Check out this article from the New York Times' Kayleen Schaefer on one of the hottest new trends in fashion... (after the jump)
"A Bright Spring Trend Puts Tails Amid the Tresses"
by Kayleen Schaefer
The first
time Stacey Gersten had feathers put in her hair — while vacationing in Austin,
Tex., at the same kind of street-side stand from which you might buy homemade
brownies — she panicked. “I thought they were so beautiful,” said Ms. Gersten,
27, a casting director who lives in New York. “Then I thought, ‘What am I going
to do when they fall out?’ ”
Ms.
Gersten decided that rather than live without green and purple plumes in her
hair, she would learn to put them in herself. In January, she started a side
business doing feather hair extensions out of her East Village apartment.... “The
guy I was dating at the time was like, ‘O.K., Sunshine Rainbow,’ ” Ms. Gersten
said.
As 1970s
fashions like flared jeans and wedge sandals return (again) this spring, many
hip chicks are wearing feathers — not flowers — in their hair. Feather
extensions, which are rooster tails attached with metal clips, first appeared
in mid-January and have been seen on Miley
Cyrus, Jennifer
Love Hewitt, Selena Gomez, Ke$ha, Hilary
Duff and the “Glee” actress Jenna Ushkowitz...
...“It’s
such a nice idea if you’re looking for a little flair or excitement,” said
Jordan Blackmore, the owner of [a hair salon]. “Feather colors produce
the most beautiful tones. They can be really bold and hot or simple and
natural.” He has put them in a dozen clients’ hair since he started doing them
six weeks ago, sometimes as a free add-on to their blowout after a cut. Clients
can wash and even curl the feathers and they will last in their hair up to four
months, though Mr. Blackmore said, “I’m not recommending four months.”
Rooster
feathers have been used by fly-fishermen for years. Known as hackle, they have
become so popular with hair supply shops that bait and tackle shops can’t keep
them in stock. “Most of the suppliers are running out,” said Michael Chou of [a LA salon].
If they
do run out, it’s bound to raise some hackles in New York. “Girls are stopping
me on the street,” said Sara Brooks, 28, who works in public relations... She said designers and makeup artists were chasing
her down backstage during Fashion Week to find out who had festooned her hair.
Theodore
Leaf of Sally Hershberger... cautioned that the look should be subtle: more
casually bohemian than proud peacock.
“The most
important thing is that they’re done in a way that’s tasteful and appropriate,”
Mr. Leaf said. “I like a well-edited cluster that’s tucked behind one ear and
just sort of pops out. They should whisper instead of shout. That’s the key to
pulling this off and not looking crazy....”
The more
conservative might instead try a small headpiece topped with feathers or beads,
which the British call fascinators, and which Kate Middleton wore in February
at an official public appearance.
On the
other end of the spectrum, some viewers of “The Real Housewives of Beverly
Hills” are trying tinsel extensions, or hair bling, like Adrienne Maloof, one
of the stars of the show, has worn. “The whole purpose behind the bling was to
find a way not to take myself so seriously all the time,” Ms. Maloof wrote in
an e-mail. “You know what they say, ‘Girls just wanna have fun.’ ”
Perhaps.
But Mr. Leaf recommends feathers over bling in the conference room. “If you’re
walking into work and you have a hair feather, I can take you seriously,” he
said. “If you’re wearing tinsel, I don’t think so.”
(Schaefer, Kayleen. "A Bright Spring Trend Puts Tails Amid the Tresses." New York Times 21 Apr 2011, E9. Print.)
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