Aveda celebrates a decades-long legacy of sustainability, plus environmental responsibility, and this philosophy extends well into the company’s visual content. So, it’s no surprise that Antoinette Beenders, Aveda Global Creative Director, used their biggest environmental cause—clean, accessible water for all—as a springboard for Aveda’s stunning 2017 NAHA presentation.
Randy Taylor, Hairbrained Co-Founder, captured Aveda’s striking, behind-the-scenes work, and here, Allen Ruiz, Aveda Global Artistic Director for Hair Styling, shares inspirations and insights, plus his creative process from the day.
"The artistic direction for the looks was simple, yet impactful," explains Ruiz. “Antoinette wanted it to be about water, every crystal was supposed to look like a splash of water, or a drop of water. It ties back to Aveda’s mission, which is to raise money to bring water to those that are less fortunate.”
And, Ruiz makes it clear that each of the handcrafted looks was intricate. “For my model, we started by braiding the hair in a circular pattern nice and tight to the head. Then we spray-painted the hair white—because although our model was blonde, she had dark roots—and we wanted to get a nice even base.” Next, Ruiz started to sew on panels of the wefts. Once all of the wefts were sewn in, the team went through to trim pieces that were off track. “There’s always going to be one, or two or three that’ll be a off track a bit,” explains Ruiz. All in all, the entire process took Ruiz five hours.
Ruiz says that he’s shocked at the number of people who have viewed the video shot by Taylor. But, he adds, “Randy does such a great job with all of his videos.”
About: Founded by two like-minded hairdressers, photographer and hairdresser, Randy Taylor, plus educator and platform artist, Gerard Scarpaci. Both share a deep love for industry professionals and the craft. www.hairbrained.me @hairbrained_official