All hair in slideshow by Linda Ha @hairwithlinda
With the first weekend of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival ready to open on April 12, we were doing some #coachellahair browsing when we came upon Linda Ha @hairwithlinda. A resident of Syndey, Australia, Ha didn’t let a little matter of a 14-hour intercontinental flight stand in the way of her dreams of doing hair at Coachella, located in Indio, CA.
“I’d been a hairdresser at Toni & Guy for five or six years when I decided that I wanted to do something on my own,” Ha explains when we ask about her beauty background. “So I started to work freelance and I wanted to create some content that would stand out and make my Instagram page more colorful. There are so many curls and waves on people’s pages, but not a lot of colored braids, so I decided to teach myself how to do braiding with extensions and to get creative with it. Well, it blew up for me.”
Creating Coachella Hair
Her ultra-long pony braids with interwoven colored extensions definitely stand out—and so do the wearers. Ha booked herself a ticket to Coachella after having reached out to some influencers, offering to do their hair.
“Quite a few got back to me and said they’d love to have me do their hair. After I arrived and did @genelleseldon’s hair, she posted a picture and said, “@hairwithlinda is in town” and right away, I had so many people contacting me. I was fully booked for all three days that I was at Coachella. I saw nine people a day, starting at 6:00am, and going into the night.”
She also made her way to Los Angeles (she worked on Vanessa Hudgens) and to Burning Man, the festival in the Black Rock Desert of northwest Nevada. Since specializing in festival hair, Ha has been on fire.
“Coachella is the place I’ve always wanted to go and once I started doing braids it made sense to be there,” she says. “I wanted the experience and the exposure and I have gotten both. It was such a high, I could not believe it. I find in America, at festivals, that people really go all out. I love it.”
Using her Dusty Rode line of extensions, Ha will return to Coachella this year (and she is almost completely booked, again) in addition to other stops along the way. Her trend predictions for festival looks includes very long and very colorful hair in braids, in space buns and even with pinned-in faux fringe. And of course glitter…everywhere. “Apply gel to your hair and then add glitter. Match your makeup glitter with your hair glitter for extra glam.”
As for transitioning through the different days of a festival, Ha recommends that festival-goers start strong and then begin to loosen up.
“For the first day, start out with a strong, full head of braids and hair accessories (rings, ribbons, clips, bandanas, etc.), and then on the second day, undo something; remove some accessories or pull-apart the braids a bit. Then by the third day, you can remove the braids and you’ll have great natural curls. Grab some dry shampoo, rub it in at the scalp, and you’re good to go!”
