FOCUS ©️ The spectrum

FOCUS©

Wild Nature Collection

"Where attention rests, vision begins."

Concept

FOCUS© started as a technical goal, not a visual one. I wanted to work linear bands of colour running down through the hair — mustard golds, greens, a little violet, moving into blonde. No plan beyond that.

It was only once I staggered the fringe area and parted it that the effect emerged: it started to look like a pair of huge eyes, or something insect-like. I found it interesting, if a bit strange — intriguing rather than intended. So no, I didn't strategically plan that part. It came out of the gradient work, not the other way round.

The wig had its limits too. Being pre-loved and unpredictable, the lift only went so far in places, which shaped how vivid those bands could get.

Looking at it now, the name still fits for a different reason. Monotropism is the pattern of focused attention — not scattered focus, but a single, narrow channel that everything else falls away from. FOCUS© does that in colour: everything pulled inward into one intense band across the eyes, the rest of the canvas left quiet around it.

Where attention rests, vision begins.

This piece was worked on a pre-loved wig — secondhand, with a history I didn't know and couldn't predict. That unpredictability is part of the process. Human hair carries its own past in the same way; you don't always know what it's had done to it before it reaches your hands, and you work with what's actually there rather than what you assumed would be there.

The technique was freehand: working methodically through the hair in sections using balayage film lifting layer by layer with lightener and developer. Some areas lifted quickly and others resisted — meaning repeated rounds of rinse, reassess, and go back in. Once the lift was where I wanted it or at least at its limits, green went into the violet tones and It came out more muted than I'd planned it.

Transparency Notice: The model editorial imagery for FOCUS© was generated using Grok by xAI, art-directed from the original physical hair piece. The digital model, styling, and composition were AI-interpreted from real work — the AI did not originate the piece; it reinterpreted it.

Either/Or

Eyes, or insect, or visor? — you decide.