Apart from Lara my colourist I used a new team of people, this included the photographer, Adnan Siddiqui. I’ve known Adnan for a couple of years and he has photographed me many times in various events. I like Adnan’s work very much! Adnan took all the photos for this blog!

Then there was the make-up artist, Anna Orkiszewska. I met Anna a few months ago and after viewing her portfolio I decided to work with her.

After placing an advert on Star Now website I found my first model Carla. Once I met her I knew straight away that she’d be perfect for the shoot, not only did Carla have a lovely face but was also a nice and easy going person.

I’ve known Perry for a while. I met him a couple of years ago at a networking event, Perry also has a good look and is a nice person to work with!

We started the day at 9am. The first challenge of the day was to talk to camera about what I was about to do, this strangely enough is the hardest part, trying to get across on camera what you need to say but keeping it short and sweet isn’t as easy as it looks!!

Before shot of Carla, as you can see her hair is thin and flat!

Before shot of Carla!

Once that was out the way I started cutting around 10 inches off Carla’s hair. Carla seemed very relaxed which was a good thing as this in turn also helped me feel relaxed (quite important when you’re about to cut lots of hair). About 45 minutes later I finished the cut.

Starting to chop around 10 inches of hair off!

A closer look at the chosen bob length!

Reached the desired Bob length!

Starting to cut the layers!

Chopping into the layers at the top!

It was now Lara’s turn to show on camera her unique skills of applying colour. She was going to take Carla’s natural brown to an array of golden blondes, I always look forward to the colour change as this improves on the haircut tenfold.

Precise positioning of the foil!

Lara’s almost finished with the foil highlights, with the help of her assistant Suzie!

Spraying hairspray in order to lift out the hair!

The tint is painted onto her hands!

Lara wipes the tint over the hair, this is repeated a few times!

A couple of hours later Anna begins the make-up.  A few of my previous hair videos had very strong make-up,  this time and also keeping in with the suitability of Carla’s face we decided to keep it more natural! While we were all doing our thing Adnan was snapping away not missing a trick! Dam his good!!

Anna has just started to apply the make-up!

Anna’s magic fingers on Carla’s lips!

Finishing off the eyes!

I was very pleased with Carla’s new look, especially when we filmed her outside. The difficult thing was making a layered bob look exciting on camera, reason being, a layered bob isn’t really edgy but more of a nice salon haircut, if that makes sense!

We all managed to transform Carla in a great way though, bringing out her cheek bones and generally making her look more fashionable and even prettier!

Starting to blow-dry Carla’s hair!

The final hands in hair!

The next three shots are Carla’s finished looks!

We started our second model Perry at 5pm. I must have been feeling a little tired at this point as I almost forgot to talk to camera about my haircut!! It took me about 30 minutes to cut Perry’s hair!

Before shot of Perry!

Before shot of Perry!

About to start the cut!

Chopping in to those layers!

Few inches coming off the top!

Catching all on film!

Checking it’s all perfect!

Lara was next to apply the colour. She was about to transform Perry from a light brown to a few different shades of golden blonde, this took her around 90 minutes!

Starting to place in the foil highlights!

Spraying hairspray in order to lift out the hair, similar to Carla’s!

Once Lara’s had wiped on the tint using the palms of her hand, she then applies a little more with a brush!

It was now dark outside so I got to try out my new camcorder flash light. This was very important otherwise you wouldn’t get to see the golden blonde colours that Lara created. I enjoyed filming Perry outside, he definitely had this kind of coolness about him and very importantly looked good in front of camera!

The next few shots are Perry’s finished looks!

Although the day went well, it was a long 13 hour day. The problem wasn’t styling or colouring the hair, it was the amount of times we had to re-shoot things or getting the right angle on camera. Maybe  two models on the same day was a bit too ambitious, although the flip side is now I have two great videos to upload on youtube!

Hope you enjoy watching!

Carla’s hair video transformation –  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BOTCFM3IzU

Perry’s hair video transformation -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm2NxIvzaQY

Stuart Phillips Website –     http://www.stuartphillips.co.uk/

Stuart Phillips Facebook Fanpage –  https://www.facebook.com/stuartphillipsfanpage

Stuart Phillips Twitter - https://twitter.com/StuartPhillips

© AdnanSiddiquiPhotography
Fb: www.facebook.com/AdnanSiddiquiPhotographyFans
web: www.adnansiddiqui.co.uk

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For the very first time the Ideal Home show at Christmas were going to incorporate a catwalk show and hair demonstrations into their exhibition; the idea was to choose a well known hairdresser and team to demonstrate on stage their latest hair trends!

The PR behind the Ideal Home contacted me and asked if I was interested in being their celebrity hair partner, considering the exhibition was over a hundred years old and probably the most famous in the UK, I was honoured to be part of this!

Although I was very happy to work at the Ideal Home Show, I wasn’t really interested in doing the actual fashion show, reason being, I’ve worked on so many of these before and these days I prefer something more challenging, like plucking people out of an audience and re-styling their hair. I would personally be performing haircuts and my other two artistic members, Caron-Ann Beaumont and Lara Clark would perform hair-up’s and styling hair, this would make up a complete range of different hairdressing skills. We couldn’t unfortunately demonstrate with colour because that would take too long and besides there wouldn’t be anywhere to wash the hair!

My team and I were asked to do two slots on Wednesday 16th November and two on Sunday 20th November 2011.

Picking people out of an audience and cutting their hair isn’t an easy task, reason being, the 30 minutes that we had on stage would be cut down to about 15, this is because while I’m cutting I would also be interviewed by a presenter and a Q & A from the audience, well you know what us men are like at multitasking!!!

Lara also loves this type of challenge but Caron-Ann not so much, thing with Caron-Ann although she’s a top hairdresser by every sense of the word, she prefers to do hair behind closed doors rather than in front of camera, with a few pretty pleases, she said OK! I love to show off her artistic flair, really proud of her work! Then there’s Lara who’s very artistic and loves new challenges, in fact she’s very similar to me and we end up doing lots of different hair stuff together.

A week before the exhibition the three of us got together to discuss what we were going to do on stage, the only problem was we wouldn’t exactly know until we saw who the chosen person was, I just knew we’d have to make a very fast decision, this is where our experience would kick in, from the time people put their hands up we would probably have about 10 seconds to chose and get it right, the worst thing that could happen is to disappoint our chosen model and then get them to sit back in the audience!  that’s just too embarrassing, as professionals getting it right first time is very important.

On the morning of November 16th I was really enthusiastic in getting to Earls Court a little earlier, to soak in the atmosphere and get confident as quickly as possible. I had so much on my mind, one being the few thousand leaflets to hand out, I was working out the best way to do this, I physically couldn’t do it myself but was hoping the staff who worked for the exhibition wouldn’t mind helping, also was thinking  how we were going to set up our equipment on stage, this was difficult because there were all different artists performing prior to our slot and would only have a minute or two to set up, I just took a few deep breaths and thought we’re all professional here so it should run pretty smooth!!!

From left to right, Catherine (who is one of my apprentices, would be filming and taking snaps) Lara, me and Caron-Ann.

