News - Andrew Gilbert's View

Text by Andrew Gilbert // Image by Jamie Harrison // Published Friday 8 July 2011

MyHairDressers.com Creative Director reflects on the upcoming hairdressing video tutorials and the haircuts and hairstyles filmed during the 2011 Summer Shoot in the MyHairDressers.com studios last week. 

Standing back and trying to understand which hairdressing video tutorials the several thousand of our members would value watching in a salon or college environment, as well as from a global market perspective, is always a mammoth task. From briefings with the contributors beforehand, however, I soon came to realise that with the cross section of artists we had chosen this time around, ticked all the boxes from pure inspiration to salon chic with a drop of Parisian flair from make-up artist Paul Seaman.

On the first day we were joined by my dear friend Tim Hartley, always establishing his work from a forward thinking trend-led perspective yet maintaining a nod to the past. Tim began with a tribute to the sixties style iconic Twiggy picture by photographer Barry Lategan who, incredibly, came in to take the finished shots. How amazing is that? Hats off to CEO Mark Butcher for pulling that off.  

So Tim's first model had a pure graduated shape kissing the ears and placed to swing. I love the way the graduation connects into the back. Tim chose to work in small finger length diagonal sections toward this intended shape but working up the head, so the balance of the graduation was curved towards the occipital bone. This provided a perfect base for Tracy Hayes to place her bold transient colour.  

Tim's second model was a shorter variation, the look reminded me of a collection from Sassoon called Jet Girl, a racy look with a fetish tone enough to make you blush, with a flatter graduated structure and a firm fringe placed above the brow.  

Day two - Stacey Broughton. I love working with Stacey due to the fact that he always kicks me out of my comfort zone and pushes the technique and sectioning in the most planned out yet inspiring way, so inspiring that afterwards my mind is racing with new possibilities.

The model for the day underwent an asymmetric disconnected weave cut, sporting a great little street style cut on the underneath with a blended second graduated shape moving over and into the top area where the weave cut comes into play with the longer texture in the top and over the fringe. A super little shape.

Then Stacey went back to basics with a flat uniformed layered shape for the head block haircut series (just two more to go to finish this section) - an outstanding shape.  

On days three and four I was so pleased to welcome back Bastian Casaretto from Aveda, along with Jo McKay (making her debut on myHairDressers.com), to do the colour. The first model had a pure clear blonde tone as the base. Bastian worked a simple but beautiful graduated shape using different levels of layering in the internal shape throughout the top section to help curve the hair around the front of the face, without the added weight on the internal structure. This combined perfectly with the sweep of dark oyster sheer shades, resulting in a summer chic affair.  

Next we had a great day with our model Nadia, who works in Burlingtons in Shepherds Bush. Not only is she a hairdresser, but a MyHairDressers.com subscriber, whom answered our call for a model on Facebook. Big shout goes out to you Nadia - thank you so much! Again! Bastian produced a great mid length shape on Nadia, with a slender interior shape first, then working down onto the perimeter for the option of tailoring or keeping a softer more feline shape, This look is great for the salon and Jo finished it beautifully with a suggestive sheer insert of gradient colour, moving with the longer lengths in the fringe over the fringe disconnection. Beautiful!   

The fifth and sixth days saw Mazella and Palmer working throughout the weekend on a selection of layered, graduated and disconnected creative shapes, with some barbering thrown in. This was a combination of work showing that the boys can indeed be versatile, bold and soft all at the same time with the mean skill being the "advantage of using technique", something that's dear to my heart. It's always alot of fun mixed in with hard work and passion when collaborating with like minded artists. Add a great colourist into the mix with Charmaine Piche for some truly stunning results. Thanks for sharing guys.  

On days seven and eight, we were back to Stacey teamed with Charmaine, first with some oil-slick shiny and only-ever-on-black colour for that loose texture - not for the faint-hearted!

The second model of the day had an inspirational shape with sectioning that will make your hair curl. Inspired by the classic beret but given a sophisticated feel with long panels of hard and soft disconnection and beautifully coloured tones adding to the gorgeous natural red hair of the model. The finished result was understated and perfectly balanced with this epic opulent shape - grown up and elegantly realised.  

Respect to all and thank you again!