(CDN PHOTO/GERARD PAREJA)
THIS is the story of Belinda, whose makeover almost never happened.
Her photo was among 50 others, interested in a complete transformation courtesy of Stephan & Margie Zenz of Exposé Hair Salon.
Her photo stood out among the others, timeless beauty shows in her features.
All too often, beauty is thought of as a privilege or domain of the young.
Yet the inspiration was mature beauty, unadulterated by surgery, undefeated by life’s challenges and shining with the joy of simple pleasures, like grandchildren.
When we met Belinda in person and discussed our vision for her— short hair with a rich color and tone-in-tone accents—we were told that her soon to be married daughter asked her to keep her hair long. My reply was: Your daughter is the bride and needs her hair long. You, on the other hand, just need to look beautiful.
(CDN PHOTO/GERARD PAREJA)
So, after a phone call to her daughter, we had a reluctant green light.
A stylist and colorist works not only on a person’s head. Yes, the face shape is important, but so are the bone structure, arrangement and harmony of facial features, balance between head, shoulders and body shape as well as skin tone, porosity and texture.
Eyes trained through years of experience see minute differences in facial balance, skin tones and overall appearance and process all this information.
As we age, gravity messes up everything. Skin and hair seem to drag heavily downwards.
For the haircut, we decided to use her natural head shape to add body and lift, moving weight away from the perimeter. A full, oval shape with the widest point at the level of her cheekbones and eyes would be perfect for Belinda.
We colored her hair using a rich mixture of auburn and chestnut with a dash of Titian. In addition, we worked in a few sliced foils
of lightener in the top area breaking up the monotony of a single-tone color, playing up visual interest and lift.
As we began to style Belinda’s hair, people around started to notice and react, even the photographer commented how becoming the style was, how much younger she looked.
A curious change also happened to Belinda. Remember, she agreed reluctantly to have her hair cut short and throughout the process she was critically watchful. Friendly, but a little tense. As the final result became apparent, she just radiated confidence posing for the photographer like a pro model.
