Unleashed by Asif Yvette

Hair for modern looks
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The term unleashed, brings to mind the ideas of "no restrictions" and "no limitations"; and this collection embodies those ideas. There are no restrictions on the imagination that crafted these designs and there are no limitations on the concepts that formed the seeds of these styling ideas.
 
The Asif Yvette Artistic Team brings us a collection of eight distinct looks that invoke classic imagery or use period inspiration without restrictions or limitations. These are hairstyles that take advantage of all the elements of texture, volume and shape and create modern looks that make you take a second glance when you see the inspiring ideas shining through. These are truly "Unleashed" styles.
 

Hair Wrapped as a Scarf

Long hair wrapped around the neck
 
She drives her shiny red convertible fast, and the tires echo her delight as she hugs the curves of the road winding through the Hollywood hills. The sun has set and her sunglasses lay discarded on the leather beside her. As her headlights flash over the landscape below, she laughs to think that she's just another star blazing her trail in the Hollywood night.
 
Our starlet here has her hair wrapped around her neck in a silky, ebon scarf. This long silky hair is styled smooth and sleek to lie close to the scalp and hug the face, mimicking the fabric of a silken scarf.
 
The hair is drawn under the chin and wrapped into a knot at the nape of the neck, where the ends are drawn forward to drape across the chest. Obviously, this requires hair of sufficient length. Even more obviously, this requires healthy hair, blown straight, ironed smooth and made glossy with silkening products to protect from stress and damage.
 

Full-Volume Hairstyle with Curls

Full-volume hairstyle with curls
 
Arctic winds blow and their icy fingers claw at the very warmth of your soul. Yet you are snug and warm in a hood of fur, as the layers of natural fibers both block the life-stealing chill and gently cradle your body's own warmth close to your skin.
 
The full-volume hairstyle seen here is constructed of a layered cut, and the hair is curled and combed to build out these layers in an imitation of the snug halo of fur that protects the bravest from the frozen wastes.
 
Hair that falls to the middle of the back is wound carefully onto slender tools, creating tight coils of hair that are ruffed up and puffed up and yet kept curly more than frizzy forming a soft swell around the head.
 
The natural, neutral beige-blonde tones make a perfect hair color for the imitation of the snuggly furs, and the pinked cheeks bring to mind a windburned face. Use a dab of hairspray and a gentle hand to keep the curls intact on your own "snow queen" style.
 

Cascades of Golden Tendrils

Hair with a smoothed center and the ends curled
 
She likes things that dangle. She likes the weight of them, the way they tug at the muscles of her neck, and the way they feel on her skin as they brush by in their swinging arc.
 
The hair is parted left of center and divided - smoothed carefully to points above the ears on either side of the head and gathered there. The loose ends are curled and ruffed into cascades of golden tendrils. They are sprays of golden threads that dangle and catch the light in their shimmering strands.
 
If you start from the base styling of the previous hairstyle and part the hair as described, you'll be able to craft the two tails as desired. Use a dab of smoothing serum to define the tendrils as needed.
 

Circle-Cut Bob

Circle-cut bob hairstyle with a gentle curved shape
 
While all around the last vestiges of the old way are fading and the new age is beginning to emerge, young women were seeing their skirts grow shorter and their heels getting longer. This new "Modernistic" or "Mod" style embodied the ideals of new looks, new hairstyles and a rejection of the old, uninspired styles of the earlier generations.
 
And now that the original Mod movement has come and gone some forty years past, we see a re-emergence of "Mod" in fashion and hair.
 
This circle-cut bob is a classically inspired mod cut. The cleanly defined perimeter is smoothly contoured and razor-softened at the ends. The hair is blown-out for straightness and smoothness, in order to form the gentle curved shape.
 
A light hold styling product will give the hair hold and volume enough to shape the hair. A light misting of hairspray will give the finished hairstyle hold, while maintaining the softness.
 

High-Volume Hairstyle

High-volume hairstyle with smoothed sides
 
If Mod styles rejected the status quo of the traditional stuffy, staid looks, this is a leap ahead by at least two decades. The edgy, avant-garde hairstyles of the early nineties are echoed in this high-volume look.
 
The sides and back are smoothed back to cling to the scalp, while the top and crown seem to grow vertically of their own accord. This, of course, is not the case and the top and crown sections are simply blow-dried with vertical lift and plied with firm-hold product to create the texture needed to hold the hair up.
 
It may take many repeated applications of product to recreate this look in your own hair, but remember to aim for a dry look at the finish for softness and you'll be fine.
 

Full-volume Up-Style

Full-volume up-style
 
Classic lines and profiles inspire this full-volume up-style. "Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness/Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time/Sylvan historian, who canst thus express/A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme..."
 
The hairstyle is begun with a base styling technique of kinking the hair to add texture and volume. This can be accomplished in different ways. The hair could be sectioned and braided into thin braids and then wet and dried before being unbraided. (A medium-hold styling product should be used to give the hair added structure.) The hair could also be pressed using a crimping iron to create the same effect.
 
Once the base texture is created in the hair, the hair is swept upward into a loose twist and secured with pins. The edge of a brush or a comb held at a shallow angle is used to create the smooth outer finish and form the soft, sleek silhouette that makes this look a classic.
 

Hair with Texture

Hair up style with texture and a side-knot
 
Of course, an epically inspired classical up-style isn't the only look born of a crimped and voluminous head of hair. Much of the lively looks of the eighties featured textured tresses and zany silhouettes. In this "girls just wanna have fun" hairstyle we see echoes of the pop-icons of the 1980s era with a slightly toned-down expression.
 
Rather than wrapping the hair into a classic twist, how about taking the majority of the top, crown, nape and right side and forming a side-knot that ends in a spray of zigzag tendrils? In this style the texture is the key, as the bends and alternating direction of the strands makes the light bounce and gives the hair depth and interest. A light mist of hairspray is all that's called for to secure the look and make a long-lasting style.
 

Fall of Coppery Coils

Hair curled with a curling wand
 
Short hair with curls
 
To look upon this image is to imagine perhaps the face in the marble freed by the artist Pygmalion and brought to life by the prayers to Aphrodite, for not even the fair Galatea, with whom Pygmalion, her creator, fell in love, could have been lovelier, or more lovingly crafted.
 
The hairstyle here is proof that careful craftsmanship leads to perfection as the ruby-toned tresses are drawn carefully to the top and crown of the head and sculpted into a fall of coppery coils to frame the cool gray eyes and add a rosy blush to the porcelain skin.
 
The curl could be crafted in different ways, with the more likely being the use of spiral wrapping tools in a wet set with a firm hold product for a long-lasting result. In this event the drawing of the hair to the upper areas of the skull could be accomplished after the curl is set with less concern over losing the integrity of the curl.
 
Otherwise, the hair could be curled through the use of a curling wand, and the hair is formed into the shape desired. The benefit of the latter method is that the curl can be more easily targeted. If both methods are viable for the situation, a combination would be acceptable.
 
Use a light misting of hairspray to add definition, reduce frizz and increase the longevity of the style.
 
Hair: Asif Yvette Artistic Team
Make-up: Hayley Britton
Photography: Richard Miles
Art Direction: Richard Miles
 
See also: Short hairstyles | Medium hairstyles | Up styles
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