, other advice is a few times a week, it is said that the more often you shampoo the more oil your scalp will produce, which Is true but if you use a shampoo that’s aimed just for greasy hair, it will gently wash away the excess oils. You will need to train your hair (so to speak) if your used to washing your hair every day, I personally think that’s too often, I understand that your hair can become very greasy that you need to wash it all the time, I would cut back to every other. It will take a while before your scalp will respond and reduce oil production, so just stick with it for a while.

 2. Don’t use too much shampoo and lather it up before putting it on your hair (don’t put it straight on your scalp)

 3. Leave your specially designed shampoo (for greasy hair) on your hair for around 3 minutes, this will help the shampoo maximize on what it’s supposed to do and that’s to remove the excess oils, for example If you only leave it on for 20-30 seconds, this won’t help control your greasy hair.

 4. You should limit the products you put into your hair. While it often enhances your hairdo, it may make your hair oilier and especially if you have already greasy hair, your hair will only become greasier. In many instances, greasy hair is a phase or comes and goes with hormone changes, and if you have greasy hair now, you won’t necessarily have greasy hair in a few years. If on a particular day your hair is more greasy than you would like and you don’t have time to wash it, then for example take your hair of your face into a ponytail or a hair-up just to detract from your greasy hair.

 5. If the ends of your hair are dry then only apply the shampoo to your scalp and carefully massage, then place a moisturizing conditioner only on the very ends of your hair.

 6. When you comb or brush, it carries oil in your scalp down the length of your hair. Comb or brush gently and as little as possible, unless of course the ends of your hair are very dry but still be careful because the more you brush the more oil you may release.

 7. Do not scrub your hair when you wash it. You may be tempted to rub your scalp harder but it’s one of the worse things you can do. The sebaceous glands in your scalp will go into over-drive and release the production of more oil. Gently lather in the shampoo with your fingertips.

 8. You could try talc powder to absorb some of the grease in between washes, just be careful not to use too much and also be aware that talc will be seen more easily if your hair is darker.

 9.  If home remedies don’t seem to help, consult your dermatologist. Sometimes an oily scalp is due to seborrheic dermatitis. This condition causes an oily scalp with white or yellow scales; it can also affect other parts of the body, such as the eyelids and behind the ears. Your doctor can recommend an over-the-counter medicated shampoo or prescribe a shampoo to control it.

 Experiment with different hairstyling products. Note the results after you use them. Notice if some products make your hair greasier than others and stop using them. Avoid the use of products that contain alcohol in them. These can be extremely drying to the scalp and it will make the problem worse.

 I hope that this has helped you!  Remember to be patient, this may be a process of elimination.

 Good luck

“This question was answered by Stuart Phillips on Yahoo answers UK”

Tweet This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Stumble This Post

The Weakest Link TV Show, Did Stuart Phillips Survive The Ann Attack?? – Blog 30

On March 23rd 2010 I flew to Scotland to take part in a special 10th year celebration of the Weakest Link. There were five special shows in one week, the hairdressing special was aired on the 11th August 2010 and was the third to be shown out of the five.

This has to be the most scariest TV moment to date, I’ve worked on many TV shows in the past and loved every minute of it, never nervous just excited but, there is something so different about the Weakest Link, firstly  you obviously need to answer as many questions correct as possible, then you have the competition of the other hairdressers, (you just don’t won’t your fellow hairdressers to beat you)  finally  you have the Ann attack, when you’re on the firing line can feel quite intimidating. Don’t get me wrong everyone that appears on that show is fully aware of Ann and how she can verbally tear you apart, the thing is, everyone thinks that they can protect themselves and handle it but when you’re in the studio standing up behind your podium and seeing all the TV cameras etc, reality kicks in and you think, why oh why but at that point it’s too late and the only way now is to soldier on, so let the battle commence!!!!

I’ll talk you through the day. I was flown to Scotland the evening  before the recording,  I used this time to read up on as much general knowledge as possible, I realize that there are millions of possible questions that Ann can ask but for me it was more an exercise of training my brain, this definitely gave me more confidence. I acquired these general knowledge questions  on the internet and printed up about 50 sheets of information, on history, geography and wildlife etc and just studied like crazy for a month before. The night before the show I stopped revising around 1am (was exhausted from studying) and fell asleep around 2am.

The next morning all nine of us (hairdressers) met outside the front of the hotel and was then picked up by coach, we were taken to the BBC studios. Although most of the hairdressers had a title, for example, “The Scottish hairdressing champion”, “World champion” etc, this was the first time I had met these guys, my title for the show was “The world’s most expensive hairdresser” and strangely enough there was only one of me there.