It was about an hour to go before we were due on stage, the first thing I did was meet the team behind the exhibition and also the presenter, the team couldn’t do enough for me, they also said that they would hand out the leaflets, PHEW. The presenter was really cool and the great thing was, as soon as I approached her I recognized her from my social circles, her name’s Lisa Nash and has a great personality, fantastic choice of presenter.

About 15 minutes to go and the artists on stage before us were dancers and were really good, they got the crowd going with good dance music and fancy moves, generating a big crowd before us was probably a good thing, my logical thinking was hopefully the audience would feel so comfortable and wouldn’t want to move! Although after their performance was finished I did think my team and I had a lot to live up to!!

The dance act just before the Stuart Phillips crew!

We were all waiting back stage, there was about 2 minutes to go and Lisa was first on stage, she was explaining to the audience what was about to happen!

Lisa announcing us to the audience!

The next second I heard the words “Ladies and gentleman please put your hands together for Stuart Phillips and his artistic team” I was first out followed by Caron-Ann, then Lara, as we walked out people were clapping, Lisa then approached me and asked what sort of haircut I’d be performing on stage etc, then Lara and Caron-Ann were interviewed.

Explaining to the audience what type of hair I was looking for!

I then asked the audience who would like a makeover, quite a few hands went up and one particular young lady caught my eye, so I asked her to join me on stage, she received a massive clap from the audience and then I explained what I would like to do!

The chosen model looking very excited!!

I made this an open consultation, meaning the audience were listening to my professional consultation at the same time as my model, her name was Alice btw. I explained to the audience that Alice’s layers and overall hair shape was too square and flat for her face and by leaving most of the length and cutting a few inches from the layers, this would give Alice a little more roundness and softness to her face and also give her hair a lot more texture and movement. I further explained that you don’t have to cut a lot of hair in order to make a big difference to the shape, it’s about rearranging the weight in such a way that it can have drastic effects to the look of the hair, (without losing too much length for this particular haircut). Alice felt happy that I wasn’t going to chop too much off the length but very excited about me changing the shape, think she was just curious about how I could make this change without cutting much off the length, all will be revealed soon Alice!!

Giving my hair consultation to Alice and the audience!

As I only had 30 minutes this would need to be a dry cut, which is the fastest way, It was lucky that Alice’s hair was freshly washed! I did the majority of the haircut with her standing up, this gave me a more accurate cut and also easier for the audience to watch. I did mainly freehand cutting, which involved slicing and chopping into the hair, this adds tons of texture and movement.

Taking my first snip as Lisa interviews me!

Cutting vertically up into the fringe, this will soften the front of Alice’s face.

Have layered heavily by chopping into the hair, the texture has already changed!

With Alice standing up I’m creating lots of debth and texture by slicing and chopping into the hair! Cutting very fast, so the photo looks a little blurred!!

Working the products into the hair and with her head forward creates lots of movement!

Finished look.

Finished look.

Caron-Ann’s chosen model Naveena looks very happy, while she works her way onto the stage!

Discussing the style she’s about to create.

Caron-Ann explains to Naveena what she was about to do, which was to place a beautiful curl in using heated rollers and then a twist to one side.

She explains to the audience that when the heated rollers come out, she’ll work the curls to one side creating a beautiful hair twist.

Have created the beautiful curls!

Starting to create the twist!

Pinning the hair back to one side.

Showing Naveena her finished hair, nice one Caron-Ann!!

Lara styled a lady’s hair also chosen from the audience, her name was Annika and I remember she had a  fantastic personality, Lara was lucky finding her. Annika had very straight fine hair, so Lara added movement, texture and a slight wave, not that easy when the hair’s that fine!

Presenter Lisa talks to Annika just before she makes her way onto the stage!

Lara explaining to the audience how she’s going to add lots of wave and volume to her hair. The thought of having fuller and textured hair seems to please Annika!

Any moment she’s about to add her first soft curl, using a pair of straightening irons!

Wrapping the hair around the irons, this produces a soft curl. Once Lara finished she added a product to help create more volume, she then roughed it up with her hands to create even more fullness and texture!

Annika’s hair now looks thicker, with lots of texture and movement, lovely Lara!

All three of us managed to finish on time, otherwise may have been embarrassing, we had to be cleared off the stage in 30 minutes as there was a gospel choir about to perform straight after us!

Once we walked off the stage we had two hours to relax before we were back again. Things should get easier now as we were familiar with our surroundings and importantly how it would play out. Two hours seemed to pass very quickly and before we knew it we were back on stage and picking more models from the audience, the second time around was definitely easier.

By the end of the day we were all pretty tired, it’s not that easy to get on a stage and cut hair, it zap’s a lot of your energy but was great fun!

Four days later we were back with a vengeance , all pro’s at this stage so we definitely knew what to expect and therefore didn’t need to get there early as before.

Caron-Ann, Lara, Marley (who is one of my juniors at the salon and would be filming for me) and myself all met at the salon the morning of Sunday 20th November, unfortunately our car was late so we all arrived with only 5 minutes to go, I did panic a bit because everything was timed and you couldn’t be late, it’s so annoying because when you’re running behind everything else around seems to slow you down, that’s life I suppose! When we arrived at Earl’s Court we all rushed to the first floor, trying to dodge around as many people as possible, we literally got there with about 10 seconds to spare, as soon as the organizers saw us they looked very relieved, bless them, then almost immediately Lisa was on stage introducing the next guest artist, which was us! Without much of a breather we all walked on stage and Lisa immediately approached me for an interview, following  that I started to look in the audience for potential  models, (the audience seemed twice the size today) I chose a lady called Luda, she had long out of shape hair and I knew I could improve it, although I was being brave picking her as her hair was quite dry and I would have a bit of a task trying to improve the quality of her curl, I knew for this to look good I would need to dry the hair using a product for frizzy, dry and damaged hair and would need to be dried with a diffuser. Thirty minutes didn’t seem enough time for this particular look, I really must love a challenge!!

Caron-Ann was the first to finish but that didn’t surprise me as she’s so fast when it comes to hair up, Caron did a great job of making her hair look pretty. Lara was the next to finish, I really like what Lara did, it made her look quite funky. I was last to finish as I had to do a cut and blow-dry, I finished with  literally seconds to go, I was very happy with my cut as the hair quality did look a lot better and so did the shape.

Explaining to the audience about how I was going to improve Lydmila’s hair. You can see that the hair is a little damaged, so I was looking forward to improving it!

A closer look at Lydmila’s hair!

Think I’ll need to cut around 4-5 inches, then after I’ll add some strong hold mouse mixed with a serum, I’ll take half inch sections and twist the hair around numerous times, the twisting helps improve the look of the curl. To finish off I’ll hold the diffuser on the hair for a frizz free look!!  OK enough hair talk, let’s see the finished result!!

Lydmila’s ‘s hair is now a nicer shape for her face and just as importantly a much better quality curl!! Lydmila takes a lovely photo!

Caron-Ann chose a lady what seemed to me as fairly difficult to put up, as her hair wasn’t that long it was about bob length. I think Caron also must love a challenge in front of a few hundred people!

