Day One saw session supremo Kenneth Stoddart celebrate the expensive lifestyles of early century Parisiennes at Lisa Ho, kick-starting RAFW with a chic, polished up-do that perfectly complemented the designer’s trademark goddess gowns and effortlessly sexy separates that draped and clung to the model’s bodies. “Strong and sculptural; a polished woman,” is how Kenneth describes the look. “We wanted a classic, elegant shape, and something more ‘compact’ than previous collections,” he adds. The result was a rich ‘flower pot chignon’, a true testament to Stoddart’s brilliance in creating styles that are simple, elegant and beautifully finished.

Next came Jon Pulitano’s debut at Seventh Wonderland, the first of many shows for the week by hair fashion’s latest wunderkind. “It’s a 1930’s finger wave with a modern twist,” explains Jon of the medusa-like ‘do, created by moulding section by section of hair in a snake-like wave over the entire head. Random pieces of hair are positioned flat against the model’s face, almost like the hair is dripping, with a high shine, wet-look finish. “The end result is meant to look almost plastic, which was achieved by layering Redken Forceful 23 hairspray as we dried the hair,” says Jon.

Redken Hair Director Maria Ardino continued waving the Redken flag on Day One at the first of the week’s ready-to-wear shows. Fusing various textures by combining braiding and backcombing, the result was modern and angelic with hair effortlessly tied back into a loose chignon.  

Day Two saw New Zealand stylist Richard Kavanagh lend his clever hands to the Sara Phillips show, mixing rockabilly quiffs with soft texture. “The look plays on a paradox between masculine and feminine,” Richard describes. “The look isn’t about girls trying to look like boys, but a stronger masculine shape contrasted by soft feminine texture.”

Brisbane’s Todd Arndt captained the helm at Magdalena Velevska and continued one of the week’s hottest trends – braiding. “This look has a very understated 50’s inspired sexiness to it,” says Todd. “Even though it’s an up style, the look is still quite relaxed because the plait isn’t secured too tightly and the soft quiff gently falls over the forehead. This gives it a beautiful, graceful and modern feel without looking too overdone.”

At the Women’s Ready To Wear 2 show, Redken Hair Director Philip Barwick created a look that was fresh and undone. “This hair reflects the freedom of Spring/Summer,” Philip adds, “and the hair is fresh, textured and slightly undone whilst still maintaining defined elements of design.” To get this look, Philip builds texture into two ponytails, which are then intertwined and looped together to create a sophisticated design and finish.

Perth label Flannel embraced American sportswear and gave it a homegrown twist with dresses, shirts and easy pants in shades of sand, tan and green washed silk, cotton and suede. On the beauty side, Hair Director Jon Pulitano kept the locks contemporary by fusing modern trends with pop culture in a look that was 80s mixed with a touch of vampire. “The texture is everything for the look at Flannel,” explains Jon. “It’s a refreshing and strong statement for women to wear their hair in a mannish way with a wet masculine texture through the front.”

Philip Barwick returned on Wednesday for Karla Spetic. “This hair look captures the purity and simplicity of beautiful healthy hair,” he says. “It’s a style that appears untouched and naïve – not coloured or overstyled – which slowly is growing wild at the ends.” With a minimalistic quality, the key to this look is eliminating volume at the roots, precise smoothness and incredible healthy shine. Sleek and wearable.

Kenneth Stoddart also returned on Wednesday for Kate Sylvester, whose collection is a juxtaposition of ultra romantic feminine and very dapper masculine styles. “I wanted to apply the same vision in the hair,” says Kenneth, “so for the first look, the girls are made to look like boys with deep set, slick side parts, pulled back tightly. The second look is a drastic contrast to the first with flowing, effortless long hair, with plenty of light movement and soft dishevelled waves.”

Redken Hair Director Lorna Evans tackled the men’s and women’s Ready To Wear show mid-week, with references from Madame de Pompadour coming through displaying great height and cushion-like volume. “The women’s hair style has a romantic, baroque influence to it with a contemporary twist,” says Lorna, who crimped the front sections to create a beautiful, soft texture.   

That night, at Konstantina Mittas, the pressure was on Jon Pulitano to recreate the world class hair vision he did at the designer’s show in 2009 – and the audience wasn’t disappointed! His towering creation was based on a Grecian goddess combined with elements of sci-fi beauty; a blend of elongated, exaggerated sculptural shapes with gravity defying height and extreme texture. Stunningly beautiful!