Once we arrived at the studios, we started to bond with each other almost straight away and everyone seemed to get on really well, what also helped was the fact that everyone was really nervous and probably we all made the extra effort to get on, the point is we all did. Then one at a time we were all interviewed, which lasted about 20 minutes each, at the interview they checked that our biogs were correct and if we had anything else to add. I personally think they were also checking to see that we had not gone crazy since the last time they saw us, in a way, psychoanalyzing us, which is fair enough considering  we were just about to be filmed in front of a potential 3 million audience.

When the interviews were finished we all had something to eat, next we got dressed in our favorite clothes we brought with and then the rehearsals began. We rehearsed for about two hours, the producers also gave us advice on how to speak to Ann, for example, not to get angry with her as that will make you come across stupid on TV, try to look like we were enjoying ourselves even if we weren’t, no swearing etc,  At 3pm we were escorted into the studio and we were told to stand behind our podiums. There was a little more practicing to do, for example, how ever easy this sounded were all asked to lift our score boards up at the same time, which sadly took us about 10 minutes of practice, there’s always one that get’s it wrong, wasn’t  me honestly!!

The next part was really weird, (just to let you know, we were not introduced to Ann earlier, this was done on purpose to build up the tension, like we needed that, lol) Ann walks in and turned to one of us and just stared, there was absolute silence, this made all of us fairly nervous, we all watched helplessly as Ann started to study us and then write her observations down, she spent about ten minutes staring and writing, she looked at me twice, that freaked me out a little, thinking that she was going to have a field day with me!!

Ann then walked away, one of the producers said out loud, “we are now doing this for real”  for me this was the most nerve-racking bit, the lights dimmed down, the theme music came on really loud, Ann walks in the room for the second time and started the show. It was really surreal, the whole day we were preparing for this and the month prior revising my general knowledge, all came down to this exact moment in time. I then gasped and thought get to grips sunshine, funny enough I then started to feel a whole lot better, the poor girl next to me Charley was actually shaking but there was nothing I could do to help, it was too late as the show was now under way.

Ann started in alphabetical order, the first to be asked a question was Charley, I was the 7th person, so far including myself we all answered our questions correct, then Tracy was next and got hers wrong, without sounding horrible, that must have made everyone feel good,  nobody wanted to be the first one to get voted off. The second round of questions came and again Tracy got it wrong. I’ll give you one guess who was voted off first!! When Tracy was told she was the weakest link and walked off, everyone felt relieved,  including me.

One by one people were voted off but I was still in the game, yippee.  Most of the hairdressers including me were verbally attacked by Ann, which was very funny, I even laughed when she attacked me, seriously it was very funny. At one stage Ann said to lovely Charley, “Charley, your blonde and a hairdresser, does that make you thick love” well I felt so sorry for Charley as she was such a nice girl, but it didn’t help when Ann asked her the next question, which I have to share with you, Ann said ”what’s seen in a children’s playground, it’s a long piece of wood where one child sits on one end and another child on the other end, when Charley went quiet I thought to myself, please answer this question please but she had a brain freeze, which I suppose is not that uncommon on this show, poor thing.

I must admit there was one question I was asked and because it was so simple I thought there had to be a catch so I asked Ann to repeat it, this is what I was asked” what whole number falls between 8 and 10″ and I asked Ann to repeat that, hahaha, I then laughed and of course said 9. There was no catch but your brain can play funny tricks on you, like doubting if the number 9 falls after 8, seriously you have to go on this show to see what I mean.

Well apart from almost slipping up on number 9 and never living it down, I answered 14 questions correct out of 15, not bad I suppose!

I’ll tell you one more thing before you watch the show, two of the other hairdressers ganged up on me as I was the strongest link three times, how dare they, haha.

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/user/Stuartphillipssalon

 

Tweet This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Stumble This Post

Time To Party!! Blog 29

The last few weeks I’ve been working so hard on various projects and haven’t found the time to party and socialise. That was until My friend Richard Austin Reece invited me to another great party hosted by the Button club and as you remember from my previous blogs, these parties are very good.

Richard explained that this party was going to have a theme; it was called “FALL OF ROME IMPERIAL BALL”, so I guessed that meant big time fancy dress. I’m not normally interested in these kinds of parties but this did sound  different, better than most others.

The day of the party I strolled down to Angel’s fancy dress to see what kind of costumes they had, I decided to go as a gladiator, and luckily enough Angels had a big choice of costumes, so I did a pick and mix and ended up buying around 8 separate pieces.

