The retro MTV logo has found its way onto Marc Jacobs sweatshirts this season. Anya Hindmarch looked to Space Invaders for her Fall 2016 accessories collection. Zara even has a new line of Looney Tunes handbags and patched-up Wonder Woman jeans. It's safe to say our appetite for nostalgia has never been bigger. And now, one of our favorite '80s video game characters, Super Mario, is available as a hair color. Yes, hair color. Meet Super Mario pixel hair, a kind of dye art created by the group Xpresion Creativos out of Madrid, Spain.
When the model's hair is in motion or tousled, it just looks like she has multi-colored highlights placed in a peculiar location. But when her hair is laid flat and straight, two Mario figures—in their classic 1981 form—come into view. The masters behind the look, Xpresion Creativos, are a company dedicated purely R&D in hairdressing. They made a splash last year with the launch of their innovative pixelated hair color technique; applied in random blocks and shapes, it results in some crazy-graphic designs (check their Instagram feed for a better idea).
But Xpresion Creativos debuted their latest pixel creation, Mario, at a hair conference last week in Tokyo, Japan. The team said it took about a week's worth of work to bring our favorite video game character to life in hair-form, and they did it to "honor video game culture that framed our childhood" (check out the video to see the design in motion, below). They liken the technique to architecture or working with Adobe Photoshop layers—we think it's just totally awesome (to borrow a phrase from the appropriate decade).
