Shitty Hawkins Presents: Summer Vacation with Vacationer

September 1, 2019 crown bflo

Thank you to all who attended our fourth semi-annual Shitty Hawkins fundraiser for The Pride Center of WNY! Lockhouse opened their big garage door once again + let us have a great party.

We decided to go big with our good vibes mentality this time + bring in Vacationer from Philly, PA. Artist Ken Vasoli brought the grooves + kept us dancing with original music as well as some of his fave jams. (And even crowned our first pregnant attendee one of the best dancers!) DJ Lunch opened + closed the night, playing all the crowd faves. Casa Azul’s food truck fueled us with churros + totras all through the night, and Red Bull + Blackened Whiskey both had collabs + samples for everyone. Thank you to everyone who helped this event become what it did!

You helped raise $2492 for the Pride Center this time around! That brings our donations for our first four iterations of Shitty Hawkins Presents to $9,195!

Did you love the photo backdrop? Artist Karle Norman had hung his show “Same Inside” at crown. Twenty percent of all art sold in shop went to The Pride Center of WNY in solidarity with Shitty Hawkins.

Thanks to Chris Ferg for making our photo station possible!

live pics by Evan Duckett.

Good Dye Young + crown at the Sanctuary of Self Love

July 10, 2019 crown bflo

Bonnaroo 2019: a year of firsts for a lot of things. This festival’s 17th incarnation celebrated its first ever Pride Parade, opened its 12th campground, and created its first salon. It was also finally the time for our entire crew + the entire Good Dye Young crew to get in the same space, collaborating at the Sanctuary of Self Love.

What is the Sanctuary of Self Love, you ask? Last year, Bonnaroo asked GDY founder Hayley Williams to curate this plaza. The SOSL (as we will refer to going forth) was an area for the introvert at the music festival focused on mental health and self care. Our neighbors in the plaza included reiki and massage practicioners, tarot readings, panels on surviving trauma by Midnight Woman + L’Odet, education about CBD, strength training, and guided meditations to name a few. We were honored when GDY approached us with the opportunity to be part of their first true salon experience.

We’re extremely lucky to have worked hand in hand with GDY since their inception. Watching their baby company grow into such a community has been truly inspiring. In the past, we’ve had the chance to style contest winners on Parahoy, do live demos at Art + Friends, as well as do some videos for GDY- but this was something totally different. We were going to launch a pop-up salon at a music festival campground in the Tennessee summer!

Going into this event, there was a ton of communication on both ends, trying to think of any situation we may encounter. We prepped for a crown first: closing up shop for over a week while all ten of us took a long road trip. We left for TN the night of June 10th, spending some time in Nashville before heading to Manchester. Most of the crew had never been to Nashville, so those of us who’ve previously spent time there showed the others around. We did some small business shopping (a must), drank all the coffee, had hot chicken and hot “chicken”, visited Broadway, the Ryman, had dinner with old friends, and stopped by the GDY office. Nashville + its surrounding areas are inspiring, charming, and great to explore with a group.

The morning of the first day, we got onto the grounds in our van an found our plaza. When we entered the SOSL for the first time, you could feel the energy in the air. We layed eyes on the salon for the first time, and were in awe. So many awesome people worked so hard to pull off GDY’s vision and created a great environment away from crown for us to do our thing. Our teams met up in the salon, catching up, discussing logistics, and watching the line grow outside our door. We had no clue what we were in for.

The four days spent inside the salon at SOSL were everything. It was odd at first being outside our normal work environment, but we were immediately immersed. There’s something about the crown crew where we just know what to do, and we get shit done. This week almost felt like opening day again- chaos mixed with artistic fuel, the energy of music, the two companies existing in a space together to run an unprecedented salon experience. (The weirdest difference was that none of our beloved shop dogs were at ‘roo with us!) The line never died down. We were repeatedly given hair style ideas on the fly with each new guest in our chair, and we pulled from all the inspiration gathered in our lives. There was one major theme across the board at SOSL- everyone left looking, and most importantly, feeling amazing.

Aside from all of the styling we got to do, co-founder of GDY Brian O’Connor gave two festival goers full color makeovers. We were able to see his big-change color mentality working in real time. Becca from GDY bounced back and forth between assisting Brian and taking walk-in’s with us. Honestly, it was a dream to nerd out about hair with the hair-doers at GDY. Watching the unveiling of the first makeover on festival attendee Emily was truly joy inducing. Nylon Magazine was in the house with Lindsey Byrnes, shooting pics all day as well as filming the reveal.

There are just so many memories we’ll never forget: We took charge of the large styling demand by using every chair we had free, making more than the five stations we had set up. Fun music played, resulting in many karaoke moments. Audrey was the best + hooked us up with fun makeup almost every day. In fact, the crew started each morning by getting each other ready to take on the always-growing line outside the salon. We did a shoot for GDY of all of us, in the most festival style we could come up with. Elise spent her 30th watching Post Malone. We danced to Halfnoise in a dang barn. We had working wrist bands which let us watch the big shows from a great view. The food + drinks! We found a quiet backyard area to chill in after the salon closed. The people watching. The hotel sleep overs. Laughing till we cried. A lot. Our first family road trip.