Originally my idea was to go with a friend and travel to the event by train, I assumed it would be a laugh dressed this way on the train. I met my friend Kerry Cooper around 7pm, we both got changed in the salon and because of the nature of the clothes (thick and heavy) we both started to sweat with-in minutes, (the temperature outside was around 30), so this made both of us think that we should catch a taxi rather than sweating on a train.

The photo bellow was taken in the salon just before Kerry and I jumped into the taxi. Check out the passers-by!!

With-in a few minutes of walking into the mansion, Kerry and I had our photo taken by OK! Magazine then started sipping champagne and began mingling with everyone.

Around 2am I went outside where all the photographers were congregating and had my photo taken with the lovely Kaja (Kaja owns the Button Club) in the amazing royal chairs, lol.

Unfortunately I lost Kerry for most part of the night, all you needed to do was wonder off and with-in minutes (due to the venue being massive) you would lose each other, we managed to meet up again around 3am. Kerry told me she had a great time and met lots of interesting people as so did I. Soon after that I decided to phone for a taxi, Kerry wanted to stay on and party, problem was I was a little drunk and had work the next day, so I needed to do the sensible thing and get some sleep. I got home around 4.30am, dived straight into my fridge, snacked and passed out around 5am. Needless to say I had a quiet one Saturday night.

Tweet This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Stumble This Post

How to avoid hair fall?

Question: I’m 21. I suffer from hair fall. How can I stop it?

Answer:  Hair loss as your aware can be a very stressful thing, therefore I have listed as many things as possible to help slow this down and stop any more unnecessary hair from falling out but please DO NOT PANIC. It is normal for both men and women to lose between 50-100 hairs per day, if you wash your hair every other day then expect to see up to 200 hairs in your bath and so on. However not all of my points listed bellow will be relevant to you, but some most certainly will.

 1. You must eat a well balanced diet, as nutritional deficiencies, eating disorders or even excessive amounts of certain vitamins, such as A & E (which some people over indulge taking too many vitamins) can also cause hair loss. Hair follicles are made of protein. Therefore, it is advisable to eat a diet rich in protein. Include protein-rich food such as low-fat cheese, eggs, almond, beans sprouts, fish, seafood and yogurt in your diet. Soy milk and tofu are smart additions to the diet, as they are enriched with protein.

2. Calcium is another important nutrient for strengthening the hair follicles and roots in your scalp, therefore try to include food rich in calcium in your diet.

3. You must take care of your health as chronic illness, high fevers and infections can all contribute to hair loss, although this can be reversed once your health is back again.

4. If your hair is long try to avoid tight ponytails or cornrows which will stretch and pull at your hair.

5. Avoid from colouring your hair more than once every six weeks.

6.  Overuse of  hairdryers and curling irons can aggravate the problem of hair loss, leading to baldness. Try not to use these products on a regular basis if you are facing the problem of excessive loss of hair.  

7. Sleep is an important factor, try not to compromise with 7 hours of sleep, irregular sleeping pattern is one of the leading causes for hair loss.

8. Hair care products should be chosen carefully, because they would directly affect the growth of your hair. Never use harsh shampoos, conditioners or stylizing products, because they would have a negative effect on the growth of your hair. If you are not sure which the correct products are then I would ask for professional help from a reputable hair salon. This would be very beneficial to you because the stylist would take time and go through their range of shampoos, conditions and styling products.

9. Try to use hair care products that have organic ingredients, like the herbal ones. Since such products contain less harsh chemicals, they are often suggested to people suffering from the problem of hair loss.

10. Alcohol and tobacco are the root causes for majority of hair loss problems. so quit habits such as smoking and consumption of alcohol.

11. Certain medications can also lead to hair loss. Therefore, consult your physician in case any medicine causes the heavy loss of hair.

12. Stress is a major factor, I understand that we all have a certain amount of this, but try to limit this as much as possible, as this may lead to all different problems including hair loss.

13 If you have tried most of the points detailed above and you still continue to lose your hair and also start seeing the first signs of baldness, then it maybe hereditary hair lose, with this in mind, there is one more thing you can try, although you will need to check with your doctor or Trichologist  first. The product is called Propecia, (women cannot use this product) it increases hair growth on the scalp and prevents further hair loss in men. Men with mild to moderate but not complete hair loss, can benefit from using Propecia.

 Information regarding hair growth -

On average your hair grows about 1 centimetre (half an inch) each month. Hair grows from hair follicles, which are located under your skin.

A single scalp hair grows continuously for 2-4 years (growth phase) and then stops growing for 2-4 months (rest phase). After this your hair falls out .

In its place a new healthy hair begins to grow, and the cycle is repeated. The hair on your scalp are always in different stages of this cycle so it’s normal to lose scalp hair every day.

