I was in the midst of traveling when Louisville, Ky based designer, Tiffany Nelson (Holic Mode Design) asked me to style hair for her models for KMAC 2018 at the Kentucky Museum of Arts.

Katya takes the runway by storm. Image by Studio One Photo

I had worked on a few projects with Tiffany and it was only a year ago I had done hair for her last show.

Centria slays the runway. Image by Studio One Photo

I agreed after she sent me her conceptual sketches of both her designs along with inspiration images of the hair she wanted for both models, both of whom I had the luxury of working with in the past. Katya Estes and Centria Kapris both have amazing runway walks.

Katya and Centria during dress fitting

image by Tops Louisville Magazine

studio image by Tops Louisville Magazine

The talented make up artist, Matt Goodlett would be doing both models make up. Tiffany had two distinct looks for each model inspired by David Bowie and Game of Thrones. For Katya, Tiffany wanted a slicked back pompadour and for Centria, Long white hair with loose curls.

I arrived several hours before opening to the public for call time. Downtown Main street was shut down for the runway show as people were readying for the evening show when I checked in. I was then directed to the third floor of the elevator where I was greet by Tiffany and the team.

The placed was filled with teams preparing their models (all 47). Matt was in the midst of Katya's make up: a huge Bowie lightening bolt in grey and silver metallics and glitter inspired by "Aladdin Sane"

We made sure to add pairing nails to both models. Tiffany piece for Katya titled "Visionary" cream body suit with gold armor shoulder pieces with matching shin guards.

Tiffany creating finishing touches on Katya's outfit

Tiffany was really excited and was making final adjustments on her garments for the models. She even rocked a custom wig I had done for her.

For Katya's hair I used hair gel and lacquered down her sides while creating volume with her top length using a hair dryer. Afterwards I set the hair using a 2 inch march iron and set to cool. I then back combed the entire top section then smoothed the surfaces using a finishing brush and hair spray. Pinned into place. I added some glitter/gel and gold leaf to her sides and finished with gold bobbie pins of which were crossed on the back of her head.

We had a bout the two hours to ready our models before they were taken away for run through which took about two hours. Models returned for last touch up and hour and half before the show.

For Centria's hair I used a custom white frontal wig of which I set on rollers and used steam heat to set the hair. I did a center part with loose "lived in curls" as requested by Tiffany. Once fitted on Centria, Matt colored the hair line with blue make up. Using a small paint brush and gold glitter gel I covered her partline and blurred the gel outwards afterwards we used gold leaf and pressed that into the gel. Lastly, finishing the look with a crown.