Teen emo fans usually take their image as seriously as their favourite bands, whether they are interested in the cult looks or are more concerned with the emotional origins of the movement. Emo has its roots in the 1980s post-punk scene, being associated with bands that write a particular style of emotionally explicit lyrics, or emotional hardcore.
Some might say that being emo is just a state of mind, associated with intelligence, an emotional outlook and deep exploration of feelings. Yet the emo fashion movement is one of the most image conscious of modern teen cultures. While connected to its post-punk roots, the fashion is often a controversial end in itself. Whether you are styling yourself or others, achieving perfection with hair and makeup is essential for a contemporary emo-scene look.
Professional Blow-Dry
Emo hair is the most easily recognisable part of the fashion scene. Its distinctive asymmetric fringe originated as a home-cut, rejecting the mainstream commercialism of fashionable styles and full of post-punk spirit. Yet modern emo fringes need to be cut by a professional to look good, and you'll need to have some basic technical hair skills to get your fringe sitting perfectly every day.
To style a shaggy asymmetric fringe, blow-dry hair with a paddle brush. This helps remove any bounce or wave:
- Brush in moderation but turn the heat and speed of the hairdryer up, so that curl gets knocked out of the hair naturally, without it becoming too sleek or flat.
- You can section-up the hair, to style it section by section, or blow-dry from the back, brushing towards the front so hair sits the right way.
To finish, run flat-irons over your hair and use a dab of matte-finish putty to separate the pointed, layered ends. If you have colour in your hair, arrange it to show off the dyed sections.
Maintaining Professional Hair Colour
Bright coloured hair needs a lot of maintenance. To get the choppy layered styles with slices of neon, favoured by many emo teens, you need to get your hair dyed professionally. This usually involves bleaching the hair first and then applying a vibrant shade. Both procedures can go wrong if initially done at home because everyone's hair responds differently. A good colour technician can analyse hair and decide on the strength of chemicals required, developing time and colour-mixing techniques. This will avoid a patchy, messy finish, damaged hair or a burned scalp.
Having been dyed professionally, black and peroxide-blonde hair last well but brights usually wash out fast, leaving behind a pale shade that reveals the bleached-out base. You might not want to go to the salon weekly to maintain your perfect bright shade, so you can top-up your hair color at home, using a professional standard dye, such as Renbow's Crazy Colour.
- Colourants and bright dyes only contain the pigment used to colour already bleached hair.
- Simply apply to clean, damp hair, then rinse off after 15 to 30 minutes depending on the manufacturer's instructions.
- Learn to work neatly and wear old clothes as well as gloves, otherwise you'll find your hands and bathroom absorb more color than your hair.
Applying Eye Liner
Eyeliner is the most striking part of emo makeup for both girls and boys. There are lots of different styles as long as you use black to accentuate emotional looking eyes. Emo eyeliner is not usually as ornate as gothic eyeliner, so it is easy to learn how to put it on.
- For ease, use a soft kohl pencil to line all around the eye.
- Sharpen the pencil and use small strokes until you are confident enough to draw a single line.
Left alone this smudges a little over the day to leave a casual and smouldering look, favoured by many boys. This also alludes to the 1980s punk origins of emo, without the modern emphasis on magazine perfection.
- If the kohl smudges too much and disappears, set it with a little translucent loose powder, dabbed on with a cotton bud.
- Press powder eyeshadows over the kohl pencil to boost colour and to create a subtle smoky eye. Black eyeshadow keeps this look authentic but you could try one with a sparkle.
If you want to try liquid liner, start by drawing it along your top lash line, then finishing with a coat of mascara. You can wear this over kohl or on its own. Layering eyeliner is the best way to build a dark but tidy eye makeup, which is also long-lasting.
With hair and makeup right, emo styling can be just a matter of pulling on a pair of skinny jeans and a band T-shirt. A striking look for less mainstream photography shoots, emo-scene fashion may not always be an authentic representation of the original values of the movement but it stands in its own right as one of todays important fashion trends.
Reference
Bee Unique: All You Need to Know About Renbow Crazy Colour Hair Dyes.
The Times: Emo Kids Are Under Attack. Are They Scapegoats or Sinners?: Dom Philips, May 2008.
Shefali Choudhury - Writer and visual artist, Suite Beauty topic editor, Shefali spent 10 years in professional makeup artistry from beauty to blood ...
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