Susan Peters, March First Friday

Susan Peters is an emerging NC artist you don't want to miss.  Her portrait of the human experience is both enlightening and liberating, a story of success and failure, of love and loss.  While her subject matter, like a mood, is various, her ability to capture your breath is consistent and encourages a appreciation of the life we are given.  www.AcrylicArtistryNC.com

Susan Peters Artist Biography:

I am originally from Woodstock, New York and have always been creating something. From the early years of finger-painting on rocks in the creek bed behind my grandmother’s house to present. After a long hiatus from painting, I have returned to it originally as a cold weather hobby, but after creating the first acrylic painting, I was immediately hooked. I started looking at everything around me in detail, noticing colors, shapes, light, and shadows.

I enjoy using bright colors in my work, and enjoy painting a variety of subject matter, as well as using varied techniques. Depending on my mood, I can go from painting flowers and animals, to abstract figures, flow art, and resin.

I consider myself to be an emerging artist, as I am just starting to display my work. To date, I have displayed my art throughout North Carolina. I currently have a painting in the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, North Carolina for the “State of the Art: Art of the State” show. I also display artwork with Local Color Gallery located inside 311 Gallery in Raleigh. I am a member of the Fine Arts League of Cary, Visual Art Exchange, and the Durham Artists Guild. I have work in private collections in North Carolina, Tennessee, New York, Massachusetts, Alabama, and California.  

In addition, I have had artwork published in the online literary magazine, The Charles Carter.

I also enjoy practicing hot yoga, riding my Tennessee Walking Horses, and traveling with my family.

6 Winter Must Have's

My inspiring neighbor sent me a Christmas card saying Merry Christmas, Happy New Year...and Happy Valentines!  She has 5 kids, and she knew it would come to that.  Here's a look at some of our favorite winter styles; at least in this case its still winter!  Even as we look forward to spring these trendy looks will wear well.  The vibrant colors will naturally lighten with each wash leaving you with a pastel palette perfect for the early, cold, and rainy spring we anticipate.  

Feeling Blue, A New Exhibit by Taylor Lee

"When creating my latest pieces, I was inspired by color and by the geology I've seen on my road trip around the United States. From Chicago to Seattle, down to San Francisco and then through Utah, I've seen many indescribable displays of beauty in landscape. Mountains, forests, storms, fog, just to name a few. Geology is concrete, grounded, and tangible. It feels like the opposite of color - color walks, speaks, moves, and breathes. Color is a wild animal that I cannot hope to ever fully understand, just as I cannot hope to really feel the earth's crust moving beneath my feet. Seeing the two come together, like the way the mountains go purple in Utah at sunset, has taught me to see the world differently, and to never stop chasing the sublime." - Taylor Lee

FLASHBACK! JOSH MCBRIDE, 2018 FIRST FRIDAY!

Alter EGO is stoked to announce the return of Josh McBride for the very first FIRST FRIDAY event of 2018!  Join us on Friday January 5th for Josh McBride's FLASHBACK, a special exhibit of his personal collection and favorite pieces.  Josh started painting graffiti at just 13 years old.  He painted everything in sight while growing up in Durham, but now paints murals all over the country professionally.  McBride paints canvas on request.  

We've had many requests to purchase his canvas over our front desk from our private collection, but we will never part with it!  If you want one of your own, or if you just want to ring in the new year with the Alter EGO family in style, join us for First Friday in January!

4 Fall Trends You Need to Know

#1 The Modern Take on Red

Hair by Ashley Shick

This modern red boasts a vibrant halo incorporating dark pieces both at the root and reappearing at the ends for a sophisticated dimensional color, creating more natural looking depth and movement.  The color does double duty as fun and professional and can be worn on long or short hair.  The mix of warm and cool tones reminds us of all our favorite things about fall.

Ask your stylist: deep cool red root, highlights around crown of the head with the same color of root on ends

#2 The Bold Balayage

Hair by Ashley Shick

This signature style gets a fall twist with a warm, pulled down root boasting red undertones and transitioning into heavy gold balayage.  For the girl who wants to look natural but desires a little spice in her life.  Adding red and gold tones to any color is a great way to celebrate fall with minimal effort.

