Tom Connell, Davines Hair Art Director, talks about the new looks, a careful blend of colouring, cutting, styling and haircare.

&ldquo;With photographer Jon Gorrigan, we wanted to create a campaign that didn&rsquo;t feel commercial, but rather an artistic project documenting people and hair. We were inspired by photographers such as Saul Leiter, Jack Davison and Henri Cartier-Bresson. We used glass, mirrors and shadows to distort the images. Hence the name &lsquo;Once Forever&rsquo;: unique moments, captured for an instant,&rdquo; explains Tom Connell, Davines Hair Art Director. &ldquo;The looks are born from a conversation with the models (as with clients in salons), reaching an agreement on a colour and cut that not only enhances them aesthetically, but reflects who they truly are: their style, the way they dress, the music they listen to, the clubs they frequent, the places they love. Because to design a truly right look, you need to evaluate a person holistically.&rdquo;

Let me explain with a concrete example: the girl with red hair. One of the new colours from The Present Time line (semi-permanent, ammonia-free colours that simultaneously restructure the hair with coconut oil and Omega 9) that we wanted to promote with the shoot was an orange shade, but the model liked the idea of copper; she wanted something that didn&rsquo;t look too artificial. So we started considering the texture of her hair&mdash;very curly and voluminous. She loved the movement, the natural texture and the fact that it was left to dry naturally&mdash;and we thought of a &lsquo;grown-out&rsquo; cut, neither a mullet nor a bob. We mixed our pure orange to obtain a more natural shade and created a very dark, intense root, because she didn&rsquo;t like the freshly applied colour.

What&rsquo;s the difference between a Davines colour and one from another brand? &ldquo;If we&rsquo;re talking about permanent colour, throughout my career I&rsquo;ve seen a strong trend towards total grey coverage, completely opaque from root to tip. With Davines colour, while still providing grey coverage, you achieve a luminous and dimensional result, because natural hair colour isn&rsquo;t uniform from root to tip. Mid-length hair has &lsquo;experienced&rsquo; multiple experiences: sun, styling, straightening, chlorine, salt water. All these elements give hair its personality: sometimes it&rsquo;s drier, sometimes lighter or darker. Davines colour, across all its ranges but especially in its permanent range, preserves this naturalness and nuance, instead of delivering a &lsquo;painted&rsquo;, artificial, almost wig-like effect. The result you get with Present Time, our demi-permanent line, is also very natural: it&rsquo;s a colour that evolves over time, not fades.&rdquo;

How important is haircare when it comes to maintaining colour? &ldquo;It&rsquo;s essential, both before and after colouring. It&rsquo;s like painting a picture: the result depends on the canvas. You need to prepare the hair before colouring and maintain it afterwards. Healthy hair, with the right balance of hydration and protein, is essential for beautiful, long-lasting colour. In this campaign, we used the Heart of Glass line: a pre-treatment before colouring, then shampoo and conditioner afterwards, to remove metals and styling product residue.&rdquo;

The essential haircare product? &ldquo;For care: OI Butter, the best intensive treatment I&rsquo;ve ever used, ideal for dry or coarse hair. For styling: More Inside Curl Building Serum. Although it&rsquo;s designed for curly hair, I also use it on wavy hair and bobs, to define the shape and then let it dry naturally.&rdquo;

Hairstyle: the new Davines look collection, Once Forever

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