ghd X Preen

Aquatic Aesthetic

For Preen’s AW18 show, Wella and ghd fashion week ambassador, Eugene Souleiman added an aquatic aesthetic to the always effortless and romantic collection.

Known for combining hard and soft textures, this season Preen turned to tailored scubawear mixed with floating florals for the clothing inspiration. Eugene emulated the raw textures of the fabrics in the collection with a hair look that is imperfectly perfect.

This look is about enhancing imperfections and not torturing the hair, allowing it to do more of what it wants to do.

The inspiration for the hair is sea anemones. We want the girls to look like they’re in water, with their hair looking otherworldly – like it is floating with zero gravity. We’re putting glitter in their hair so it’s glistening. – Eugene Souleiman

There was no one hair look or approach. The end result was achieved by working with each model’s natural hairstyle, creating effortless texture with just a touch of product to enhance the end look.

The Key Technique:

It’s all about your hands, it’s not about a brush or a comb – it’s hair that you can touch with a soft stringy texture that’s octopus-like.  - Eugene explains.

Working closely with the Preen styling team, the hair was left tucked into the clothes with Eugene styling the hair once the girls were dressed to create a fluid look.

The texture of the hair is grungy and uncombed with natural movement, so we used EIMI Dry Me to add a rawness and EIMI Mistify Me Light to hold the pieces of hair in place. We want it to have a feeling of haste and speed, like it’s been done quickly – not too controlled or glamorous. It’s broken, but in a very beautiful way. There are subtle nuances and touches that make it work and make it feel a bit more unusual.

Eugene used styling tools to create soft waves, which tumbled down from under the scuba caps.

For some of the girls we’re adding movement with the ghd gold styler  (£139) and the ghd curve classic curl tong (£120). We’re doing pieces of hair, not the whole head, so it doesn’t feel too done. There’s a real beauty to it, it’s angelic and soft.

As a final touch, glitter was softly blown onto the models’ hair to add an aquatic sheen that emulated the make-up look.