The afternoon spent in NYC in the presence of Jayne was something truly special. Jayne is the owner of Edo in San Francisco, as well as her new shop in Oakland. Back in the days when Erin was in hair school, she’d walk past Edo in awe while in town visiting family. Years later with Instagram, daily peeks into many hair artists’ lives became more accessible. Edo’s work has been a daily inspiration for so many years now.
We were thrilled to hear at the end of 2018 that Jayne was joining the Left Brain Group as an educator. Her NY teaching date made travel without missing time in the shop possible. That, and the fact Ignite Buffalo gifted us with a business grant last year. In our craft, education is the key to growth.
Erin, Chelsey, and Cara all have backgrounds in Bumble & bumble’s straight razor foundations, which is the world Jayne came from, too. This trip was a perfect opportunity to see one of our top artists in the industry do her thing. After a full day in our shop, we hopped a plane to NYC, not realizing how amazing everything was going to be!
After a morning of exploring the streets, the art, and of course all the snack destinations, we headed toward Hairstory Studios. We were 3 of an intimate group of about 40 people. Upon entering, we met Aryn from the Left Brain Group in person for the first time after talking online since we opened our doors. The work she is doing in our field is unrivaled, really something new. Immediately after that, we were able to chat for a moment with Jayne herself (I think we blacked out) and she was just so warm + genuine.
Class focused on 2 models, but included everything from planning your cut design, to talking business practice, to blowing each others’ minds as the room organically conversed during these cuts + styling sessions. Knowing we were going to return home the next day to share all of what we took in, we were all truly in the moment. It was one of those inspiration sessions you just never forget.
Upon returning home, we immediately started our Tuesday deep diving into Jayne’s blueprint for a great cut. We had known how badly we wanted to keep everything fresh in our minds, so we had pre-scheduled a class with 2 demo cuts, then a hands-on session with 4 more models. Both senior stylists and our apprentices participated, and we had some friends from other local salons in the shop to observe as well.
The photos below are the before + afters of this education session. All of these model’s final looks have been air-dried of diffused- NO irons, NO sets, just natural razor-cut texture. Jayne’s aesthetic at this moment if the perfect mix of Bardot meets 70’s rocker. Each cut was customized to the person wearing it, and the results were insane:
*most working photos by Carl Militello*
We can’t thank everyone enough for expanding our minds like this. Jayne, her lovely business partner, Aryn at LBG, the team at Hairstory, and most of all, our in-house team at crown for sharing the fire inside us all.
Cheers to 2019, elevating the craft, and expanding out education every day.