“This question was answered by Stuart Phillips on Yahoo answers UK”

Tweet This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Stumble This Post

X Factor to Hairdressing – Blog 28

TO 

 

Last week I received a call from the director of the Biography channel, we discussed the possibilities of furthering someone’s training into becoming a hairdresser. The director wanted me to train a lady called Sam Chawner, who was previously a contestant on ITV’s  hit TV show, X Factor (Sam has already had 2 years training at college) and the model to demonstrate the haircut on was TV presenter Lorraine Kelly, (Loraine was also Sam’s mentor for the show). I would also teach Sam the business side of running a hair salon. I thought this would be a good opportunity for me because as well as being shown on the biography channel, later on in the year it would also be shown on channel 5.

There was one tiny little snag, the night before the filming I had to go to hospital, but it was only suppose to be a simple procedure and the doctors told me that I could definitely work the next day. I would of had this procedure another time, but my diary was so full, that I didn’t get that luxury, as you know things are never that simple. I was told a few hours before my operation that it was better for me to have a general anesthetic, this obviously concerned me, not so much worrying about the anesthetic it’s self, but the fact I was going to be filmed the following day and was it possible to do this after a general anesthetic? Well I was about to find out, I just didn’t want to let the director down and my chance of appearing on channel 5, as I have never filmed for this channel before.

On Tuesday 29th June at 11pm I was whisked away for my operation and was back in my room by 1am. I remember that night, it was so hot and found it really hard to sleep, all I managed was around one  hour of sleep.

At 6am the nurse came in to take my blood pressure, that’s so annoying, as I’m sure I was about to doze of again, but there just doing their job I suppose. I tried to fall back to sleep but that proved impossible, so the minute they released me I went straight to work, I admit that was a crazy thing to do, but that’s me all over.

I now had two problems, the first was staying awake for the filming, the second was to stop shaking because of the anesthetic, remember I only had the operation 10 hours ago!!

Once I arrived at the salon I received a phone call explaining that they would be an hour late, not sure if that was a good or bad thing because at that point I would’ve preferred to make a start, then hopefully just soldier on through, well that was my plan anyway.

 TV crews normally have a entourage of people, but this entourage was exceptionally big because it also included Sam Sam Chawner’s entire family, lol.

I now demonstrated the cut on Loraine but the great thing was, Sam would just watch, (this was good because the way I felt not sure whether I could have stopped Sam from making a drastic mistake or not). I think I got away lightly by cutting it myself.

The next thing to do was my business chat with Sam , (the general running of the salon), this conversation lasted about an hour, which wasn’t too bad, the difficult part came at the end when I had to talk to camera, and that lasted around an hour as well.

Thinking about it, I cannot believe I survived working on camera the day after a general, but I’m pleased I soldered on and survived the entire day

Tweet This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Stumble This Post

Lady Gaga Hairstyles

Lady GaGa’s real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, she is an American singer-songwriter and dance-pop/electronica musician.

Lady GaGa was born in March 1986, in New York. By age 4, she had taught herself to play the piano by ear, and when she was a teenager she penned her first song. When she was just 14, she was playing open mic nights at New York’s Bitter End, and by the age of 17 she had been one of 20 kids in the world to get early admission to Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.

By 20 she started working for Interscope Records and was busy writing songs for other musical groups, such as The Pussycat Dolls.

In 2006, she started working with music producer Rob Fusari, with whom she wrote several of her early downtown hits like “Beautiful, Dirty, Rich”, “Dirty Ice Cream” and “Disco Heaven”. It was when she performed the song “Again, Again” for Fusari that she created the stage name, Lady GaGa (which is a reference to the song “Radio Ga-Ga” by Queen).

Throughout 2008 Lady GaGa finalized tracks for her debut album “The Fame”, which she explained was “about how anyone can feel famous”. To date, the album spawned the hit singles “Just Dance” and “Poker Face”. Both singles topped the Canadian Hot 100 as well as ARIA Singles Chart.

Her creative team, the “Haus of GaGa”, promoted the image of Lady GaGa worldwide via fashion, technology and various media: Lady GaGa’s pop persona is styled with a blonde geometric fringe and Diamond encrusted shades, as seen on her album cover. She often wears loose hooded garments with skin-tight pants. Her performances are accompanied by her infamous ‘Disco Stick’, and also a pair of metallic sunglasses with digital screens as lenses which play video content.

Now let’s talk about Lady Gaga’s hair, you either love it or loathe it! I personally lean towards the loathe, yet having said that, she’s had a few styles which I consider to be very good as well. I have included a selection of different styles that Lady Gaga has worn over the last couple of years.