Ask your stylist: warm red brown root touch up with a golden balayage 

#3 The Mix of Cool and Warm

Hair by Aspen Johnson

In this trending style we see golds mixed in alongside cooler tones to make your hair pop! Great for brunette beauties that want natural dimension. Turn heads this fall and make them wonder where you're getting your glow! 

Ask your stylist: brown bayalage with a mix of warm and cool tones

#4 The Warm Blonde

Hair by Ashley Shick

Goldy Locks here we come! Warm blondes are on trend this year. Kick up your style with easy maintenance; this style grows out beautifully and requires less frequent touch-ups. Leave your natural root and add gold tones to have more fun this fall. 

Ask your stylists: bayalage with a warm finish

Alter EGO thanks Ashley Shick for preparing these tips on how to achieve our heart's desire this fall.

"Regenesis", Artwork by Julia Sawyer

Julia Sawyer discovered her passion to create when she was old enough to hold a brush. She maintains a long lasting love affair with acrylics due to their versatility and capacity for experimentation. For Julia, inspiration often originates from day to day life. Challenges are welcome because they bring about growth and provide an arena for honing her skills.

“Regenesis” is a body of work created during a period of personal and professional renewal and rebirth. This exhibition displays new pieces of art, experimentation with different mediums, color schemes, and application methods. Geared towards organic abstraction and experimentation, the progression of pieces highlights the creative process throughout the series.

From Farm to Wall. Meet July's Artist.

Dave Greway's medium is found objects, and he creates clocks.  If you are obsessed with the dimension of time like we are at Alter EGO, then join us Friday July 7th for the opening of his exhibit "From Farm to Wall."  www.DaveGrewayDesigns.com

Optical Illusions in Hair: 2017 Trends

Color placement to create optical illusions, called contouring, is the current trend.  Remember striped hair from the 90s?  That was replaced with more natural-looking blended color, often achieved through artistic techniques like balayage, which is hand-painted hair color.  But now, even these modern color application techniques have been upleveled.  Today, color is all about placement.  Where color is placed is defined by the shape the stylist wants you to see. Mirroring the cultural movement toward bold individuality, brave statements driven by our inner-self, styles now daringly intensify and interpret personal character in shape and texture.  By enhancing dimensions and creating expressive shapes in hair, great stylists become sculptors.  These images, our entries to Wella's 2017 Trend Vision contest, depict Alter EGO's interpretation of current contouring trends.  Color and style by Aspen Johnson, Ashley Shick, and Dana Rosa. Photography by Trevor Underwood. Read on for interviews with the stylists.

Style and color by Aspen Johnson. 

Style and color by Ashley Shick. 

Style and color by Dana Rosa. 

Stylist Aspen Johnson prepping her model for a photo session. 

Dana Rosa and Ashley Shick at our late night photo shoot. 

Aspen Johnson: [to create these styles] "we need models who are up for anything with no boundaries. Viewers should know it took us multiple appointments and 8-10 hours to create these looks and that doesn't include conception.  We aren't just grabbing colors out of tubes.  We mix and dilute to create what you see. I placed the pastel rainbow in diagonal patterns so depending on how the hair lays it will either be bold and graphic or really soft." 

Ashley Shick: "I chose an African American model because their natural texture is not represented enough in the beauty world. I used light colors around her eyes and dark around the side of her face to create a narrowing effect and draw attention to her eyes.  Since the style is really kickass and harsh, I did a color melt on the top from dark to light to soften it up and create movement.  The undercut is progressively lighter as you move toward back to front creating a visual arrow to the eyes."

Dana Rosa: "I was inspired by the colors and movement of Raleigh awakening at sunrise." 

Dear Reader: Follow us on Instagram @alteregoraleigh!  We are always looking for models who will give us artistic freedom to create fabulous.  If that's you, send us a direct message through Instagram or Facebook.

