What a year! 2015 will go down in Seagull history as the year we packed up and moved the salon into our fantastic, upgraded new space. But this was an expansive year for us in many other ways too, full of technical, cultural and artistic triumphs spanning the Seagull universe. Here, a brief look at some of our favorite moments and sweet spots of 2015:
WE MOVED! We moved. Have you heard the news?? We are shouting this one from the rooftops. There was finally no way around the fact that Seagull had outgrown our tiny jewelbox at 240 West 10th Street. We said goodbye to those four pink walls and the peeling "For Men, For Women" historic signage on the window (before it was Seagull, that space was the first unisex salon in New York!) and said HELLO to our incredible, sun-filled, HUGE new space in Sheridan Square, just blocks away from old Seagull (and literally a stone's throw from Stonewall) at 224 West 4th Street, 2nd Floot Suite 200, just west of 7th Avenue South.
All of our stylists and clients agree: the lighting is perfect for selfies—no filter needed. That's just how it is when we get free reign to plan out every detail of a space. The custom decor and furniture and airy layout, a collaboration with Ben Warwas, have been described as a sort of upscale glam feminist Pee-Wee's Playhouse, complete with useful-for-photos trompe l'oeil framing wall insets Shaun has dubbed #ThePinkBeyond. "Beyond" really does describe how we feel about the new space and how it feels to be there, but words and pictures can't even do justice to our new beauty clubhouse, appointed with new artwork by Kathe Burkhart, Alice O'Malley and A.L. Steiner in addition to our recent Sam McKinniss acquisition and the reprise of our original Seagull centerpiece by Nolan Hendrickson. If you haven't visited yet, you're going to be psyched at your next appointment.
OLAPLEX. Something like a miracle swept through Seagull this year with the introduction of Olaplex, a revelatory formula set that has empowered our stylists to take blonde to new heights without the usual fear of damaging hair. It sounds crazy, but the molecules and polymers in Olapex work on a cellular level to repair the damage we've come to associate with bleach on hair, eliminating breakage and allowing stylists to take color to the next level while leaving hair healthier than before. This freaky miracle product works without haircolor, too, repairing damaged ends and encouraging longer growth while leaving hair silky and lustrous. With all of the best Manhattan blonde haircolor our stylists are turning out, Olaplex is now an indispensable tool—the training wheels are officially off for blonde processing.
NAOMI WOLF CHOOSES SEAGULL. Speaking of blonde...when legendary journalist, political advisor and author of 1991 patriarchy-busting tome "The Beauty Myth," (basically the feminist beauty bible) Naomi Wolf starts getting her hair done at your salon, and then writes an article about the unexpected joys of going blonde for the first time at your salon in Cosmopolitan magazine (!) you know you're doing something very right.
Seagull's Sarah Fenoglio is Naomi's stylist and gets RAVE reviews in the article and together, she and Naomi dispel the myths of blonde hair and rebuild a new culture of radical beauty choices that are no longer necessarily based on the basic principle that "Brunettes Are More Serious" or "Blondes Have More Fun" (even though, in some cases maybe they do.) It's for sure worth reading the article.
JOHANNA AND JD FOR PUSSY RIOT ON HOUSE OF CARDS: Seagull President Johanna Fateman and frequent songwriting collaborator and Seagull VIP JD Samson helped cook up a multilayered feminist pop culture surprise for TV audiences, penning a song with Pussy Riot and performing it in the episode on top of a car during a street protest scene set in front of the White House.
Read Johanna's piece about the collaboration she wrote for Art In America: "If Pussy Riot wanted to infiltrate pop culture to spread their message, we'd be honored to help. The mixed results of our own experience in the music industry may have tempered our expectations a little, but we still had some faith in the radical potential of a so-called sell-out moment. And we'd never imagined that such disparate interests of ours—international feminism and binge TV—could merge in a single creative project."
SHAUN PICKS UP THE BEAUTY BLOGGING QUILL: Long known for his hilarious salon over-shares and generous flow of advice and information on everything from from healing and astrology to NYC real estate, relationships and travel trends, Shaun is also laser-focused on beauty theory and technical applications and is full of info about how to get the most out of your relationship with your stylist and salon. Thank Goddess he's started writing this stuff down, sharing his visionary perspectives this year on beauty and fashion sites like Nylon and Refinery29. Start with his piece for Nylon about why you should break all the hair rules, and move onto his next rule-breaking piece consulting for Refinery29 about cutting your own bangs.
VIP SEAGULL ARTISTS IN THE NEWS. We draw eternal inspiration from our artist clientele, many of whom we have had the pleasure of styling since we first opened our doors. This year saw accolades and coups for some of our favorite artists and people—such as Seagull VIP major heartthrob and painter Nicole Eisenman, recipient of a 2015 MacArthur Grant.
Eternal inspo and Seagull VIP Lisa Darms, Senior Archivist at the Fales Library & Special Collections at NYU and founder of the Fales Riot Grrrl Collection, organized "Precocious", a pretty incredible collection at the Fales Archive featuring early ephemera by artists ranging from Dennis Cooper to Ramdasha Bikceem to Kathy Acker to Nick Zedd, all created when they were minors or underage.
Gunk #4, zine by Ramdasha Bikceem
Legacy Seagull VIP Wynne Greenwood (aka Tracy and the Plastics) has a solo show, "Kelly," on view at the New Museum, which will be up through January 10th, exploring cultural healing through sound and video. Johanna interviewed Greenwood ahead of the show for Artforum.
And perennial Seagull VIP Muse K8 Hardy K8 weighed in on this year's Triennial:
These were just a handful touchstones from an eventful 2015. Of course we take inspiration and glow every day from the energy, knowledge and feedback we get from every single one of our amazing clientele. Looking forward to seeing you all in 2016!
XO, 🎉🎉🎉
SEAGULL EDITORS 💕
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