Let’s take a look at some of her past hairdo’s.

Lady Gaga was spotted several times, including her ‘Poker Face’ video wearing her hairstyle with the bow. This is one of my personal worst Lady Gaga hairstyles, sorry for anyone that likes this look, I just don’t.

Not sure what’s going on here, she looks a little drunk!

Performing at the launch of vevo, need I say that I don’t like this larger bow style either.

Ok, this braided headband look is slightly better than the photos above, still looks a bit amateurish though. Was photographed at the VIP Room Theatre 2009.

Slightly better look, Leaving her signature extravaganza to the side, Lady Gaga hit the town promoting her new album ‘The Fame Monster’ wearing her platinum blonde hair styled with loose waves and heavy side fringe.

Interesting, punky look with pink and purple streaks in her platinum hair, Japan 2009.

Let’s find some photos that I really like, don’t get me wrong I love some of her hair styles and she carries them off beautifully, probably better than anyone else can. Let’s count down with these three lovely hair photos to my favorite one.

3.

Lady Gaga looks very nice in this shot, her hair is styled really well in this wig, it definitely suits her.

2.

This could be a front cover shot. Lady Gaga’s face looks beautiful in this photo and her hair is styled great,  it’s really classy, I love this shot.

1.

When I first looked at her yellow/golden hair I wasn’t sure, then the more I looked the more I liked. The colours are very interesting, blonder at the top and golden yellow further down. This is a retro revamp of the dark and blonde, (that was used to create contrast). These colours would suit very few people but Lady Gaga seems to pull it off. The hair style itself is still very nice and would suit many people, but it’s the colour that wins over the style.

The question I ask myself  is, do I Love It Or Loathe It! I’ve already said that I love the shot, but do I love the hair. I think that you’ve probably worked that one out for yourself. A big fat yes, I love it.

How to achieve this style of Lady Gaga, seen at the Grammy Awards 2010.

Please note, I cannot teach you how to colour your hair to achieve this golden yellow look,  that would be irresponsible of me, it takes a minimum of 3 years training, but I’m very happy to teach you how to achieve this style. The reason I bring this up, in the past I have been asked by some followers of my blog if I can teach them how to cut or colour, this I’m afraid I cannot do.

Hair appliances and products needed -

Hairdryer

Medium sized heated rollers

Large sized round brush

Hair clip

Hair grips

If your hair is straight then you will need a medium pair of hot irons

Firm hold mouse

Hairspray

1.  After you have washed your hair, place some firm hold mouse in (about the size of 2 golf balls) then blast dry until about 80% dry. If your hair is naturally frizzy only blast dry to about 60%, the reason being you will need to smooth your hair out a little more, this will be easier if your hair is slightly more damp, it will help eliminate some of your frizz.

2.  Starting at the back, take a 1 inch horizontal section and clip the rest of your hair out of the way.

3.  Start to blow-dry using your brush, by placing it underneath your hair and then straighten, do not over dry, if you do the heated rollers will not work as well, as soon as it feels dry move on to the next section, if your hair was around 60% dry (before you started to use your brush) each section should take about 15  seconds to dry, that should give you a rough indication of how long it will take you to complete, if your hair is curly, that’s no problem but will take a little longer to dry, around 25 seconds per section.

4.  When you’ve finished blow-drying, take your first heated roller and place it horizontally on the front of your hairline and roll back,  the size of the section should be about 2cm deep and enough to fill 90% of the roller, if you fill 100% some of the hair at the sides may not be heated properly. The reason you place the rollers going back is because it will give you a little height on the top and not look flat across your parting.

Now place the second roller in horizontally next to the first, depending on the size of your head you will fit around 6-8 rollers along your front hairline. For the second row the only difference is, do not place a roller exactly behind the first, move slightly across and place it in the middle of 2 other rollers. This is because  you don’t want your hair to look like you’ve used rollers, (even though you have) and it will this way, you may see gaps in between each roller, this technique of roller placement is called “brick work” (a lot of hairdressers use this method). Every style is different therefore there’s lots of ways of placing the rollers in depending on the style that you want to create.

5. Once all the rollers are placed in, spray hairspray all over the rollers (sprits for about 15 seconds).

6. Wait for the rollers to cool down, (about 20 minutes) then carefully take out each roller, (unwind do not pull) then wind it back down onto itself , (this will be easy as the hair is bent into place already) place a grip flat across your head to hold the curl together. The reason being, you want to keep the wave in your hair for as long as possible, this method will help to do that.

