Heather Washburn of Heather’s Hair Design in Spokane, WA, recently got the opportunity to work on an American Salon shoot for our April issue after winning Redken’s Runway Reinvention contest, for which she reinterpreted the hairstyle Redken Creative Consultant Guido created for Prada’s fall ’09 show in Milan into a salon-friendly look using Redken products. Heather, whose prize included a weeklong trip for two to New York City, roundtrip airfare, hotel accommodations and $1,000 cash, prepped for her photo shoot debut with American Salon by taking the Session Skills and Photo class with Noah Hatton at the Redken Exchange. With Redken Session Stylist John Ruidant at the helm on shoot day, Heather recreated four looks from the spring '10 runways into client-friendly looks. Check out page page 88 of our April issue to see the results. Here, Heather shares her experiences during her week spent with Redken in New York City:
To start off my trip to New York, I spent two days taking a classes taught by Noah Hatton and Hugo Urias, Session Skills & Photo, at The Redken Exchange overlooking 5th Avenue. It was a thrill to spend my first two days in New York at The Redken Exchange in classes with Noah Hatton and Hugo Urias, and inspiring to work beside the glass windows that overlook 5th Avenue. On my third day of class, I learned how to work with a stylist, makeup artist and photographer to achieve a complete look for my own photo shoot in order to grow my personal portfolio.
I was excited to spend my last day in New York working on a photo shoot for Redken and American Salon assisting John Ruidant in reinventing four looks from the runway. Some of the same techniques I’d learned in the Redken class were used on the models for this shoot; such as a “perfect ponytail” using elastic cording, and setting the hair directionally for a beautiful push wave. John also used two Italian twists on the re-creation of Alexander McQueen’s look by rolling them into each other. John was wonderful to work with as he was able to give me new ideas for different methods of styling as well as answering any questions I had about styling hair for an editorial photo shoot.
This was the experience of a lifetime, and it’s a privilege to be able to return to my salon motivated, inspired, and ready to share these new looks with my clients.