The higher the hair, the closer to God: Shunsuke Meguro’s wigs are pure art

The inspiration for Shunsuke Meguro’s latest beauty shoot came from within. Forgoing the usual references and moodboards, the Japanese hairstylist, who has worked with brands including Gucci, Balenciaga and Byredo, took his identity as his starting point. 

“From the ages of 18 to 20, I went to beauty school and was also an assistant to a contemporary artist,” he explains. “At that time, I was thinking about what art is and what makes something art.” He came to the conclusion that art was the thing that was inspired by everything inside him: the questions, the philosophies, the emotions.

Spurred on by those thoughts, Meguro’s shoot explores the process of creating art, encompassing fashion, beauty and art, and the way that one’s changing emotions over the course of creation impacts the final result. For the shoot, he teamed up with long-time collaborator photographer Piczo, alongside stylist Jamie-Maree Shipton and make-up artist Lynski.

When it came to the hair itself, Meguro played with different wigs, deconstructing and reconstructing them into towering, braided creations that resemble crowns and even ships. One headpiece he started working on a year and a half ago. “It became a story that visualises how what I want to make changes over a period of time,” he explains. Elsewhere, he experimented with extensions in a range of hues from emerald greens and lime yellows to red oranges and sky blues; colourful creations inspired by the rare-coloured creatures he saw in his childhood books.

See the full shoot in the gallery above.

Photography Piczo, styling Jamie-Maree Shipton, hair Shunsuke Meguro, make-up Lynski