The second installment of the six week, 12 salon hair competition "Hair Wars" took place last Thursday with runway performances from Allure and Canvas Salon. Each week two Sacramento salons go head-to-head, showcasing their best in avant-garde hair styling.

The runway, constructed specifically for the event, stood in the middle of the Park Ultra Lounge's outdoor patio. Approximately 200 people piled on top of benches and stood on chairs to get a glimpse of the action.

Allure was one of the finalists in last year's Hair Wars. Owner Missy O'Daniel said the competition offers her stylists an outlet by which they can show not only their patrons, but also the community as a whole, what they are capable of.

"What we do in Sacramento on a day-to-day basis is making people beautiful, creating wearable hair," O'Daniel said. "Here [at Hair Wars] we are free to be very creative. The sky's the limit for what we can do."

Canvas Salon took to the runway first at around 10:30 p.m. The show was focused around a modern Egyptian theme, with Canvas' design team drawing inspiration from Cleopatra.

"She was so ahead of her time," said Opaline's Closet's Joni Jacobs, who designed the garments worn by Canvas' models. "[We drew inspiration from] the woman she was, her elegance, the drapery, her obsession with Isis and eye make-up."

The ladies were decked in everything from a calf-length gold-brocade sleeveless dress to a silky black pantsuit. Accessories were omnipresent; gold bangles and arm bands adorned limbs and metallic chain belts cinched waists. The masculine side wore expertly draped fabrics and gold body paint, and contributed considerably to the shows theatrical side. Two gold-painted men in little but a glorified sheet carried the first model on their shoulders before setting her down to walk. Models flirted and teased the stone-faced "slave boys" as they stood waving palm fronds at the runway's end.

The clothes and theatrics provided impeccable backdrops for the star of the show: the hair.

Hugely intricate up-dos, with braids twisted and snaking around complicated buns. Many of the models had heavy, straight-across bangs framing their kohl-lined eyes. The hair hues were on the dark side of the color spectrum, ranging from deep, purplish reds to chocolate auburn.

Cherry Dooran Johnson, co-owner of Canvas Salon, said that it was the salon's first year participating in Hair Wars. Despite the salon's last minute decision to enter, the show was a success for all those involved, said Johnson. She and Jacobs attribute the night's achievements to the talent and closeness of her team.

"We have an amazing team, young and creative," Johnson said. "Tonight they got to explore the artistic side of doing—the other side that's not behind a chair."

"We are a very spontaneous group," Jacobs said. "Everybody is extremely easy to work with, great attitudes— a lot of times that is a difficult thing to achieve with a group of young women. We are all friends."

Allure was the second and final salon to take the stage that night. An Asian aesthetic was the conceptual force behind the looks. Models padded down the runway in cropped kimonos that exposed punky, patterned tights and thick-strapped stiletto platforms. O'Daniel said in the six-week preparation for the show she hand gone to San Fransisco to purchase the original robe-like costumes. Then she and her team took to altering all the garments to transform the traditional look into a modernized one of their own.

Once again the hair stole the show as models rocked asymmetrical bangs with rounded, shiny stacked buns. Faux, brightly colored hair pieces in blues and platinum blond, feathers, and even tiny paper umbrellas added height and depth to cascading ponytails and teased-out up-swept hair.

The show reached its climax when a model with an ornate feather head piece walked down the runway as the head of a re-vamped Chinese dragon. As she finished her walk, the "legs" of the dragon, two young men in all black, exploded from underneath and began sparring, jumping on and off the stage in shows of athleticism and refined knowledge of martial arts. The finale featured all 10 girls lined up on the runway, fanning out posing with their paper umbrellas and lanterns, inciting the crowd.

Both shows offered women and men imaginative possibilities for hair. Viewers were able witness the wildest daydreams of the salons and perhaps incorporate elements of the fantasy hair to refresh the monotony of day-to-day wearable hair. O'Daniel explained how the process of inspiration, however, is a mutual one.

"For people that know us, know we do beautiful hair," she said. "This is a different side on what we are able to do. We do it more for us, to inspire ourselves."

 

Check out next week's Hair Wars when Luxe Salon & Spa faces off against Hoss Lee academy Thursday at the Park Ultra Lounge.

August [Aug.] 13: Hoss Lee Academy and Luxe Salon & Spa
August 20: Willo Salon & Spa and The California Academy
August 27: Deeda Salon and Magic Salon
September [Sept.] 3: Joseph Anthony Salon & Spa and Bia Salon