Onto Day Four at RAFW and session stylist Daren Borthwick tackled Gary Bigeni’s range with gusto, contrasting wearable textures in the lengths, wet and dry, to complement the soft jersey draping and pastel palette of the collection.  

“The hair at Gary Bigeni is a fusion of different finishes and textures to give the style an interesting and modern feel to it,” Daren reports. The look was simple, sleek and no fuss with enamel-like shine on the top lengths and soft natural texture on the bottom lengths.

Also on Thursday, Redken Hair Director Maria Ardino was influenced by doll figurines at Kooey. “This look is all about aerated movement and texture,” Maria reports, “lots of texture, soft floatiness and contrasting textures.” The hair was blow dried smooth at the top and then curled and backcombed thoroughly at the back to generate maximum volume and fullness.

Onto the final day of RAFW and the Redken team were en masse for a packed schedule of shows, including Todd Arndt for Arnsdorf and Alex Grahl at Miss Unkon. Todd channelled the Seventies at Arnsdorf, with models wearing the favoured ponytail of the era – straight, long and with a clean centre part. “The beauty of this look is in its simplicity and wearability,” comments Todd. “The centre part keeps the look symmetrical, whilst the healthy and silky finish and slight windswept texture in the ponytail give the look a natural feel.” Alex Grahl stepped back one more decade to pay homage to starlet Brigitte Bardot. Celebrating the beauty of individuality, there were 16 different hair looks under the one theme, yet each oozing sexy style with full tousled texture and voluminous curls.

Richard Kavanagh teamed up with fellow Kiwi, designer Annah Stretton later that day for her Slaughter collection, where the muse and reference was also a young Brigitte Bardot. Playing on her role as a strong activist against the willful mistreatment of animals, Richard created two signature Bardot looks for the show – her signature bouffant and the rockabilly biker styles from the 50s and 60s. The hair was quirkily adorned with animal toy figurines, which were wrapped in hair and colour-matched to each model.

Redken Hair Director Tracey Hughes made her debut on Friday with two shows – Ms Couture and New Generation. At Ms Couture, the look was playing on Angels and Vixens, good versus evil, with opposing textures and finishes. Tracey’s Angel look was oh so feminine with models sporting floating voluminous, Hollywood style curls. The up-style for the vixen look was sleek and strong with an incredible, high shine finish. Over at the New Generation show, the look was fresh, youthful and wearable. “It’s a very versatile look,” comments Tracey, “with a simple low ponytail, swept cleanly off the face and a soft bouncy wave in the ends for a touch of elegance.”

Next it was the girls’ turn once again to wave the Redken flag – Maria Ardino for Hussy and Lorna Evans for the sexy swimwear group show. “Metamorphosis and rebirth is the inspiration for the hair look,” says Maria of Hussy. “We’re experimenting with different shapes, textures and finishes within the one look to give each down style a more modern edge.” As a result, the top lengths of the hair were smooth, with a wet look, high shine finish that graduated into a wild aerated fullness that was soft to the touch. At the swimwear show, Lorna Evans created two sexy, curly down styles. “The first look is influenced by the Victoria Secret runway shows,” she says, “beautiful, big and voluptuous LA style curls. The second has a more traditional, indigenous Australian feel to it with a modern twist.” With curls being the common theme between the two looks, Lorna used different and unconventional curling techniques to achieve LA glossy ringlets and tight zig zag patterns in the hair.

The final show for RAFW saw the return of cult brand ksubi, coinciding with the label’s decade in business. Highly anticipated and in true ksubi style, the show and the crowd were totally cool, as was the hair created by Redken Hair Director Jon Pulitano. “The ksubi hair look has a strong seventies feel to it with a touch of rock and roll,” describes Jon. Keeping with the seventies reference, Jon opted for a strong centre part and kept the hair straight, smooth and one length for extra impact. The style was given a modern twist with glossy shine and strong clean lines. Fringes were kept full and slightly curved to frame the face and emphasise the cheekbones, and extensions were added and cut so that all of the models had the same blunt, razor-sharp finish.

So the shows were all over, but at Redken, the party had just begun…