All photos by Burak Cingi
This article was originally published on Noisey UK.
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Music is dope. Everyone loves music. But do you love it enough to let your favorite artist go at your hair with wild abandon and no former training? I mean, The Weeknd has a number one album right now but can you imagine Abel running his fingers through your hair, knowing where they’ve been? The reformed Libertines recently headlined the UK’s Reading and Leeds Festival, but would you let any one of them touch your scalp?
Apparently one artist who can be trusted is Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, a.k.a. Halsey, who took over too cool for school salon BLEACH in London’s Soho yesterday afternoon and turned it into her own personal salon, where she gave five fans blue and pink rinses, apparently to match the signature colors of her debut album BADLANDS.
While in London Halsey also played two sold out dates this week where crowds of 2000 people—mostly teenagers, and mostly girls—screamed every single word to every single song so loud I had to take an aspirin afterwards. I don’t want to proclaim “voice of a generation” too prematurely, but it’s rare to see so many kids lose their fucking minds for one young woman who isn’t much older than they are (Ashley is just 20 herself). From The Beatles to One Direction to Bieber that level of devotion from teenage girls seems to be traditionally reserved for boys.
Unsurprisingly, before she even showed up 300 fans cloistered around BLEACH and making central London’s Sunday hangover’s 10 times worse by obstructing the entrance to the Co-op (UK budget supermarket) and the packet sandwiches within.
Here’s one of her creations—whose hair looks just wonderful, but his crease game is all over the place. Tell you what mate, there’s a Currys just round the corner, why don’t you pick yourself up an iron on the way home.
Questioning how many of these people were Halsey superfans and how many just really love Co-op.
So there you go, I guess Halsey is the sort of pop star you’d let touch your hair, although my dream scenario would still be Prince. With Britney doing the pre-dye rinse. Read about the time we went on a first date with Halsey to drink posh wine and talk about tattoos here.
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BADLANDS is out now via Astralwerks.