Sam McKnight’s biggest hair trend of 2010 (and one awesome summer styling trick)

Mon, 14 December 2009 3:00PM

I am here in Bali at the P&G conference and I have had a giga Camera FAIL. I brought my Olympus camera, and a Canon cord. Which means all the shots I took from the runway last night, where Mr. SAM McKNIGHT, celebrity hair stylist global ambassador for Pantene, and Mr. BRUCE GRAYSON, Olay spokesperson guy and celebrity makeup artist gave everyone a taste of some of the biggest ss10 hair and makeup trends, and they would know, because they set the trends backstage at the international collections, and BRUCE is a bit of a big time celebrity makeup artist, so his job is to take the trends and make them wearable for Famous People, who obviously are a huge influence on us Non Famous (but no less extraordinary) People, are locked in my camera until I return Monday.

But! Don’t panic. Whatever you do DON’T PANIC. God, why do you always panic so much?! I had workshops with SAM and BRUCE today (I was BRUCE’s model!!! Wheeeeee! Photos to come, ahem) where I learned the inspiration behind the key makeup and hair trends for 2010. (I detailed the “feeling” behind the big trends yesterday. Good luck with understanding that. Mega esoteric with a side of creative gobbledygook thanks to my shorthand notes in the lecture.)

So, let’s just forget all of that for now because I want to shoot you this EXCELLENT and GENIUS little hair trick of SAM’s, which extends on what he openly says is the biggest hair trend for 2010: plaits and braids. There are another three: Long and Luxe, the Pin Up and Shapely Silhouette, but I’ll go into more detail on them later. For now, ‘sabout braids and plaits.

He calls the plait/braid trend the Braid Parade and I can’t help feeling a little smug because Yaz and I picked this back in September when the shows were on and have been ramming it down your pretty little throats ever since.

SAM, it should be noted, created loads of hair at the ss10 shows, including the plaits at the Dsquared show, which you can see here: I love this look, so very much. I am even considering getting some weave (in fact, I definitely am) to clip in and make my hair four times longer so I can have a fat shoulder snake like this bird does. I took a video of him actually doing this on a model and will upload it next week. SO. COOL. Did I just say that? I am such a beauty dork.

(He called the look “glamping,” which is a merger of glamour and camping, and quite clever I think, because the idea is that the hair is very laid back and yet elegant at the same time, which is precisely what one lusts for heading into summer, when one certainly does not lust after hair dryers and hours in front of mirrors.)

Anyway. So SAM told me this way to LOVE and TREAT your hair at the same time as STYLING it, and looking RAD at the same time.

Whether your hair is freshly washed, or straight from the salty depths of the ocean or pool, he says to work some leave-in conditioner from the ear level down to the tips and plait or braid your hair. (Pull it down over one shoulder and fatten and tease it up a big to it’s all flat and messy.)

Later, when you pull the plait/braid out, you’ve now got some lovely, loose waves that are all soft and smooth and loved from the conditioner.

It would be remiss of me not to note that Braid Parade is best-suited for long hair. SAM is adamant that 2010 is about long hair. Posh’s bob and Aggy’s crop over over. Grow it out or pin in some fake hair, he says.

Man.
That was a real long way to ‘splain a real short tip.
One day I hope to learn the art of brevity. (And also hackeysack.)

Posted by: Zoe Foster

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Tags: braids, dsquared, hair trends, plaits, sam mcknight, ss10