Oh so Pretty

The holidays are here, and as per usual the biggest question on my mind is “what do I do with my hair!?”

Just kidding- I’m much more concerned with my glittery wishlist and holiday shopping, but hair is up there too! Pastel and Christmas don’t really naturally fit together, though I’ve been known to trade red and green for pink and mint when it comes to home decor. I always struggle with what to do with my look this time of year, and in general I settle on the same answer every year: silver, gold, and sparkle.

Unfortunately no one has created a way to permanently dye hair gold foil or sparkle silver yet, so I decided to get creative with my dream hair team and do an interpretation of my new favourite metallic- rose gold. I mean, it’s on my fingers, it’s on my bar cart… why shouldn’t it be on my hair too? I headed up to Blyss Salon here in Toronto and handed my locks over to Amanda and Alyson to be spun into rose gold Christmas magic.

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After a root bleach out and toner application in a slightly warmer shade of platinum than usual, Amanda started to apply the colour- three different shades of peachy pink Davines Pure Colour concoctions to be specific. Once the colours were carefully applied and blended together slightly with her fingers, Amanda added a touch of yellow to the tips to really create a golden glow at the end of the ombre. We rinsed, Alyson gave my cut a quick refresh, and voila! I also got to try out a super special new Davines product that won’t be on shelves until Spring called “Dry Texturizer”and it gave my mane amazing full body almost instantly (note: get excited.)

The end result was a bit less peachy than what we were aiming for thanks to residual blue tones left in my locks from opal hair, but it’s still as good as gold in my books.

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Photos by Josh Mitchinson
Originally published on XO Vain

Oh so Pretty

I generally get creative with my hair on my own, but every once and awhile I partner up with a local salon and let someone new get crazy with pastel colours on my mane.

A few weeks ago I booked an appointment with Carolyn and Kelly, a cut-and-colour dream team operating out of Medulla and Co. on Queen West. Together we dreamed up a pastel oil slick colour look, which we later would rename opal hair. With hundreds of tiny strands of pink, purple, baby blue, this colour work basically glittered by the time the blow dry was finished.

The best part? This colour work faded so perfectly into a slight iridescent pastel effect on my ends with a perfect blonde root. Some might call it extra skilled work, but I’m choosing to call it opal magic…

What pastel hair should I try next?

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Dress Up

Johanna and I have been working together for a long time- first at a small family-run tea shop, then at a marketing firm, and she’s really been my only employee at RAOP since I got started. Every single weekend we get together for photoshoots, planning and dreaming, but we never really get to be in photos together. When Harriet from Hello Harriet offered to send us two of her adorable hand-made cat dresses, we knew what we needed to do: a dreamy pastel twin shoot.

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Photos by Jill Botting.

Dresses provided by Hello Harriet

Oh so Pretty

I emailed Amanda, my hair colour expert at Blyss Salon, a few weeks ago asking if she’d be into doing something special with my locks for my upcoming Mexico trip, and oh my did she ever deliver!

Using Davines colour and flambouyage strips, she created a pink and purple mermaid masterpiece, perfectly finished with a cut and styling by Alyson Peach. We all went back and forth on what to call it as the appointment wrapped up and we snapped photos, and we came up with everything from “It’s like a pearl” to “Omg it’s SO Barbie Dream House!” In the end we decided there wasn’t really an official name, but I like to call it simply my best pastel hair yet!

Want to know more? Check out the details on XO Vain!

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Colour by Amanda Quarshie, Cut by Alyson Peach, both at Blyss Salon!

Dress Up

Happy Canada day everyone! As much as I’d love to do a big red shoot with hockey and maple leaves all over the place, I’m going to stick to my regular pink programming if that’s alright with you…

There are very few good pastel photo walls in this city, and perhaps that’s part of the reason why so much of the photography I see coming out of Toronto is very monochromatic and minimal (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) It’s tough to find the bright and cheery in a place with so much marble, concrete, and grey, and I often think I’d be much better off living in Miama or L.A. where every second building is a fun colour. But for now at least, I’m not one to give up on finding the colour in my life that easily!

Anabela of Fieldguided introduced me to this wall while we were out on a photo shoot adventure, and it immediately became one of my new favourite spots to take photos. In real life, it’s a pretty massive, somewhat grimy car mechanic shop, but in photos it transforms into a hot pink haze that I just can’t get enough of. Here’s to the first of many hot pink wall photo shoots!

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Sunnies by TOMS, sweatshirt from H+M, shorts by Rosehound Apparel, to-go cup by Ban.do, shoes by Loly in the Sky

Photos by Johanna Martin