In the world of “hair up” this would be classed as fairly short and difficult, although she seems very relaxed while having a laugh with the model. “Go on Caron-Ann show us what you can do”

While Caron-Ann starts her magic, the ladies interviewed!

Caron-Ann moulding the hair into place.

Well done for putting this short style up, never doubted you one bit!

Lara chose a really funky lady with orange looking coloured hair, she would change the texture of her hair using curling irons and products, as soon as Lara chose her, the model seemed very excited to be on stage!

Lara starts to add texture to her models current style!

Nice funky shape! The two ladies behind seem to like it as well!!

We had one more slot to go, this also went well and after we finished we all headed to the champagne bar and relaxed.

It was a great two days at Earl’s Court, I met some lovely people and had a great time working with my two talented hairdressers.

I almost forgot to mention, in my two hour break after I finished my 1pm slot on stage, I decided to go for a walk and see what I could find for around my home. I wasn’t looking for anything particular but the last thing on my mind would have been cosmetics! I noticed a really nice setup from a company called Orogold.

There was something about this product that caught my eye and draw me in and before I knew it I was sitting down being pampered by the lovely crew of Orogold. I’m always interested in new technology, whether being a gadget for your home, car or even a cosmetic I suppose, anyway they told me a little history of their product and what fascinated me was the fact that each product had 24 carat gold laced inside, they explained that the gold helped deposit the ingredients deeper into the skin, of course I was very sceptical and was fairly pricy too but decided to buy a few of the products as they seemed really good.

Cutting a long story short, four weeks later and the products do actually work, skin definitely feels a little smoother and I’m now hooked, thanks Orogold, you were true to your word!

Just to mention, I’ve now been invited back to the Ideal Home Show in March 2012 (which is their main event of the year) to do more hair but this time in front of a larger audience, my team and I very much look forward to that!

A few minutes of video on stage at the Ideal Home Show – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_A-vhP3XMk

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http://twitter.com/StuartPhillips

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

Thanks to photographer Natasha Charles who provided some of the photos for this blog!

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First time I stepped on a catwalk, with Marta on the left and Masha on the right.

Four months later the same designer approached me and asked if I was happy to model for another one of his shows, this time I never had to think about it, it was a yes! For this show I didn’t realize that Danish was about to push boundaries even further by asking me to co- host the show with another presenter. Although I’m used to going on stage for cutting hair or public speaking, hosting a fashion show in a top London venue was something I’d never experienced. I did think to myself how does one control a crowd of people in a club, I guessed it would be down to confidence, personality and a good projection of voice on the mike!! I definitely had the first two (if you don’t mind me saying) not sure about the third! Anyway I said yes to Danish and he seemed very pleased.

The next step was to meet up with him and discuss exactly what I was going to do. Two weeks before the event we met me in my salon, we had a very productive meeting and I was happy with my contribution for the show. This wasn’t just going to be a fashion show but also a slide show showing off his past few collections, a short 10 minute film which Danish and some of his models filmed in Kent, he named the film “Demise By Temptations” this showcased his latest collection which was called “Death Being Eroticized” Finally there was going to be a model competition, I thought the latter would make the evening quite difficult to organize, (as there was so much going on) luckily for Danish he had a great fashion show organizer for his event, Michaela Harewood, I worked with Michaela on the last fashion show that Danish produced and I remember her being hard working and the lady that get things done!

It was now the morning of Friday 21st October 2011 and it was “Showtime”! The first job of the day was to look at some of my script that I’d be reading out while the slide show was being presented and generally go through the layout of the evening! An hour or so later, I headed for the underground station and began my journey into the salon. First part of the morning I was cutting hair and then at 3pm I hailed down a taxi and made my way to the venue.

When I arrived at the Mayfair venue (Aura club) most of the models were already there, including my friend Charleen Armitage (who’s in a band and has a great voice by the way) and BařBØd Mayřiž, both are fabulous people.  I then sat down, relaxed for a few moments knowing that very soon it was going to get pretty hectic! While I was sitting I was observing some of the designs that Danish had created, some of them were really unusual, I think Danish has a deep imagination but I suppose he would have to considering the collection was about death, decay, cruelty, dark glamour and fetishism.

I thought now was a good time to check  if there were any changes to the evening, therefore tried to find Danish and Michaela; Danish was busy dealing with his outfits and some of the models, so I headed for Michaela. After chatting to her she explained that there was going to be a few minor tweaks but nothing major, “PHEW”

I would be hosting the show with another presenter Haylan Hall; Haylan would be interviewing the artists, judges and some of the models, she would also have the first task of introducing the judges for the model competition, I happened to know all the judges as they were my friends (small world)  so naturally I was pleased they were judging. There was Ilda Di Vico, who is a world class hat designer, Lilian Kristensen, who owns a fabulous model agency called Vibe International models and Tiger Lily, who’s a singer and climbing the ladder very fast. This would be followed by the girls walking out one at a time in front of the judges and of course the audience. I would be waiting back stage at this point! Between all three of us we worked everything out.

Haylan Hall interviewing my friend Ilda Di Vico

Haylan Interviewing Lewis Dunkan Weedon, Lewis is also a fashion designer and was one of Danish’s guests. Lewis held a very successful fashion show a couple of months back!

At around 7pm the audience started to arrive, therefore all the models were needed to go back stage but as my make-up wasn’t yet applied it was OK to mingle for a bit. At around 7.30pm it started to get quite busy, so I decided to go back stage.

While all the models were busy getting into their outfits and having their make-up applied, I decided to find a nice quiet corner to sit and run through once again the running order of things, strangely enough I wasn’t nervous yet but I knew that inevitable moment would come!

Around 7.45pm the make-up artist Clare Smith approached me, Clare applied my make-up last time so I knew that I was in very good hands, I just said to Clare do your stuff and that’s exactly what she did! There was another make-up artist working  with Clare, Mehwish Alma, Mehwish also styled a lot of the hair. Last but not least there was Tamara Gitter, who created all the body art on the male models.

My friend BařBØd Mayřiž having his make-up applied by Clare Smith

Mehwish Alma concentrating on here make-up

At 8.15pm Haylan was on the catwalk announcing the judges for the show, while this was happening I was backstage talking to some of the models from the competition, they were all looking very nervous, almost to the point of not wanting to walk out in front of  the hordes of people, You couldn’t blame them I suppose, so thought I would intervene and speak a few words of wisdom!

Michaela asked the girls to walk out one at a time, although now they all seemed to look fairly confident, must have been my magic words of wisdom!!

All the models from the competition (earlier on in the evening), with Michaela in the middle. they don’t look too nervous here!

There was going to be a 15 minute wait for me, unfortunately it turned out to be half an hour, I just wanted to walk out and get it over with, all I was thinking about was the 300 people waiting on the other side of the door, which was obviously the wrong thing to think about, lol.

