We had the opportunity back in January to welcome Aubrey Loots from Wella to do a hair show for our team. Aubrey is a global educator for Wella, the color company we use here at Cole’s, and he travels all over the globe to help inspire artists, share his amazing knowledge, and showcase new trends and color formulas.
The theme of this year’s show was “quiet luxury,” a term you may have already seen and heard over the last few months on TikTok or Instagram. “Quiet luxury” embodies an expensive look and feel but through a modern minimalist lens. The key to achieving this aesthetic when it comes to hair? Focusing on subtle dimension.
Five Models in Two Days
Aubrey took the lead, telling each Cole’s stylist what they were going to do on each of the models. Then, we got to work! Our team worked with five different models over the course of two days to showcase an array of transformations, from big to subtle, as well as today’s hottest styling techniques — hair! makeup! outfit! — to complete the looks.
The Looks
We took one model from blonde to “bronde” — a trending look that creates a perfect blend of brunette and blonde. This technique results in a very soft, lux color for our blonde clients that shakes things up for the winter and spring months.
For our next model, we had some gorgeous curls to work with and brought up her haircut to show them off, adding dimension to compliment her red hair. She looked fabulous afterward, with more vibrancy and movement to her cut and style!
We did a full transformation on our next model, cutting off about six inches of hair and giving her a French bob, another trend we’re seeing more of this year. Then, we did a bleach and tone to take her hair to a chic blonde shade. Aubrey wanted to do something super fun with her toner, so we ended up bricklaying two different toners in her hair to create dimension (there’s that word again!) without doing highlights or lowlights.
On the fourth model, we did a modern take on the chunky foils of the 2000s. We’ve seen a lot of bold pops of colors lately, and it was super fun to do it in a more up-to-date way. We did foils throughout the crown of our model’s hair, then glossed her at the end so our highlights were only about two shades lighter than the rest of her hair. This allowed subtle contrast versus her feeling like she had stripes!
On our last model, Aubrey wanted to showcase some bangs and fringe, since this is going to be a huge trend for 2024. We added some subtle highlights through her fringe so they wouldn’t look so dark against the balayage she already had going on. Aubrey decided to cut the bangs on stage in front of the whole salon team to add some shock factor to the show!
There’s so much that goes into prepping a show like this, and getting our hands in some hair is always the best part. Aubrey Loots is an inspiration, and we’re so grateful to have had him here at Cole’s for a second year to help coach and inspire all of us all over again. All in all, our second annual hair show was a great learning opportunity and huge success!
Sena A. is a designer at our Eagan Station salon. She joined the Cole’s Salon team in 2016. You can follow her on Instagram at @hairbysena.
Photos by Adeline C. an esthetician at our Burnsville salon (@adelines.artistry) and Lauren S. a designer at our Eagan Station salon (@laurenstemperbeauty).
