It’s just days before New York Fashion Week’s spring-summer 2026 season and the stakes are high. Editors are getting their schedules in order, models are running to castings, and backstage hair leads, like icon Lacy Redway, are busy updating their kits.
“I restock my hair kits with newness or replenish items like pins, combs, brushes, and my favorite products from TRESemmé’s A-list collection,” she tells ESSENCE. “This is the line we use backstage to create all those beautiful hairstyles you see,” she continues. Season to season, she’s known for leading the hair at shows like LaQuan Smith, Christian Siriano, and Prabal Gurung, which have spanned the gamut of aspirational looks. Think: knotted buns, trackside twists, and lived-in tresses.
“It’s a collaborative process, and as the hairstylist, I never lose sight of the fact that whatever I create should complement the outfits and not overpower them,” she says about the looks. This season, she predicts creative updos, short grunge cuts, and playful textures. But, “there’s a hair and makeup test that takes place days before a show, where the designer and the creative team get a chance to see if everything is cohesive or if some edits need to be done.”
While backstage is all about chatting with press, leading her team, and styling back-to-back models, the night before is dedicated to getting herself ready. “Because I’m wearing a protective style, I like to prep from the night before to allow the products to dry with my hair and have the best results,” she says. Specifically, she uses the TRESemme All-in-one Hair Style Primer on her braids before creating two pigtails that set overnight for gorgeous waves while at the show.
Besides that, skincare is the other part of her fashion week prep. Her lineup? Joanna Vargas Vitamin C Face Wash, Rejuvenating Antioxidant Serum, and the latest edition to her skincare routine, red light therapy with Current Body Skin’s LED Face Mask. Then, the morning of the show, “I usually am getting glammed up,” she says. “I do a lot of talking backstage, so it’s important for me to keep a neutral lip option,” like Fenty Beauty’s Gloss Bomb in “Hot Chocolit Heat”, to be exact, “on hand that will prevent lipstick on my teeth while talking.”
But, her day doesn’t really start until she arrives backstage. There, she starts by demoing the look approved at the hair test to her team, just in time for models to arrive at their hair stations for the look to be recreated. “As the lead, it is my job to make sure my vision is being executed so I spend some time making sure the other stylist can create the look,” Redway says. “I think it’s also important to observe and find the strength of all the team members so we can work efficiently.”
For the second season in a row, you can expect Redway to be creating wearable art for Christian Siriano, which often ends up trending, and Prabal Gurung, whose looks are easy to DIY. Once the looks are done, the dress rehearsal is where the hair team previews the looks in motion before making adjustments. “The responsibility of a hair lead consists of many moving parts,” she says. But, “seeing the final styles coming down the runway never gets old. It’s always so rewarding.”