Jamie chose to recreate a look that resembled a Mohawk. She chose this look because she loved the style, and wanted to chose a look that would challenge her and give her room for her own creative expression. I met with Jamie at her school in Portland to create this look. It took Jamie about 6 hours to do the style. Let's just say, my head was extremely sore by the end of the day.
Once the style was done, we headed to the studio for the photoshoot. We finished the look by adding a fun wardrobe and simple makeup. I experimented with some different backdrops and lighting setups before settling on a final look for the photography.
Here is a shot Jamie took with her phone of me from the photoshoot. I always like to give a "sneak peak" of shoots to share with everyone! =)
These were the final images from the shoot that were submitted to the competition.
About a week later we heard that we were selected as finalists and were competing in Chicago for the big win! Needless to say, we were both extremely excited! Neither one of us had ever been to Chicago so that alone was a reason to celebrate!
Before we flew off to Chicago we did a couple trial runs of the hairstyle. Each time Jamie did it, she got more and more confident. It went from taking six hours to do the hairstyle, to only three! Each time she did the style, it looked better and better!
Here is a shot of my hair after I brushed out the Mohawk. It took me about two hours just to brush it out. It's probably safe to say that I lost a lot of hair! haha
So the time came for us to head to Chicago. The night before our plane took off we hit the town to celebrate! We had a wonderful time with friends celebrating for our trip in downtown Portland. Many memories were made that night, for sure!
So we boarded our plane and headed to Chicago around 7am. Thank goodness we had a long flight, we both definitely needed a nap to recover from the night before. =) We landed in Chicago and headed to our hotel. We made friends with the man who was driving us to our hotel. He was a very nice man who told us about the history of downtown Chicago and all the fun things we had to do while we were there. It started off our trip on a great note!
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Hotel right in downtown Chicago, and it was absolutely gorgeous! One of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed in! I took a few photos of the hotel with my phone as well as with my camera. Here are a few.
This is a picture we took in our hotel of the two of us, and the view from our hotel room. These were just taken with my camera phone.
And these were images I took with my camera. The first was the inside of our hotel in the lobby and the other was the outside of our hotel.
Our first day there we had a meet and greet at the convention center, McCormick Place where the show was being held. It was extremely busy and chaotic inside the event. To best describe the event, I would say it was like, "a girls best friend". After we did the run through of the show we headed out into the event to do some much anticipated shopping! =)
Here are some photos I took with my camera phone of the event the day before our show! =)
After we left the show we were extremely exhausted; we had been shopping for hours! I am proud to say I only spent about 50 dollars on some hair products and jewelry, while Jamie on the other hand spent a couple hundred! haha So after the show we went out to dinner at a nice restaurant inside the convention center. Because of the event, it was extremely busy and we spent a few hours there. After dinner we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the hotel for a little nap before heading out to explore downtown Chicago.
Before heading out downtown we stopped and had a few drinks at the bar inside our hotel. Here are a couple shots of Jamie and I at the bar! =)
So the man who took us to our hotel had told us of a few places we had to go if we explored downtown. So the first thing we headed out to do was to try a Chicago hot dog! And I must say, it was the best darn hot dog I have ever had!! =) It didn't look very pretty, but my golly it was delicious!
After we left the hot dog place we walked around town. It was so beautiful outside; the sky was dark, it was very cold, and it was snowing! It was so peaceful just walking around snapping pictures. I could have stayed out all night shooting if Jamie had worn better shoes! She was very cold and her feet were frozen. So we headed back to the hotel quick so she could warm up!
Here are some shots I got while walking around downtown.
So after we got back to our hotel we went straight to bed. We had to get a lot of beauty sleep before the big show the next morning! We had to get up so early to be there!
So at four in the morning we were up and getting ready to run out the door to head to McCormick Place! We started right away once we got there with hair and makeup. Right from the start everyone seemed really focused and determined to win! The pressure was definitely on!
Here is a shot I got with my phone while Jamie and I were getting ready for the show!
It took her about 2 1/2 hours to do my hair. While Jamie was doing my hair I worked on my makeup to help speed things a long. We were panicking a little towards the end. Since we only had a set amount of time to get ready, this really made things stressful! By the time we had finished with hair and makeup we only had about 10-15 minutes to finish the look. So we ran to the restrooms to change into wardrobe. While changing, we had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction! We made my top from fishnet stockings, and while we were cutting it and putting it on we ended up ripping it in half! So we freaked out for a minute while we debated what we were going to do! So we ended up deciding that I was just going to walk the runway in my bra! Let me tell you, I was a bit nervous about this at first! It was a bit more revealing than I had hoped it would be! But after a few minutes I felt more comfortable, and just went with the flow!
So by the time we were done getting dressed and finishing everything up we had to rush to stand in line backstage while we waited our turn to walk the runway! It was very chaotic backstage! Everyone was really nervous and practicing what poses they were going to do! It was quite the experience!
It came our turn and we walked up on the runway. I was SO nervous! But I held it together long enough to walk the runway and get backstage again! Jamie and I had to go on twice, and after the first time I really got a feel for what I was doing. So the second time we went on I wasn't nervous at all and felt a lot more confident! I was just happy I didn't trip in my heals! haha
Here are a couple of screen shots of us walking the runway from the video.
So, the competition was finally over! Jamie and I had an absolute blast! There were very exciting moments and very stressful ones. Jamie did a wonderful job on my hair and we are both very proud! Sadly, we did not win, but we are still very happy we got the opportunity to be involved in such a wonderful show.
Here is a shot I took with my phone right after the show as we were cleaning up! Even though we did not win, we were still very happy with the work we had done! And even though in this image I look kind of "pissed off," I am actually really happy! Haha, I had to stay in character! =P
Jamie and I spent our last couple hours in Chicago after the show at a nice restaurant/bar near our hotel. We had a couple drinks to just settle down from all the excitement and get ourselves ready for our long trip home.
Here is a lovely shot of Jamie while having our last drinks in Chicago. =)
Here is a shot Jamie took of me outside our hotel as we were heading back to the airport! I tried to tame the Mohawk after the show by pulling it back into this crazy bun. I definitely looked like a crazy girl running around Chicago! It was a good thing the show was a big deal and everyone in town new it was going on. So they all just assumed I was in the show. =)
As we were driving to the airport, I shot a couple more images of downtown Chicago! I couldn't leave without taking a few more shots!
So we finally made it back to the airport. We had some drama as we were going through security. Because we bought so many hair products at the show we couldn't take our bags with us on the plane. We divided the products between our bags and attempted to go through security. We both got stopped and had our bags checked. Lucky for me, the woman checking my bag didn't check every pocket, so I got away with taking my hair products on the plane. haha Jamie was not so lucky. She got caught with all her hair products and had to go back and check in her bag. Let's just say she was not very happy about this.
As we were walking through the airport, I was drawing a lot of attention to myself because of my hair and makeup. I was starting to get annoyed with all the looks and comments I was getting, so I ended up going to the bathroom and washing all my makeup off and really pulling back my hair. It felt really nice to wash my face and look somewhat normal again! haha
Here is a shot Jamie and I took right before our plane took off back to Portland.
It was a great end to our trip to Chicago. I would definitely love to go back one day and stay longer than two days to really enjoy the city. I would even love to live there one day!
This was a huge learning experience for Jamie, and a very exciting trip for me! :-) Very unforgettable!
<3 Kara
