On The Indian's Track

All that majestic scenery brought me back to one of my strong fascinations, the American Indians. Amongst many other things they were masters with their braids and hair ornaments. To you my readers, I can tell that one of my secret reference books for hair is Edward Curtis portraits in The North American Indians. I've always been attracted by their culture, and the wildness of the snowy Rockies took me straight back to that fantasy.

I can't give you details about the client or the job but I can tell you about the hair inspiration Here below, you can see 2 versions of references. I believe it's always better to  treat references lightly .Take inspiration and then try and create something new with it .

For this work, I asked the models to wash their hair the evening before,which  meant they arrived on set next morning with slept on looking hair which was a perfect base. Other girls I asked to braid the hair in one or two bunches before bed, that also gave a brilliant texture  next morning  to pick up from….  Better not to brush, just  work the hair with fingers not to loose the texture . Hair wax , matt mousse or sea salt spray,  was added to give a dirtier texture .As there were several models, on some of them, a mixture of red earth and water to skim lightly over the surface of the hair for a chalky matte effect.

Strips of leather came in handy to strap the braids, but most of the hair accessories were found around the grounds of the ranch, like feathers, twigs, leaves  and just pinned in roughly with visible  bobby pins ,or attached with small invisible elastic bands .

You could use this technique, except  for the red clay and twigs ,  for a sexy  wild  "beach look" hair.  Have fun!