Interview with Shaun McGrath- Hairstyling Collection with Re-Purposed Materials

We're excited to bring this month's interview to you- featuring Shaun McGrath- creative director of Stevie English Hair- who has recently been nominated as a Finalist in the Avant Garde category for the AHFA Avant Garde Hairdresser of the year. We recently had a chance to catch up with Shaun and ask him some questions on his innovative collections- both of which highlight and feature re-purposed materials.

1. What was the main driving inspiration behind your beautiful collections? I wanted the wilderness collection to be reflective of natural beauty focusing primarily on flora, and if placed into the environments that inspired for the hair to almost disappear.

2. When did the idea for using waste/re-purposed materials become a factor in your design process? There is no better way to find out what hair can do than by putting it in your hands and seeing what it does. We are hairdressers. We have access to so much raw material, why not use it? So I am always playing with hair that falls to the floor and seeing what I can do to manipulate it, creating a fabric that can be used for something beautiful or practical.

3. Which types of materials did you find yourself turning to regularly? Was there any single material that is in each of these vastly different pieces? The materials used for each piece of the wilderness collection are very very similar - it's all hair, 90% was chopped off the clients at Stevie English hair. I love that so many of our wonderful clients are physically part of the collection, I think it's super cool and maybe just a little bit creepy. What differs from piece to piece is how the hair was "manufactured" and turned into something else.

4. Did you encounter any challenges when using these nontraditional materials in comparison to more standard wares? For those of you who are familiar with my works you will discover that this collection is the most traditional hair thing I've done. Because it is actually made of hair. I have built a career on making other things appear like hair, but today it's about making hair appear like other things.

5. Have you learned anything through your creative expression in these collections that you can share with us? I have learnt that I need another five of me for a start, but I think the main thing I learn over and over again is that the most important element of any creative journey is failure. As I grow my list of achievements, my list of failures needs to grow at least ten times that speed. If you don't get it wrong how do you get better? ---- Thank you Shaun for sharing your collection with us- it's so stunning & beyond inspiring! Anyone interested in keeping up with Shaun's creative work can find him on instagram: @shaunmmcgrath as well as on the Stevie English Hair Salons page: @englishhair