Compositions & Colourful Hair

Seeing people with colourful dyed hair is pretty commonplace, especially here in London. But sometimes there’s an added element that makes me want to take a picture, and that is usually to do with the relationship between the colourful hair and its immediate environment. This series of images features people whose colourful hair visually interacts with a variety of backgrounds, be it walls, building facades, lighting, artwork, or displays.

Recently spotted in Soho, a woman whose hair matches the pink wall. The two dominant colours in the photograph are pink and black, resulting in minimalist almost abstract image:

Just the other day in Camden, a couple who could have stepped out of the mural behind them. The woman on the right even has the same lavender toned locks as the subject of the street art:

The colourful facades of Venetian island of Burano create a suitable backdrop for this woman with blue hair: I also like the echoing motif of her dark sunglasses and the shutters obscuring the windows (known as gli scuri in Venice).

A young woman on a London tube train with a blue painted face, long lashes and lilac hair peeping out from her headscarf. On close inspection she appears to be raising money for Ukraine:

Below, two photographs taken in London’s Kew Gardens. In the first image, a woman faces a spectacular, fiery glass sculpture created by the American artist Dale Chihuly; her long mane a more suffused mix of flame-like tones:

A woman with a purple beehive admires the chrysanthemum display:

The red lanterns and plum banner in Chinatown provide a colourful backdrop for the man’s berry-tinted locks:

Orange pumpkins contrast with the green mohawk:

Outside the O2 Forum music venue in Kentish Town prior to a Yungblud gig, shades of pink hair are juxtaposed with an oversized red punky rubber duck:

Almost camouflaged against the multicoloured mosaic tiled wall created by artist Eduardo Paolozzi at Tottenham Court Road Station; the woman, ceramicist Carol McNicoll, also appears in my earlier post on the theme of matching clothes:

Next, some images featuring plaits and braids. Below, a couple taking a selfie in Burano:

Waiting for the supermarket to open on Portobello Road:

The portrait below features Amy from the London Lucumi Choir, during one of our outdoor rehearsals in Highgate Woods:

Malian singer Oumou Sangaré:

The following image was taken on Hampstead Heath on a dull day earlier this year; I like the way the subject’s hair stands out against the subdued landscape:

Finally, some representations of colourful hair on inanimate objects seen in London. In the shot below taken in Cambridge Circus, the reflected tree branches become natural extensions of the flowing tendrils:

At the Selfridges department store in Oxford Street, a woman adjusts her headscarf alongside an oversized rainbow-toned mannequin:

And lastly, ending as I began with a composition in pink and black. Detail of a mural in Camden – the bright pink hair is painted around a sealed window: