Thursday, February 28, 2013
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Andrew Williams in Africa
Adorn stylist, Andrew Williams, recently took off to Africa for two weeks. He packed his bags, got his shots, and said goodbye to his friends and family. Excited to go somewhere completely different from anything he has ever known, he departed to Cote D'Ivoire. Now he has returned, and sat down to share some of his gained insight.
I think one of the most meaningful things for me was realizing that all of humanity is prone to this ‘grass is always greener on the other side’ myth. To see how I idealize Africa, and then when I got there, to see how they idealize America - and all the ways that we imagine other places to be more magical than where we are.
What did you imagine Africa was going to be like?
Well, I’d been to Africa once before so I had a pretty realistic idea, but I still have a tendency to idealize other places and ancient cultures and so I sort of go there like dreaming of something from the past. And that’s not what you get. What you get is, like, something from the present, and it’s not what it used to be it’s what it is now. So, I think I kind of want it to be what it used to be and then I get there and it’s not, and that might kind of feel like a disappointment, but then, like, I kind of realize it’s not a disappointment and that it’s actually more magical that way. All the magic that I imagined is there, just not in the way that I expected to find it.
What was the most challenging part for you?
Besides the language barrier, which makes everything three times as hard, I think the most challenging thing was just trying to adjust my mind and even more so my body to the way of life over there, because it’s so rough and so different. Just to get used to breathing copious amounts of pollution and dealing with a such a different lifestyle; trying to sleep, and trying to eat, and sort of like the visceral reality of being in such a hardcore place. Also, everyone is so desperate, and they think I’m rich because I’m American, so everyone is constantly expecting a handout, which I can’t afford- that was the most difficult thing of all; facing the desperation and not being equipped to make a difference.
What was the food like?
It was almost always the same thing everyday for lunch and dinner - it was a variation of the same thing. It’s always this, like, spicy, red sauce and some kind of meat in it; fish, ox, or goat. You eat it with your hands and everybody eats together with their hands and you just mash it up with some rice or attieke (ah-check-ae) which is ground up casava root that they cook and make it into something you would think was a grain like couscous, or quinua - if you didn’t know it was actually a root vegetable. You, like, mash it up in your hands with the meat and sauce and get really messy and shove it in your mouth.
As a picky-eater, did you enjoy it?
A lot of the time I enjoyed it, but I had such a wide range of quality and freshness so when it was good quality and it was fresh it was really damn good, but it was weird to adjust to eating with my hands and sharing the food with everyone and, like, lots of people would just sit down with me and eat my food, and they wouldn’t ask, and they wouldn’t thank me, and they would just like... That was one of the hardest things to adjust to was this weird, unspoken rule that you share everything especially your food. Just the fact that it seemed to be expected that every time I ate, five people were going to sit down and eat my food with me with their hands. Sharing saliva with everyone every time I wanted to eat was a really interesting experience and sometimes it was really frustrating, but it was part of the value of the whole cultural immersion [laughs].
What did you see there that inspired you?
There was a lot of incredible fashion. Their style is super bangin’, their hair is super fly, and their clothes are super fly. Weaves are really big over there. Weaves for women just totally dominate and there’s different kinds of weaves. There’s, like, big, long absurdly unrealistic weaves that weigh 10 pounds and, more popular, there are these really tight weaves that you almost wouldn’t realize it’s a weave until you realize that their hair couldn’t possibly look like that because its so straight. What they do is, they take this fake hair in multi-colors like red, green, and black, and they braid it into these insanely beautiful ornate braids that go halfway down their back. You can’t even tell it’s fake hair until you stop to think about it for a second.
Traditional fashion is still really strong and it’s gorgeous, beautifully patterned handmade clothes. I got to sit in a hut with these guys who were making the stuff traditionally and they, I don’t know why they do it, I guess it softens the cloth or something, but they take the cloth and stretch it over half of a smooth log and they take these giant wooden hammers and one person sits on either side and it’s like their playing drums. They smash it back and forth making a rhythm and they move the cloth the whole time so that they’re smashing every inch of the fabric really hard. They do that to every single piece of traditional cloth. The traditional fabrics and dresses are ridiculously gorgeous - the traditional hair is stellar. I got to go to a few traditional ceremonies with traditional music where one woman will always be the master of ceremonies. She’ll sing the whole time and a lot of the community will come out in traditional dress and they all sit around and the traditional musicians are playing djembe and other drums. She’ll be singing and she’ll start singing about a person who’s there and she’ll be singing, “This person is a beautiful person, she just had a baby and she’s a strong member of our community,” and then while she’s going around and singing people are giving her small amounts of money. She’s gathering all this money and then she takes it and she gives it to that person she’s singing about.
I think that in the sense of the human experience and your experience as an individual - everyone wants the same things and everyone struggles with the same things. I tried to go to the most ridiculously out of the way, unknown place I possibly could in the whole world and still I find that I feel the same and everybody is the same. I think that my imaginary idea of some exotic place and exotic people and all these exotic things is kind of made up and no matter where you go in the world, it’s always the same narrative. I sort of resign myself to that and there’s kind of an interesting peace in that resignation and sort of a strange beauty. So it ended up being more of an enlightening experience in accepting myself and my life and the world and the way it is, as opposed to going to some wildly different place where I feel way different and everything is different.
I think another interesting thing that I found myself thinking about a lot over there - again, I have these ideas that so many of the really difficult things to face in the world and in life like abject poverty and disease and inequality, all the things that their dealing with over there - I always want to blame those on evil people and I want it to be this like simple black and white narrative of evil people did evil things and now stuff is messed up, but going over there really forces me to accept that it’s really not that simple and the difficulty of the way that things are is more complicated than that, and you can’t just easily point the blame at colonialism or exploitation. I kind of had to accept that this is the reality that people have created for themselves. And that the responsibility is much more widespread and harder to pin down. I always try to make it into this narrative of something that is so simple as bad people did bad stuff, but we do this to ourselves and that’s something I found myself thinking about a lot over there. So all of these heavy thoughts are actually inspiring to me, I’ve gained an interesting sort of clarity from this journey, though not necessarily the sort I was looking for.
What did you imagine Africa was going to be like?
Well, I’d been to Africa once before so I had a pretty realistic idea, but I still have a tendency to idealize other places and ancient cultures and so I sort of go there like dreaming of something from the past. And that’s not what you get. What you get is, like, something from the present, and it’s not what it used to be it’s what it is now. So, I think I kind of want it to be what it used to be and then I get there and it’s not, and that might kind of feel like a disappointment, but then, like, I kind of realize it’s not a disappointment and that it’s actually more magical that way. All the magic that I imagined is there, just not in the way that I expected to find it.
What was the most challenging part for you?
Besides the language barrier, which makes everything three times as hard, I think the most challenging thing was just trying to adjust my mind and even more so my body to the way of life over there, because it’s so rough and so different. Just to get used to breathing copious amounts of pollution and dealing with a such a different lifestyle; trying to sleep, and trying to eat, and sort of like the visceral reality of being in such a hardcore place. Also, everyone is so desperate, and they think I’m rich because I’m American, so everyone is constantly expecting a handout, which I can’t afford- that was the most difficult thing of all; facing the desperation and not being equipped to make a difference.
What was the food like?
It was almost always the same thing everyday for lunch and dinner - it was a variation of the same thing. It’s always this, like, spicy, red sauce and some kind of meat in it; fish, ox, or goat. You eat it with your hands and everybody eats together with their hands and you just mash it up with some rice or attieke (ah-check-ae) which is ground up casava root that they cook and make it into something you would think was a grain like couscous, or quinua - if you didn’t know it was actually a root vegetable. You, like, mash it up in your hands with the meat and sauce and get really messy and shove it in your mouth.
As a picky-eater, did you enjoy it?
A lot of the time I enjoyed it, but I had such a wide range of quality and freshness so when it was good quality and it was fresh it was really damn good, but it was weird to adjust to eating with my hands and sharing the food with everyone and, like, lots of people would just sit down with me and eat my food, and they wouldn’t ask, and they wouldn’t thank me, and they would just like... That was one of the hardest things to adjust to was this weird, unspoken rule that you share everything especially your food. Just the fact that it seemed to be expected that every time I ate, five people were going to sit down and eat my food with me with their hands. Sharing saliva with everyone every time I wanted to eat was a really interesting experience and sometimes it was really frustrating, but it was part of the value of the whole cultural immersion [laughs].
What did you see there that inspired you?
There was a lot of incredible fashion. Their style is super bangin’, their hair is super fly, and their clothes are super fly. Weaves are really big over there. Weaves for women just totally dominate and there’s different kinds of weaves. There’s, like, big, long absurdly unrealistic weaves that weigh 10 pounds and, more popular, there are these really tight weaves that you almost wouldn’t realize it’s a weave until you realize that their hair couldn’t possibly look like that because its so straight. What they do is, they take this fake hair in multi-colors like red, green, and black, and they braid it into these insanely beautiful ornate braids that go halfway down their back. You can’t even tell it’s fake hair until you stop to think about it for a second.
Traditional fashion is still really strong and it’s gorgeous, beautifully patterned handmade clothes. I got to sit in a hut with these guys who were making the stuff traditionally and they, I don’t know why they do it, I guess it softens the cloth or something, but they take the cloth and stretch it over half of a smooth log and they take these giant wooden hammers and one person sits on either side and it’s like their playing drums. They smash it back and forth making a rhythm and they move the cloth the whole time so that they’re smashing every inch of the fabric really hard. They do that to every single piece of traditional cloth. The traditional fabrics and dresses are ridiculously gorgeous - the traditional hair is stellar. I got to go to a few traditional ceremonies with traditional music where one woman will always be the master of ceremonies. She’ll sing the whole time and a lot of the community will come out in traditional dress and they all sit around and the traditional musicians are playing djembe and other drums. She’ll be singing and she’ll start singing about a person who’s there and she’ll be singing, “This person is a beautiful person, she just had a baby and she’s a strong member of our community,” and then while she’s going around and singing people are giving her small amounts of money. She’s gathering all this money and then she takes it and she gives it to that person she’s singing about.
I think that in the sense of the human experience and your experience as an individual - everyone wants the same things and everyone struggles with the same things. I tried to go to the most ridiculously out of the way, unknown place I possibly could in the whole world and still I find that I feel the same and everybody is the same. I think that my imaginary idea of some exotic place and exotic people and all these exotic things is kind of made up and no matter where you go in the world, it’s always the same narrative. I sort of resign myself to that and there’s kind of an interesting peace in that resignation and sort of a strange beauty. So it ended up being more of an enlightening experience in accepting myself and my life and the world and the way it is, as opposed to going to some wildly different place where I feel way different and everything is different.
I think another interesting thing that I found myself thinking about a lot over there - again, I have these ideas that so many of the really difficult things to face in the world and in life like abject poverty and disease and inequality, all the things that their dealing with over there - I always want to blame those on evil people and I want it to be this like simple black and white narrative of evil people did evil things and now stuff is messed up, but going over there really forces me to accept that it’s really not that simple and the difficulty of the way that things are is more complicated than that, and you can’t just easily point the blame at colonialism or exploitation. I kind of had to accept that this is the reality that people have created for themselves. And that the responsibility is much more widespread and harder to pin down. I always try to make it into this narrative of something that is so simple as bad people did bad stuff, but we do this to ourselves and that’s something I found myself thinking about a lot over there. So all of these heavy thoughts are actually inspiring to me, I’ve gained an interesting sort of clarity from this journey, though not necessarily the sort I was looking for.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Davines 'For Wizards' Cheat Sheet
"We love things that reflect simplicity and harmony because their beauty is always modern. And although we’re in tune with today’s mood, we set out to create concepts and products that are destined to become classics with their timeless appeal."
The Davines line forwards is designed for creating styles so imaginative they seem magical.
No. 1 Finest Oil Non Oil - Helps give a naturally smooth texture to frizzy/fly away hair. It aids in taming it without making it limp and lifeless. It is great for blowouts on course, thick, unruly hair. Can be used on dry hair for light and texturized hold. If used generously on wet hair, it provides a wet look, great for fingerwaves, pin curls, and other molded hairstyles. Made with sweet almond protein resulting in hair that is soft and moisturized.
No. 2 Mat Moulding Gesso - Provides an opaque effect for control and definition. Can be used on dry hair to model/shape individual locks with a matt effect. This is a firm hold, water soluble wax that shampoos out easily. It also has many ingredients that nourish and condition the hair.
No. 3 Universal Mattering Mousse - This product is amazing for giving volume to fine, limp or lifeless hair. Use this mousse on wet hair to get noticeable volume with firm hold and lasting control. Full of conditioning agents and wheat proteins, this mousse also contains pathenol for a moisturizing effect and high shine finish.
No. 4 Glossy Modeling Putty - Use this product on dry hair to separate and fix individual locks. It shapes hair with a bright and glossy effect. Perfect for curly hair! This product contains oils and silicones that provide softness and sheen.
No. 5 Mat Pliable Stucco - Use this product on dry hair for control and definition with a matt finish - perfect for short to medium styles. Work a little of the product into the crown area and back-comb for amazing lift. Can be used for daily styles, extra volume, and grip in updos. Lightweight and non oily, this product has a mixture of waxes and oils that shape without weighing down your hair and leaves you with an opaque finish.
No. 6 Glossy Plasteline - Provides a very strong hold with a glossy finish. Use this product on dry hair to shape, separate and provide texture. It is suitable for all hair types, but for fine hair it is best if used sparingly. Can also be used sparingly on wet hair for incredible shine.
No. 7 Crystal Fixative Lacquer - This product renders a strong, long-lasting hold without residue or weighing down the hair. Apply this product to dry hair as a finishing spray. Fine hair clients especially love the weightless hold this spray provides. This spray has silicone for crystalline shine and panthenol to moisturize hair.
No. 8 Quick Setting Hard Gel - Provides a quick setting, firm hold that is ideal for short or curly hair. Can be used on wet or dry hair. Apply on wet hair and blowout for long lasting hold. For a wet look apply on dry hair. This product can be refreshed by running wet hands through hair - great for active clients with little styling time. This product contains resins for hold and panthenol and silicones for moisture and shine without the flakiness commonly associated with gels.
No. 9 Structure Mist - This mist is terrific for hot sets. Can be used for updos, iron work and as a finishing spray. With silicone and panthenol for moisture, this spray will not flake and will give a bright, smooth, shiny finish to iron work and finished styles.
No. 10 Universal Polishing Coat - Provides medium hold with shiny finish. Apply to wet or dry hair to give hold and definition - be cautious using this product on finer hair textures. When used sparingly with heating tools such as irons or blow dryers, this product gives great body. Made with silicones and panthenol to leave hair nourished. Fantastic for smoothing flyaways at the hairline or stray hairs in updos. A little goes a long way!
No. 11 Instant Grip Glue - Super strong, super quick setting grip. Great for short styles, spiky styles, and extreme styles. This product is wonderful for men and women with short hair that they want to stay in place all day long. Work quickly with this product, there is not much slip or play time before it sets into a super firm hold. Working with increments about the size of a pea and adding more as needed makes working with this quick setter easier.
No. 12 Cement Powder - A unique blend of pure resins designed to add increase hold level to any product it is combined with. One shake of this powder into any styling product will increase the hold and staying power. Pair with No. 11 for liberty spikes, mohawks or heavily spiked styles. One shake equals one extra level of hold and is sufficient for most styles. If you choose to add more shakes for extreme hold, you must working quickly because this product will set in a matter of seconds and become hard to work with if you don’t move fast.
No. 13 Mat Forming Ground - This product gives hair a dry effect that leaves hair with a rough texture. This product sets immediately and provides all-day hold and definition. Use on dry hair for a roughed-up, matt look. Great for styling spiky, short styles and for holding down short bangs or cowlicks that won’t behave.
No. 14 Sea Salt Primer - Fantastic for beachy, rumpled texture with a lived-in look. This spray gives body, fullness, light hold, and extra volume for a wind-swept matt finish. Great for encouraging curly or wavy hair when scrunched in wet and allowed to air dry. This product also makes a good blow dry lotion that will help smooth and volumize waves without completely straightening them.
The Davines line forwards is designed for creating styles so imaginative they seem magical.
No. 1 Finest Oil Non Oil - Helps give a naturally smooth texture to frizzy/fly away hair. It aids in taming it without making it limp and lifeless. It is great for blowouts on course, thick, unruly hair. Can be used on dry hair for light and texturized hold. If used generously on wet hair, it provides a wet look, great for fingerwaves, pin curls, and other molded hairstyles. Made with sweet almond protein resulting in hair that is soft and moisturized.
