Kayla Boyer with braids by @annette_updo_artist with the festival as her backdrop.
Kayla Boyer with braids by @annette_updo_artist with the festival as her backdrop.

There is one magical weekend of the year where Chicago, our backyard, feels like the epicenter of the universe for fashion, food and music. That weekend is the four-day festival in the heart of downtown called Lollapalooza where about 400,000 people gather in Grant Park for the best weekend of #SummertimeChi. As die-hard Lollapalooza attendees for years on end, you can only imagine how excited we were when we found out some of our favorite brands would be posted up inside the festival.

Under one roof inside one of the fest’s handful of guest lounges, the SalonCentric Beauty Lounge hosted Pravana, Pink Pewter and Artistic Nail Design. The beauty oasis amid the more chaotic festival outside its tree-lined enclave served up hair styling and colored extension applications to guest lounge attendees, which included VIPs, members of the press, and artists performing during Lollapalooza for some much-deserved R&R during the busy day.

PRAVANA’s Color Collective was behind-the-scenes, including Presley Poe, Taylor Rae, Kayla Boyer and Pinup Jordan, creating gorgeous festival looks. 

On Friday, day two of the festival, Poe gave MODERN a sneak preview of VIVIDS Mood Color, set to be released in September. We were completely in awe when Poe demonstrated the heat-activated changing hair color, which had been applied to tape-in extensions. Although the details of the product still remain top secret (Poe’s lips were sealed even when asked if it was a direct-dye or not!), we can honestly say we’re never seen anything like it before. Check out the video below to be WOWED.

Another highlight was seeing Pink Pewter guest artist and friend-of-MODERN, Annette Waligora—better known as @annette_updo_artist on Instagram—on Saturday. Waligora styled guests’ hair in boho braids and other festival styles, and adorned them with Pink Pewter accessories. Our favorite moment with Waligora was walking to the Grant Park stage on the south end of the festival with her and Boyer, where Waligora styled her hair into two braids as Glass Animals performed in the background. The sea of people in the crowd, the stage, and the Field Museum served as the backdrop of a perfect Lolla memory we’ll never forget.

Beyond visiting with Poe and Waligora, both of whom are members of MODERN SALON’s 2017 list of 100 industry game changers, some of our favorite moments were seeing Pink Pewter Founder and Designer Mireya Villarreal help little girls in the lounge pick out hair accessories, as they awed at the sparkly gems that were about to decorate their hair, as well as Pink Pewter artist Megan Hollinger demoing an upstyle on an excited guest.

Lollapalooza will return to Grant Park August 2-5, 2018.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.