Amanda Jane Graham

Research

Art history through a hairdressing perspective.

My research brings together visual art, sociology, historical investigation and my experience of working for twenty-four years as a hairstylist.

I investigate the relationship between hairdressing and art history, asking what becomes visible when we look beyond the finished artwork or portrait and consider the skills, knowledge and creative labour involved in constructing an image.

Hair has long played an important role in art and visual culture, shaping representations of identity, gender, status, fashion and social position. Yet the person who created the hairstyle has often remained largely invisible within the histories surrounding those images.

The Research Question

My practice begins with this absence.

Through drawing, sculpture, sound and installation, I use the perspective of the hairstylist to reconsider historical art and visual culture. My research examines hair, portraiture, creative labour and the social status of hairdressing, asking whose expertise is recognised, whose work is valued, and whose contribution has been overlooked.

What happens to our understanding of art history when we acknowledge the hairdresser's contribution?

This question developed from my experience as a hairstylist and from my interest in the relationship between hair, representation and creative labour.

Having worked professionally with hair for twenty-four years, I became increasingly aware of the knowledge involved in creating a hairstyle: observation, technical skill, judgement, dexterity, creativity and an understanding of the individual person.

Yet when we encounter a historical portrait, attention is usually directed toward the artist, the sitter, or the patron. The contribution of the person responsible for the hair can disappear from the story. I began to ask what might happen if we brought that perspective back into view.

My research therefore looks at art history from a hairdressing perspective. Rather than treating hair as a visual detail in an artwork, I examine it as evidence of human skill, labour, social relationships, and cultural values.

EXPERIENCE

Professional and embodied knowledge

QUESTION

An observation becomes a question

INVESTIGATION

Historical and contemporary research

INTERPRETATION

Reconsidering materiality through a hairdressing lens

ARTWORK

Research becomes visual art

Experience → Question → Investigation → Interpretation → Artwork

Research is not separate from my artistic practice. It is the process through which the work develops.

Hairdressing & Creative Labour

Hairstylists' elaborate, ornate hair designs are not considered art, and despite challenges to this in the 18th century, hairdressing's creative labour remains omitted from art history.

Hair & Portraiture

For thousands of years, hairstyles have been central to historical portraiture, yet hairstylists are denied authorship for their creative labour.

Hair & Art History

Since the Pharaonic era, hairdressing has been intertwined with art history.

RESEARCH THEMES

The Status of the Hairdresser

Scholars agree that negative stereotyping of hairstylists has created an inherited narrative that resonates globally. Consequently, hairdressing has endured centuries of occupational discrimination.