photo: Holly Stalder
An excellent haircut issues forth from a stylist whose scissors work like magic over the hair, somehow forming a crown upon the head that perfectly compliments not only the face, but the personality as well. And the opposite can be, well, slightly tragic. Carrie Brewster has taken her talent as a maverick hair stylist and used her sharp eye and technique to decorate her place, fusing her love of mixing the old-fashioned with the modern. �I really like a balance between antique fixtures and modern lines,� she explains. �I chose things that I felt complimented each other and the place as a whole.� Big antique chandeliers hang in the space giving it a soft light. Underneath them are clean-lined furniture pieces, minimalist mirrors and quirky accoutrements.
photo: Holly Stalder
Although she has just moved into a SE building over the summer, she has effortlessly transformed it to be multifunctional, and the personal details and charms make it seem as if she had been there much longer. An artist and a hair stylist, she has created an environment that accommodates her living space, studio, and hair salon. And this isn’t a sprawling loft, it is a split level house which used to be an old store front, yet when you walk in you don’t feel as if the space is crowded or jumbled. When asked about how she delineated the spaces she admits, “Really, it was all based on practicality; the salon is up front where there is the most light and there is plumbing and where no one would have to intrude into my living space. My studio is to the right where there is great ventilation and I live in the rear area which is more private.”
photo: Holly Stalder
And what separates these three areas? Carrie had floor to ceiling muslin curtains installed that run across the major delineations of the house. These curtains run on a track making it easy to open the spaces up and close them off. All the curtains are double layered, each running on individual tracks so that at any time she can have a more opaque and intimate closure, or a more transparent and airy one. The curtains move in the air, allow light to filter through, and can open or enclose a space, something that dry wall partitions cannot. It lends itself an effortless quality yet obviously has a sharp eye fashioning it.
It seems as if Carrie�s thoughts on decorating lend a hand to her hair styling techniques. She started cutting hair after her friends couldn�t find anyone better to do it than her, then went to beauty school and trained at Bumble & Bumble in NYC. Graduating from art school in Pasadena, California, she approached cutting hair as �sculptural.” Years ago she opened up a salon which employed several hair stylists, but after she moved to NYC and back, she decided to create a more intimate and personal hair experience by having it in her home where it is calm, quiet and where she spends much more time with each single client.
photo: Holly Stalder
“I like to approach the person as a whole, not just their hair. I play with the hair a lot, feeling how it moves and falls on a person and go from there. I want to create the perfect color and cut for each specific person, not just some cookie-cutter style for everyone.” One of the crucial elements for perfect color is starting with a neutral background, and Carrie has made sure that all the walls in her place are painted a neutral color. “When you’re in a salon with colored walls, it affects the outcome of your hair color. The same goes with painting, my studio walls are also neutrally colored so that I can see each color for what it really is.”
This attention to precision and her talented scissors have made her clients supremely loyal. She cuts and colors many of the most creative people in Portland. Carrie acknowledges that many of her clients are small business owners, gallerists, artists, etc. and attributes it to Portland’s unique love and support for the local community. But we all know that it’s really because the perfect haircut is hard to find.
Find Carrie Brewster and her beloved dog Hannah (who has been with her in salons since she was a puppy) by making an appointment at 503.841.6353
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