No. 2 Mat Moulding Gesso - Provides an opaque effect for control and definition. Can be used on dry hair to model/shape individual locks with a matt effect. This is a firm hold, water soluble wax that shampoos out easily. It also has many ingredients that nourish and condition the hair.
No. 3 Universal Mattering Mousse - This product is amazing for giving volume to fine, limp or lifeless hair. Use this mousse on wet hair to get noticeable volume with firm hold and lasting control. Full of conditioning agents and wheat proteins, this mousse also contains pathenol for a moisturizing effect and high shine finish.
No. 4 Glossy Modeling Putty - Use this product on dry hair to separate and fix individual locks. It shapes hair with a bright and glossy effect. Perfect for curly hair! This product contains oils and silicones that provide softness and sheen.
No. 5 Mat Pliable Stucco - Use this product on dry hair for control and definition with a matt finish - perfect for short to medium styles. Work a little of the product into the crown area and back-comb for amazing lift. Can be used for daily styles, extra volume, and grip in updos. Lightweight and non oily, this product has a mixture of waxes and oils that shape without weighing down your hair and leaves you with an opaque finish.
No. 6 Glossy Plasteline - Provides a very strong hold with a glossy finish. Use this product on dry hair to shape, separate and provide texture. It is suitable for all hair types, but for fine hair it is best if used sparingly. Can also be used sparingly on wet hair for incredible shine.
No. 7 Crystal Fixative Lacquer - This product renders a strong, long-lasting hold without residue or weighing down the hair. Apply this product to dry hair as a finishing spray. Fine hair clients especially love the weightless hold this spray provides. This spray has silicone for crystalline shine and panthenol to moisturize hair.
No. 8 Quick Setting Hard Gel - Provides a quick setting, firm hold that is ideal for short or curly hair. Can be used on wet or dry hair. Apply on wet hair and blowout for long lasting hold. For a wet look apply on dry hair. This product can be refreshed by running wet hands through hair - great for active clients with little styling time. This product contains resins for hold and panthenol and silicones for moisture and shine without the flakiness commonly associated with gels.
No. 9 Structure Mist - This mist is terrific for hot sets. Can be used for updos, iron work and as a finishing spray. With silicone and panthenol for moisture, this spray will not flake and will give a bright, smooth, shiny finish to iron work and finished styles.
No. 10 Universal Polishing Coat - Provides medium hold with shiny finish. Apply to wet or dry hair to give hold and definition - be cautious using this product on finer hair textures. When used sparingly with heating tools such as irons or blow dryers, this product gives great body. Made with silicones and panthenol to leave hair nourished. Fantastic for smoothing flyaways at the hairline or stray hairs in updos. A little goes a long way!
No. 11 Instant Grip Glue - Super strong, super quick setting grip. Great for short styles, spiky styles, and extreme styles. This product is wonderful for men and women with short hair that they want to stay in place all day long. Work quickly with this product, there is not much slip or play time before it sets into a super firm hold. Working with increments about the size of a pea and adding more as needed makes working with this quick setter easier.
No. 12 Cement Powder - A unique blend of pure resins designed to add increase hold level to any product it is combined with. One shake of this powder into any styling product will increase the hold and staying power. Pair with No. 11 for liberty spikes, mohawks or heavily spiked styles. One shake equals one extra level of hold and is sufficient for most styles. If you choose to add more shakes for extreme hold, you must working quickly because this product will set in a matter of seconds and become hard to work with if you don’t move fast.
No. 13 Mat Forming Ground - This product gives hair a dry effect that leaves hair with a rough texture. This product sets immediately and provides all-day hold and definition. Use on dry hair for a roughed-up, matt look. Great for styling spiky, short styles and for holding down short bangs or cowlicks that won’t behave.
No. 14 Sea Salt Primer - Fantastic for beachy, rumpled texture with a lived-in look. This spray gives body, fullness, light hold, and extra volume for a wind-swept matt finish. Great for encouraging curly or wavy hair when scrunched in wet and allowed to air dry. This product also makes a good blow dry lotion that will help smooth and volumize waves without completely straightening them.