7.  Once you have barrel curled all your hair wait untill you almost need to leave the house, (this way it will stay in for the entire evening), then take out all the grips, place your head upside down and start by running your fingers through your hair and then shuffling it, do this for about 5-10 seconds, then place your head upright and look in the mirror, (you can place the parting in at this point, just using your fingers)  you will need to visually look and if needed move your hair around a little for that perfection you deserve.

8. Finish by spraying some more hairspray.

Please note, the more natural wave or curl you have, the easier it will be to create this style, but it’s still very possible to achieve and look really nice if your hair is straight. If you know that your hair doesn’t  hold a wave very well, what you can do, is plug in a medium to large size hot irons, starting at the back of your hair, take roughly a 2 cm square section of hair and place that in the irons, roll towards your scalp, stop a good 2 inches from your root area, otherwise it may look a bit too old fashioned and will be moving away from this Lady Gaga style.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy this style

Tweet This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Stumble This Post

New Magazine and the British Heart Foundation Photo Shoot – Blog 27

We all know Natalie Cassidy from Eastenders (Sonia) but more recently Natalie’s fame rose even more, she was one of the participants on Strictly Come Dancing , as soon as she came off the show, the public started to appreciate her more mainly because of her lovely down to earth personality. At the moment Natalie is involved with a lot of publicity for various magazines and now has her own column in New Magazine.

A few weeks ago I created a few styles for Natalie on the OK! Magazine shoot (where I created four different styles), this time for the New Magazine shoot I wanted to create a couple more but different to the OK! Shoot, there are only so many looks you can produce but you can always tweak up similar styles.

Natalie looks better with a wave or curl as this makes her a little softer in the face, so for this second shoot I decided to also use the heated rollers, one look the hair would be lose and down and the other styled to the side.

The shoot was a 10am start in a studio in Borough, although I arrived on time the artist was yet to arrive, the make-up artist Evelynne Stoikou and the Clothes stylist Marian Cotterill were already there, it was nice to see them both again, everybody else I had not seen before, that included, the photographer, celebrity interviewer and the magazine picture editor. Twenty minutes later Natalie walked through the door, a ray of sunshine she was, remember Natalie was four months pregnant yet still had the energy to personally give everybody a big hug with a lovely sincere smile.

The photos were taken against a white background which was very different from the OK! Shoot as most of those shots were taken outside in a beautiful garden, at least I didn’t have to keep walking out side to the gardens and back in again each time we did a shot, (the gardens in the last shoot was about a 5 minute walk each way, I know that doesn’t sound far but when you’re doing that continuously it becomes slightly tiring) this time was much easier being in a studio.

E4 (channel 4) was there to film again and it only just dawned on me that they would be at all of the shoots as they were following Natalie around for the coming weeks ahead. The cameraman Pete is a really nice guy and also very good at his job (his so unobtrusive). Pete asked if he could have an interview with me, of course I said yes and spend around 15 minutes asking me lots of questions, mainly about Natalie, for instance, how I met her and what it was like working with her etc.

Check out the photo bellow, notice how slim Natalie is in this shot and also how straight she normally wears her hair.  This was the last page (with credits) of the spread.

The day went fairly quick I was finished by 3pm, I then went back to my salon for a few haircuts, and I then met my lovely friend Annika and went to the Covent Garden hotel for a drink, spoke a little business then just relaxed and drank a cocktail with her.

The next morning at 10am I arrived in Old Street for my third photo shoot for Natalie, this time it wasn’t for a magazine but for the British Heart foundation.

All I had to produce was one look (much simpler this time) and the photo would be sent to all the various press as it was advertising the charity, the reason behind Natalie getting involved was her mother passed away about eight years ago with a heart attack, so I can understand why she gets involved with this charity.

Rather than using heated rollers I used the hot irons and produced a very soft but large spring curl, the curl was so nice that Natalie wanted to wear her hair down.

While I was styling Natalie’s hair E4 TV was there filming once again, this time it felt natural being filmed by them as I now felt very much part of the documentary. At one part of the filming Natalie invited me and a guest to her engagement party; I was taken back but delighted.

The shoot finished very early because there was only that one look to create, Before I left I was introduced to the head of Channel 4’s press, he spoke to the make-up artist and me, he was explaining that he wants to build more of a presence of us guys in the reality show (so basically the public will get to know us a lot more) this was great to hear.

I give you one guess where I went to next, you got it back to the salon.

Tweet This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Stumble This Post

Do you think you have the perfect hairstyle – Blog 26

Last week I was invited to a party at Molton House in London. These parties are always very good and normally have some sort of theme, if not a theme then a fashion designer would be showcasing their latest collection (all this would be arranged by the Button Club events). For this particular party a fashion designer called Christoforos Kotentos was showcasing his collection.

