Stylish / Passionate / Driven

Lance Davis has been a creative director in the industry by way of hair dressing. He has been a leader in his industry and has made a strong influence on  the fashion and trends over the decade of time he has dedicated to his craft. Lance began quaffing hair in his teen years and has felt his dreams for his career were grandiose, he has spent many years expressing his view on fashion and design. He has always had an appreciation for photography and love for fashion design. Lance feels that fashion should always be a way to express yourself and let yourself stand out.

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Moevir Magazine Feburary Issue 2023 featured edition

[Socially Distant]

https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/2346661

Creative Director/Hair Stylist Lance Davis @goldielox1239

Photographer Alison Barnes Martin @alibarmar

Makeup Artist Caro Benitezn @carobenitezn

Wardrobe Stylist Amani Skalacki @amani.stylekc

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Tell us something about you. Maybe your life, profession, habit, dream.

I have always had a grandiose view on my life and where it was going to take me from a young age. My dream as a young boy was to be a performer and become famous; move to New York and travel the world being a star. Growing up in a lower middle class family in southern Louisiana, a dream like that would never be seen as possible by anyone and usually received ridicule the moment the dream drifted from my brain to my lips. As I grew older I would record myself singing and soon discover I was tone deaf and that my dreams of being a singer were far from possible. 

As time went on I found myself realizing that maybe being a star wasn’t what I wanted to be, but maybe I was just drawn to the story and illusion that was designed around an Icon. This science and ritual of creating a larger than life image around a person, and creating a story behind that person; really drove me to finding my passion in fashion photography. But I always questioned how I was going to get myself to being next to that star that was being created.

What makes you choose this profession?

I have spent many of hours in a hair salon as a child watching my mother maintain her

hair. I feel as many people have that one thing about themselves that they take pride in; my mother’s was her hair. I wasn’t the child to spin in the hydraulic chairs and be a pest to the staff. I always was inquisitive and would ask so many “why’s” to the reasons why the colonists were using the techniques they were using and why the foil was in the hair, always asking how they knew what they mixed in their color bowls was going to do what was intended. 

Naturally ten years later I found myself apprenticing under a salon owner in New Orleans, Louisiana;  and well, like they say, “the rest was history. My career began to take fast shape and I learned from one of the most elegant and stern business women I could ever ask for. As the years went by I studied under some of the top leaders in my industry, worked many fashion weeks and catwalks. I always like to say I cut my teeth on a bobby pin and learned a lot about life backstage on so many amazing sets. I owe my career thus far to the woman who taught and molded me in this career, and forever I’m grateful.

Could you share how you expand your vision of art, fashion?

I have always gotten lost in my head, always moved through the tracts of my thoughts and ideas in search of my next project. When I’m not behind my chair or on set, I find myself learning how to better be alone and allow my thoughts to wander. So naturally, I find my physical self wandering. I loved modern art, but on the same token respect where renaissance art molded and developed the techniques and established realism. 

My favorite painter is Andy Warhol and I get lost in his used of color and prismatic color blocking. It’s hectic, but planned out; the scape of works always finds itself on the canvas and catches your attention; to yet find yourself wandering in the brush strokes and seeing the whole image and story that’s being portrayed. I find my vision in just that; finding yourself in the hectic mess of life but interpreting the work into your own vision. Its one of the most beautiful things about being a creative director is to find yourself explaining life in a way words can’t express.

In your daily routine, what resources do you like to learn new things about art, fashion?

I own my studio in middle America; Kansas City. I love being in the midwest; its such a fast developing and transient area. We see so many beautifully talented people visiting this city, some choose to make it home. I love watching the blend of fashions and ages expressing themselves. So I would say starting with the local lifestyle magazines that showcase homegrown artists in my current city to give me the pulse of what consumers really are wearing and what the designers closer to that base are feeling influenced by. 

Then I would say I find a lot of my inspirations in the clothing brands I myself consume such as ; Alexander McQueen, Gucci, and Vercace. They all have a classic way of constructing their fashions but then making it all a bit larger in scale and prints. They also love a classic look but find a sense of modernism in the hair and make take of the shoot. I find that a lot of my inspiration for my work these days, I also love to take a shoot out into a natural area and showcase the textures of nature. In my experience I’ve found that nothing can create a backdrop and inspire a breathtaking image such as nature herself.

Is art, fashion important in your life? Why?

Absolutely, I feel that both are a way of embodying physically how you feel. As a child I never wanted to show myself as different because I already was different enough from other peers. But as I grew older I really found my way in life was to always stand out, my human existence was meant to disturb what was normal. So I simply do that daily in my fashion, I’m rarely seen without wearing something that didn’t stay in the room after I’ve already left. Whether that be a feather, a sequin, or maybe my outfit still hasn’t exited the room behind me. The thing I find funniest about my sense of self, is I have yet to be able to hide in a room after coming into my own self.

If you have a superpower or talent, which one do you wish to have? Why?

I’m grateful to say that my super power has already been granted to me. I have forever wanted to share the power of changing a person's outlook on themselves. As a stylist and salon owner the best blessing I’ve ever been given was to inspire and change someone's outlook on themselves. I’ve been blessed with the best “job” in the world. I have always been grateful to say that every client has always left happier than they showed up and prettier than expected. Being a hairdresser is a super power, and for that I’m grateful to be a part of this coven.

Do you have any problems with your profession? How did you solve it?

I have only one issue with you with this industry and it's honestly the way that the industry has found itself to shape artists along the way. Its become quite rigorous and I began my frustrations when I knew I was more talented than the uninspired artist I was working under who was only there to collect a paycheck and not make a difference or choose to grow and push the envelope of their work. 

I feel as though the old school salon was meant to make you struggle for 3-5 years because everyone before you had, and honestly that's about the fastest way to kill someone's drive. I believe we struggle to then hand the torch to the younger generation to maybe, by chance, learn something from what we did. I never understood how an industry that prides itself on ever changing still primarily lives in a world so stagnant. 

So you ask how I fixed that? Well I created my own salon and I embrace new talent. I like to shadow my new talent and watch what they know and advise accordingly. I want to refine the talent they have, enhance it. Natural things are always more beautiful when we don’t erase the whole practice but redirect the misinformation. I love to find my staff on set with me, I love to let them have a hand in the work and let them know I trust them. At the end of the day I embrace what someone else saw as an opportunity and I mold it into an image I feel just in.

Who do people impact most in your profession? What do you learn from them?

We simply impact everyone, its the coolest and scariest thing to have an art form that can walk. The best part about being a hair dresser is that everyone posses a medium that I work from. But the confusing part about it being called “hair dressing” is my medium isn’t hair, its the face and soul of every person I’m blessed to work on. We all have that in common, its a beautiful thing to see someone fully come into the person that they are. Sometimes we as hairdressers are one of the maestros who conducted the resurrection.