Nail Art and Hairstyling: An Unexpected Fashion and Art Parallel

When people are asked about what they think artis, some tend to imagine back to baroque, rococo, and renaissance painting with detailed sceneries and creative brush strokes. Others think of graffiti-styled artwork or sculptures presented at galleries. 

When asked what people think fashion is, most tend to imagine an elegant or chic runway with many creative and innovative designed garments modeled by stunning and unique women and men. Others think back at the many fashion revolutions that occurred throughout the years that have gotten us to where we are now in the fashion world. 

The incredible fact that most people tend to forget is that fashion and design have always been present in art, and others tend to forget that fashion is a very important form of art. Whether it was renaissance paintings or fashion runways, both fashion and art have always existed in the other. Aside from creative brushstrokes and carefully designed garments, there are other forms of art that are part of fashion. My two personal favorite forms of art that are extremely crucial in the fashion world are nail art and hairstyling. 

Most people think that an artist spends endless counts of hours in a studio in order to create the most magnificent piece, others think fashion geniuses spend time in a fashion house thinking and constructing the most wonderful fashion pieces for the world to see. This is very true, in every art studio and fashion house, great minds are working together to create something exciting for the world to see, but sometimes great minds are working endless hours creating such wonderful pieces in a beauty salon not on a canvas, or not often on a mannequin, but on people, and the beauty of it is that these artists work directly on everyday people. 

Some may agree but also wonder how nail designs and hairstyling could be relevant to both art and fashion? Nail art is considered art for the reason that it uses nails as an empty canvas to fill up with color and designs with the use of different size brushes. Each layer is dried before the other coat is placed on, there can also be different minimalistic or elaborate designs. In an ironic way, this sounds a lot like the process of painting seen in the most wonderful and popular paintings from every time period, creating a very unexpected parallel. 

Nail art can also be paralleled to the art of sculpture. Every nail design is specifically shaped differently depending on a customer's taste which can vary from almond, square, oval, ballerina, stiletto, among others. Nail art also uses a lot of fashion techniques when it comes to design because they can vary from solid colors to very colored and printed designs. Aside from this surprising parallel, nail art is also very involved in fashion because in most cases, in order to pull a look together, a matching nail color can really make a strong impact. However, no color and just clear gel can also make a lot of difference, especially when matching to one color is not really possible. 

The other form of art that is very important to fashion is hair styling. Styling a hair to match or highlight the beauty of a garment is crucial to how the design is presented. Some garments go better with a hairstyle that is long and some garments stand out better if the hairstyle is picked up so that no important element designs are hidden with the wrong hairstyle. In fashion shows, hairstylists are one of the most important people because a right or wrong hairstyle can really either make a fashion show presenting incredibly wonderful designed styles a success or not. 

A hairstyle is not only important in fashion but in artworks as well, sometimes hair styling was used to tell something about a person in a painting or artwork which also was important for personality and how an artwork was presented to the viewer which shows another parallel between art and fashion and also proves that hairstyling is an important art for fashion as well. Sometimes it is easy to overlook the parallels that exist in fashion and in the arts, sometimes a line is created to differentiate the two, but nail art and hairstyling art is the inclusive parallel that creates the statement that art and fashion are more similar than we think of. 

In fact, a blank nail and a blank canvas can be the beginning of an amazing creative process. The right hairstyle on a runway and in an artwork is crucial for the finalized result, and understanding the parallel that nail art and hairstyling have with fashion and the arts can help us as consumers and art enthusiasts realize that fashion and the arts cannot exist without the other.