Girl movies are great for...hair inspiration.

Actually, girl movies are great for a lot of things.  A good cry, a night out with your college friends or sisters, a little 'me' time after a hot soak in the tub.....but if you're like us you also watch for the trends.  And since braids and texture are all the rage right now, we can't wait to see 'The Beguiled' with Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, and Kirsten Dunst.  Oh yeah, him too.  Here are your free tickets to the North Hills Advanced Screening on Monday night at 7:30pm.

Get your passes: FocusFeaturesScreenings.com

Enter Code: AlterEGOTB6.26

Braids, whether undone in a loosely compiled updo to create texture and movement, or pulled tight to accentuate cheek bones and the sleek skin of youth, are the top trend for 2017.

Colin Farrell is as swept up in Kirsten's braided updo as we are.

Things We Said, A 26 piece collection. Opening Sat May 27 at Alter EGO.

This Saturday from 3-6pm at Alter EGO, Artist Taylor Lee is unveiling a collection of 26 pieces, one for each letter of the alphabet.  Each title, from "Please Don't Go" to "Before I Met You" evokes pivotal points in a relationship.  "Things We Said" honors those often painful moments. Taylor is currently preparing for an artist residency in Puebla, Mexico, independent projects in San Ramon, Costa Rica, and a gallery opening in Urbana, Illinois. Visit her Instagram @taylorleepaints for daily updates on her work and to follow her adventures abroad.  

Event 

“This year I’ve been thinking about the differences and similarities between everyone. We come from different countries, different religions, different age groups, different races, different economic backgrounds...yet we all live the human experience. This exhibition will celebrate and honor the moments that overlap. This collection is comprised of 26 pieces, one representing each letter of the alphabet. The title of each piece will start with a letter from the alphabet, and the title will be something that we’ve said to someone else at least once in our lives. All humans, no matter how different, have probably said these things. From, “Please Don’t Go” to “Meet My Mom,” we can all relate to the important moments in our lives that are captured with these words.
”

— Taylor Lee

Aaron Kim, Raleigh Hair Stylist & Colorist

Daeho Kim, also known as Aaron, joined us in Dec 2015 from Busan, South Korea where he was a sought after stylist with more than 8 years experience.  The bustling port city of Busan (pronounced "Pusan") is actually the world's 10th busiest city, and is the second largest city in South Korea, next to Seoul.  Busan is known for its beautiful beaches, seafood markets (fresh sushi -yum!) , and its "Diamond Bridge" fireworks.

After honing his k-style craft in South Korea, Aaron decided to join a salon team in Australia to gain more global fashion influences and practice styling different hair types.  Intent on helping him prepare for his international move, Aaron's father, a Vice Principal at a local elementary school, introduced him to the school's new American English teacher, the future Becky Kim.  Aaron and Becky are expecting their first child in July.

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Aaron enjoys artistic color services involving creative color and hand-painting techniques such as ombre and balayage.  These services allow him to infuse his knowledge of global fashion trends with his own artistic expression.  The featured model was styled by Laura Thabet and Aaron Kim as an entry into Alter EGO's charity contest SPECTACLE for 2016.

Read reviews of Aaron's work on Yelp.  Book online with Aaron here.  Follow Aaron on Instagram at @aaronsscissorhands

On Getting a Total Makeover...

Welcome to our new website!  Like many big projects, this one has been in the making for quite a long time.  When the new site went live last week a calm come over me as I navigated the pages thinking, 'yeah - that's us.'  This came together during a time of intense change for me personally.  From its inception the Alter EGO brand was meant to embody the concept of changing identity; and lately, I've been thinking a lot about the metamorphoses we experience as humans in our individual lives.  

