Parallels

Reflecting on the nine months I’ve been working on the salon floor here at Zeitgeist, I realise how I’ve enjoyed meeting the diverse range of interesting people we are lucky to welcome into the salon. It’s been great to have those oftentimes 4-way conversations between stylists and clients that can focus on anything from the somewhat highbrow “Pros and cons of living a Minimalist lifestyle” to musings about Donald Trump’s gravity defying hairdo!

One thing that’s intrigued me when talking to clients is how some are able to incorporate their skills and interests into two concurrent careers and others may have completely reinvented themselves. Having worked for many a year as both a hair stylist and as a sixth form art tutor, I can relate to these tales and am always interested in how diverse a person’s skills, abilities and interests are.

Some may consider teaching art and styling hair to be poles apart though there are in fact very many similarities, particularly within the visual language and terminology used in both.

Some common terms used in many art forms including hairdressing include

Structure, Line, Form, Shape, Colour, Tone, Weight, Volume, Balance, Geometry, Pattern, Symmetry

(To name but a few).

My own art degree was in 3D design so it’s no surprise that I always enjoyed teaching either sculpture, 3D or ceramics to my students. Similarly, it’s why I enjoy the problem solving in stripping down and reupholstering furniture and the challenge of constructing shapes in hair design.

Anyhow, I thought it might be fun to have a look at a few parallels between some works of art alongside the art of hairstyling, so I hope you enjoy the references!

Structure, Line and Form

Bjork’s hair updo

Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture

Line, Form, Shape, Colour, Geometry

Anish Kapoor’s “Untitled” forms

Zeitgeist hair design “Rebel” collection

Geometry, Pattern, Tone, Weight, Volume, Line, Form, Symmetry

Pinterest source

Halima Cassell’s ceramic “Stelliform”

Balance, Geometry, Line, Form, Weight, Symmetry

If you enjoy looking at sculpture, we’re lucky enough to have the Hepworth Wakefield on our doorstep, with Barbara having been a Yorkshire lass herself! You can always see lots of Hepworth’s work in the gallery plus the work of many of her talented contemporaries, so it’s well worth a visit. There’s also the “Hepworth Prize for Sculpture” on until February 19^th . This is a new biennial award that recognises UK based artists so if you want to take a peek at the artist’s who were shortlisted, you still have a couple of weeks!

If fashion design is more your bag and since I’ve already mentioned Mary Quant, there’s the Mary Quant: Fashion icon exhibition at the Platt Hall Gallery of costume (Rusholme, Manchester) on until 5^th November. If you fancy a gander at 22 of Quant’s designs from between the late 1950’s to early 1970’s, this would be the place to go.

I could talk about much more and it was difficult to cut down the references to the ones I’ve included, but hopefully there was something of interest for you. Bye for now Sam!