While overseas we found new trends and styles

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Beauty
Glenys Pearson

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Fun hair decorations – and purple - were all the rage in Madrid.

I am starting this week’s column, sitting in Frankfurt Airport, in transit from Madrid to Toronto.
Cathy, one of our senior stylists; Erica, the spa manager; and myself have just spent a great week in Madrid, attending the Madrid European Spa Show. Just soaking up the culture in Madrid was enough on its own. The fashions in the stores and on the streets were gorgeous. There was a lot of ooing and aaahhing as we window-shopped down Gran Via and Calle Mayor. We saw long sweaters worn with leggings, shorts worn with tights and ankle boots or over-the-knee boots. Scarves on everyone… including the guys, in every colour imaginable. Purple seemed to be in just about every window we longingly gazed into!
The show was exciting, if at times a little crowded, with more than 40,000 attendees from all over Europe (and us from Canada!). Many of the booths and stands offered hands-on treatments. After walking around for about five hours we welcomed the chance to sit for a few minutes to have our nails done.
We were not disappointed. It was a technique I have never seen before: stamp art. Using small metal plates and a soft stamper, the designs were quite amazing.
Using four or five colours, you can create some unique and fun designs. I ended up with black-and-white checkerboard French tips and tiny black butterflies. Cathy had white French tips and white daisies. Erica ended up with a zebra print nail design.
We were an easy sell and just had to get all the fixins to start creating; it is certainly something new and fun and we can’t wait to start playing around with our new finds.
There are dozens of designs and the possibilities are endless. The Halloween and Christmas designs I am sure will be put to good use at our spa princess parties. Our little princesses expect pumpkins, bats and spooks. Candy canes, bells, snowflakes and tiny Xmas trees will be just around the corner, customized just for you.
We also found a highlight or foiling technique that is new to us, using small silicone strips, making it so much easier to give a client with short hair the look they want without using the “hat.”
For chunkier or just three or four colour foils, there are larger single silicone rings. Another benefit of using this method is you can get really close to the scalp and you don’t get “blobbies” or bleed through with the colour or highlight products, since the silicone self-seals.
We saw hair decorations everywhere in Madrid. We saw flowers, feathers (something I wrote about a few weeks ago), strings of little crystal hearts, strands of gold and silver sparklies, beautiful flower and star hairpins, even tiny sheer fabric butterflies in different colours. They are fun and a great way to get creative and be a little different.
Well, we are now heading home on the flight to Toronto and since we were up at 4 this morning to head to the airport, the yawning is starting. We were just starting to adapt to the Madridleno’s way, eating supper at 10 in the evening – but all good things must come to an end and we are already planning our Salon International trip to London, U.K., next year.

Glenys Pearson is a certified esthetician, hair designer, aroma therapist, La Stone therapist and award-winning makeup artist. Any questions you may have or topics you would like covered please call 847-0040 or email intuitionsspa@hotmail.com.