Unleashed by Asif Yvette
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The term "unleashed" brings to mind the ideas of "no restrictions" and "no limitations," and this collection embodies those ideas. There are no restrictions on the imagination that crafted these designs, and there are no limitations on the concepts that formed the seeds of these styling ideas.
The Asif Yvette Artistic Team brings us a collection of eight distinct looks that invoke classic imagery or use period inspiration without restrictions or limitations. These are hairstyles that take advantage of all the elements of texture, volume, and shape, creating modern looks that make you take a second glance when you see the inspiring ideas shining through. These are truly "Unleashed" styles.
Hair Wrapped as a Scarf
She drives her shiny red convertible fast, and the tires echo her delight as she hugs the curves of the road winding through the Hollywood Hills. The sun has set, and her sunglasses lay discarded on the leather beside her. As her headlights flash over the landscape below, she laughs to think that she's just another star blazing her trail in the Hollywood night.
Our starlet here has her hair wrapped around her neck in a silky, ebony scarf. This long, silky hair is styled smooth and sleek to lie close to the scalp and hug the face, mimicking the fabric of a silken scarf.
The hair is drawn under the chin and wrapped into a knot at the nape of the neck, where the ends are drawn forward to drape across the chest. Obviously, this requires hair of sufficient length. Even more obviously, this requires healthy hair, blown straight, ironed smooth, and made glossy with silkening products to protect from stress and damage.
Full-Volume Hairstyle with Curls
Arctic winds blow, and their icy fingers claw at the very warmth of your soul. Yet you are snug and warm in a hood of fur, as the layers of natural fibers both block the life-stealing chill and gently cradle your body's own warmth close to your skin.
The full-volume hairstyle seen here is constructed with a layered cut, and the hair is curled and combed to build out these layers, imitating the snug halo of fur that protects the bravest from the frozen wastes.
Hair falling to the middle of the back is carefully wound onto slender tools, creating tight coils that are ruffled up and puffed up, yet kept more curly than frizzy, forming a soft swell around the head.
The natural, neutral beige-blonde tones make for a perfect hair color to mimic the snuggly furs, and the pinked cheeks bring to mind a windburned face. Use a dab of hairspray and a gentle hand to keep the curls intact for your own "snow queen" style.
Cascades of Golden Tendrils
She enjoys things that dangle. The weight of them, the way they tug at the muscles of her neck, and the sensation as they brush against her skin in their swinging arc.
Her hair is parted slightly left of center and carefully smoothed to points above each ear, then gathered there. The loose ends are curled and ruffled into cascades of golden tendrils - sprays of golden threads that dangle and catch the light in their shimmering strands.
Starting from the base styling of the previous hairstyle and parting the hair as described will allow you to craft the two tails as desired. Use a dab of smoothing serum to define the tendrils as needed.
Circle-Cut Bob
While all around, the last vestiges of the old ways are fading and the new age is beginning to emerge, young women are witnessing their skirts grow shorter and their heels getting longer. This new "Modernistic" or "Mod" style embodies the ideals of new looks, new hairstyles, and a rejection of the old, uninspired styles of earlier generations.
Now, some forty years after the original Mod movement came and went, we see a re-emergence of "Mod" in fashion and hair.
A light-hold styling product will provide enough volume and hold to shape the hair. A light misting of hairspray will give the finished hairstyle hold while maintaining its softness.
High-Volume Hairstyle
If Mod styles rejected the status quo of traditional, stuffy looks, this is a leap ahead by at least two decades. The edgy, avant-garde hairstyles of the early nineties are echoed in this high-volume look.
The sides and back are smoothed back to cling to the scalp, while the top and crown seem to grow vertically of their own accord. Of course, this isn't the case; the top and crown sections are simply blow-dried with vertical lift and applied with firm-hold product to create the texture needed to hold the hair up.
It may take several repeated applications of product to recreate this look in your own hair, but remember to aim for a dry finish for softness, and you'll be fine.
Full-volume Up-Style
Classic lines and profiles inspire this full-volume up-style. "Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness/Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time/Sylvan historian, who canst thus express/A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme..."
The hairstyle begins with a base styling technique of adding texture and volume to the hair. This can be achieved in different ways. One method involves sectioning the hair and braiding it into thin braids, which are then wet and dried before being unbraided. (A medium-hold styling product should be applied to give the hair added structure.) Alternatively, the hair could be crimped using a crimping iron to achieve the same effect.
Once the base texture is created, the hair is swept upward into a loose twist and secured with pins. The edge of a brush or comb, held at a shallow angle, is used to create the smooth outer finish and form the soft, sleek silhouette that defines this classic look.
Hair with Texture
Of course, an epically inspired classical up-style isn't the only look born of a crimped and voluminous head of hair. Much of the lively looks of the eighties featured textured tresses and zany silhouettes. In this "girls just wanna have fun" hairstyle we see echoes of the pop-icons of the 1980s era with a slightly toned-down expression.
Rather than wrapping the hair into a classic twist, how about taking the majority of the top, crown, nape and right side and forming a side-knot that ends in a spray of zigzag tendrils? In this style the texture is the key, as the bends and alternating direction of the strands makes the light bounce and gives the hair depth and interest. A light mist of hairspray is all that's called for to secure the look and make a long-lasting style.
Fall of Coppery Coils
To look upon this image is to imagine perhaps the face in the marble freed by the artist Pygmalion and brought to life by the prayers to Aphrodite, for not even the fair Galatea, with whom Pygmalion, her creator, fell in love, could have been lovelier, or more lovingly crafted.
The hairstyle here is proof that careful craftsmanship leads to perfection as the ruby-toned tresses are drawn carefully to the top and crown of the head and sculpted into a fall of coppery coils to frame the cool gray eyes and add a rosy blush to the porcelain skin.
The curl could be crafted in different ways, with the more likely being the use of spiral wrapping tools in a wet set with a firm hold product for a long-lasting result. In this event the drawing of the hair to the upper areas of the skull could be accomplished after the curl is set with less concern over losing the integrity of the curl.
Otherwise, the hair could be curled through the use of a curling wand, and the hair is formed into the shape desired. The benefit of the latter method is that the curl can be more easily targeted. If both methods are viable for the situation, a combination would be acceptable.
Use a light misting of hairspray to add definition, reduce frizz and increase the longevity of the style.
Hair: Asif Yvette Artistic Team
Makeup: Hayley Britton
Photography: Richard Miles
Art Direction: Richard Miles
See also: Short hairstyles | Medium hairstyles | Up styles