The True Story of Being a Male Hair Model: Redken Faces Naleye Junior and Alexander Dominguez "Tell All

Wednesday, June 03, 2015,0 Comments

Naleye Junior

For male models, a beauty contract is an elusive and lucrative career goal. The gender gap may be closing in the women-dominated beauty business, but the practice of selling luxury grooming products to men is still in its infancy. As a result, fewer male models score high-powered—and high-paying—beauty campaigns, but when they do, the results are often impressive. Such is the case with Redken’s latest spokesmen, Naleye Junior and Alexander Dominguez, two rising stars with the kind of luxurious locks that would make even Gisele jealous. We caught up with the stars of the campaign to talk about keeping their coifs photo-ready and life before hair modeling.

What was it like working on the campaign for Redken?

NALEYE JUNIOR: It was really cool. We first had a day of prepping, so we all went to a salon on Broadway. All these people from Redken from all around the world came, including a few hairdressers. They were deciding what would kind of look best for my hair, and they just trimmed it a bit. My hairdresser’s name was Yannick. He did most of my hair, and then five other people came and looked, and we shot a portrait. That was that day. The next day we all met up at the studio. Certain people were filming with GoPros, one room they were shooting personality videos for the commercial, and in the center of the studio they were shooting images. So everywhere, everyone was busy.

ALEXANDER DOMINGUEZ: It was definitely new and it was really fun because we were there all day, but it seemed like it was only a couple of hours. We were just running around, talking to everybody…it didn’t even seem like work. I enjoyed it so much.

Alexander Dominguez

Alex, did you have long hair before you started modeling, when you worked in finance?

AD: Yeah, I did, but I had to keep it in a bun that was pulling my forehead and tightening my skin. They let it slide for a little bit—of course, at the end, they started saying, “It’s getting too long.” It’s actually a funny story: I started off with a shaved head. I was in school and I got a haircut by this local guy that I’d never went to before, and he upset me, so I just told him to shave it off. And for the remainder of my time in school, I never cut it. I just had to wear a hat for the awkward phases.

Is your hair something that you are fussy about?

NJ: With my hair, the less you do with it, the better it is. A lot of times you go to shoots, sit down, and think, Just a little water would be fine, and a spray of something, but not a lot. Then the stylists are opening all these little pots of things, putting in wax—my hair looks flat in five minutes and they have to adjust it all the time. Now I tell them, actually, the less, the better, because I know my hair. At Redken they knew exactly what to do.

AD: As of right now, I just try to keep it minimal—just do hair lotion to keep it really silky and moist. That’s how I maintain it. And I wash it when it gets too gnarly. I do actually use Redken, and I’ve used Redken in the past, so that made me happy to work with them. Even when I was small and had, like, a comb-over, I was still using the Redken lotion and styling gel.

What do you like most about being a model for Redken?

NJ: I like getting to do  shoots  with interesting concepts or something that’s really out of my comfort zone, something where I channel a different person. It’s always best when you’re able to do things that are a little bit different and the concept is strong. I like when I come on the set and the photographer says, “This is our mood board, this is our story.”

AD: I feel truly blessed just to be here and experience this great city and work with these great guys. I was a financial consultant, so to model is a complete 180. I love that everyone up here in New York is so motivated, and that everyone is trying to make it. I feel that energy, and it motivates me even more.