People · 6 min read
Behind the Chair: Amara
12 July 2026
Our Creative Director on editorial work, coming home to Colombo and why she spends the first ten minutes just looking.
Amara Silva did not set out to open a salon. She set out to cut hair for magazines, and for ten years she did, moving between shoots in London and shows in Colombo. What changed was a growing sense that the most interesting hair was not on set at all.
'Editorial teaches you to see,' she says. 'But nobody lives in an editorial. The real skill is taking that eye and using it on someone who has to get up on Monday and go to work.' Velora was built as a place where that translation could happen.
Her appointments start slowly. Ten minutes of conversation, sometimes more, before scissors are picked up. 'If I understand how you talk, how you move, what you do with your hands, I already know what the cut needs to be.'