It was now time, the music changed, Michaela looked at me and said let’s do it, the doors then opened and I made my first step onto the catwalk, my heart pounded about twice as fast but before I knew it I was half way across the catwalk accompanied by two tall models, Jennifer Baker and Alba Sanchez, there really nice girls and have known them both for a couple of years, the club was so full that it was really hard for all three of us to walk next to each other as we did in rehearsal, so Jennifer walked slightly in front, once we walked to a certain point we all stopped and posed in front of about 10 photographers, the flashes of the camera continued for about 10 seconds then Jennifer and Alba turned around and walked away.

Jennifer, Alba and me Posing to camera!

From my rehearsals earlier Haylan was supposed to walk towards me and introduce me to the audience, what actually happened, once the music died down I turned round and couldn’t find Haylan anywhere, she was trapped in the crowd but at the time I didn’t know this, I decided to improvise, I started walking to the front of the catwalk hoping that I would find her, luckily I saw Haylan trying to approach me from the hordes of people, once she approached me I was then introduced!

Thinking to myself where’s Haylan?

I read out a brief history on some of Danish’s past fashion shows and at the same time slides of that particular fashion show were being viewed on a big screen, Haylan also spoke about some of his past collections, (we took it in turns to read it out) this was followed by Danish’s 10 minute film called Demise By Temptations, this was the first time I had viewed it and was quite taken back by how good the production quality’s were, in-fact it was excellent, well done to Danish he should be proud!!

Haylan found me! We’re now reading out the literature for Danish’s slideshow.

Danish’s film being shown on the big screen “Demise By Temptations”

It was now time for the fashion show, Death Being Eroticized; I announced it to the audience and the show began!

Here’s the man of the moment, Danish Wakeel!

Danish getting dramatic!

Model and fitness instructor Richard Scrivener. Check out the 2 girls, they’re staring at his arse!

Artem Zelikov  showing off some body art! By artist Tamara Gitter

Champ Imi, one of Danish’s regular models

Go Charleen! When she’s not singing she’s strutting her stuff on the catwalk!

Cool looking BařBØd on the catwalk

Now for the unusual and theatrical!

Where is that photographer pointing his camera?

While the tall female models and muscular male models walked on the catwalk, I was watching the faces of some of the women in the audience, they seemed to get excited over some of the male model physics and this did amuse me for a while! The show seemed to be popular by the reactions of the people watching, Danish certainly knows how to entertain a crowd with his creativity!

When the show finished I read the credits over the mike then Haylan thanked everyone for coming and officially announced the beginning of the party   Although I was really tired I decided to stay a little longer and relax with a glass of wine before catching the last train home!

Winner of the model competition with Michaela and me at the after party!

To watch the video of behind the scenes and fashion show, press the link directly bellow. Enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNFCcLay4hw&feature=youtu.be

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Stuart Phillips salon has won various accolades in the past 15 years including; The L’Oreal Colour Trophy Award for London three times, Outstanding talent in British hairdressing Award by Cosmopolitan magazine and has been nominated by the British hairdressing awards for artistic team of the year three times.

At the beginning of august 2011 I received an email from the London Lifestyle Awards, (they stand for recognition and celebration of all the best businesses, venues and events in London) and told me that I was up for a nomination for best London salon.

This was exciting because although I’ve won numerous awards before they came from within my own industry, this is the first nomination from outside.

 The awards are broken down into 18 categories, for example; best club, bar, hotel, hair salon, etc.

 The public voting ends on the 22nd September, then all nominees will be notified if they’ve made it to the top three in their category! Then on the 6th October the top three (54 in total) will be invited to the awards ceremony and dinner. It is here each category will find out if they’ve won, exciting stuff!!

UPDATE!! On the 6th October 2011 Stuart Phillips became the runner up at the London Lifestyle Awards, second place isn’t bad, although will try again next year and hopefully get first!!

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I receive many interesting emails on a daily basis and need to shift through literally hundreds to find them. One particular email that caught my eye was from the Ideal Home Exhibition Christmas show for 2011. They were interested in a partnership with a celebrity hairdresser, this was for their fashion & beauty section of the show.

My first initial thought was that they wanted my professional services to style hair for their catwalk, after speaking with them they actually wanted my skills for on stage live makeovers, this would be in front of a seated audience and would include; cutting hair, hair-up and hair styling, basically showing off the latest must have Christmas party hair!

When I get involved with high profile exhibitions/events I usually work alongside my art team, this varies in size depending on the sort of event that we’re doing, for catwalk shows using around 30 models I would need at least five stylists that would work alongside me. For the Ideal Home Show At Christmas I would involve three other artists, Lara Clark, Caron-Ann Beaumont and my make-up artist Rebecca-Fleur, they will all be working on stage with me. Christina who is my colour technician prefers to work behind the scenes, so she’ll  be attempting to find models from the many thousands of potential people at the Earls Court venue, this makes her job crucial and possibly the hardest of all!

A few weeks later my team and I met with Louise Kearns who is the Marketing executive and Emily McCrery who is the event co-ordinator of this exhibition. We all agreed on three twenty minute slots, two for hair and one for make-up. It would be executed in a similar style to a lot of the make-over shows on TV, using a large mirror that’s covered up, then all is revealed at the end. The audience will be used to this kind of make-over set up, so should be a real crowd pleaser.

Due to the fact that it’s difficult to be away from the salon for long periods, I agreed to do two out of the possible five days; Wednesday 16^th and Sunday 20^th November 2011.

The Ideal Home Christmas show will be open to the public on the 16^th- 20^th November 2011, at Earls Court in London.

www.idealhomeshowchristmas.co.uk/stuart-phillips/

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It all started after receiving an email from one of my friends who’s a fashion designer, Danish Wakeel. I met Danish on the London scene around two years ago. He asked me if I would be interested in modeling at one of his fashion shows that he was planning for June 2011, the show was to be called Dandy Meets The Metrosexual. Danish is also a professional model and models his own catwalk shows along with his other modeling assignments. He also has a degree in air transport studies from city university london, clever man!

Anyway my first initial thought was yes but on reflection I became a bit indecisive, the reason being; although I’ve been on camera a couple of times as a model, I’ve never modeled on a catwalk,  and the last thing I wanted to do was to let the side down, so to speak. Danish explained that there’s no problem, he would make sure that I looked the part and I would be taught how to walk properly on the catwalk, when you get to know Danish he has a very calm and reasoning manner and makes you feel good about yourself, so I agreed to take part.

Although I had the date for the show written in my diary, what I didn’t think about was the rehearsal time and make-up etc, problem was I had quite a few hair clients already booked in, I presumed that if I arrived at 4pm, that would be enough time but Danish asked If I could arrive around midday! This stressed me a little as a lot of my clients are regulars and I didn’t want to let them down at such short notice but also knew how important this was for Danish and didn’t want to let him down either, so I put my negotiating powers to use. After phoning all my clients, to my surprise they agreed to come in a lot earlier in the morning and then Danish agreed for me to arrive at around 1pm, all sorted!!

There was one more thing to sort out and that was organizing my own photographer, this would be for behind the scene shots and of course the all important  show itself.

The photographers name is Lee Collie, Lee has done a few jobs for me in the past and was also recommended by Ross Cambell who’s one of the directors from Sky’s Angels magazine. Lee is a very experienced photographer so I was very happy for him to cover the event for me and he was equally as happy to be my photographer for the whole event, perfect partnership.

