Welsh is a hairstylist and makeup artist running her own academy in Copenhagen and is also the principal artist of global training and development for Oribe. Her job there is much about working on photo shoots or backstage for fashion magazines, celebrities, and designer brands.
What do you see coming big in the fall?
— Our 3 key trends this season are:
– A mixture of magical fairytales with romance. Soft hair lines. Half-up styles. Twists and soft braids.
– Equestrian. Long ponytails tied with thin ribbons. Sleek head-fitting shapes. Unique braids.
– Air dried. Allowing natural texture to shine. Wind-blown results. Carefree.
During Copenhagen Fashion Week, you were the key stylist for the Oribe team at 3 shows. One of them presented the With love from Copenhagen collection for Spring/Summer 2024 by Baum Und Pferdgarten. What can you say about your work there?
— The collection is inspired by Copenhagen, my adopted home. I travel a crazy amount for my work and every time I land in Copenhagen, I say to myself how fortunate I am to be able to call such a beautiful city my home. I love Copenhagen, the city, the people, the culture. It has a wonderful vibe and inspires me every day. Hearing the inspiration behind the collection brought all of the visual impacts Copenhagen gives me rushing through my thoughts. The collection and the location played equal parts in creating the looks for this show. Working with Helle and Rikke (Hestehave and Baumgarten, Ed’s note) is always a great pleasure and this season, the atmosphere was even more electrified and special. It played a great role in bringing that home-grown beauty alive, says Welsh. She continues:
— We had different looks for this collection:
– Wind-blown. The Copenhagen version of a blowout. The Danes don’t blow dry their hair. They are biking around the city and the wind does the job for them bringing out their natural texture. I wanted to capture this. As we are close to the water, there is always different degrees of air flow, it can be anything from a light breeze to full on wind-blown. I wanted to use this natural element to create movement in the hair. The texture had to be super clean and fresh, it’s not often at fashion week that shampoo gets to be a key styling product but for this look it was. On the models that needed it we washed their hair with shampoo, which locks in natural moisture. We also used a dry shampoo as a styling spray from the Gold Lust family, which repairs and restores balance to the hair. I knew that the celery seed extract would lift up any oils or impurities in the hair allowing beautiful flowing movement. For finer hair types, we used Thick Dry Finishing Spray, giving it extra density. We used the blow dryer on all the looks, some were then gently twisted and clipped with their own texture and some warmed with a large curling iron, allowed to cool, and then brushed out.
– Curl types 4, highly textured hair. We used our Moisture and Control Curl Shaping Mousse over the top of the braids and dried it with a hairnet to control all the small flyways and add a soft satin finish. With shorter cuts, we massaged the scalp with Gold Lust All Over Oil to release the growth patterns and add hydration.
– The casual chignon. We created this using the same wind-blown texture. I wanted the silhouette to be small and head shaped so on most of the models we removed the bulk of their hair with a concealed braid that sat tight and close to the head, pinned into place and covered with the headband. This allowed us to make a ponytail and twist the hair into place easily. If you have a lot of hair, long or thick, and want to put it up like this, it would look very done and big. By removing the bulk, we created a look that was unstructured and casual. The small detail of flyways hair around the hairline and the escaped ends added to the windblown vibe.
Lastly, what do you see coming for 2024?
— Just as sustainability is a macro trend in various areas of life, it’s also influencing hair styling. Low-maintenance cuts, styles that grow out gracefully, and use of sustainable hair products.
