Style Inspiration: Neutral Ground by Kerrie Di Mattia, Australia

Neutral Ground is inspired by a realisation that we place limits on ourselves, our creativity and more importantly, limits on our clients when we see gender attached to hair!

Last year we adopted Gender Neutral pricing in our salons & it was with this change our LBGTQI clientele grew tenfold. Sadly, along with that growth it became evident that within our rural regional town there was a definite lack of understanding & tolerance surrounding our local queer community. That's what it is, it's gender neutral. We're catering to everyone, and also we want people to be comfortable asking for any type of haircut, whether it's feminine, masculine, or androgynous.

I wanted to bring awareness to & provoke conversation around hair & gender with a collection of simply styled, uncomplicated images focusing purely on beautiful hair on beautiful people who choose to just be themselves. Hair isn’t masculine or feminine, it’s wearable art, a suit of armour & a form of expression that gives you the freedom to lead with & look the way you feel! Each model belongs to our local community, some LBGTQI & some not, but all completely on board with what I have created. The room was quite simply full of such a calm & loving energy, which I hope I captured in the images.

There was a freedom & cohesion in their complete acceptance of one another!

The hair was complemented by seamless glowing skin, the styling directive was to keep the fabrics & tones neutral, understated & organic in order for the earthy natural hair colours of each of the images to shine.

HAIR: Kerrie Di Mattia

MAKEUP: Bill Fitzpatrick

STYLING: Candice Battersby

PHOTGRAPHY: Amber Toms

POST PRODUCTION: Peter Orlik ASSISTANTS: Lauren Di Mattia Meg Lamrock, Ava Kroehnert Sandi Skennar, Di Mattia & Co Team PRODUCTS: JOICO Australia/NZ White Sands Australia

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