To make things a little more interesting I phoned up my cameraman Scott (who has already accumulated footage of me for a possible documentary) and asked if he would be interested in shooting some more film, once I explained the set-up to him he was interested. This was my idea, a TV presenter would approach people in a  club and ask them “do you think you have the perfect hairstyle?” most people would be intrigued with that question and if they sounded positive the presenter would say “we have a celebrity hairdresser here, would you be interested if he gave you a complimentary hair consultation on camera”.

The TV presenter I approached for this was Annika Zajac (who is also a singer and actress). Annika is a talented presenter and just as importantly a very approachable person, I knew she would be perfect for this. Check Annika out here http://www.noostar.com/performer/annikazajac?playperformanceid=4039

When Annika first approached people in the club a few shied away from camera but as the evening progressed it got a little easier (that thing called alcohol) The only difficult part of the filming was later on in the evening when it became very busy and a little too noisy for the microphone.

Annika had a great talent for talking people into being filmed, at one stage I tried to talk a certain lady into it, she was fine about the hair consultation but not the filming part, so needless to say I had little success, then Annika said don’t worry I’ll get her for you, I thought to myself this was going to be interesting but you know what, she did it with ease, (well in my defence all I can say is it’s not as easy as it looks) For me this was great as all I had to do was the consultation (I suppose it was still a challenge in the crazy noisy atmosphere). We managed to interview around five girls, which was fine because after that Annika and I (between us) interviewed the fashion stylist Christoforos Kotentos, Richard Austin Reece (who works alongside the Button club in organising the event) and Tiger Lilly who was their performing a few songs.

At some point during the evening Richard asked if I would like to sit with the models for some photographs, which was perfect because Scott was also capturing this on camera. So I gladly parked myself in-between 10 models while a dozen or so photographers were snapping away. The end results were excellent, very surreal as you can see from the photo bellow. (I’m the small spec in the middle between Richard and Christoforos, lol).

Photo: Chris Montgomery.

At around 11pm Scott finished the filming and went home (as he obtained enough footage)  Annika and I stayed longer to party.

The next big event that the button club is presenting is on the 25^th June and the theme being “THE FALL OF ROME IMPERIAL BALL”. For this one I’ll need to come dressed as a centurion, gladiator or Emperor. I’m definitely putting that one in my diary

Tweet This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Stumble This Post

Bank Holiday Photo Shoot With OK! Magazine – Blog 25

Over the Easter holidays everything was a little quiet but the last couple of weeks it’s all gone crazy busy. I should be used to that by now, it never builds up gradually but literally from one extreme to the other. Well I can’t complain.

Being so busy is the reason why I haven’t had time to blog. Normally I get to write them around 1am but I have been so tired lately (due to working 7 days a week) and end up falling asleep at the keyboard.

It’s now 1.30am and I feel wide awake so I’m going to write about my experience which took place last week.

As there are a lot of Eastenders fans out there as well as Strictly Come Dancing fans, then you probably would have heard of Natalie Cassidy. The shoot was for Natalie and her soon to be husband Adam. This was for OK! Magazine and was also being filmed by E4. They were filming Natasha and Adam for a reality TV show, so double whammy for me!

This is how my day progressed; my alarm clock woke me at 7am, (this is exceptionally early for me as I’m a bit of a night owl). Although I didn’t need to be there until 10.30am I thought I would leave in plenty of time for the journey as it was at least 90 minutes drive and that’s if I didn’t get lost (sat nav’s never quite get you there, especially when it loses signal due to lots of trees etc). I’m pleased I did as I got ridiculously lost and it took me over two hours of driving but I still arrived on time, just.

The shoot was in a huge mansion and I mean huge. When I arrived the door was open but I couldn’t hear anyone, this was pretty weird (in a horror film story kind of way). I shouted hello but no one answered. There were no neighbours just this old mansion and plenty of woodlands outside. I tried phoning but there was no signal so I decided to walk through the mansion and hopefully I would at least hear a voice or something but I had no such luck.

I was truly freaked out at this stage and wasn’t sure what to do. At this point I couldn’t even make my way back to the front door as I was lost in this mansion. I then sat down and waited to be rescued. Within about 10 minutes I was found and rescued by one of the owners and taken to where I was going to style Natalie and Adam’s hair, phew.

I was one of the first to arrive so I decided to take all my hair equipment out and then chill. My assistant Louise was due to arrive any minute but I knew she would be late due to the mansion being off the radar.

Half an hour later Natalie and Adam arrived, followed by OK!, E4 and then my assistant.