It seems I have spent much of my life discovering my own identity.  As a youth and even into my twenties I maintained the idea that eventually you 'grew up', as in arrived.  Knowing yourself.  I flailed through life seeking clues to who I would become as if it were predetermined.  I settled into my first career.  After a decade of practice and some notable successes, I thought "Oh, this is me. Here I am, grown up."  And then I became a mom, and suddenly my world was in limbo again.  Just about the time I found my bearings, my marriage crumbled.  Talk about identity crisis. Try being a newly single, working mom in your late thirties. Who knew this would be my favorite identity yet?  I think what has finally made me so comfortable in my own skin is the understanding of constant change in life, and how to more gracefully, through practice, embrace change.

I know more is coming for me.  I don't know what to expect, so I'm ready to fall into it as gracefully as I can.  I watch my grandmother struggle to find her new place in the world after losing her husband of 60+ years. Without him, how does she relate to even her closest loved ones?  I want her to understand that even though I've only known her as one of a pair, she is precious to me in her own right.  I've also been learning more about my grandfather's many identities in life.  At first, I was uncomfortable with this; I didn't want to let go of his identity as my grandfather to make way for others.  But he was a photographer - someone who saw tremendous beauty in the world - and he drew me in with his pictures.  I think about my son, and how what he's inherited from us will carry him through his life, ever growing and changing.

At Alter EGO, we are blessed to help effect the outward expression of so many transformations.  Our clients are amazingly interesting people!  Many new stylists express their surprise at just how often we get to do creative colors and how many first time clients choose us for complete makeovers.  Clients even share their research process leading to Alter EGO.  To me, that's an indication that we are effectively conveying to the world who we are: agents of beautiful change.

This business has taught me a lot about how others experience change.  Too often, a client leaves brimming with excitement over her new self, only to encounter 'the others'.  Sadly, 'the others' might be people who should love and nurture them - a husband, frequently a mother.  'The others' say well-meaning, but destructive things like, "Why did you cut your hair?"  or "I liked it better blonde." or "You know I just love you with long hair."  As a mother, I know that reacting this way stems from my own fear of loss. What I've learned, though, is that change means you are living; it's recognition is an opportunity to love each other right now - in the present. Let's agree together to give ourselves grace, instead of struggling futilely against the constant force of change.  

Finally, many thanks to our best styling team ever.  Thank you for choosing Alter EGO; YOU have made us the best hair salon in Raleigh.  Thank you for all your hard work over the last year.  The result of that is this new identity, and all the media here is ours.  All original.  This is us now!  Isn't it great?!

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Style by Aspen Johnson.  Photography by Trevor Underwood.  

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Masked model styled by Dana Rosa for Alter EGO's annual SPECTACLE charity event.  Mask is original artwork by Mathew Curran for SPECTACLE.  Photo by Joe Bruno for Oak City Hustle.

Dana Hunter Rosa featured in Oak City Hustle

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Dana Hunter styles hair and applies hair color at Alter EGO Salon and Blow Dry Bar in downtown Raleigh.

Raleigh's Oak City Hustle interviewed Owner and Stylist, Dana Hunter Rosa, about what defines Alter EGO and how Dana has cultivated a creative, expressive environment here.  In their own words, Oak City Hustle "provide a platform for innovative creative culture in Raleigh to be nurtured, developed, documented and shared as a catalyst for cultural pride."  We are so thrilled for Dana and Alter EGO to be featured, and would love for you to read her interview to learn more about both Dana and AE. Q & A with Dana Hunter Rosa of Alter EGO

Achieve a Closer Shave, Gentlemen.

Shave(verb): to remove hair by cutting it off close to the skin with a razor. The wet shave is a ritual that's generally passed down from generation to generation. I remember as a little girl getting to watch my grandfather and father shave was one of the most mesmerizing things to see. The process was so fascinating: inserting a fresh blade into the safety razor, splashing the face with hot water, the lathering process with a shave brush being whipped in circular motions from the neck up and the music of the blade gliding across the whiskers. It's a sound one can not forget.

Below are some tips I have learned from previously working behind the chair, performing straight razor shaves and from my previous place of employment (a corporate shave store):

Enjoy the Ritual

-Don't rush -Stop using too much pressure -Use a clean blade (if it's dull, toss it out) -Make sure to use a post shave moisturizing product!

