paint it black

photographer: Alan Worsfold.
hair, makeup, styling: Kristina Haugen

This is a photo story/shoot I styled back in Canada just before moving to Milan. Alan Worsfold and I have collaborated before and wanted to do a quick shoot inspired by Lara Stone (my fav model) and Luisa Bianchin (fav ginger model), specifically this editorial from L'Officiel Brazil "Black Fire". We took it pretty literally for some of the images, I was lucky enough to randomly have clothing pieces that were very similar, and other images are an extension of where the story naturally wanted to go. We shot these looks in a record 2-3 hours which is pretty amazing considering it's a team of two doing what usually takes a team of multiples to accomplish. The focus in this series is clearly the hair against the shades and textures of black.

The hair: it got even longer than this before I chopped it off in a long bob nearly 9 months ago, to save the extension for future donation. I'm now growing it out again but it's a process. To keep hair healthy, it's best to avoid heat styling. I'm low maintenance (read lazy) with day-to-day hair anyway so that's convenient. I also invest in Fekkai Glossing conditioner (and shampoo when funds allow). Another completely worthwhile investment is a Mason Pearson (boar B1 or combination BN1) hairbrush. I found mine on ebay for less than half the retail cost and they are reported to last for at least 20 years, so cost-per-use comes out pretty justifiably. This hairbrush is really a magic wand for instant shine and lasting hair health.