Matthew Tyldesley is one of the best hairstylists I know. I have known him almost since the beginning on my makeup journey back in 2014 and we have become great friends. I have worked with him on several projects over the years and he has always been supportive of my career. That being said some years ago he started telling me that I needed to enter NAHA. I had never heard of NAHA but I found out it stands for North American Hairstyling Awards. I had to look it up because I didn't want to ask and look stupid. While it does definitely say hairstylist in the title they also have a makeup portion and just being nominated it quite the big deal.
NAHA felt like one of those words you've never heard before but as soon as you are made aware of it you start hearing it everywhere. Working in the industry I started hearing NAHA brought up a lot by other artists and stylists, even models and photographers. Artists put a lot of thought and planning into the collections they submit for judging. In December of 2017 I worked with Friend and Photographer Chelsea Marrin on a makeup collection passion project of mine. There was a ton of emotion involved and a lot of planning and thought that went into the pieces. Chelsea had also been saying that I should do NAHA for a bit. When I saw the amazing photos from that December project I thought if I was going to do NAHA this is how I'd want to represent myself.
No Evil
Photo: Chelsea Marrin
Models L-R: Alex Hepfinger, Katya Estes, Portia Greene
There were a couple reasons why I didn't submit them to NAHA. "No Evil" as I named the project was so full of meaning and I thought they looked best in black and white to portray the right mood. I didn't think black and white would play well to the judges as they usually like color from what I have seen. Chelsea and I talked about just desaturating the color a bit to find a middle ground between color and black and white. This left the concern for me that there was still a color issue or lack thereof in the makeup. The only makeup that was used was black and white and again all of the pieces I had seen win were very colorful. This is why you usually have a plan when doing NAHA. These were all excuses I was constructing in my head to not submit. My main reason I didn't want to submit "No Evil" was because I wouldn't be able to share the images until nominations were made in the spring. With the collection being as emotionally charged as it was for me I couldn't wait that long to share.
(You can read the blog on “NO EVIL” here, http://mattgoodlettmakeup.com/blog/2018/1/10/no-evil-nwxge )
Fast forward to this past summer which was just a few months ago really. Matthew hired me to come and help do the makeups for him and two other hairstylists' entries. With Covid, submission times had changed which is why we were doing them in the summer. While I would be doing makeup for their collections these would not be considered entries for me. The Models started rolling in from the agency and as it turned out they had hired one too many. Matthew pulled me aside and told me I would now be doing a NAHA collection of my own. I think he saw me give a look of freaking out and concern as my jaw hung slack. He explained that we had one too many models and that I could pick one to do a three image collection with. So many concepts started flooding my mind that I couldn't separate them. Most artists take weeks or even months to plan out their collections; I had 20 minutes to come up with something.
After some thought the concept that kept coming back to the top was my old "No Evil" collection which was based on Hear no evil, speak no evil see no evil. That was an incredibly dark concept built on black and white, but I thought, “What if I used color". Once I had that very simple revelation the title of "Primary Function" came into my mind. Knowing their needed to be three looks and that I wanted to use color while still keeping each image monotone it only made since to use the three primary colors for each. The primary functions being Listening, Witnessing and Speaking while doing all of these from the heart where the design points.
LISTENING
Photo: Kory Easterday
Model: Alyson Power
Hair: Matthew Tyldesley
I knew unlike "No Evil" I wanted the eyes open in the "Witnessing" look that focused on the eyes or in previous collection, the lack of. Looking at the models Alyson Power had the most expressive eyes. I knew I wanted to work with her and her striking features. Unlike the previous collection Alyson would be my model for all three images which complicated things only slightly.
WITNESSING
Photo: Kory Easterday
Model: Alyson Power
Hair: Matthew Tyldesley
This meant I had to use products I knew she could get off easily and not damage her skin with all of the removal between looks. I used Mehron Paradise Paint AQ. With it being a water activated makeup I knew it would wash off fairly easy. Certain pigments can stain certain skin types however. I knew doing a full face foundation was a must to limit any staining as a protective barrier almost, especially with strong pigments like red and blue. For that I used Mehron's Celebre Cream foundations. All of the paint was then covered with a matching iridescent powder. Extra attention was given to the yellow by adding a bit of orange as to not lose the hard edge in her warm skin tones. Did I mention I was also helping the other hairstylists with their collection all the while?
SPEAKING
Photo: Kory Easterday
Model: Alyson Power
Hair: Matthew Tyldesley
As I write this it is November 9th. Nominations will happen tomorrow at 1pm est so I have no idea if I will be nominated or not. If I were a betting man I would lean heavily towards not. From the beautiful winners I have seen in the past they tend to pack in a ton of color in each makeup. For me, monotone felt more powerful for these images and more my style. The amazing Kory Easterday who photographed them really knocked it out of the park. I couldn't be happier with how these images came out and I wouldn't change them for anything. I wanted to do something that was very me with no compromise and I feel like I did that.
PRIMARY FUNCTIONS
Photo: Kory Easterday
Model: Alyson Power
Hair: Matthew Tyldesley
Update: As predicted I was not nominated. However my friend Isidro Valencia who was part of our team and working right next to me was so huge congratulations to him, it is well deserved!
