Hair, hairspray, hair-pieces, and little turns

By Harry Lincoln | Published On November 10, 2009 | In Staff Blog

40 models took part in Talking Heads fashion shoot. | Photo: Kristina Michaelides

At The Lawn, the Lincoln-based salon had the versatile venue decked out with professional lighting and sound rigs, projection screens and a 30-foot catwalk. Nearly 40 models strutted their stuff down the runway with hair, make-up, and styling all done by the Talking Heads staff.

Sunday’s show was split up into different sections, depending on the hairstyles. Some of these categories were wedding influenced dresses with huge hair; a dapper men’s category with faux-fur, scarfs, and back-combed hair; and a darker girl’s category with heavy eye make-up and blacked hair and clothing.

The event took the best part of a month to put together. Director of the event and senior Talking Heads stylist and hairdresser, Mary Ann Barrett, drafted models in from everyday customers that visit the salon.

Mary asked all the 40 models back to talk styles, dress, and cuts, all free of charge. The technician that was flown in from Dublin to do the model’s hair would have charged €150 per hour for colour. And if the models didn’t like the colouring they could go and get it all put back for free.

Backstage, Barrett was able to tell The Linc about what the evening was about and where the proceeds would be going:

“For a small business that has been open for 25 years this is a fantastic way to fundraise for charities and the like. In the last couple of years we have donated our proceeds to Breast Cancer Research, Any Child, and a few others but this year we thought we’d give something back and donate to the Hairdressers Benevolent Fund.

“We just wanted to make it really special and invite along all of our loyal customers to give them a good night and say thank you for sticking with us for as long as the business has been open.”

The clothing itself was provided by fashion students from the University of Lincoln, and they were on hand all day to dress and style the models.

The models had been on the go since 10am, along with the stylists, haircutters, dressers, colour technicians, choreographers, and the professional photographers.

With a 500-people strong crowd, the audience and all participants were buzzing.

The salon was set up 25 years ago by Keith A. Reeve, and to commemorate his and the salon’s achievement, he was presented with an accolade from the Master of the Hairdressers Guild. Following this surprise guest appearance a short clip was played on the big screens; a personal message recorded by Keith’s daughter, on the other side of the world from Australia.

Paying homage and giving thanks to her dad, she explained to the whole audience how he had got her into the business, and how she wouldn’t be in the place she was today without him.

Personally, it was fantastic to be part of the fashion and hair show. I would most definitely do it again – providing I get to have my hair done for free!

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