Hairdressers Gone Wild: The Story of Us.

A few weeks ago, I found myself having a glass of wine after work with a few of the girls at Renee's (a divey little courtyard-bar right next door to Byu-ti, our salon). Amidst the smoke and cool beachy air we began to wax philosophical about all kinds of crap, Art, mostly, and more specifically OUR art.

Byu-ti is fairly new to the Los Angeles salon scene, though the owners Natasha and Daniela have been in the biz forever, quite prestigiously so, in fact. So all of us chickens are just beginning to move past watching each other blow-dry hair and lay foils and into the important stuff: like drinking wine after work.

We all come from very different backgrounds, with expertise in fields ranging from the very theatrical to the cleanest editorial work you've ever seen. Thrilled to be working with one another (no, really!), we've been able to swap ideas and keep the creative streams flowing.

It's been the most positive, creative atmosphere I've ever experienced. Sappy? A little, sure. BUT I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!!

So it's no surprise that we are all looking for ways to stretch each others ingenuity muscles; including each other in pet projects, encouraging individual big dreams (and I mean takin'-over-the-world BIG). Most of us were creatively stagnating, if not stifled all together, and this new environment felt like a run on the beach after a 14 hour plane ride. We began to rope each other into ongoing projects where we saw we could utilize (not fear) our sisters’ strengths, and as a result began to produce some flawless and truly inspired work.

Yet, even, with all these divinely artistic minds steaming up the joint in and day out, making marvelous works of wearable art, sometimes a girl gets an itch she just HAS to scratch.

This is my itch.

Back to Renee's... On my second glass of wine I started to talk to Tara and Lesley about my yearnings for the theater. "Maybe I'll just do a couple shows this year---just to satiate myself". Lesley, our prized red-head, confessed that she, too, being of-and-about the stage, missed it. We began to talk about the current trends being reminiscent of this era or that, and how everything continually circles back around. Still, we missed the framed fragments of time captured only on stage.

How great would it be to tell the story that every era has a play in modern society! Think about this: you go to your stock Hollywood party--- undoubtedly; you will see there some girl who could be Twiggy in line for the bathroom, or a Diana Ross incarnation lingering by the bar. Why not show how innovative the old tricks can be with just a teensy bit of new-millennium spice?

In fact, why not just do a WHOLE photo shoot dedicated to nothing but artistic satisfaction??

So the three of us agreed we would talk more about it (sober) and wandered off home. As much as I hate to admit it, the part of me conditioned to be disappointed was already convinced that this was just another one of those La La Land nights of big talk and no action. I made up my mind then and there that I really wanted to do this project, for me personally, as a sense of completion and a way to instrument all the things I’ve learned along the way to my current employment.

As it turns out, the girls didn’t forget about it. On the contrary, Lesley and Tara had a couple of the other girls buzzing about the idea when I came in the next day. We liked the idea so much, that we kept going with it, and as it happens when magic is meant to happen, it ignited some inspiration in each of us.

And it just kept going.

Gosh, how we had wished for something like this to be available to us when we were just beginning--- even 6 months ago, before we landed in our comfy little nest. How INSPRIRING it would be to be new to this dynamic industry and be able to take apart a project like this and understand every detail of what goes into it. How wonderful, the idea of inspiring someone else to recognize, utilize and renew decades gone by. All we want is to encourage someone else to take a concept and revive it-- to make the act of conceptual creation their own (and whole) world.

So that’s what we are doing here. We’re giving you a very very pretty and high-tech toaster. You will see it as it is assembled, and you’ll be able to study each limb as it joins to form a body.

We will give you notes, resources, timelines, schedules and sketches. We will show you where models come from, and how every person in this process is imperative to its success.

Stand by for the play by play…

XOXO
Andi