Holiday Childress
Full interview below...
Interview with Adorn Stylist Holiday Childress
Interview by Kimala Luna
It was early and surprisingly warm for January when I sat down to interview Holiday Childress on the benches near the Vance monument. Holiday Childress has been working at Adorn for almost two years. In his words, “It’s been wonderful.” We sat down to talk a little bit about his experience being a stylist.
Childress:
I can’t believe that I’m a hairdresser because I never grew up thinking about hair, I always grew up thinking about music. And as a performer and songwriter and a musician, after having a couple of kids, I discovered I needed a day job. I have been in the service business for a long time, anyway, so it seemed like a good place to start doing something. It was either nursing, or hair, or massage therapy - Hair was the choice. I realized I really like it. I originally wanted to open a barber shop. And just have a jukebox, and a pool table, and some beers on tap and just cut guys hair all day long, and maybe even learn how to do that straight-razor shaving. But when I was in hair school, and then in my apprenticeship, I learned how to do color. And after I started doing color, I realized I like color more than I thought and it’s turned into one of my main things.
I love doing color and the way that it influences the cut. Color is kind of musical to me. [...]a lot of times, I like to use three tones - a low-light, a mid-light, and a high-light and combine them together like a harmony that kind of goes together. So I’m always thinking in terms of balance, and harmony, and music, but now I get to do it visually. And Adorn is an awesome place to do that because it feels kind of like a barber shop in there, but it’s a beauty salon at the same time so I still get to feel like a man while I am putting color in women’s hair and cutting men’s hair.
Childress describes how he came to work at Adorn....
Childress: There was an ad in the paper that said, “Adorn is seeking a stylist: humble rockstars need only apply.” And I read that and thought to myself, “I fit that description.” So, I gave Rebecca a call and she had me come in. I did a color and a cut on a curly haired model and she thought it was good enough to be adorn and so then I started about a week or two later.
Childress explains his knack for different hair textures and how he creates styles for his clients...
Childress: I happen to do a lot of blonde hair and fine, blonde hair. I have a lot of fine, blonde, hair clients who are really happy because I have fine hair and it’s kind of dirty blonde and maybe that’s it. You know? If someone has curly hair then they’d [probably] be good with curly hair folks, so I tend to have some happy fine, blonde hair clients. But I’ve learned how to cut a lot of curly hair because I have had a lot of people close to me in my life that have had curly hair that I’ve worked on, as well. The psychology of who someone is, I think, is the most important thing. I really like talking to people and kind of getting a sense of who they are so I can give them a look that suits the person that they are. You can tell a lot from the way people - their body language - how they touch their hair. If they don’t know how to describe what they want they just go (reaches his hands up and fusses with imaginary hair), “Well...uh..it kind of..uh.” (Fusses a little more with imaginary hair and then stops). And I can tell exactly [what they mean] by looking [at their hair] and by looking at their body language and kind of finding out what they do for a living and who they are in the world. I kind of feel my way around their intuition. The client’s intuition is always the best thing to go by. Because if you follow their intuition most of the time, almost all of the time, you come out with a happy client. And if I don’t think something is going to look good on somebody, I might give them [something] in that direction, but not totally. I don’t know, I like to take baby-steps sometimes. Unless someone totally wants something drastic...but now I’m just starting to babble (laughs).
Childress talks Davines...
Childress: We have some really killer products. It’s an Italian company called Davines. I first started using a lot of Bumble & Bumble products and I really liked those and I was sad to leave the Bumble & Bumble line because I knew it and it worked really well. But then when I starting using the Davines products, it was a little confusing because things got lost in translation, as far as the products they are numbered - 1,2,3,4,5 and they have different lines and with the Italian translation to English it’s kind of hard to understand, but once you do, they’re fantastic. They work really well, they look beautiful, and they smell amazing. And it says, “For Wizards.” So a lot of times I joke with people, I say, “I don’t know if you’re going to be able to use this product or not because it’s for wizards.” and they’ll laugh and then I’ll show them and it actually says, “For Wizards.” I don’t know where that comes from or why it’s for wizards, but I feel like a wizard when I use Davines styling products (laughs).
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