Len Rawlings | People Who Love KEVIN.MURPHY

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Luis M. in People |

Len Rawlings is a hairstylist from Salt Lake City, Utah where he works at Aerolab Salon at 217 E. 300 South, Salt Lake City. Over six years ago he left a career in visual merchandizing to pursue his lifelong passion to become a hairstylist, a decision he says he has never regretted.

I first met Len while I was photographing backstage at KEVIN.MURPHY’s “The Really Big Show” in Seattle, Washington. He was helping Kevin and his team ready the models for the runway show. Len also helped during the hands on classes that followed the shows. Everyone I’ve spoken to has described Len as talented, patient, extremely helpful, and always willing to give a hand with anything.

Recently I saw some of Len’s stunning photos from a shoot he did and just had to ask him about his amazing work. Below Len talks about the shoot, the looks, his love for KEVIN.MURPHY, and his philosophy about hair.

Len: The shoot was a side bar to a commercial shoot I did in collaboration with photographer Zuzanna Audette and a very talented makeup artist Daniela Rownson. The wardrobe was provided by Nappi Clothing, and the accessories by Fueled By Whisky.

It took place in September of 2011 right before COLOR.BUG hit the states but I was able to get one COLOR.BUG in pink to try out. My initial idea was quite simple, to use COLOR.BUG as an accessory. So rather than a headband, scarf, or hair tie I wanted to use this product to add a splash of temporary color to accessorize the hair.

I fell in love with Kevin Murphy products from the moment I first saw them at a class taught by Felicity Davis at Salon Services in Salt Lake City. After the class I returned home and tossed every styling product I had and began collecting KEVIN.MURPHY products. Within a few months the salon brought the line in, it was December and it was honestly the best Christmas gift anyone has ever given me.

If I was only able to pick one product to take on a photo shoot with me, it would undoubtedly be ANTI.GRAVITY, which is now available in the most amazing spray. I refer to this product time and time again as my insurance policy on photo shoots not only because it gives amazing weightless volume, but also gives you a strong foundation to hold your style through your entire session.

I love KEVIN.MURPHY product so much I even use them for my own personal hair care. I absolutely cannot live without LUXURY.WASH and LUXURY.RINSE.

They keep the natural texture of my hair while gaining soft hair with reduced frizz, free of harsh chemicals while improving the overall quality of my hair!

As a hairdresser, I have always done photo shoots however my career literally changed two years ago when I discovered KEVIN.MURPHY. I was finally able to create the visions that I had in my head. I was able to utilize these amazing products as tools for my creativity to not only flow through me but create the hold and the aesthetic I desired. Since then I reworked my entire portfolio showcasing my reborn passion.

I haven’t been able to stop doing what I’m doing and can’t imagine my career without the use of KEVIN.MURPHY products.

Most of the model’s hair was prepped with ANTI.GRAVITY, ANTI.GRAVITY.SPRAY, or HAIR.RESORT.SPRAY to create the initial foundation. Then I used NIGHT.RIDER and HAIR.RESORT.SPRAY to adhere the COLOR.BUG to the hair.

For Mikal the damp hair was prepped with ANTI.GRAVITY and dried into the hair. I then inserted WAVE.CLIPS from the eye down leaving several inches out at the bottom, exposing his natural wave and rough texture. The WAVE.CLIPS were heated with a blow dryer and while they were cooling, I spritzed the middle portion of the clips with HAIR.RESORT.SPRAY and smudged them with with pink COLOR.BUG. After removing the clips, I gave the hair a good shake to blend all of the sections and give some movement and to create a slightly messy, disheveled look. I then applied more HAIR.RESORT.SPRAY to the bottom section and applied the pink COLOR.BUG, smudging it into the bottom of the hair. Lastly, I took some FRESH.HAIR and sprayed it on the mid-lengths, blending the colored lines in the mid section into the bottom section of color with its amazing white hint of residue.

“A modern hairstyle should always appear effortless, incorporating natural and manufactured texture whenever possible. - Len Rawlings

“Len’s style has originality, a sophisticated grunge look. I love the androgyny and the strong use of subversive colours.”- Kevin Murphy

What’s next for Len? Len is just beginning his journey, he is currently in the process of attending POD Training, KEVIN.MURPHY’s curriculum for their educators. So look out for this very talented young man, I’m sure we will see many great things from him in the future.

CREDITS:

Hairstylist: Len Rawlings, www.lenrawlings.com

Photographer: Zuzanna Audette, www.zuzannaaudette.com

Makeup Artist: Daniela Rowson, www.danielarowson.com

Behind the scene photos: Alena Ivakhnenko

KEVIN.MURPHY Products:

Visit WWW.KEVINMURPHY.COM.AU to find out more information about any of the products or tools listed.

