Halloween is just around the corner (and then it is Christmas!!! sorry – focus – one day at a time). Now, I am not one for scary. I don’t like anything scary – ghost stories, films etc. Ever. I don’t like horror. I don’t like gore – my worst nightmare used to be when your friends were discussing plans for the ‘Friday night sleepover” and someone would say, “Do you want to come over to mine and watch that new scary movie?”.
No, I don’t. I want to watch ‘Bring It On‘ and ‘10 things I hate about you‘ and ‘The Notebook‘.
But saying all that, I do absolutely love dressing up for Halloween. It gives you an excuse to do overly dramatic clothes, hair and make up and nobody can judge. Contouring your face with black eyeshadow to make yourself look sketetal and dead is just so much fun – but it is frowned upon for a regular night out – so you just have to go all out for Halloween.
But when it comes to hair, I tend to just keep it simple and boring, either tie it up or straighten it. I never really know what to do with it to make it look Halloweeny – apart from backcombing it… but backcombing my hair is a NIGHTMARE to deal with in the morning (and not a good ol’ Halloween nightmare – the type of nightmare where you sit with a tub of conditioning treatment and a comb, crying in the shower).
But Duck & Dry Blow Dry Bar must have heard my call for help and asked me to come down to create some Halloween inspired hairstyles! There will be no more boring hair for me this year – I couldn’t wait to have scary hair – and not just because I didn’t style it that morning.
I have been to Duck & Dry a couple of times, to make my hair look beautiful with one of their signature blow drys – but this time we were going to make my hair look as scary as possible – (in a beautiful way of course.)
Oh and before I forget – you can have a peek at my review of their gorgeous salon >>here<<
I met my amazing stylist Mary – honestly the woman is an artist – and we set to work on the first of my 3 looks. Duck & Dry have a ‘hair menu’ book where you can pick what kind of vibe you want and then they shall recreate that for you. There is a large choice of blow drys & up dos and so we decided to take some of their looks and give them a Halloween twist. And this is exactly what you will be able to do for you come Halloween – or bring in your own idea and they will try and recreate that!
We started off with the ‘Sixties Siren’. I thought that this look would be ideal for anyone going as the very popular ‘sexy yet totally appropriate Witch’s Cat’ or just the classic ‘Witch’.
Its big, its sexy, and you can backcomb it as much as you would like for added craziness. Plus, it would look great with cat ears.
So we went very big. If I had this look for Halloween, I would absolutely entwine some fake spiders in there somewhere. Or store my candy.
We then discovered the gold hairspray. Best thing ever.
I feel this is very crazy Witch vibe – but it also still looks pretty (for those of you who would rather have the – “I look so scary but also just so beautiful” look, unlike Kady from Mean Girls.
Side note – Duck & Dry is also the home for the new PRESS LONDON juice store. I had the coconut and strawberry juice – exactly what I needed on a Monday morning – divine.
We then moved on to our second look. The fishtail plait. In the lookbook it is referred to as the ‘Perfect Fishtail’. We were going to un-perfect it and make it look bedraggled and messy.
..And obviously spray paint it gold.
Fishtail plaits would be absolutely ideal if you were dressing up as a skeleton as it just has that ‘bone’ effect, in my opinion.
Look number 3 – we went bespoke, darling.
Mary literally twisted my plait up onto my head to make a bird’s nest feel. I absolutely loved it. This is another reason to head down to Duck & Dry on Halloween – they will help you achieve whatever look you are after – within reason obviously.
Another idea that I had whilst I was there was to have a ‘Sassy Bun’. This look is absolutely perfect for the very, very popular halloween costume ‘Black Swan’. Rather than just twisting your hair into a bun – head down to the salon and get an over exaggerated ballerina bun to perfect the ‘Black Swan’ look and outshine all the other swans swanning around on the 31st.
And the best part of heading over to Duck & Dry for some halloween hair – they are having make-up artists there too. I know right! – amazing. (They are offering a few different looks, some bloody, some cobwebby and some catty). You don’t have to lift a finger and will come out totally Halloweened.
Actually – talking of fingers – they are also offering manicures using the very fabulous (and my personal favourite) ESSIE nail varnish. These slots are going to book up incredible fast (prices and details below) so I would call them now to reserve your place! They have their own bar there as well, so you can have your hair, make-up and nails done, whilst sipping prossecco – the best pre-lash ever.
Come down with a handful of friends and it is the best way to start your evening.
Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed being styled. Let me know what you are thinking of dressing up as for Halloween and we can get brainstorming for hair ideas!
Cocoa Chelsea
xx