Want a better shave experience? Here are my recommendations: -Make sure your skin is clean. Shaving a dirty face leads to bacteria being pushed into the skin, which can cause irritation.

-Shave either during a hot shower or right after. This opens the pores (allowing the hair to be more exposed), softens the whiskers, and ensures your beard is properly moistened. Also, less strokes. NEVER shave a dry face!

-Apply a pre-shave oil such as V76 by Vaughn Pre & Post Detailing Shave Oil. Shaving oil allows the razor to glide nice and smooth against the skin and also acts as a barrier between the blade and your skin (i.e. cut down on the razor burn) When applying: use a dime size amount, and starting at the base of your neck, work in an upward motion to help lift the whiskers for a closer shave. Have a beard? V76 by Vaughn Pre & Post Shave Oil makes for a wonderful beard oil too! Rub into the body of the beard, coating from skin to end.

-On top of the oil, add a quality shaving cream. Look for one that has moisturizers such as V76 by Vaughn Clean Shave Hydrating Gel Cream.This gel-to-cream softens the most stubborn of stubble while the Vitamin E beads soothe the skin for a superbly comfortable finish. It can be used with or without a shaving brush. Why a shaving brush, you may be asking yourself? Well a shaving brush is the most important tool in any man's shave. It acts as an exfoliator to remove dead skin cells that can clog a hair follicle, which cause the dreaded ingrown hairs. It also helps to kick out any hairs that may be trapped, and lifts the whiskers to their highest point to achieve a clean, close shave. Badger hair is my recommendation when it comes to shaving brushes. It is the softest and retains the most amount of moisture providing the richest of all lathers when used with shaving cream.

-Using a sharp razor blade, go first WITH the direction of the hair growth (aka with the grain). Take a close look at your neck and face and really check out these growth patterns. If you are one who experiences razor burn/bumps, don't go against the grain, this can only cause the skin to continue to flare up and be irritated. No irritation and/or looking for a closer shave? Make sure you re-lather if you will be going against the grain (I recommend doing a cross grain pass before going against).

-After you have completed the shave, rinse your face with COLD water. This will close the pores that were just opened and help tighten the skin. Make sure to pat not rub your face with a clean towel to dry.

-ALWAYS end with a moisturizer! Shaving can remove up to two layers of the skin. By adding a hydrator with packed nutrients such as V76 by Vaughn's Hydrator Hair and Face Mist, your skin will be soothed, refreshed and ready for the next time you put a blade to it.

March First Friday

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Now Hiring Experienced Stylists

We are Raleigh's Premier Urban Salon located in the heart of downtown Raleigh.  Come join our team!  We will keep you busy and inspired.  Love what you do, and do what you love!  Apply Today.

Gold Lust Dry Shampoo Gift #oribeobsessed

Get your complimentary 1oz. Gold Lust Dry Shampoo gift with purchase of any Oribe product, while supplies last.  

Instantly Clean.

Extend your blowout and prevent damage with this transformative dry shampoo.  This translucent formula absorbs product buildup, oil and impurities while soothing the scalp and restoring strength and softness.

Memento Mori. October First Friday @ Alter EGO.

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Friday October 7th, Alter EGO welcomes Valeriya Chavdarova, a Bulgarian-born self taught artist. She works primarily in oils and prefers to focus on darker, horror or anatomy inspired pieces.

Memento Mori (Remember that you must die) is a collection of works to remind us of our own mortality and the transformation from life into death.  Boo!

August First Friday

Susan Peters is originally from Woodstock, New York and has always been a creator. She started by finger-painting on rocks in the creek bed behind her grandmother’s house as a young girl and began acrylics as a mature artist. Susan recently returned to painting after a long hiatus at first as a cold weather hobby, but suddenly began noticing the detail around her: colors, shapes, light, and shadows.  And she was hooked again!  Susan uses bright colors and images from nature to give life to her paintings. In her spare time, she enjoys practicing hot yoga, riding her Tennessee Walking Horse, and traveling with her family.