Have you done something new with your...head?

No, I wasn't caught in the middle of a fire evacuation at the hairdresser. Nor did my hairdresser collapse mid-way through chopping my locks. I'm just experimenting with lop-sided-lock-iness...(and I love it!)

"SURPRISE!! I cut all of my hair off!!"

"....Just kidding!!....(I only cut half of it off )"

The idea came from my my hairdresser Dani, who is the creative director at Yoshiko hair. She has a genius way of making even the most unusual cuts seem pretty and elegant (and I swear that when I pin it up for work, most people don't even notice that half of it is gone).

The project arose for Yoshiko's latest hair shoot. As well as the obvious reduction in mass, my hair was also  lightened from its usual brown using the balayage technique. The result was a pretty pastel red/brown, with a very subtle graduation to lighter blonde on the end. It is much softer than some of the extreme brown-to-blonde balayage that I'm seeing around the traps these days (and much more wearable, I think).

Kazuo, who is a senior stylist with Yoshiko and also an experienced makeup artist, did the makeup for the shoot. I love getting Kaz to do my makeup, as he undertakes a beautiful ritual of prepping and moisturising the skin prior to makeup application. It feels like an indulgent beauty treatment. Here's a quick shot of his work:

And a couple of behind-the-scenes snaps:

Peter and Phoebe at work

...And the outcome of the haircut, two weeks later?...Still loving it. Having half a head of hair to style is a lot less arduous, and it's fun finding different ways to work it with bows, pins and braids. As for growing out the short half?..Time will tell. I'm not super precious about my hair these days (or the lack of it) so here's hoping that I don't get tired of waiting for it to grow!