My day of crimping started at 8am in the salon and I worked through till 1pm, I then jumped into a taxi and head down to the venue.

When I arrived at the venue, The Runway Club that’s situated in New Oxford Street, London, there were about 20 models already there, with another 10 to arrive. One thing I noticed that the majority of  male models were quite muscular, usually there just tall and slim, so lucky for me I’d been training hard in the gym. The first thing I did was introduce myself to some of the models then with-in 30 minutes Danish asked me to try on some of his outfits, I was to wear just one outfit for the show. Around 3pm some more models arrived  and one of them was a lady that I’d previously met on face book,  Katusha Fletcher. As well as a model Katusha also runs her own business’s  “Explosion PR” and an events company “Secret Sundays”, (clever girl) it was nice seeing a recognizable face even though I hadn’t actually met her, she was very friendly and down-to-earth, which I liked.

Some of the models now started to practice on the catwalk, I watched very closely, taking in as much info as possible, (I didn’t want to show myself up too much when it came to me practicing you see!) I managed to watch for about an hour and then I was asked to have my make-up applied, this was going to be interesting as the make-up design would be white on half of my face (vertically) and the other half with blue lines, the lines would start from my eye and work outwards. I questioned the make-up to Danish asking if I had to have this creation rather than just going as me, I asked him this because I was about to have lots of photos taken by Lee and all the other photographers and I wanted to be completely recognizable, as you never know where all the photos will end up! I felt bad for asking because Danish had enough on his plate and I didn’t want to add to the tension, (besides I hate prima donnas and didn’t want to become one of them, lol). Danish promised that I would still be recognizable and if not he would get his make-up team to remove it, OK, so I felt a little bad for asking!!

Back stage there were  two make-up artist’s Clare Smith and Dimple Patel, they worked on 30 models and two presenters, they did a fantastic job on creating this extensive artistic make-up,  they really did the job of  five make-up artists! Clare did my make-up, it took her about 30 minutes which was very fast considering that this was no ordinary make-up job. When Clare had finished she convinced me that I was still recognizable, in fact at this point I didn’t even care because I thought the make-up design looked great. Well done Clare and Dimple!

Having my make-up applied by Clare.

Dimple working her make-up magic as well!

A few of the models had the most amazing body art, which was created by Aliya Khan, three of the male models (one of them Danish) had a corset painted on them and one of the female models Laetita Malingo had trousers and half a jacket painted on her naked body, from a distant it just looked like she was wearing clothes, very impressive Aliya!

Back stage Laetita Malingo, having her body art painted.

Model Sol Munyoro, showing the cool face and body art.

Model and fitness instructor Richard Scrivener, his body art had just been completed.

Last of the artists, there were two hairdressers that styled 31 of the models, Lina Varaniene and Kim Lomax again very impressive because I felt they did the job of around five hairdressers, (which is extremely tiring) I was the only one that they didn’t style, for obvious reasons of me styling it myself. They did a very good job of everyone’s hair.

Hairdresser Kim Lomax, styling Richards hair.

Hairdresser Lina Varaniene at work!

It was now time for me to practice walking on the catwalk and show the choreographer Reuben Joseph what I was made of. Remember I had previously been watching Reuben showing the other models what to do because it wasn’t just the case of walking up and down, he wanted to make it more theatrical and therefore had to choreograph it to perfection.

Anyway back to the part where I was about to show myself up, as I started to walk down the catwalk I was concentrating on holding my head up high, walking fairly quick, shoulders pulled back, thinking I was doing at least a half descent job, he looked at me and said, “mmmm, I think I’ll need a good 15 minutes with you”, well what can one do! I gave it my best shot!!

For the next hour or so I sat back and watched all the professionals walking and doing there theatrics on the catwalk. At around 6pm Reuben got back to me and then showed me how it’s done, (he was just brilliant and like myself  a total perfectionist) after about 15 minutes of practice he did seem quite happy with me, although time will now tell as I only had a few hours to go!!

Great shot of Reuben Joseph choreographing the show!

A model taking a chunk out of her neck, all for the sake of rehearsals!

Model Danielle Bromley practicing on the catwalk!

Me with some of the male models. Seriously I am 5’10, these guys are just tall!!

Me with some of the female models. OK so there crouching down to make me look taller.

Just before the show started Rae Lim and her dancing partner put on a spectacular Salsa dance routine.

Rae and dancing  partner strutting their stuff!

The next group of photos are some of the models at work, the first being the main man himself Danish Wakeel, with his corset body art designed by Aliya Khan, to his trousers and long assymetric jacket both designed by his own hands (along with his entire collection)

Who says muscular models aren’t flexible!! With Pettit Flower Ocampo to the left (cool name) and Katusha Fletcher to the right.

Love this photo, great body art, modeled by Laetita Malingo!!

Another great shot!

The next few hours passed very quick indeed and it was nearly time to strut my stuff. Danish organized my catwalk debut near the end, which would be the closing of the show. I was to walk on with two of the models, Masha Bogdanova, who I previously met on face book but this was the first time I actually met her (same as Katusha) and Marta Dobrowolska, who I met for the first time from an introduction through Danish, both Masha and Marta were really lovely girls, easy to chat to and very friendly. The idea was for the three of us to walk on together, then I would walk one way and the girls the other, we would meet on the way back, then all three of us would stand and pose for the camera’s (and boy there were lots of them), then Masha and Marta would try and yank my top off and I’d be stopping them from completely taking it off, so as I mentioned earlier a bit theatrical!!

One of the presenters Emma Hall, announces my name, the other presenter standing next to her was Fiona Ogedegbe.

A few seconds later I was walking the catwalk, as I walked out I heard people shouting my name and whistling from the 300 audience, which obviously was music to my ears but I just concentrated and tried to remember everything that Reuben taught me, my stomach did churn a little but all in all was great fun to do.

The moment of truth, hairdresser stepping onto the catwalk!

After my solo walk on the catwalk, met up with Marta on the left and Masha on the right. All three of us about to walk down together!

Both girls have pulled down my jacket!

Here we go, I’ve now yanked my top back on, with tons of attitude may I say!

Have walked to the end of the catwalk for even more photos.

After the last pose to camera all three of us turned around and kept going until we reached the end of the catwalk and then walked off. Phew, overall think it went quite well!

As I walked off the catwalk the first thought I had was one of relief  but a minute or so later just wanted to do it all again, crazy what adrenalin does!!

Well here was my chance to do it all again, as I would now walk the catwalk one more time, this would be with a friend of mine who’s also a fashion designer Lewis-Duncan Weedon, I’ve known Lewis for many years and felt good to walk with him, Lewis and I walked with the main man himself  ”Danish”, this was to congratulate him for such a successful show. When we got to the end of the catwalk we all posed to camera for about 30 seconds, turned around and then walked off.

Me, Danish and Lewis all posing to camera at the end of the catwalk.

Now it was time to relax and enjoy the after party!

Photographic credits: First photo taken by Charlie Hustle, three credited photos by Alan Harbord, one credited photo by Dan Harley, rest of Photos by Lee Collie.