This is the first time I met Natalie and Adam. I was recommended by Amanda Stocks from Exclusive PR. In fact Amanda set up the shoot and TV crew. I’m very grateful to Amanda for setting this up for me, for this reason I certainly didn’t mind styling hair on a bank holiday Monday.

Natalie and Adam are a really nice couple, very down to earth and generally lovely people. This made the shoot more enjoyable.

Natalie’s hair was fairly long with a lot of layers. I explained to Natalie that she needed to grow certain parts of her hair out and this would improve her style but for today I was just to style her hair in a few different ways, some with her hair up and some down.

The shoot was to take place outside but the day was filled with sunshine and also rain, this made it fairly difficult, the reason being if I was styling Natasha’s hair and then the rain stopped I would have to work really fast so the photographer and TV crew could start shooting, the pressure is usually worst for us hairdressers as sometimes we have to create art but really fast, all down to experience which I certainly have now.

The grounds of the mansion were very nice; this gave a lovely background for all the shots, hard on the hair because of the wind though.

The best scenery for the shots were at the end of the mansions very long pathway (in the woodlands). When I say long I mean a car journey long, when we arrived at the woodland area Natalie was asked to kneel in the mud in her dress (she was so accommodating). I backcombed her hair to give it that ‘I’m in the forest look’ and Adam was kneeling next to her. All of these shots looked great, especially with the amazing blue flowers in the background.

 It was very cold at this point so I was looking forward to getting back to the mansion and I suspect so was Natalie and Adam and the rest of the crew.

This was the only shot where E4 decided not to film, not sure why but I feel they missed out the best part of the shoot.

The shoot finished around 7.30pm, I then packed my equipment away and drove home.

I look forward to styling Natalie’s hair again; she will be coming to my salon in the coming weeks along with E4 TV for more filming.

Bellow is the opening double page spread, then the last page with credits. I hope that Natalie and Adam like there spread. I thought it was a positive and well written story.

Tweet This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Stumble This Post

Miss Arab 2010 – Blog 24

At the end of April 2010 I received a call from my agent regarding the possibility of sponsoring in some capacity the Miss Arab competition.

The reason how this came about, last year RTL and Pro Sieben Television (both German TV) filmed me in the salon for the £20,000 haircut package and for this to be filmed in its entirety the camera crews needed to film part of this in the hotel that the client was staying in, this happened to be the Mayfair hotel.

During the filming my agent and I got to know some of the staff quite well and this included there PR department, they then recommended me to an events company called Lemon Drop LTD who is in charge of the production for the Miss Arab competition.

The idea was for my team and I to style the hair for 25 of the competitors and 15 models that would showcase a selection of different Arab designer clothes, a total of 40 models.

The competition would be held over two days at the Mayfair Hotel, this would mean that I would need to take my team of 10 hairdressers pull them away from the salon (in effect be closed for two days) and style 80 heads of hair, this would not be cost effective for the production company who would then need to pay me a large amount of money.

After a long meeting it was decided that instead of styling the hair for all the models I would choose four models and completely re-style their hair, while this is happening it would be filmed and produced for the 22 Arab countries, (this footage will be combined with the filming of the competition) I will also be interviewed and offered two complimentary tickets to the event, with all this in mind I decided to go ahead with the project.

This is how it will roll; girls from all over the UK will submit applications for the chance to compete. The top girls will be invited to the Mayfair Hotel for an impersonal interview in front of a panel of judges, with the top girls from each of the 22 countries invited to compete in the final.

Each night a live audience will be present, they will be entertained by the beauty contest, fashion show and musical entertainment. The audience will be primarily invited from the affluent Arabic community.

The final two days of the event will be filmed with live streaming to television and also post production release. The competition will see TV audience participation through voting. TV audiences around the world will get the chance to vote which will form part of the contestant’s score, the event will be broadcast to the 22 Arab countries.

The evening will be presented and hosted by the beautiful Razan Moughrabi. Razan is a famous Lebanese singer, actress, and TV presenter on Arabic television.

The Miss Arab is slightly different from the Miss World competitions. The girls that are chosen will of course have to be of an Arab decent, the idea is to take these average to pretty looking women and transform them into stunners, where Miss World they already are lovely looking women.

The competition takes place on the 9th and 10th of July 2010, I will of course let you know how it all goes with stunning photos and video.

On a different note, I have just finished editing my hair transformation video, (A trendy haircut, from long to short) it’s the main video on my youtube channel.  

 http://www.youtube.com/user/Stuartphillipssalon

 Enjoy the video and catch up soon.

Tweet This Post Delicious Digg This Post Facebook Stumble This Post

Next Page »