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Free styling look. Hair by Rob Hastie and Tracey Colebrook at Shibui.
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Away from the obvious glamour of Double Bay, a grittier version of
hairdressing was being driven by the innovation of the video clip; MTV
made this revolutionary medium an art form, the look of the performer
being as vital as the music.
Australian-born colourist Alyson
Schoer was running the colour department at Sassoon’s in New York and
says the time was definitely defined by the music celebrity scene with
clients demanding Madonna’s multi-textured, colour chunked “Desperately
Seeking Susan” look. Schoer found herself working alongside Cyndi
Lauper’s rainbow yellow, orange and red locks one day and bleaching
Cher’s the next.
In Adelaide, Robert Bava, current AHFA Australian Hairdresser of the
Year, says a Lauper clip inspired him to cut his then girlfriend’s hair
into a “short one side and graduated on the other very Prince style.
She walked out in the Mall and within two hours I already had three
clients who wanted the same look.”
Bands like Human League
launched the craze for the asymmetric undercut buzz bob and in Sydney
Paul Guttenbeil from Get Smart perfected the look. PR maestro Gary
Saunders, working under an Adam Ant tousled look - a plait at the front
and festooned with ribbons - at cutting edge fashion magazine Follow
Me, remembers all the models had the undercut shaved buzz.
“Their
hair would be in a ponytail and shaved underneath and then it could be
let it down like long hair and you’d never know.”
The style
infiltrated the more established salons – Zavaglia said Adams was doing
buzz cuts regardless of age. There was a proliferation of perms,
Buffalo girls, tiny ‘Boy George’ plaits and dreads, punk-influenced
spikes and mohawks and ‘institutionalised’ bobs with severe short
fringes.
“The 80s was about fun and hairdressing was fun,” says Xydis who opened
her Valonz salon in 1985. “There was all that great music, the clubs
and dance parties. We didn’t have product then so we used salt, soap,
even beer to get those wild styles.”
Creativity was going to
our heads and two of the most influential stylists were English imports
Barbara and Graham Sylvester. Starting their apprenticeship together in
1969 in Yorkshire, it wasn’t long before the Sylvesters’ incredible
talent attracted attention.
Graham was sent to New York to
absorb the influence of masters like Kenneth Battelle, Roger Thompson
and Garren (then an up and coming star). The Sylvesters were soon
working and training with Kevin Charles and Richard Dalton, who both
looked after Princess Diana’s hair and Sam McKnight, destined to become
one of Britain’s power session stylists.
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Hair by Barbara Sylvester.
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“One year, at the Paris fashion collections we met a young Aussie boy,
Robbie Snow,” remembers Barbara. “In 1979 we decided to come on hols to
Australia and Robbie threw us the best time. Within six months, we’d
packed up and returned to Australia permanently.”
Sloanes, as their salon was named, opened in Paddington and not long
after, Barbara did her first cover for Vogue, teaming up with makeup
artist Chris King.
“It was very liberating coming to Australia, there was a sense of
freedom about creating things,” says Graham. “We deliberately went out
to look a bit outrageous. |
"We wanted to create a hugely talented team
and had apprentices like Nick Zeigler and Aaron Buttress who became
important session stylists. Zenga Butler, Stephen Price and David
Mallett (now a major force in Paris) also were among some of the names
that came and worked with us.”
The
Sylvesters keenly watched the work coming out of Broadwave, run by
Phillip Pierce and already established as salon to Sydney’s movers and
shakers (Pierce now operates out of Salon Normal, Enmore.) Fashion
lecturer Val Horridge was quoted in then style mag Zou Zou: “My hair is
not my own. It belongs to Phillip at Broadwave.” Thirty four years
later it still does. “My hair has been every colour of the rainbow,
from cobalt blue to orange,” she says. “It was once spotted like a
leopard's pelt.”
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Val Horridge's hair by Phillip Pierce.
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Along the Paddington strip and beyond hip was Garland & Garland,
headed by Val and Terry Garland.
“Hairdressing was the first job I
applied for when I was 15,” says Val, now one of the world’s leading
make-up artists working with designers like John Galliano and Alexander
McQueen and also artistic advisor to YSL Beaute.
“We were pushing the boundaries of what hairdressing was and determined to be more. Everything had to be cutting edge – fresh
coffee, art on the walls, the latest music from around the globe. |
"The
staff had to dress like they were going out. No sets, no rollers, no
one hour hair cuts; it was all about THE greatest haircut. Cancellation
lists were often the only way you’d score an appointment.”
Xydis
cites Garland as a major influence. "She’d be there until midnight
perfecting a haircut. She showed you do your time and you'll know your
stuff." Val’s efforts were recognised in 1989 when she was named Hair
Expo Hairdresser of the Year.
Hair shows, always important
in showcasing talent, began seriously strutting their stuff and John
Morrey (part of the 70s Melbourne push and educator to many) was king
of competition work. “I was Australian champion three times and I’d won
medals in New York.”
The pinnacle of his show work was representing Australia in 1982 at the
Aurovision Hair Festival in London. “It was at the time when Irwin and
Rita Rusk did the best hair shows in the world and we managed to get
the second last slot on the last night before them and our show was
acclaimed the best in the world. We took our own choreographers and
makeup artists and got the best models in London at the time. We used
wigs and Jenny Bannister designed all the clothes and it was basically
fantasy; it went beyond fashion, past commercialism.”
Schoer
returned to Australia in the late 80s, joining the team at Sloanes.
“Only the Sylvesters and the Garlands were willing to take me on.”
Colourists were not being regarded with the same reverence they are
today. Sharon Maher also joined the team. “Sharon and I talked about
teaching and took the idea of starting up a school to Barbara and
Graham. They built up lots of staff careers and of course, a lot of
staff left to go and do their own thing but they took great pride in
that.”
As Schoer settled back into the Australian hair scene
she was impressed by the work that was coming out of Shibui, Rob Hastie
and Tracey Colebrook’s Melbourne salon. “It was so different to the
gaudy flamboyant 80s hair we’d been seeing,” she says. “The hair was
soft and real, this ‘natural Melbourne girl’ look”.
Hair by Rob Hastie, Shibui
French
magazines, where the hair had a more natural, free flowing look, had
left an impression on Hastie. “I wanted to drop myself in Europe and
find something other than the technical side of hair cutting that was
so Sassoon, so I could find “Rob Hastie’s” way of working.”
He
returned to Australia to work at Zimmer with Barbara Thompson and there
connected with his future life and business partner Tracey Colebrook,
who had previously worked at Rifmik with Paul Whitehead. Both shared
the same European aesthetic and decided to open Shibui in 1983. “I had
spent my training constructing hair and now I wanted to deconstruct
it,” says Hastie. “I preferred to layer and have things move softly. We
didn’t use round brushes or perm hair. The biggest thing at Shibui was
to use your fingers, as if your hand was the brush.” Hastie says this
is still the core of the Shibui brand 25 years later.
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