We can all relate to getting our hair done by a professional in a salon and then struggling to recreate the same style at home.
Damian Monzillo, celebrity hairstylist to the likes of Ariana Grande, Hailey Baldwin and Kate Moss, shares his easy styling tool Hairpins and his techniques that will give you runway styles in minutes.
Out of all the much-used hair tools, why did you decide to create your own line of hair-pins?
Hair-pins are the most common yet most versatile tool in the hair world. They’re simple, quick, and inexpensive without damaging the hair and can bring out the cheekbones, jawline and slope of any neck. As important as a haircut is in terms of framing the face or hair colour creates the tone and texture, a hair-pin then brings it all together like nothing else.
How is the design innovative and what makes these pins work better?
There’s a slight curve to each pin which seamlessly hides them in the hair. Traditional pins have a flat back, waved top and an awkward pointed edge. What makes my pins better is the quality of the steel and workmanship. The steel in my pins gives you the consistent tension that allows you not only to be flexible with your styling choices but to use them significantly longer.
Over your twenty five year career as an industry hairstylist, what lessons do you like to pass on?
Throughout my career, people have told me, ‘I’m not good at doing my own hair’. Basic hairstyling can be very simple when you break it down. A section of the classes I teach is called ‘Blind Hairdressing’. I give the hairdresser a minute to review their client’s bone structure, haircut, texture and silhouette. Then they’re given just one minute to put their client’s hair up. I’ve taught this to consumers, beauty school students and senior stylists and I’ve never seen a bad shape.
How do your celebrity clients react when you use these hair-pins?
They’re intrigued because they’ve never had someone put up their hair so quickly, securely and without a ton of pins. They’re especially surprised when they have thick hair and I use one single pin to hold their hair up.
Do your pins work for all hair types, textures and densities?
Absolutely! That’s one of the major reasons I created the line. My pins not only work for a library of hair types, textures and densities but in fact quite securely. Both thick and fine hair need different amounts of pins but require the same tension to keep the style in place. What is lacking in the general market of hairpins is that they’re trying to cover people’s needs with a bucket of paint instead of a range of brushes.
What is your favourite hairstyle to create?
When I style hair I always consider the person's bone structure, the lines of their clothes, their natural texture or the texture I create. I’d say instead of a favourite style, I’ve been influenced by a combination of different aesthetics. The surrealists and dada artists, the Austrian secession period, late seventies punk and the golden age of Hollywood have inspired me most.
The range is all reusable, recyclable and biodegradable. Why was this so important to you?
My primary concept for the line was to be dependable not disposable. We’ve all seen the amount of waste that the beauty and cosmetic industry creates with excess packaging that isn’t reusable, recyclable and doesn’t biodegrade. That’s a huge problem for the environment. I would only put my name on a product that created solutions to these problems. Those connotations speak to the parallel of who I am as a conscious person and the owner of a brand.
What is next… Any other hair tool launches in the pipeline?
I have a ton of new ideas and I’m just about to launch two new kinds of bungees that will continue to grow the styling line. Bungees are a strong elastic band covered in fabric that has a hook on each side to help you create the cleanest and easiest ponytail. Generally bungees are about 10cm long which are good for most kinds of hair. I created a medium, 20 cm and a large, 30 cm sizes in blonde, brown and black.