chris pizzello/AP via daylife
Antipodian stylewatchers may have done a double-take after spotting Cameron Diaz’s latest coiffure at last night’s Golden Globes awards in Los Angeles. Although a little hard to call from a distance, on closer inspection the style is starkly reminiscent of the trademark tresses of our own aspiring style icon Pip Edwards. The Sydney-based hipster, fashion designer and partner (reportedly estranged) of ksubi’s Dan Single has become so well-known for her two-tone do – which a commenter on Oz beauty site primped.com.au uncharitably sniffed made her look like a Top Deck chocolate - women have not only been beating a path to the door of its alleged creator, Australian hair maestro Brad Ngata, "The Pip" merited a full page Brad Ngata "Vogue Promotion" in the December issue of Australian Vogue.
pip edwards/primped.com.au
The freehand French technique of balayage, via which stylists hand-paint colour onto hair, has become extremely popular, with celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker (and it follows, consumers) sporting variations.
But Ngata claims to have pushed the look to unprecedented skunk-like extremes - and his pioneering efforts have not apparently escaped the scrutiny of the Olsen twins. Who would, like, know.
As Edwards told Vogue (as recounted by the SMH):
"A group of us were at the Beatrice Inn in New York in July when I ran into Mary-Kate [Olsen] … She said: 'Oh my God. How amazing is your hair?' We spent a good half-hour talking about our hair … I've always admired Mary-Kate's style, so I was so flattered when the conversation ended with her saying: 'This time you beat me."'
“Yeah that’s The Pip” noted Ngata of Diaz's do, when frockwriter bailed him up this afternoon for an ID.
“We kind of developed it with her [Edwards] over time, to come up with the colours. What we did differently was we accentuated/tinted the regrowth and we kept lightening her mid-lengths to ends".
He added, “Balayage has been around for a long time. We’ve pushed it a little bit more with Pip, whereas Sarah Jessica Parker had a more commercial look. With Pip, we made it a little more precise. We used foils and we introduced the regrowth as well. It just makes it a little more accurate with foiling - how the colour fades from a deep dark colour down to the blonde on one mesh of hair is quite important. It's more strategic with foil”.
The Pip will set you back approximately A$220 a pop and Ngata reports that he is doing two-three Pips a week at his two Sydney salons.
“It’s a major trend” noted Ngata. “You only have to go to [Sydney nightspot] The Ivy on a Friday or Saturday night and you’ll see six or seven Pips running around. I couldn’t work out how she could possibly be getting around so quickly at one point”.
