So, the other day I’m at the Ted Gibson Salon and stylist Adam Markarian (pictured, left) showed me a pic of the above W magazine worthy hair art (it’s art.) whilst blow-drying my autumnal princess highlights. I thought to myself, self? BBJ readers need to see THIS. So I insisted that Adam send me the details and pics stat, which he did! He emailed me this detailed explanation of how this avant garde look was created with his partner Harmonie Redman (pictured below). It’s super crazy how they transformed hair into FABRIC. Can you tell that Adam originally went to art school to be a metal sculptor? Read on on for how they did it. It’s long, I warn you. But I think you’ll find the process interesting.

The sewn wefts were then prepped with layers of Mousse Volupte by L’Oreal Professionnel and Densite by L’Oreal Professionnel. Both of these products act as thickening agents. Our goal was to turn each individual piece of 11 wefts into a sheet of fabric. The use of product will turn the millions of strands of hair we were dealing with into a solid, moldable fabric… which happens to be made of hair. After the pieces were layered with Mousse Volupte and Densite, we laid them flat on a table, brushed them out perfectly with a Mason Pearson Brush into a shape that resembles a Chinese broom. Once the hair was brushed perfectly in shape, we began layering Infinum 2 Working Spray, and Infinium 4 Finishing Apray, both by L’Oreal Professionnel. Infinium 2 is a softer, more working hold and Infinium 4 is a stronger, finishing hold.

We started with layers of Infinium 2 and a blow dryer, keeping the pressure from the blow dryer light and blown down the hair shaft while we layered hairspray and blew it dry without touching the hair. Since the hair is brushed perfectly, there is no reason to touch it. You want the hair to set with hairspray and touching it too much will break up the outer shell you are trying to build around the hair [Ed. note: Like an insect’s exoskeleton!]. Layers of Infinium 2 and 4 were set for hours as we stood above wearing masks to protect from the fumes. On each piece, we used a total of 12-15 cans of hairspray.

Once each weft was completely solid (about 8 hours per piece), it could be handled as a solid sheet of hair. We were now dealing with a fabric. We rubber-banded the ends of the weft and sewed chicken wire to the weft at the top, where the wefts are sewn together. The chicken wire acts as re-enforcement inside the shape. The ends were then sewn to the wefts and our shape was constructed. The exciting part of working on projects like this is you get to use materials that reach beyond your typical hair equipment. If you were to look into our kits, it would look like a mix between a haberdashery and a hardware store.