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The style that I wanted to create was shoulder length hair with layers and then style the hair with big loose curls, I would set it around my fingers rather than using curling irons, making it full and sexy.

There were many girls present at the casting, of course all hoping to be signed up to the agency and also looking forward to the possibility of modelling for the hair video. I spoke to many girls on the casting and the model that stood out the most was Francesca. Francesca had fairly long hair and almost one length; The condition of her hair was not very good, it was also a little flat and lifeless, the colour was a combination of brassy copper and mousy brown. By looking at Francesca’s face shape, bone structure and complexion etc, I knew that what I wanted to create would look great on her, increasing the chance of her receiving some modelling work. I wanted to cut around 5 inches off the length and 3 inches from the layers, then my colourist Lara Clark would change the colour to an array of coppers and gold’s, then finally I would style her hair with a very loose sexy curl.

Once I explained this to Francesca she seemed very happy for my team and I to create the new hairstyle for her.

The next stage was for Francesca to meet me in the salon, this was so I could have one final look and also Lara would need to decide the exact colours to use. Lara has been the colourist for the last three videos; she has such passion and vision which makes her one of the best colourists around and a perfect choice in working with me on these exciting videos.

For this particular shoot I decided that I would also like to get involved with the filming, so Lara and I agreed to film each other working, I would also film Maria applying the make-up and the finished results outside in Neil’s Yard, this is the cool area outside the back entrance of the salon.

I bought an impressive HD camera a few years back and have practised with it for many hours, so I knew I could achieve exactly what I wanted, although this did make it a little more stressful but with the end results it was definitely worth it.

When Francesca arrived at the shoot she did seem a little nervous (and I didn’t blame her being such a big transformation) because the end results would represent her knew look as a model, although she did trust in both Lara and I and was happy for us to create her new image.

For this particular video this was the first time we used foil in the hair, (foils are used to separate colour in each individual packet) as all the other videos we applied full tints, for this reason it was very important for me to get the camera into the right position and make the foils going in look as exciting as possible, this was a challenge and for this reason I decided to film quite a bit from above by climbing onto a ladder, this gave me a nice bird’s eye view of the foils going in but also had the challenge of holding the camera with one hand and holding onto the ladder with the other without falling off, luckily I never did!

Once all the foils were placed in, Lara tinted the rest of the roots a different colour by painting in-between the foils. Lastly she painted the tint directly onto her glove and slowly wiped her hand down the hair giving it a really interesting texture.

Lara applying one of the colours.

Second colour being applied from the Phillips bird’s eye view.

You can just make out (from the photo above) the dryness of the hair, especially towards the ends and the difference between the colours, from the very tired brassy ends to the darker roots.

Lara paints the colour onto her glove and about to wipe her hand through Francesca’s hair.

Wiping her hand through Francesca’s hair, this is to create texture and depth.

Francesca’s colour is completely applied and now waiting for the colour to develop before washing it off.

After Francesca’s colour was washed off, I then started to create the new style, first I got Francesca to stand up, when you have long hair to cut you always get a better outline with the client standing, reason being; the hair falls in a more natural way giving you a nicer line with better results.

Once the back was cut I continued to layer the hair with Francesca sitting down. Francesca’s face shape was oval and quite small and felt it was important to create more fullness at the sides and cut a round shape for the outline and layers, square layers and outline on an oval face shape can sometimes tend to make the face look a bit too square, this is why I wanted to style it with roundness across her shoulder blades and all through the layers, this also helps the hair swing more producing  movement, shape and the all important femininity.

Spraying water in her hair just before I start to cut, if the hair is not completely sprayed with water and you end up with mixed dry and damp hair, this can make your haircut uneven because wet hair stretches more than dry.

Cutting off around 5 inches!  Doing this standing up gives you a nicer line at the back!

Scissor action of the hair being layered!

For the styling of the hair, after I applied a strong setting mouse, I wanted to show how to create a curl by wrapping a small piece of hair around my finger and then holding it in place with grips, this isn’t as easy as it looks because as you wrap the hair around it tends to get a bit stuck to your fingers, so for this reason as you wrap you have to make sure that you do it very loosely and with practice you could eventually do this to your own hair.

I have just blow-dried the first piece of hair from the front with a large round brush, this is to first dry the hair and then the heat from the dryer will set the hair after I’ve wound it around my finger, (as the hair is still warm). Remember there are no curling irons being used in order to create this set!

Side view of the hair that has been wrapped around my finger.

Maria Foster starts to apply the make-up, she decides to make the eyes stand out quite a lot with the lips being more neutral, I always leave it up to Maria because I know whatever her vision is, it’s going to be very good.

Maria starts her make-up magic.

Gluing in the false eyelashes.

Applying the pink lipstick.

Lara continued to film as I took out all the grips, watching the curls unravel looked really good on camera!  I then placed her head back and fired lots of that good old fashioned elnett throughout her hair.

All the grips have been taken out and the curl has been gently unravelled.

With Francesca’s head slightly tilted back, hairspray is being sprayed all through her hair.

We then took Francesca outside and filmed her walking about, giving a little attitude to camera and generally looking good. At one point a female police officer called me over and though I was about to get into trouble, this is what she said, “Which pop star is the lady your filming” loved it, put a big smile on my face and everyone else’s. By 7.30pm It was a wrap, what a good days work

I’m now thinking about the next video shoot, a good on-line magazine has already agreed to place the model on their front cover and a step-by-step DPS inside with a link to the video.

Here’s a little teaser for my next shoot, It will be very dramatic, will show me cutting off tons of hair between 6-10 inches and completely changing the colour of hair from a brown to a blonde. Watch this space!!

Bellow is the link to Victoria’s Secret Hair Tutorial. Enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/Stuartphillipssalon?feature=mhee

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One of my friends Marie suggested a friend of hers, a lady called Kate Klimt, so I first took a look at her pics on facebook, (such a handy website) as soon as I saw her I knew she’d be the right model but first had the important task in seeing if she’d be interested in changing her platinum blonde hair to blue black, (it’s the darkest form of black, with a hint of navy) then see if she was interested in losing a few inches from the back and sides, then finally a heavy eyebrow length fringe, which meant cutting around 5 inches to create the fringe.

A photo of Kate before the makeover!

Another shot of Kate!

I explained all to Kate and she seemed very interested, after all I think she was getting bored of her hairstyle, all that Kate needed was reinsurance that it was going to suit her and that I gave her, this was worked out by studying her face shape, bone structure, hair texture and skin tone.

I then made an appointment for Kate to come to the salon and see Lara my colourist and myself for the cut, up until then I only saw a selection of photos so I was a little apprehensive that when I met her, her personality may be wrong for the cut and colour and if so I couldn’t use her as a model because even if it suited her face shape etc, without the correct personality she wouldn’t pull it off but when I met her she most certainly did. Lara also confirmed that blue black would look great on her.

On paper so to speak the colour sounded awesome but Lara explained this process may take several hours because Kate’s hair was actually quite difficult to colour, reason being; her natural colour was a mousy brown, Kate originally bleached her hair to achieve the platinum blonde that she has now and kept it bleached for a couple of years, so presently there was a buildup of different blondes and even an orange tone near the roots.

