Beauty news: ghd’s new ink on pink collection

As a two-time breast cancer survivor, I always appreciate it when a beauty brand decides to “go pink” for the cause and actually commits to it year after year. A lot don’t, believe me! Many a brand will jump on the bandwagon to leverage a few sales, then disappear the following year when a newer, shinier charity takes their eye.

This is vastly unlike ghd, who have been in it for the long haul. This is the fifteenth (seriously, fifteen!) year that ghd New Zealand has served up an amazing fundraising initiative for the Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand, having already donated an over $1,000,000 to the charity through sales of their annual, highly coveted ghd pink stylers. The work done by the BCFNZ is vital for people like me, and their services that I have accessed over the years have made an incredible impact at a very difficult time.

But on to this year’s limited edition styling tools at hand, which were unveiled on July 1 and are available now. To date the ghd brand has helped raise over $15 million for breast cancer charities globally, and this year they have partnered with Chicago-based tattoo artist, David Allen to create perhaps their most beautiful – and thoughtful – offering yet. 

For almost ten years now, David has made his mission to help women reclaim their femininity after breast cancer by concealing their mastectomy scars with beautiful floral design. He is widely recognised within the medical community, working with oncologists for advice when creating these intricate designs. As the only editable design, flowers are used as they symbolise life, rebirth and femininity, empowering women and giving back the control over their bodies. 

 “I had open heart surgery when I was 9 months old,’ explains David, “and so I was aware of scars and markings on the body. You start to know your good and bad angles – what is and isn’t comfortable. I had a woman in New York keep getting in touch about my tattoos. She had had a single mastectomy and construction and wanted me to tattoo where her scarring was, but no - I hadn’t ever done this kind of tattoo before and knew that the skin would have healed differently. She was so persistent that I ended up flying to Baltimore to meet her and discuss with her further. During this process I was hands on with someone and watching them heal. I was using my craft and work, which overwhelmed me – I had to take a break and weep.”

He posted it online once the work was complete and it went viral. He suddenly had an influx of demand from other women who had seen it and wanted something similar, and now he does between 6 and 8 mastectomy tattoos a month – it’s a long process and takes a whole day to complete. Each design is totally different and they look amazing – I wish that I could have David help with covering mine, one can but dream!
Collaborating with David Allen for the designs of the stylers, ghd brought in two women to be the muse of this year’s limited edition collection - Grace Lombardo and Molly Weingart. Grace is 38 year old mother of three, living in Chicago.  In April 2016, Grace was diagnosed with breast cancer, going through a bilateral mastectomy. A year later, she trusted David to conceal her scars. Molly is a 33-year-old woman living in Philadelphia training to be a Physical Therapist. Diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32, Molly was tattooed by the Chicago-based tattoo artist on the shoot of the ghd pink campaign. She came to the shoot with her mum Deborah, who survived breast cancer herself 20 years ago.

The end result is just beautiful – see the pics above and below – and the fact that the design is featured on ghd’s award-winning ghd platinum+ and ghd gold stylers makes it even more covetable. 

The ghd ink on pink collection is available right now, with $20 from every pink limited edition styler sold going to the Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand. So what are you waiting for?