Last year, Lauren Bowker was halfway through a nostalgic re-watching of the cult '90s teen film
The Craft when the idea struck. More specifically, it was
during the "glamor spells" scene, when Robin Tunney's character goes from brunette to platinum blond just by combing her fingers through her hair. "It was in that moment that the penny kind of dropped," says Bowker, "I was like, 'We could do that.'"
That wasn't posturing: As a chemist, fashion designer, and the founder of the London-based material design studio,
The Unseen, Bowker is something of a high-fashion alchemist. Her
color-changing leather purses and otherworldly wearable
Air sculptures are a measured mix of stunning aesthetics and seriously complex science.
Today The Unseen is releasing color-changing hair dye that's exactly as magical as it sounds: With a sharp temperature change, the dye shifts hues on its own, as if spellbound.
Storm Models, the Unseen is launching the project at London Fashion Week with a series of videos that showcase the technology.
The Unseen plans on partnering with a cosmetics company to bring the dyes to market, but for the time being the project will fit right in with a fashion world that's in the midst of a color-saturated '90s throwback. In fact, Bowker used much of the same science behind
Hypercolor T-shirts, a favorite gimmick of the decade, to develop the dyes. The science of the hair dye boils down to a complex carbon-based molecule that undergoes a reversible reaction with itself. The scientists in Bowker's lab manipulated the chemical bonds in the dyes so that above certain temperatures one of the molecules forms is more stable than the other, causing a reaction to take place. The result is a molecule with a slightly different absorption of light, which makes it appear as a different color. Although the dye does contain some toxic ingredients—every hair dye does—the lab was careful to reduce them, and used polymers to ensure that the dye wouldn't irritate the scalp. The dye is also temporary, and comes out after a few washes.
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down here too... i wanted the rug to match the drapes.
