Ombre Hair Makeover at ARROJO Salon for New York Fashion Week

Photograph by David Geffin

I’m excited to tell you about my recent collaboration with the famous ARROJO salon for a special ombre hair makeover for New York Fashion Week. 

I’ve been pining over the ombre hair trend for some time now. A good friend of mine named Stephen "The Salon Guy" highly recommended the ARROJO salon on 180 Varick Street in New York. ARROJO is the hairdressing brand owned by Nick Arrojo, world renowned stylist/educator/salon owner and television personality. Some of his celebrity clients include actors Minnie Driver and Liev Schreiber to name a few.

For this special collaboration I had the privilege of working with well known photographer David Geffin. What I love most about his work is his exceptionally keen eye for detail and story-telling photography. He ended up shooting a beautiful sequence of editorial style photos that chronicle my entire experience at the ARROJO salon. 

Photograph by David Geffin 

The beginning of my experience at ARROJO started with being greeted by lovely receptionist who let me know that my Colorist Ryan would be with me shortly. She wore a bright pair of red glasses that perfectly matched the red background of the salon’s wall.

Photograph by David Geffin 

I had some time before my appointment so we started the photo shoot by taking a “before” shot of my hair under the @ARROJO twitter sign. 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Designed by award-wining architect Messana O'Rorke, the salon reminded me of an art gallery with its beautiful photographs and architecture. I couldn't have chosen a better dress to wear that day as my Eliza J One Shoulder Mixed Media Fit & Flare Dress perfectly matched the artsy décor.  

Photograph by David Geffin 

I was so lucky to have my hair done by a phenomenally talented ARROJO hair colorist named Ryan. We spoke about the different types of ombre and I mentioned how I wanted to try a more subtle and natural version. 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Ryan meticulously colored each strand and wrapped it in plastic wrap for an even distribution of color. She was truly an artist when it came to doing my hair. 

Photograph by David Geffin 

After getting the perfect ombre I was fortunate to have my hair cut and styled by Reese. Reese is a level 1 stylist and according to his ARROJO profile he "loves the craft, the pursuit of perfection. Hairdressing is a work of art. It has to be beautiful and functional,” he says. 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Reese used a razor to cut my hair to give it a beautiful feathered look. The ARROJO salon is most renowned for its precision razor cuts. He then used a medium sized round brush to give my hair an effortless wavy effect.

Photograph by David Geffin 

After my ombre makeover I interviewed Ryan to see exactly how she achieved my perfect ombre look. 

How did you make my ombre look so natural? 

Ryan, ARROJO Colorist: The more product you use with the ombre the lighter it's going to be. When you start at the roots you're going to really feather the product in. When you get down to the ends you're really going to add a lot of product. That is what gets the dark roots and light ends basically. We section it in V sections and what that does is it lets it fall nice and subtle. If we were to go straight across it wold come off as too chunky, too solid looking. Our technique really gives it a nice, natural look. 

You take sections of hair and that's how you make it look so natural? 

Ryan, ARROJO Colorist: You leave hair in between also. Sometimes you don't want to color every single strand as that can look too tacky. You want to really make sure to be looking at what you're doing. That's why we use the plastic wrap so that we can see what each section looks like. 

Can you tell me about the ARROJO products you used to make my hair look so nice? 

Ryan, ARROJO Colorist:The SHINE LUXE shampoo is what we would use for color treated hair. It's our newest product and is sulfate free and paraben free. It's nice and organic as it doesn't have any preservatives in it. The conditioner is the SHINE LUXE conditioner which has keratin. When you color your hair you take a little bit of the protein out so what the keratin does is re-strengthens it. You can also use the SHINE LUXE conditioner as a conditioning treatment by putting it on 10-15 minutes. It's very important to use a color safe shampoo when you color your hair because when you shampoo your hair you're cleaning it and it can take a little bit of the color out. You either want to use a sulfate free shampoo or a shampoo that has a color saving molecule in it. We also used the Protective Thickening Lotion which is a thermal protectant and a thickening spray. You can spray it on your hair from roots to end and it's going to create a little bit of body. It's also going to protect it against the heat whether you're in the sun or blow drying and using a curling iron. 

They have a great selection of professional hair styling products that you can buy directly from their website. 

Thank you so much to the ARROJO team for giving me the perfect ombre for New York Fashion Week! 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin 

Photograph by David Geffin