Models:

Madison Slagowski, McCarty Talent Agency
Akeem Barney, McCarty Talent Agency
Bryson Thompson, McCarty Talent Agency
Drew Olsen, independent
Mikal Moore, independent

Clothing: Nappi Clothing

Accessories: Fueled by Whisky

POWDER.PUFF | Nominated for Best Design Award by Wallpaper Magazine

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Luis M. in News |

Wallpaper Magazine nominated KEVIN.MURPHY POWDER.PUFF for a design award in the Wallpaper Design Awards for 2012. These recognise everything from the best designer and new women’s/men’s fashion collections to the best new restaurant, private house, public building and city in the world! The KEVIN.MURPHY POWDER.PUFF was shortlisted (listed in the top 5) in the category for best new grooming product.

The judging will be done by an eclectic mix of judges which includes Grayson Perry, a ceramicist and headline act at the British Museum, Rafael Vinoly, the New York-based architect with seven offices on three continents, Simon de Pury, the Swiss art auctioneer, Gerd Bulthaup, the head honcho at German kitchen manufacturer Bulthaup and Jean-Paul Goude, photographer/art-director/illustrator who made an icon of Grace Jones and a man of Laetitia Casta.

Kevin Murphy on the packaging….

“I like the packaging for my products to be practical, functional, yet beautiful. The almost round shape of the bottle helps disperse the product inside before it falls through the applicator. The oval indentation and shape of the bottle was ergonomically designed to fit your thumb and fit easily in your hand for easy application. I made it pink because it’s a beautiful color, and I’ve even put a little surprise inside, a smiley face on the applicator.”

Kevin Murphy on his nomination…

“I am so exited to be in the top five of the grooming category and I’m humbled by the calibre of the entrants in my category. To be the only hair product in the top five is an honour and fingers crossed for the final judging in January.”

Click on KEVIN.MURPHY POWDER.PUFF to visit our website and find out more product information and to view a video on how to use COLOR.BUG.

Click on KEVIN.MURPHY SALON.FINDER to find a KEVIN.MURPHY stockist near you.

The winners will be announced in the February issue of Wallpaper Magazine which will be out mid January. Stay tuned and we’ll let you know if it’s a win!

Kevin Murphy | Out of Africa

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Luis M. in News | 1

Africa was such an amazing place it was my first time we went deep into the Kalahari desert to the edge of nowhere, there were only 3 colours in the landscape the soft blue of the sky the dried shrubs and the white sand of the salt pans. The colours of the landscape were amazing and simple the perfect place for a shoot. The cover was shot on the salt pans out the front of the camp it was super windy so it was lucky that I had the hairband in my bag, i had bought the hairband many years ago while i was living in New York and it went perfectly with the cover look, I had never had the chance to use it, luckily I never throw anything away.

Shoot 1 – “Afrique C’est Chic”

We shot 2 stories while we were there one really fun an colourful using lots of turbans and head bands, its was great to create the turbans, I was really influienced by the local women and how they tied the turbans and I decided to create hair that was in the shape of a turban. All the plants were really bush like with lots of long sharp thorns, those long thorns were the inspiration for the hair that popped out of the turban. I first pulled the hair into a top knot then pulled bits out of the knot I used TEXTURE.MASTER to define the spikes so that they were separate but together.

I always like to take a piece of my environment into the shoot I found these African necklaces in a store in Johannesburg and it gave the hair a sense of place. All the collections that are shown in the pictures were the “Resort Collections” of all the designers, resort is a quick flash of summer clothes that appear in the stores so people have some new summer clothes to take away on holidays, that meant the shoot had to say holiday. I removed the top knot and simply tied the hair into a big knot and looped the African necklaces over the knot and secured them by sewing them to the hair at the back. The hair looked so great all piled up high and it was super secure.

I love this Leopard dress it was by Dolce Gabbana, the dress being so tight but quite demure with a longer length and deliberatly high neck that keep you covered up but still super sexy. I kept the hair really flat at the sides so that it accomodate the scarves so the hair looked super high on top of Katie’s head, the atmosphere of the desert was really dry so I applied a bit of NIGHT.RIDER to the spikes to define them this really helped to give the spikes a waxy feel in the African sunlight, there was no problem with volume as it was so dry my only issue was keeping the hair moist and shiny, I did not want Katie’s hair to go matte or dull looking.

