@hairbydivinity Splashes Color Into Denver
Divinity Ray, better known as @hairbydivinity, is an artist. More specifically, Divinity is a hair artist who incorporates vivid, larger-than-life color into her styling.
Every new client that walks through the door and sits in her salon chair is a blank canvas. Divinity takes the client’s desires and expectations and blends them into her own vision. No two people leave her chair with the same style. Each follicle is met with a new stroke of personalization catered to the individual’s needs. She’d hate for a client to walk out of the Moon House Salon with a copied look.
“A girl can sit in my chair with long, brown hair and leave with a short, purple bob,” Divinity said. “I do these crazy transformations all the time and it really keeps it interesting for me. I’m always creating art and helping bring out each person’s inner diva.”
Divinity’s traditional-style tattoos peeking out from the sleeve of her shirt, and short hair mirror her natural love for art and creativity. Although she has only been doing hair for a year, she has always been involved in the arts.
Colorado-born Divinity was raised by the Pacific Ocean. At an early age, she got involved in ballet dancing. Throughout her career as a dancer, she was navigating the backstage chaos, assisting with ballet buns and makeup. Her devotion to dance brought the opportunity for Divinity to travel to a larger professional dance setting — New York City. But she wanted to stay close to her family in Colorado, so she decided to change career paths.
After cutting ties with the beloved dance scene at 21, Divinity got into beauty school at Paul Mitchell, where she graduated with honors and a full clientele.
“That’s hard because people usually hit the beauty school for cheaper haircuts, but I made such an impact on the people that they followed me despite the increase in price,” she said.
During her time in school, Divinity worked her way to dying her name all over Denver in bright colors. She’d spend her days in class mixing new and eccentric ideas in her head, rather than paying attention to the basics she had already mastered. She’d visit professionals on her lunch break, making connections that would find their way back into her career.
She’d offer to do people’s hair at stores after snatching the boxed coloring kit out of her future client’s hands at checkout and replacing it with her business card.
Social media was also a huge asset that Divinity often used to attract new clients or the attention of industry moguls.
Divinity is hungry and continually staining her hands with adherence because she has a perfect portrait of what she wants.
“I want to build a brand,” she said. “I want to put my name out there so that people know me by my brand and not by what my girlfriend calls me. So far, it’s been a success. I’ll have people come up and say, ‘Hey, you’re hairbydivinity.’”
Before her graduation in June of 2016, Divinity competed in Denver Unique Week of Fashion, winning first place in three of the five categories she entered.
Denver Unique Week of Fashion, beginning April 2nd, invited her to return this year, not as a competitor but as a consultant to the designers and a judge of the second annual stylist competition.
Divinity’s inspirations come from different forms of art. Vincent Van Gogh galvanized her to fabricate different looks of color with the same pallet.
“He’s one of those artist who can use the same color pallet for five different paintings and make them look completely different, and that’s how I feel I do my color.”
When looking at Divinity’s fashion models, anyone can see the constant reference to the Pacific Ocean. Divinity has a natural love for the ocean, which is displayed in her work of layering beach waves and utilizing the vibrant colored hair often associated with mermaids. Throughout creating her own work, she strives for it to be recognized for its own personalized looks.
Divinity’s clients at times are welcoming to let her free spirit roam throughout their head and do not offer any wishful look ideas. She wishes to make whoever sits in her chair feel like a friend, rather than just a client.
She’s also no stranger to working with brides on their wedding days. Every bride has a disposition that they want to reflect for their special day, but Pinterest photos are usually a go-to for an upcoming bride. Divinity does not create a carbon copy of past bridal hair-do’s done for others. Instead, Divinity will play off a wishful design that is then personalized and still manages to meet the inclination of the bride.
Being queer, Divinity wants her name to be known as a queer hairstylist because she wants people of all orientations and gender identities to know that they can feel comfortable sitting her chair.
“Come as you are, sit in my chair, feel pampered, talk about your ex’s with me,” Divinity said. “Let’s make some art together.”
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