Some of our team felt the urge to write a little somethin extra about our experience…

“I was happy to help create a colorful, positive & accepting experience at Bonnaroo. I was humbled to see how many people wanted us to create something beautiful for them!” Karen

“It was my first time being considered a stylist since graduating school, so I was nervous as all hell going into Bonnaroo. It was incredible. I met so many people and heard about them, and what they do, and why they’re at Bonnaroo. It’s hard to bring festival-styling back into everyday life because at ‘roo, everyone was so... carefree. (We’ll go with that word. ) They would sit in our chair and tell us to do whatever we wanted— and most of the time, it isn’t like that in the “every day”. The one thing I took from Bonnaroo is that any person has the ability to touch a person’s day just by being kind and listening and looking out for one another. We would do people’s hair— anything from a simple French braid to something more complex, and almost everyone brightened up when they saw the final results. I’m filled with gratitude to have been part of something so bright, bold, and beautifully obnoxious.” Katie

“Being able to come in and have conversations with complete strangers and find different way to relate to them was really cool. Even though nobody at Bonaroo knew each other, being able to connect with them felt effortless. Everyone was genuinely happy to get to know each other and make a new friend. I feel like guests felt very comfortable with us, and being able to make them happy was the best part.” Marissa

“Bonnaroo was such a whirlwind of emotions that are hard to put into words. The fact this little salon of ten people from Buffalo, New York got asked to work and be a part of the GDY team is truly unreal. I couldn’t be more grateful for that. It was an experience of a lifetime. I was completely out of my element at some point (Some of you might know, I was not a braider until now!), but ended up having so much fun doing styles I never thought I would do. To top it all off, every person who sat in your chair was from all over the place, with a different story, and so happy to be there in that moment- which was amazing in itself.” Cara

Thank you to our guests for understanding why we needed to leave town for a week. Biggest thanks of all to GDY: Hayley, Brian, Abraham, Becca, Hallie, Ashley, and Jillian. It was the experience of a lifetime, cheers to the hope of more. Can’t wait to see what the GDY community does next!

This blog was such an emotional photo dump, but actual writers words can be found at the following links:

The Tennessean
Fortune
Uproxx
Refinery29
Nylon - Alternative Press article 1 / article 2

Touring Buffalo's Art + a DIY Project

June 9, 2019 crown bflo

As our city grows, so does our crew. crown started as “the core four” having a dream. Erin, Grace, Chelsey, + Sarah have spent years of hard work to get to the team we currently are. With the team growth going from four to ten in under 2.5 years, we always pay attention to how the group is evolving.

Wanting to get back to our DIY roots, we decided to take some inspiration from our home town, exploring some of its art. A lot of the murals that are near + dear to us are more well known, but some art flies under the public’s radar. We were referring a lot to this blog from Nickel City Pretty and started talking photo shoots. Many conversations were had. Many schedules were picked over. Somehow, we managed to find a three week period in which to update each other’s looks + capture these looks out in the city.

We’ve had Erin’s forever dude Chris Ferguson do some photos + videos in the past, and always want to have something creative going on. And to make the photos even more fun, Audrey came up with looks for all ten of our faces, prepping everyone for their shoot.

The following is our collection of new team portraits which are a result of an incredible crew working together. They’ll be shown in chronological order, with some fun facts on the side. (Anyone we missed linking up, just contact us!)

Chelsey @ 716 Elmwood Avenue

We just love the signature lips by Klub Weimar on the side of Bureau, overlooking Cecelia’s patio. This location has become a city staple, nestled in the heart of Elmwood Village. (Read more about this one here.)

Grace @ 223 Allen Street

The Old Pink. Flame hair, flame wall. These flames came about in 2006, when WBNY DJ Linden Tea was working overnight. The phone rang at 3am and this mural is what came out of that call. Visit this part of town, and you’ll probably also catch Bogan out on a stroll.

Audrey @ 1472 Hertel Avenue

“Lookin Good” by artist Casey Milbrand, on the side of CRāVing Restaurant, has been a huge success after his super popular “Greetings From Buffalo” one. Audrey is so lucky to live in the Hertel neighborhood, which is seeing a huge influx of art these days. (Read more about this one here.)

Elise @ 60 Alabama Street

Elise loves the OFW, so we went near Gene’s + the Barrel Factory for these shots. This wall was painted in 2014 by Vinnie Alejandro and “Yames”. (Read more about this one here.)

Cara @ 233 Allen

“The first of many murals by the Allen St. Street Art Collective, this one was especially fascinating in that the artist never actually touched any of the materials used in the painting of this mural. Ian De Beer, who was convicted of vandalism crimes from graffiti art in New York City, was not allowed to possess or touch any graffiti materials as part of his probation. So, instead, he drew the piece at home, had it made into a projection image, and then projected the entire piece onto the side of Holley Farm Market at night! His assistants painted the projected image on to the wall while hundreds watched. De Beer described it as almost a “theatrical event.’” -Scout Buffalo (Read more about this one here.)