I love these Vionet hair clips they were beaded in African beads and the had the best grips on then they were super tight and you could really control the hair with them. The clips allowed me to pull the hair down at the front and create a fringe or bang with her hair that again used the idea of a turban by keeping the front of the hair flat. The star shape complimented the spikes of the hair and made my spikes make more sense, I tried to make the spikes look a bit like stars around the base of the bun. The TEXTURE.MASTER really helped me mould the hair and make it stay i would have been lost without it. I also found by adding a bit of EASY.RIDER to the spikes it softened the TEXTURE.MASTER and made it easy for me to come back and re-dress the hair between shots

In this shot you can really see the structure of the hair, you can make out the knot sitting underneath the spikes, without the scarves you can see how big the knot was and the tiny fringe that swoops over gives the hair a chic look so its not just all crazy hair with no form, the slick sides give the look a certain glamour and strength its all about putting hair up now and having a bit of a do.

SHOOT 2 – “Wild At Heart”

This was the cover story of the mag and the main reason for going, we went to a high end luxury camp that was all organic and had no phone, electricity or internet at first I was shocked as its hard to do the hair without turning on a hairdryer, my second thought was to embrace the fact that we had no power and I decided to attempt to do the shoot using no electricity. The location was no natural and calm, the eco system was so delicate and felt precious I didn’t want to disturb the mood that the wilderness by turning the camp into a salon with noisy hairdryers going off at 3am. I did the whole shoot without using one scrap of electricity and that made me feel good and i was up to the challenge. Who needs power when you got products.

Isabel Lucas is an australian actress and she had just finished the film the Immortals starring Mickey Rourke and John hurt, Isabel plays Athena. Her hair had been coloured for the role and it was an amazing colour the perfect contrast for the African desert. Her hair had become damaged from constant colouring, my prescription for her was BORN.AGAIN.WASH and BORN.AGAIN.MASQUE and hourly sprays of STAYING.ALIVE it took about 2 washes to plump up her hair and make it feel thick again. The only styling product that I used was MOTION.LOTION to define the ends.

Isabel has the kind of beauty that takes your breath away, it was really hard to stop staring at her. Each morning to prep the hair i applied the STAYING.ALIVE to her ends and mid-lengths. All the time brushing this through the hair with my smoothing brush, I found just by treating the hair and brushing it I could get the hair smooth. Once completed I used the smoothing brush to back brush the roots mid-lengths and ends of the hair to give it some texture, I brushed out about 60% of the teasing and left the roots teased and applied the MOTION.LOTION to the ends of her hair so it was dishevelled but defined.

It was really an amazing opportunity to go to Africa and do it all with respect to the environment, I was so proud of myself that i did not have to use any chemicals or electricity to achieve the looks, by using a wash and two treatments from the range i was able to revive Isabel’s hair back to life and get through 20 pages of editorial STAYING.ALIVE proved to be my best friend in the desert, it gave a plumpness to the hair and made it easy to manage all through the shoot.

Happy Holidays to everybody and I hope you enjoy looking at the shoot.

Regards,

Kevin Murphy

Men’s Fitness | Gets Down To GRITTY.BUSINESS

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Luis M. in News |

Men’s Fitness Magazine recommends KEVIN.MURPHY GRITTY BUSINESS for fine or thinning Hair. They recommend using a clay-based pomade to help maintain a natural look and won’t clump strands. To find where you can purchase GRITTY.BUSINESS at a salon near you visit the SALON.FINDER at our website.

NEW PROMOTION – TEXTURE.MASTER TEASER

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Luis M. in News |

The latest hot promotion to hit your shelves sees KEVIN.MURPHY take texture and teasing to a whole new level. TEXTURE.MASTER, the stronghold texture mist, combined perfectly with the latest edition to the tool line – TAIL.COMB, gives you the TEXTURE.MASTER TEASER. Available now in salons.

Form a big base of hair with TEXTURE.MASTER then use the KEVIN.MURPHY TAIL.COMB to tease the hair and create amazing styles like the 60’s inspired Bouffant. This pack has been designed to turbo-charge your hair and create out of control volume in seconds.

CONTENTS:

TEXTURE.MASTER

Get massive with TEXTURE.MASTER. Inspired by the Bouffant and the Bee Hive, TEXTURE.MASTER transforms and creates a big base of hair without having to tease.

TAIL.COMB

The TAIL.COMB has been specially designed for strength and durability; the unique pick at the end of the TAIL.COMB allows ease of sectioning and faster manipulation of the hair.

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FEED ME:

Len Rawlings | People Who Love KEVIN.MURPHY

POWDER.PUFF | Nominated for Best Design Award by Wallpaper Magazine

Kevin Murphy | Out of Africa

Men’s Fitness | Gets Down To GRITTY.BUSINESS

NEW PROMOTION – TEXTURE.MASTER TEASER