I was thinking some more about what Howard McLaren said. Here's a quote that I had forgotten about!

"A good haircut done on the wrong person is still a bad haircut"

inspiration.

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can be found anywhere, yet it can often be hard to find. Due to my recent lack of inspiration, my friends and I decided to do a photo shoot. I used my friend Kitti as a model because she has long, beautiful hair and is gorgeous. I didn't really do anything too crazy, just a curling iron set, but with all of Kitti's hair they turned out just perfectly. Howard made me realize that even though I was great at this style, I was too afraid to truly breakdown and brush the curls. This hair intimidation has got me tackling the problem head on with none other than another photo shoot. I will post more of the photos from our first attempt.

knowledge junkie

Today I saw Howard McLaren speak at my former hair school and if that isn't inspirational to write a blog post, then I don't know what is! I have waited years to meet this hero of mine and I must say it was well worth the wait! Howard has inspired me in so many ways! For those of my followers who aren't familiar with this particular genius, Howard McLaren is the vice president and senior creative director of my all time favorite haircare company, Bumble and bumble!

Howard taught me many things today, but there were two things that stuck with me specifically. The first was that you need to be a knowledge junkie. You can never learn too much! He told a story of how he was doing hair for a photo shoot early on in his career and when they consulted him on their creative vision he said he didn't know how to do that particular style and that is when he realized that he needed to know how to do everything. If there were things he didn't know how to do, he needed to master them! I think there are so many things that I can be better at and I need to strive to be number one, which leads me into the second thing I learned. #1 is always open. You can always come in and fill that number one position and be the best, but you need to take steps toward becoming the best and do whatever it takes to stay number one! Another thing that Howard said that I found inspiring was that he always carries three things with him at all time; a camera, a flip camera for taking videos, and his ipod. Inspiration is all around and you'll never know how you find it, but when it comes you want to be sure to capture it! He mentioned that without media, there is no record of your work! This is why I have my blog! He spoke of how without pictures and videos of Antoine and other hair heroes, we would still just be wondering how the greats used to dress hair. This is going to drive and inspire my next photo shoot to be a '40s style reminiscent of Veronica Lake.

Have you ever met your hero? Well here's two of my personal heroes together!
(from left to right) Jill Kohler, Sally Lesner and Howard McLaren


Howard also showed us many different Bb see videos, many of which included stop motion cinematography. My former boss has made a Bb inspired stop motion video of me and I think it's now my turn to give it a go! So look for my stop motion video and my Veronica Lake inspired shoot in the near future! I will add pictures from this event very soon as well!

Amanda, Me, Howard McLaren and Taylor!