Written by Helene Ravlich on her blog  www.mshelene.com Thursday April 15 2010.

As well as being a bloody great guy, Ryder salon owner Greg Murrell is one hell of a talented hair stylist both in the salon, behind the scenes and on the runway. He has had a long-standing role as one of the key creatives in the collaborative process that goes into producing the runway shows and campaigns for my favourite local label Zambesi for many years now, so I sat him down and chatted about working with such an iconic name.

How long have you been working with Zambesi now?
The collaboration has been going for 13 years now. In that time i have been the hair director for all of their fashion week shows in Auckland, London and Sydney, their advertising campaigns and the many other events that they have been involved in.

Can you remember what the first ever hair brief you received was?
The first thing that I ever did for them was a show for their customers in their Vulcan Lane store. The look had a number of small plaits that we then wrapped around the head. I remember being very nervous but the hair ended up looking great!

Is there one aesthetic that has remained constant over that time?
Liz (Findlay, Zambesi co-founder and designer) definitely likes to have an element of long hair around the neck. That has been fairly constant. She also likes height at the crown. We have probably explored many ways of fitting both of those elements into the look. One thing I love about working with Liz is that she is not interested in hair that is “on-trend”. As soon as something becomes too fashionable or obvious she will want to head in the opposite direction. Quite often we have gone for a look that is almost opposite to the aesthetic of the previous season.

Do you think of a particular muse or reference when creating hair for Zambesi?
Well I think that the Zambesi woman is adventurous, individual, free-spirited and has an intellectual approach to fashion. The hair has never been street hair. There is usually a language involved with the hair, which helps to animate the collection. There is a merging of fashion, art and rock and roll culture that seems to suggest new ways of looking at ourselves. With some of the shows there has definitely been a particular muse in mind such as RAFW Spring/Summer 07 where we were channeling Liz’s Greek heritage and the model’s had wet hair like they had just come out of the water in the Greek Islands. They then smashed plates at the end of the show.

RYDER ZAMBESI FASHION WK 09 - NZ from Greg Murrell on Vimeo.

A Backstage Film focusing on hair and makeup at the Zambesi Show made for Ryder by Spoon TV. Includes interviews with designers Liz Findlay and Dayne Johnston. 
Hair Director Greg Murrell @ Ryder for Kms California, Makeup Director Amber D for M.A.C

By Catherine Smith, The New Zealand Herald, September 23 2009

Photo by Nicole Saunders

One day I’ll be a Zambesi person, spending my winters stomping about bleak moors, reading Jack Kerouac, going to my friends’ installations in groovy warehouses in the back of Grey Lynn. Cool, dark, and very very clever.

Hair

When you’ve worked with the Zambesi guys for over twelve years, as Greg Murrell from Ryder Salon has done, you’re bound to completely get their aesthetic. And when the brief is super-straight hair, not hanging about the girls’ faces, you don’t merely comb the hair back.

You do something clever and Zambesi-like and totally sharp: sleek back the hair and stitch the hair into the nape of the neck (yes, actual needles and threads and a smocking-type weave – don’t even think how you’ll undo that at the end of the night) to create the cleanest, most sculptural look we’d seen all day.

The crown hair is pulled back, flattened and twisted so there is nothing coming forward, but still a little movement to the front (the reason why became apparent when the models were projected on mega-sized screens as a back drop to the stage).

The boys’ hair was to look “grooved”, like someone had run their fingers through their soft, pretty locks (if only we’d had the chance).

Makeup

Amber D’s M.A.C team also knows their Zambesi ropes, going for simple, simple makeup: a light base skin with Studio Sculpt, one loose black shadow under the eye and some soft highlights on skin and eyebrow in nude cream, a little of the same on the lips.

That’s all – well, that plus a clear casting decision to find girls with an Eastern European, slightly dark-but-cheekboney look. And boys who were even more beautiful than the girls, in a broody Heathcliff-y way.

Take home tips

You may not have an embroiderer on hand to stitch your locks to your head, but you can think sleek, pulled-back bottom hair, with a twisted bun or ponytail on top.

Work on your cheekbones and do not do the Kiwi-girl dangling hair in front of your face thing.