This Woman Is Turning Hair Into Works of Art

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We've already had imaginative hairstyles inspired by mermaids, galaxies, tapestries, and opal colors, leading one colorist to turn to actual pieces of art to inform her next wave of projects. Ursula Goff, who is based in Kansas, started a "Fine Art Series" using paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Claude Monet to inspire her work, Metro UK discovered.

Goff explains that she has a background in fine arts that she used to bring the paintings to life on her clients's heads. "I never planned on going to cosmetology school," she says. "As a student, I had been very strong in academics and the arts, particularly visual arts... I was accepted to an art institute after high school, and went for two quarters before I completely panicked about making a living and dropped out."

Goff says she eventually found her way to cosmetology school and is now combining her affinity for art with her current profession. "I tend to color hair much the same way I color a canvas, using the same sorts of color application techniques and identical color theory," she explains in the Instagram caption of her Edvard Munch-inspired hairstyle.

Goff has been posting the examples of her work alongside the painting, explaining a bit about the work and the colors used. It's an art history and a beauty lesson wrapped up in one.

So far, Goff has done hairstyles inspired by Van Gogh, O'Keefe, Monet, Johannes Vermeer, Andy Warhol, Edvard Munch, Botticelli, Gustav Klimt, and Roy Lichtenstein. You can find examples below and the entire series on her Instagram.

Fine Art Series: I am sharing Van Gogh's "Starry Night" again for those who missed it, and also because I didn't originally publish any background on it. This is only one piece of a rather large body of work completed the last two years of Van Gogh's life, and Van Gogh himself was not impressed with it, never having any inkling that it would go on to become one of the most recognized pieces of art in Western history. He began it shortly after being admitted to the St. Rémy de Provence asylum, and it's largely composed of the view from his room, with the addition of a fictional village. Earlier in life, he had been very religious and had set out to become a pastor, but could never pass his exams and he struggled with his mental health continuously. He later abandoned religion, but still seemed to be searching for meaning and purpose, speculating that "hope is in the stars" - referencing the desire to experience an afterlife, perhaps in the stars or in another dimension. This desire stemmed from the fact that he had never been particularly happy, and suffered from depression, hallucinations, delusions, psychotic breaks, and a general inability to function, often trying to live and work on his own, but always failing, which would result in admittance to an asylum or going back to live with family or friends. He ultimately took his own life at age 37, dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound that became infected. It could be argued that Van Gogh's mental illness fueled his creativity and made him a great artist, but even if that's true, his story is heartbreaking. It's hard for me to gauge if his enormous contributions to art were worth all the suffering this poor man endured. It's commonly believed, however, that suffering and art go hand in hand. What do you think? #art #fineart #vangogh #starrynight #starrynighthair #bluehair #yellowhair #postimpressionism #modernsalon #behindthechair

A photo posted by Ursula Goff (@uggoff) on Jan 30, 2016 at 8:11am PST

Fine Art Series: Andy Warhol may be the most iconic artist of the 20th century. He was fascinated with fame and Hollywood, and is most well known for his silk screen portraits of celebrities, although he also dabbled in other mediums, like film and music, and wrote two books and had his own magazine. His numerous renditions of Marilyn Monroe in various combinations of bright colors may be almost as famous as Marilyn herself, and his background as an illustrator shows in his "as-is" style, where he did not correct smudges or mistakes in his prints, believing that mistakes could be better than perfection. He was sometimes accused of being superficial in his art, but likely didn't mind such a designation, even admitting at one point that he loved how "plastic" Hollywood is, and that he even wished to be plastic himself. He blurred the line between art and consumerism, creating much of his art with the help of assistants on a production line, not unlike that of other commodities, and even named his studio "The Factory". What do you guys think - is it art if it's still mass produced and filled with "mistakes"? Or do the mistakes contribute to the uniqueness of each piece enough that they all qualify as "real" art? Is a print of a Campbell's soup can art? Is art defined by the skill or time involved, or by the image itself, or both? These are some of the sorts the questions that Warhol's work generated, and they are still relevant today. #Warhol #popart #marilynmonroe #silkscreen #screenprint #art #artist #pinkhair #yellowhair #specialeffects #behindthechair #modernsalon

A photo posted by Ursula Goff (@uggoff) on Jan 22, 2016 at 10:42am PST

Fine Art Series: This is one of many water lilies paintings that Claude Monet painted. Monet is the most famous of the Impressionist artists, who sought to focus on light and movement, often at the expense of form. Initially not well received, the term "Impressionism" was borrowed from a derogatory review by an art critic. However, it ultimately created the inertia that moved art into the modern period, freeing up a multitude of future artists to use freer and looser styles. Monet himself, however, struggled to internalize the influence of his work, battling depression and feelings of failure his entire life, destroying as many as 500 hundred of his own paintings, and even attempting suicide at one point. This goes to illustrate that no matter our feelings about ourselves, we can still have an enormous ongoing influence in the world; perhaps in that sense, there is no such thing as failure. #art #painting #Impressionism #Monet #impressionists #bluehair #greenhair #minthair #behindthechair #modernsalon

A photo posted by Ursula Goff (@uggoff) on Jan 26, 2016 at 7:14pm PST

I often get asked where I went to hair school, and what sort of cosmetology education background I have. The answer is probably disappointing for most people - I went to a community college Cosmo program and have almost no other training outside of that. However, I have done art since I was 5, first developing hand skills as a sketcher, and then expanding those skills into color by working with acrylics, tempera, and especially water colors. I tend to color hair much the same way I color a canvas, using the same sorts of color application techniques and identical color theory. So in honor of my art background being so useful, I thought I'd do a Fine Art series, similar in concept to the Starry Night/hair presentation I recently did. Today, I'm sharing the work of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. His work tends to fall under the Symbolism category, and this is his most well known painting, "The Scream", which has a bit of an unusual color palette, which I think contributes to the emotional discord of the image. I tend to very strongly agree with Munch's art philosophy: "I do not believe in the art which is not the compulsive result of Man's urge to open his heart." Many things I make simply because they are pretty, but my favorite pieces force themselves out of me in surges of emotional energy. Without art, I think I'd be far more dysfunctional, as I would struggle to express myself in other ways. @asset35 #painting #symbolism #edvardmunch #thescream #rainbowhair #mermaidhair #unicornhair #orangehair #bluehair #joico #specialeffects #pravana #behindthechair

A photo posted by Ursula Goff (@uggoff) on Jan 20, 2016 at 8:48am PST