I then phoned Maria Foster who has already applied make-up to many of my youtube video’s, I explained to Maria that this make-up has to be very powerful, (similar to Jessie J) and asked for dark eye’s with long lashes, black lips with rhinestones etc, I knew if anyone could do this (making it look sexy, powerful and classy) Maria could, she agreed to work with me on this project.

I then asked Annika Zajac if she would be happy to film the video, she agreed and so did the photographer Anna Ferraro, who would be taking all the photographs for the various stages of the transformation.

The day was now set for Sunday 27th March, (always best to film on a Sunday as the salon is closed to clients). Kate was the first to arrive so I decided to take one final look at her hair, Kate seemed a little nervous although you couldn’t blame her, as she was about to go through a huge transformation but was also excited as she trusted Lara and me implicitly.

Once Lara and I got the introduction to camera out the way, (explaining what we were about to do) she then started the hair colour transformation, first she coloured Kate’s hair using a warm undertone to replace the natural undertone that would have been present if the hair was naturally black, if this undertone process isn’t done it could turn the hair a green colour, which we obviously need to avoid, basically a dark colour mixed with a light colour will produce a green shade. This process took about 90 minutes as 2 applications of undertone was needed. Once the warm red colour had been washed and dried, Lara then applied the blue black.

Applying the warm undertone. You can see the different shades of blonde including an orange tone on the combed out piece of hair!

Applying the blue black colour with that lovely hue of blue starting to appear!

Roughly three hours later I began to cut Kate’s hair, I cut a few inches off, taking her hair slightly shorter than Jesse’s because I felt it was more important getting the suitability correct for Kate rather than copying it exact. Once I finished the cut I then began to blow-dry, as the hair was drying you could see more and more of the blue appearing through the black, which was looking rather good if I must say so. The next stage was my favorite part, as I was about to cut a Jessie J style fringe. I combed all the hair forward and started to cut a below eyebrow length fringe, this has to be done really carefully as my scissors were very close to her lashes and eyes and with the camera also very close it can make it a little tense, the reason being as your cutting you need to find the perfect length almost immediately, as it looks better on camera when you go straight for the desired length and chop it off but off camera we have the luxury to chip away as much as we like in order to reach the perfect length. I cut off roughly 5 inches and when finished you could start to see the Jessie J similarities.

Combing out the hair, then ready to start my Jessie J haircut.

Cutting a few inches from the nape of the neck, this is to help strengthen up the bob line!

Blow-drying the hair ready for the fringe to be cut.

Here we go, about to cut in the long eyebrow length fringe!

Precision cutting.

Almost finished cutting the fringe, look at the concentration on my face!!

Always best to check the symmetry of the bob standing up, that way your achieve a perfect bob line.

Maria was up next with the difficult task of creating the Jessie J make-up. I was very excited to see the finished results as this was going to look very powerful but had to be patient as this kind of make-up does take a while to apply. An hour later I wasn’t disappointed, in-fact it looked incredible, I loved the dark eyes surrounding the golden glistening eye lids and the black lips with all those cool looking black rhinestones. As the rhinestones were attaching to her lips you could actually see the light catching the stones and glistening, I just knew that would look great on camera.

Maria starts her make-up transformation.

Eyes starting to look good!

False eyelashes have now been applied.

Colouring the lips black, which is Jessie’s signature colour.

The cool Rhinestones being carefully placed all over the lips.

Once Kate got changed into outfit number 1 and as the weather was so nice we decided to take her outside and film the finished makeover, we asked her to walk up and down Monmouth street with lots of attitude, at first Kate was a bit shy and I don’t blame her as we started to build up quite an audience of people thinking that she was actually Jessie J, (job well done) after a few minutes Kate was pulling it of brilliantly, which I truly did appreciate because her top was a tiny bit revealing and had to walk holding it subtly, (hoping that it wouldn’t open up too much), no disasters there. The second outfit was totally different but equally as good, both were very similar to how Jessie would dress. There was a moment when Kate was standing outside and as she was being filmed her hair started to blow to one side and there was something about this that looked so good, I then started to visualize how amazing the edit was eventually going to look.

Below are the three finished Jessie J looks that were filmed in Monmouth Street.

By 7pm it was a wrap, I was so pleased with the shoot that I knew even before I started to edit that it was going to be my finest hair make-over to date because not only it was the biggest transformation (having that shock factor) but my team and I seemed to get really artistic with this particular video (by the way it was filmed) and the fact that this was the first time that we filmed the finished look in the street.

Everyone was very happy with the shoot but seriously tired, we were all ready to go home and relax, except me of course, I decided that when I got home to start downloading the footage from the video camera to my computer, you see I was far too excited and couldn’t wait till the next day, it took three hours to download, I then slowly started to fall asleep on my couch in front of the TV thinking to myself “what a great shoot”.

Special thanks to -

Kate Klimt – Hair Model

Lara Clark – Technician

Maria Foster –  Make-up

Anna Ferraro – Photographer

Annika Zajac – Camera

BELLOW IS THE JESSIE J VIDEO LINK  “ENJOY”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5L1FxZPOyY&feature=relmfu

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On this occasion I accepted to help because Eli, who is a good friend of mine and one of the directors of Katch PR, is a well connected lady and if she asks me to do something then I generally accept. It’s also good for my salon team to work together, its fun and breaks up their normal routine.

I asked five of my top stylist’s to help me at this event, they’re all very good at what they do, my team consisted of Christina Avizienyte, Tristan Eves, Lara Clark, Caron-Ann and of course myself.

There were two designers involved with the show, Trousers London was the men’s collection and the designer was Angel Tan and the women’s collection was called Math Collective and the designer was Shahzad Mohayudin.

Angel wanted all the 8 male models to be styled with a side parting, slicked back with gel and then blow-dried, (not the Grecian look) that was fairly simple but highly affective, Shahzad originally wanted all the 8 female models to have a loose ponytail and wrapped into a bun with pieces of hair pulled out and then back-combed but at the last minute asked for the hair to be worn down (with a messy bed head look), which was a shame as the first idea would have been a lot better, after speaking to Shahzad and explaining this, he then agreed and said to please go ahead as originally planned, hearing that was music to my ears.

My team and I arrived at 3pm, the first stylist to start was Tristan, he looked after the majority of the male models, then with-in 20 minutes or so the rest of us started working on our models.

Tristan looking at the amount of hair just before he starts to sleek the hair back.

Just like magic (and a bit of elbow grease) Tristan styles the models hair, as you can see he let’s the wave come through rather than squashing it into place.

Caron-Ann has just finished backcombing the models hair.

She has now gently brushed the hair up into a high ponytail and wrapped around into a bun, finally pulling out pieces of hair for the desired look. Looks great!!

Back to Tristan, look at that perfect parting!

Mr Phillips is looking at the amount of hair and thinking how’s all that going to go up!

Here we go, all the hair is up, finishing off by pulling a few bits of hair out and spraying with the old faithful Elnet.

Christina concentrating on the job at hand!