Karen @ 617 Fillmore Avenue

Wrocław, Poland–based artist Otecki (Wojciech Kołacz) has created “Work and Play” in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood as part of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Public Art Initiative in 2018. Buffalo is home to the second largest Polish population in the United States. This moment was captured just as the sky opened up and poured down on us all! (Read more about this one here.)

Sarah @ MJ. Rose - 1413 Hertel Avenue

The Hickey are a creative powerhouse. We switched it up with this shot to feature an Untitled work by James. Oil, spray paint, and acrylic hide a map from South Africa within. He’s been working with mixed medi1a for years, and you can always find an evolving collection of art (his as well as others) over at MJ. Rose!

Marissa @ 505 Main Street

Marissa chose the little outdoor gallery tucked in between 505 + 515 Main Street. The work by assumed name “Picasso in Buffalo” features a Buffalo, where Picasso sometimes depicted himself as a bull. The sign speaks Picasso’s own words: “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” The other side of this alley features a 2012 collaboration between Ogre, Chuck Tingley, and Max Collins. (Read more about this wall here.)

Katie @ 515 Main Street

One of Katie’s favorite murals in the city is Chuck Tingley’s underwater dive scene. Created in 2012, this one is extra fun because you can get up on the fire escape for a photo op. It’s also right next to the epic dragon design on the back of Misuta Chow’s. (Read more about this one here.)

Erin @ 1669 Hertel Avenue

This colorful mural came about in 2017, with artwork for the wall by Rory Allen of Zoom Copy. It’s a gorgeous tribute to Gord Downie. His words speak: “No dress rehearsal, this is our life”… Doesn’t that just say it all? There was no other mural considered for Erin’s location. He’s missed every day, but his influence will never fade away. There was no other poet in the universe like him. (Read more about this one here.)

…and now for a peek behind the scenes:

We had a blast getting out in our city, exploring, researching + collaborating as a team. This felt like the perfect way to reintroduce ourselves. We love you, Buffalo!

Jayne Matthews of Edo, hosted by the Left Brain Group

May 3, 2019 crown bflo

The afternoon spent in NYC in the presence of Jayne was something truly special. Jayne is the owner of Edo in San Francisco, as well as her new shop in Oakland. Back in the days when Erin was in hair school, she’d walk past Edo in awe while in town visiting family. Years later with Instagram, daily peeks into many hair artists’ lives became more accessible. Edo’s work has been a daily inspiration for so many years now.

We were thrilled to hear at the end of 2018 that Jayne was joining the Left Brain Group as an educator. Her NY teaching date made travel without missing time in the shop possible. That, and the fact Ignite Buffalo gifted us with a business grant last year. In our craft, education is the key to growth.

Erin, Chelsey, and Cara all have backgrounds in Bumble & bumble’s straight razor foundations, which is the world Jayne came from, too. This trip was a perfect opportunity to see one of our top artists in the industry do her thing. After a full day in our shop, we hopped a plane to NYC, not realizing how amazing everything was going to be!

After a morning of exploring the streets, the art, and of course all the snack destinations, we headed toward Hairstory Studios. We were 3 of an intimate group of about 40 people. Upon entering, we met Aryn from the Left Brain Group in person for the first time after talking online since we opened our doors. The work she is doing in our field is unrivaled, really something new. Immediately after that, we were able to chat for a moment with Jayne herself (I think we blacked out) and she was just so warm + genuine.

Class focused on 2 models, but included everything from planning your cut design, to talking business practice, to blowing each others’ minds as the room organically conversed during these cuts + styling sessions. Knowing we were going to return home the next day to share all of what we took in, we were all truly in the moment. It was one of those inspiration sessions you just never forget.

Upon returning home, we immediately started our Tuesday deep diving into Jayne’s blueprint for a great cut. We had known how badly we wanted to keep everything fresh in our minds, so we had pre-scheduled a class with 2 demo cuts, then a hands-on session with 4 more models. Both senior stylists and our apprentices participated, and we had some friends from other local salons in the shop to observe as well.

The photos below are the before + afters of this education session. All of these model’s final looks have been air-dried of diffused- NO irons, NO sets, just natural razor-cut texture. Jayne’s aesthetic at this moment if the perfect mix of Bardot meets 70’s rocker. Each cut was customized to the person wearing it, and the results were insane:

*most working photos by Carl Militello*

We can’t thank everyone enough for expanding our minds like this. Jayne, her lovely business partner, Aryn at LBG, the team at Hairstory, and most of all, our in-house team at crown for sharing the fire inside us all.

Cheers to 2019, elevating the craft, and expanding out education every day.

Ignite Spotlight: crown

April 7, 2019 crown bflo

43North featured us again!

Read their interview with Erin here…