It may have started as a dream, but it ended with the reality of a first-place win for James Gartner in the inaugural Pravana 2014 Show Us Your Vivids contest for educators. Gartner's look was deemed the premiere interpretation of the power of PRAVANA's Vivids color line.
Gartner, 30, is co-owner and chief creative officer with award-winning Bii Hair Salon in West Dundee, Illinois. He also serves as a guest artist for Pravana. Bii artist team members, under the guidance of Gartner's vision, brainstormed the final winning look: ultra-bright shades of yellow, orange and hot pink, seamlessly melted together.
"The idea was to illustrate Vivids Color Vision," said Gartner. "When we discussed the overall look our goal was to create a melting technique, the melding of three colors giving a very modern and eye-catching result. While the salon has won numerous contests and awards, the Vivids contest, being my first individual win, is amazing."
The ambitious look required a team of Bii artists to bring the concept to fruition. "I owe special thanks to Jacquelyn Marie Hastings, Katie Loos and George Portillo - an amazing hair team - and Marcin Tomaszczyk for photo documenting the process," said Gartner.
Color:
The winning formula began with pre-lightening the base. Gartner applied Pure Light power lightener 30 volume 1/4 inch away from the scalp, to previously lightened hair. He then applied Pure Light power lightener 20 volume to the scalp. Following that, Gartner rinsed and shampooed the hair with PRAVANA clarifying shampoo. To even out the palette, he applied 10.03 plus 10.04 plus 20 volume from mid-strand to ends to brighten and warm the cool ends.
The Vivids application came next, with Gartner beginning with a custom pink consisting of 2 ounces pink, plus 1 ounce magenta, plus 1 ounce ribbon red. Gartner's technique with Vivids stresses saturation, achieved by rubbing the color into the hair. Just below the pink is orange, a combination of 1 ounce orange and 1 ounce neon orange. Gartner was careful to melt the colors to avoid any obvious lines of demarcation. He then added a yellow mix of 1 ounce yellow plus 1 ounce neon yellow just below the orange, again, taking care to melt the colors in order to diffuse harsh lines.
Style:
To create the blow-dry style, the model's hair was prepped with Nevo Intense Therapy leave-in treatment. Gartner used a 3-inch round brush to smooth ends, added additional shine with Nevo Hydra Pearls, and then set the whole style with Nevo Super Shape Hair Spray.
To create the curl-iron set, the hair was prepped with Intense Therapy Leave-In Treatment and set with a 1.5-inch barrel iron. Added shine was created using Vivids Color Protect Sealing Spray.
Said Gartner, "I owe it to a team of wonderfully talented artists who showed me their talent, love and support along the entire process."
Click through to see Gartner and team's behind-the-scenes video on the inspiration and process of creating the winning look! [pagebreak]
[Images/video courtesy of Bii Hair Salon]