Lara’s almost finished with her model.

A close up of Lara’s hair art.

There was going to be two shows the first at 6.30pm and that was for the members of the Hospital club (the venue for the show) and the second was planned for 8.30pm.

My team and I managed to finish all the 16 models by 6pm so we had 30 minutes to wait before the first show would start. I managed to sit on the front row where I could watch because then I would get to see our work up close & personnel and if any changes were needed my team and I could do that straight after the show, reason being; the next show was slightly more important as potential buyers, Celeb faces, and industry people would be present, as it happens there were no changes needed, except a bit of tweaking here and there.

At 7.45pm I waiting with my team in the hair room ready to re-spray all the models hair and make sure no more grips were needed etc.

At 8pm Janice Dickinson arrived, “fashionably late may I say” and as expected I was to style her hair, (which I love doing) first the make-up artist applied the make-up, she took an impressive 20 minutes, (which is quite fast) then I was next. I have a great friendship with Janice which makes my job even easier, although having said that I only had about ten minutes to style her hair as Janice was needed to be sitting in the audience by 8.30pm; so I was hoping that she would like my ten minutes of styling. I did the best I could in the time I had, basically I added a little more curl, lucky for me she liked what I did!

I then caught the lift downstairs with Janice, Eli and Georgie (Georgie is the other director of Katch PR), as we stepped out the lift I noticed how packed it was, (much busier than the first show) I then asked Janice where are we going to sit, she replied don’t you worry and grabbed my hand, we then walked together down the middle of the catwalk, posing for a few OK! Magazine photos etc, then as we went to sit down realized there’s nowhere to sit! Janice then gave a hard stare at a few of the girls that was sitting in what we felt were our seats, lol and then with-in the next few seconds the two girls stood up and said please sit here Janice, Janice then pulled me down tightly next to her, which I didn’t complain about!

Bellow are some of the shots captured on the catwalk.

Best shot on the catwalk

The boys.

Shahzad, Janice and me, on the catwalk just after the show.

The show was very good, in fact it was one of the most professional fashion shows that I’ve seen in many years. well done to Katch PR, the Button club and of course the designers make-up artist’s and the Stuart Phillips team.

Now it was time to mingle at the after party!

At least their hair was still looking good at the after party

Bellow is the link from London Fashion Week, with Janice Dickinson having her hair styled by me.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Stuartphillipssalon?feature=mhum

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Rather than going to a model agency I tend to approach some of my good looking friends. It’s a good deal for them, as they receive a complimentary cut, colour and the finished edited video.

For this particular shoot I decided to make-over two models, one would be a similar style to Katy Perry’s hair and the other Rihanna. This wasn’t an easy task because Rihanna’s latest look (from the beginning of February 2011) was bright red hair with a short choppy fringe and Katy Perry’s hair is jet black, what I needed was to find models that would suit this type of hair.

Before shot of Katy.

Katy had a mixture of red and brown hair so a strong red would definitely suit her. I also needed to cut a fringe just above her brows, similar to this photo of Rihanna bellow.

This particular red of Rihanna would not suit many people, so one of my colourists Lara had the task of choosing a red that would suit Katy’s skin tone rather than just copying Rihanna’s red exactly,  hairdressing is all about suitability so the red that Lara will choose will be our interpretation but very similar.

The other model I chose was Martina, when I originally looked at Martina’s hair it was a light brown so I could see from that the black would really suit her skin tone and colour of eyes.

Before shot of Martina.

I decided to make life more difficult by styling Martina’s hair in two completely different ways, both were signature Katy Perry styles, first look would be side parted and set in rollers but leaving out the roots, this would give it a wavy sexy feel but with straighter roots (similar to the photo bellow)

The second style would be a high funky ponytail, (similar to the photo bellow but slightly more fanned out, making it even more funky than Katy’s).

As the shoot was on a Sunday I decided to drive because travelling the Central line on a Sunday is pretty hit and miss (engineering work etc). The shoot started at 10am (not too early for a Sunday) as I arrived outside the salon Anna the photographer was already waiting,  this was a good opportunity to go through the entire day with her one more time, the photography is such an important part of the shoot because I normally incorporate them into the video and of course this blog.

Next to arrive was my first model Katy, I knew Katy would look fabulous on film, not only because she’s nice looking but also has a lovely personality which comes across well on film. Scott who was filming was next to arrive and with-in 5 minutes he started to film, I was talking to camera about the style that I was going to create on Katy, that was probably the hardest part because I had to talk for about 10 minutes. Lara and Christina arrived next, Lara was going to colour Katy’s hair and Christina was to colour Martina’s hair.

The second model Martina and Maria the make-up artist both arived next, Lara then started to colour Katy’s hair and I did the same thing to camera with Martina, (talking about what I was going to do).

Lara applying the first colour to Katy’s hair. So far Katy’s looking very excited about her new Rihanna style. Hope she’s going to like the end result!!

Lara applying the second colour, you can now see the intensity of the red.

Christina just starting to apply the black to Martina’s light brown hair.

Christina in full swing as Scott starts to film. Check out how thick Martina’s hair is, lucky girl.

The difficult part of the day was filming two different video’s back to back without the camera seeing both at once, (due to the many mirrors in the salon), aside from this the day was progressing fairly well.

Maria started her make-up around 2pm; I like working with Maria as she is always professional and so good at what she does, a gem to work with.

Maria starting to apply some of the make-up on Katy.

Looking at Katy’s hair one last time before I start to cut.

Cutting a short choppy fringe into Katy’s hair.

Maria finishing off Katy’s make-up.

Katy’s very happy with the finished look.

Starting to cut Martina’s hair, can’t remember if I cracked a joke !!

Before I set Martina’s hair in rollers I needed to blow-dry her hair straight, this is because it’s slightly wavy and a touch frizzy and if you place the rollers straight in you will not get a good result.

The rollers are being placed in Martina’s hair in a very specific way, (they are not wound right up to the roots), this is because I want to keep the root area straighter, (similar to Katy Perrys hair)

The last few rollers going in.

Maria applying Martina’s make-up.

Rollers are out and I’m just putting the final tweaks into place. Can’t remember what I was whistling to!! Lol.

Martina’s first finished style. Went for more of  a natural look with the make-up than Katy Perry’s. Martina was really happy with her style, unfortunately I was about to brush it all out ready for the second look.

Maria changing Martina’s lipstick for the second look.

Have brushed out the first style and starting to scoop the hair up (with the help of one of my apprentices Santana) into a high ponytail.

Have now taken a small section at the front of the ponytail and made a plait, the plait was then wrapped around the base of the ponytail and gripped in.

I am now back-combing the ponytail, then carefully smoothing into place with a paddle brush to produce a fanned out look.

Looking in the mirror making sure that the ponytail is perfect.

Martina’s finished second look.

A week later and I have now finished the first edit of Katy (Rihanna). I have placed the youtube link bellow. Next week I’ll start the edit of Martina, (Katy Perry) and when finished will  add the link bellow.

I’m looking forward to the next makeover video, at this moment not sure what style I’ll choose, think I’ll finish the second edit first before I decide!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v17lEFImXQE

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