Kendall Ong Of Mane Attraction Talks Fall Season Hair Trends [PHOTOS]

Owners of Mane Attraction, Kendall and Beate Ong, had just returned from an educational trip to Italy — to hunt for the latest fads and trends to keep up-to-date for their clients — when we caught up with Kendall to discuss Fall season hair trends, hair products, fashion and more.

Q: What hair trends did you see in Italy?

A. The biggest thing that we saw was asymmetry. We saw a lot of shorter, asymmetric shapes with undercutting and longer hair on top. With symmetry, it’s subtler, and it’s quite interesting. The fun thing about that is you get a lot more versatility. The misnomer people think is that when you have a shorter hairstyle, you don’t have much versatility, but with this you can style and dress it a lot of different ways.

The other trend is deconstructed layers. It’s a classic shape. It has a bob feel to it, but the layers give it texture, while making it look slim.

Q: What kinds of products do you use to style?

A. What I’m using right now is Bumble and Bumble Styling Balm. It’s my go-to product. It gives the hair body and shine, and it has sunscreen in it as well. In Arizona, that’s huge. Most people think about sunscreen for their skin but not for their hair. If you have color in your hair, it can fade from the sun.

Q: What other products do you recommend for sun-damaged hair?

A. There’s another by Aveda called Hair and Body Cleanser. The nice thing is it’s a two-in-one; it’s a body wash that removes chlorine and salt build up, but it’s great for your hair, too, because a lot of times clarifying shampoos are a bit too harsh. They get the chlorine out, but they take out the color, too, so this is a bit more gentle.

Q: What hair colors are trending for the Fall season?

A. Warm red is a good Fall color. Hair and fashion are forever linked. They’ve been locked up together, and a lot of the colors and shapes will be the same. Rhonda’s hair, for example, is a blonde color with a lot of texture. Hair actually led the way for fashion with the ombre color, which is like a a gradual fading from darker roots to lighter ends or vice versa.

But back to blondish colors. The longer hair on the top has a lot of texture with the color, which is cool because you can create visual texture and create movement with color. With both of our models, the color was done in a way to create texture because that’s what we are trying to achieve in the haircut. The color and cut have to work together.

Q: For the Fall season, are you seeing shorter hairstyles?

A. Yeah, I think that the biggest trend. In the Fall, you are going to see slimmer silhouettes. Fall fashion clothing is very narrow, so that’s what we saw looking at the collections: skinnier silhouettes. Hair always follows suit. If you have a skinny silhouette and big hair, it’d be off balance.

Q: Are there certain hair types this works best with?

A. The key is with a great hairstylist; they will be able to work with your hair. Our philosophy is working with what the hair wants to do. If someone has bigger hair, we will find a hairstyle to try to tame it down and make the style narrower and smaller. It’s about the shape and balance. Never narrow and flat; it always needs texture and movement.

Q: Do you feel there are certain hair types or face shapes that wouldn’t be able to pull off the asymmetrical look?

A. That’s a great question. It comes down to finding a good stylist that understands bone structure. All of our stylists go through internal training, and one of the core things we teach is analyzing bone structure, body structure and talk about the client’s lifestyle to recommend the right style for someone.

It’s a misnomer that people think they don’t look good with short or long hair. You can look equally bad or equally good with short or long hair. It depends on where you decide to create width and where you decide to create flatness. You have to do something to create volume and fullness. It’s really for the stylist to understand bone structure. Anyone can wear it.

Q: Do you feel that Arizonians don’t closely follow hair trends or are afraid to follow it?

A. Well, I wouldn’t say they are afraid to, I think it’s very much resort wear here because it’s so hot. Hair fashion wise, you will find pockets of people who are very trendy and fashionable, but for the masses, probably not so.

Our influence is Los Angeles driven. I think the really nice thing is what’s going on in the media. The public has so much more access to information now than they used to so you can see the trends and collections a day or two later, so more people are exposed to it. I think that’s how it is with hair fashion, people are exposed to it, and the more they see it, the more their eyes get used to it. It’s definitely better than it’s ever been. People are so much more open now than 14 years ago when I moved here.

Q: Do certain hairstyles complement different types of dresses?

A. Well, yes and no. I think hair is an accessory to your overall look, so I wouldn’t say that because you are going to wear a certain dress you have to have your hair cut a certain way. It’s more to do with the feeling of it; the feel of the fashion and outfit has to work with the hair.

The best thing is a narrower, slimmer silhouette, and the new big thing is a lot of texture. As opposed to the ’90s when Richard Tyler was doing these narrower silhouettes and everything was tailored and sleek with no texture at all. But, that was when hair was just flat ironed and straight. It’s the feeling and mood of what’s going on in fashion, so hair needs to mirror that.