Pictures in your hair - level 3
This is an image of Brazilian professional footballer Neymar who plays for Spanish club Barcelona. And, it’s on the back of someone’s head! That’s because one hairdresser in Sao Paolo in Brazil, is taking the art of hairdressing to another level.
Salon owner Nariko etches famous portraits onto his client’s heads, only if they ask for it, of course. He’s been carving profiles of the famous onto the sides and backs of heads for about a year or so.
“It makes me really happy. I don’t know how to explain my happiness. Because Neymar inspires a lot of young people to get into soccer, with the artwork I’m doing these days, there are a lot of young people who want to know about cutting hair. They’re focused on it. They come in here with questions, they want to take a course, and that is really gratifying!”
When it comes to cutting famous mugs, Nariko starts with a regular hair clipper that he uses to cut the image freehand without any stenciling. He does this by simply looking at an image, either from a piece of paper or a smartphone, and then proceeds to get busy at work. Once the basic outline is there, he carefully uses a razorblade to cut in the more detailed elements of the design. He can even add elements of colour if the client wants it.
Other images Nariko has done include hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg, Jesus Christ, and even a replica of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.”
Difficult words: etch (to cut into something to make a picture), gratifying (when something you do makes you feels good), mug (a face), freehand (done by hand), stenciling (using an image to trace or fill in), proceed (to start), element (a part).