EMILY- 2001/2003

Emily

Emily was a client, and honestly one of the most naturally creative, daring people I've worked with. Gorgeous, extroverted, down from somewhere south — I want to say London way — and into amateur dramatics, which tracks completely once you've seen the photos. She wasn't shy about asking for something bold, and she wasn't shy in front of a camera either.

Crimson Riot© — the vivid, fiery red curls with the abstract body paint — is Emily, and that one's already fully documented elsewhere. That shoot became something of a favourite: longer layers, natural curl left to do its thing, painted in bold strokes of pink, red, orange and black that happened spontaneously on the day rather than being planned. It's one of the pieces from Daisy's that still holds in my memory.

This post is also about the other shoot with her — a different day, no name attached to it, and one I've never been fully happy with as a hairstyle, if I'm honest. Emily's naturally curly hair was chemically relaxed just at the fringe and cut into shorter layers so she could backcomb them, styled dark with bold vivids. It suited her when she wore it loose and slightly messy, with the curl allowed to relax back into itself — the fringe would rise up almost straight rather than sitting flat, and there was something about that contrast that worked. As a set style, though, it's not something I'd choose to repeat.

There's a genuinely funny story behind this particular shoot too. Everyone on the team gave up their Sunday for these shoots, entirely unpaid, purely because they wanted to be part of it — Emily included, who was helping out with makeup that day. Partway through, I had to leave to go and pick my mum up, as she wasn't well at the time. I left everyone to carry on without me. When I came back, Emily had drawn herself a pair of Aunt Sally-style circle cheeks — not something I'd asked for, and not something I'd have chosen. But everyone had given their time freely, she'd done it herself with real enthusiasm, and I didn't feel it was my place to ask her to take it off over something as small as that. So it stayed.

Looking back at the photos now, I've used photo software to remove the cheek circles and swap the background — the blue never quite worked either — replacing it with plain white or black. Partly an experiment on my part, partly just tidying up some images I never fully loved as a look.

We were all learning at the time — genuinely amateur, finding our way, and all the better for it looking back. I've no doubt that if Daisy's had carried on for another decade, all of us would have gotten considerably better at this. That's just how it goes.

Photo software used to remove painted makeup and alter the background on select images. Hair, cut and colour are unaltered from the original work.