Hair Salon Blog

Sergio Giannasso Hair & Make-up at London Fashion Week

// February 24th, 2012 // No Comments » // Press Coverage, Sergio Giannasso online, The Salon, The Team

You pinch yourself moving around backstage at London Fashion Week. Kate Moss, Alexa Chung, Amber Valletta, Shalom, Yasmin le Bon – all catching up… having a laugh. Backstage was a show. To be there and be part of it was amazing.

Our Senior Stylist Adam Bennett was there this year to support the ultimate hair maestro Sam McKnight. Racing from point to point. Claridges for Mulberry. Old Billingsgate for Top Shop. Royal Courts of Justice for Nicole Farhi. A grand Georgian house in Portland Square for some classic Moschino in back-combed beehives. It wasn’t just a case of standing in tents at Somerset House.

And for the show itself, Stella McCartney was back for the first time in five years. Alexander McQueen was sensational … Ana Wintour of Vogue said the collections this year were much more grown up.

As part of the team you have to prep each model. Sam checks and fine tunes each one before they step out. They’ve come from a dozen other shows and worn a dozen other looks that morning. It’s up to you to create something new, that is as natural as the first. You can only do this if you know your products and know the classic techniques. And you may only have five minutes to do it in.

There’s no room for error or ego so if takes four hairdryers and a make-up artist working at the same time on a single model so be it. Watching great make-up artists – Val Garland, Charlotte Tilbury – at work on Kate Moss for example was incredible: real, free-flowing professional friendships come alive. London Fashion Week backstage might look chaotic but it’s people working brilliantly and professionally together.

Luckily London is the second of the Big Four. (NY, London, Paris, Milan). The divas don’t start “happening” until they’ve been on the road for days, weeks, running from casting to casting, fitting to fitting. This year, everybody is just excited to be here while journalists run ragged, trying to cover 12 shows on the hour, scattered across several London locations.

And then the big moments happen.

Picture several hundred people watching. Raw pictures going out, unedited, via social media, around the world. What you get is what you see. So the hair has to be amazing. And Sam McKnight is one of those rare few who can handle the pressure, still deliver, and do it calmly.

Suddenly it’s not just a pony tail any more. It’s whether it’s high, low, on the nape, on the side, whether it’s braided, straight, or textured.

Out there in that sea of cameras there are journalists, bloggers, style gurus who look more at this kind of detail than they do at the actual clothes.

Love it!

Are you glad to be grey?

// September 22nd, 2011 // No Comments » // Press Coverage, Sergio Giannasso online, Services, The Salon

It’s London Fashion Week and there is a lot of talk about grey hair / older models going around.  Read Caryn Franklin, for example,  at the Guardian.

I remember her natural grey streak at the front very well because she has sat in my chair a few times and experienced my touch.  Hers  is a very striking look and I think she’s one of the lucky ones. The grey streak is a bold statement and it’s become part of her image. (I’ve no idea why it shows only at the front!) And being a clothes expert, she can dress to carry it off better than most of us know how.

The truth is…  grey hair – especially when it’s salt and pepper, wiry, wispy and/or frizzy – will suit some more than others but definitely NOT  everybody.

IF you are like Caryn, who’s only just turned 50, then you can (yay!) look gorgeously chic with grey hair. But only if your hair is well looked after.  So make sure you give it the  right treatment, the right cut and use a touch of the right make-up!

Of course I’d say that: I’m a hairdresser. But in my experience my clients feel so much more flattered by colour where grey hair is concerned and that doesn’t mean we try to hide it completely  (that can be disastrous!).  Instead, I’ll use colours through to make the overall effect more fluent, more glamorous.
So here’s my advice… for you and your friends.

A lot of hairdressers don’t know enough about colour. AVOID!!!

Pick your colour expert well, go for consultation.

Never trust a hairdresser who wants to rush you into colours without really explaining what he/she s doing.

You can tell I’m a bit wary when it comes to this “embrace your grey” campaign!  Especially when people who say they’re glad to be grey apply botox to their naturally ageing skin.

Talking to one of my gorgeous customers – Lisa – she said the article made her blood boil.

“Yes, we’d all love to embrace it , but boy do we feel better when we’ve had Sergio and his team restore us to our “natural” colour. Stress makes us go grey earlier. Sergio makes us feel calmer. I know which one I vote for.”

What do you think? I’d love to know.

Un bacio, Sergio

Links on being gorgeously grey:

www.gorgeousgrey.com

www.fabulously40.com/question/id/6297

LONDON FASHION WEEK 2010

// February 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // February 2010, Press Coverage

Up at 0500 this morning to work alongside top stylist Darren Fowler on the opening show of London Fashion Week – Paul Costelloes’ Autum / Winter 2010/2011 collection. Loved it … the hair was kind of cowboy Marie Antoinette – loads of lift to the roots and volume, crimping and backcombing for texture and then pushed up in a very “wig” kind of way.

The make-up was quite aggressive, using dramatic  eye-liner, pale colour on the lips against a natural complexion.

 Have to say, the clothes were amazing. Quoting The Telegraph : “Short, ‘crinoline’ skirts over stiff, canvas petticoats, in tweed and silk jacquard; blouses and dresses with leg-o-mutton sleeves; and finely-tailored riding-jackets and coats.”

You can see the results for yourself at : 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/fashionpicturegalleries/7270923/London-Fashion-Week-Paul-Costelloe-autumnwinter-201011-collection.html

All kicked off with a minute’s silence for Lee Alexander McQueen.

Un bacio, Sergio