More hair

A couple of weeks ago I was offered a job in London for a client of TIGI's: Forresters. A hop, skip and a planeride away and I was in London again.

I love London. I don't really know the town that well, but it's just such a wonderful bowl of things and people and shops and places and let's not forget, I actually know the language. Practical.

Anywho, Forresters needed some hair to colour for a competition, well, actually they needed some pictures of girls with hair they'd coloured and then they can send in the pictures for the this year's best hair colouring, or something.

Anywaywho, the whole thing took place in the BedHead studio, where the Tigi DIY collection pictures were taken aaaand.... here are some pictures. They're not really that representative for the whole trip, they're mostly just the pics I liked the best.

Tuesday: arrival day

Arrived early in the afternoon leaving the rest of the day free. Enjoyed three hours of doing absolutely nothing while lying on my huge hotelbed and drinking tea. Became hungry, went to Waitrose and enjoyed the weather and the atmosphere of Chelsea on the walk back.

Aahhh..... Flowers. <3 ( <---- lame, I know)

I stopped by a cute little place I noticed last time I was in London, the Phat Phuc Noodle Bar, a tiny outdoor Vietnamese restaurant. I like! Great chicken noodle soup and edamame beans and lovely, friendly staff. Recommended! It's in Chelsea btw.

Back at the hotel, Charlotte and I met Annette on the hotelroof. (Annette Russell, casting chief, caregiver of models and not to mention wonderwoman.) We had some wine and wonderful conversation and the view was stunning.

Wednesday: Prep-day

Charlotte the monkey (yes, that is her name): 

Robs from Forresters. He was such a darling. (Imagine I'm saying this with a very posh English accent)

 Gemma from Forresters. Also cute as a button and supernice. Very photogenic woman, I almost ended up only selecting pictures of her, and often some other stuff.

Then I found the wigs.

 

 

 Colouring done and I'm bright orange while Charlotte is pink and purple. This is not a wig. And at Topshop we found shoes to match! Didn't buy though.

 We met Annette again for supper at an adoring french restaurant, La Bouchée. I ate the best French onion soup. And, Annette made us taste foie gras, very fancy, yes. It tasted... alright. Not bad, but not spectacular.

Thursday: The shoot

We were five girls: three skinny bitches, one monkey, and me. (skinny bitch = proper model)

Hair and make-up done! Very cool.  

 The Monkey, looking fab. Oh! btw, Charlotte the monkey has now moved to London to try and make it as a proper skinny bitch. Exciting!

 The stylist:

Finished result, me on the far right. They shot Asian girl in the middle again with her hair a bit more fluffed up.

Monkey, in progress of getting her brown hair back.

 

LDN: Day #2

I've been so tired by the time I've gotten back at the hotel for the last couple of days, I just haven't had the energy to blog. But I said I would so here's day 2 in retrospect.

We went to the Bed Head studios, not knowing who would have their hair cut when yet. Mood boards along the walls.

Mostly waiting while the hairdressers argued and discussed and discussed again who would be cut by who and when and how. Our little hang out/waiting room used to be a gym but functioned mostly as storage at the moment. A bunch of wigs from previous projects.

 

Coffee table in waiting room/ex-gym. Not quiiite my style...

Preparations.

The walls in the hallway were covered in pictures from previous projects and shows.

More waiting...

 Freaky mannequin 

Ready for filming of hair cutting. The studio is freezing, Jeanette is warming herself with a blow dryer while waiting for cameras to start rolling.

Again, it was cold. I've huddled up in the sofa underneath my jacket.

Turned out I wasn't getting my hair done this day and ended up having the rest of the day off from noon. Went back to the hotel before running out again to enjoy the weather. View from my little balcony:

Lovely weather made the walk to Tate Britain brilliant.

The walk to Tate Britain was a bit longer than anticipated and my feet hurt like hell on the way back, but the houses in Chelsea are just so pretty I had to take a picture.

Lunch at hotel room.

Went to Oxford street after that and tried on half of Topshop. Nothing sat right though, went back famished, bought Indian food on the way back and ate in bed.

That was day #2. Can't be bothered to make the effort of thinking through what I write, therefore no witty comments. You'll survive without them for today.

LDN: Day #1

London, I have arrived! Boring flight, waiting, waiting, but was met at the airport by some of the other girls and also our driver:

nice man who drove us from airport to hotel

The hotel is a bit nicer than I expected.... It's a Gregorian townhouse in Chelsea, and at the front desk was a man I hardly understood because of his foreign, sort of French but not quite, accent. I didn't have to carry my luggage upstairs, a younger, but still hard to understand foreign accent man, carried it up for me. With my usual budget I'm not used to this kind of service and therefore it mostly makes me uncomfortable.

My room is a small double room and the bed has no less than six pillows! How big a head do you have when you need six pillows? It's all very neat and the sheets are Italien linen, bathrobes are provided and on the bedside table stood a couple of bottles of still water in lovely blue glass bottles. To me this is a grade of luxury I need to time to get used to. But who cares, I'm not paying anyway : D

big bed.

I have bathrobes and toilet paper with folded ends!

I went for a slight walk immediately after my arrival. I had not had any dinner yet so I went looking for some greasy Chinese take-away to it in bed. Instead I found expensive Thai-restaurants I dared not enter, men in suits and cigarettes in hand, Chanel, Ralph Lauren and Jean-Paul Gaultier. I went back hungry, not daring to ask where the nearest Tesco was. Luckily, the Internet told me where Tesco was. I'll look for that tomorrow.

I'll try to write a quick post a day. It'll be interesting to see what morning brings.