10 minutes with Ryder's Greg Murrell

An integral part of the fashion scene in New Zealand as well as one of the country's most loved hair stylists, Aucklander Greg Murrell is the owner of Ryder salon. Also well-respected outside of New Zealand, earlier this year Greg was honoured by the Australian Fellowship of Hairdressers with a Master's Award celebrating his 25 year career at a function at the Sydney Opera House, Sydney. Greg is also the Hair Editor of the wonderful Black magazine – of which I am Beauty Editor – and a generally brilliant, witty and charming guy all round.

In less than three weeks he and the Ryder team will be working hard at Air New Zealand Fashion Week providing support for Zambesi, Huffer and Stolen Girlfriends Club, along with the Contemporary Salon shows. The latter will mean all hands on deck for the talented Ryder team, but it's something that Greg knows they are more than up for. “We decided that we wanted to up our participation in an official sense at the event this year as part of our brand objectives,” he explained to me a couple of weeks ago, “plus we love doing fashion hair! Also, because this category represents interesting young designers doing their first shows, it seems like a great opportunity to build some new relationships and also to lend our experience to ensure an international standard of hair for them in their show.” He also travels each year to Sydney with Zambesi where he has become an integral part of their RAFW show, taking a couple of his key staff with him to help backstage. ”I usually take a couple of stylists with me who really understand my work and are highly skilled in that type of work,” he says, “and we then complete the team with top people that I am connected with on the ground in Sydney. It's always lot's of fun!”
What trends that he's been seeing on runways internationally that he thinks will pop up at this year's ANZFW? ”The clearest trend for me has been the re-emergence of the up-do,” says the celebrated stylist, “we used one at RAFW for Zambesi and it was so nice to see all of the hair up for a change!” He adds that the new hair-ups still use the “classical bases of ponytails, chignons, rolls and twists as a base, but the surface textures may be all different. Some will be textured and some will be sleek. It should all look effortless though.” Hot stuff.