Electric London

It’s been a crazy few months, but we are almost ready to unveil our new flagship salon Electric London! All of the hard work is coming to fruition and I’m so excited to see all of the new faces at the salon from stylists to clients who will be visiting us at our new Marylebone venue. The shop fitters have done an amazing job and I’m looking forward to seeing you all in early January! We’re even bringing the Electric Retreat along with us to London so that the new clientele can enjoy a break from the hustle and bustle and join us for a tranquil treatment or two for some relaxation and pampering at what will be London’s hottest salon for the New Year!

A busy week @ Electric

I’ve been rushed off my feet this week in the salon making sure all of our lovely clients are looking gorgeous for the party season. We’ve been working on a lot of up-dos and bringing editorial looks that we’ve been creating for shoots back into the salon for that perfect party season finish. It’s great to be so hands on and helping all of these guys and girls get prepped and ready for the festive period. We even had the showbiz editor of The Daily Express in who’ll be showing off her Electric Look at all of the fab events she’s attending over the next couple of weeks!

The Fellowship Council

I’ve also been being kept on my toes with the Fellowship Council meeting held at the Goldwell Academy, always a top venue for industry meetings and a lovely excuse to meet up with other members to talk about what’s been going on within the industry. The State Registration is a hot topic at the moment and I’m urging all hairdressers to sign up. It’s a great cause and will hopefully help to prevent those recent stories in the press about chemical reactions giving us a bad name for the future! The State Registration is a small price pay ensuring that all hairdressers are officially licensed and we can get the Hairdressers Registration passed to make sure that only those with an NVQ are able to colour and cut hair legally – hey you even get a free issue of the exclusive ‘Hairdresser’ magazine. Go online and sign up at http://www.haircouncil.org.uk/pages/apply.html

The Clothes Show Live!

Up at 5am to head up to the NEC, Birmingham for the Clothes Show Live. I had the 9am slot booked for the Stop and Chop area with Your Hair Magazine and couldn’t wait to make-over the shoppers with our latest Electric trends ready for the New Year. I randomly selected a couple of willing models and created my fav Electric Textured Crops, which they just loved along with the audience. I was then whisked away to the Health & Beauty Stage where this time I decided to select a viewer from crowd and talk through the perfect party hair up style. There was a great buzz and energy during the event and I was joined by fellow celebrity hairdressers throughout the week such as Desmond Murray, Tara Smith, Tim Hartley and Charlie Le Mindu, who I hear was even shaving heads! The idea of the Stop & Chop stand was to transform the shoppers and give them the treat in having an award winning stylists revamping their look and it went down an absolute storm. But I have to say that the highlight of the day was getting home to watch my son’s school Nativity play, well done kids - it was a great show!

The Fellowship Lunch

The Fellowship luncheon is always one of my most rated calendar events of the year and boy this time the organisers did not disappoint. The day was even celebrated with a hilarious VT from the brilliant Vice President, Terry Calvert who sadly couldn’t be there to join us for The Dorchester’s finest – but certainly made his mark! Again to all the winners, a big congratulations and I just have to mention Sean Dawson, HOB who won the Fellowship Fashion Focus Image of the Year Award, his shot was just stunning. We all headed over to top Hawaiian nightspot Mahiki after the event where the Electric team were to be found sharing a tropical Treasure Chest in true Tiki style, we’ll definitely be heading back there again soon for another. Thanks to everyone who made the night a great success, and I hope to see you back there next year

YouTube

To find out what’s happening at Electric for 2010 check our latest viral @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEi-4QsyKwI . There is so much to look forward to and Electric are going to be bigger than ever with the bar set high. We’re even taking the brand down under to Australia for the Hair Expo. Watch out world, we have arrived!

Electric Sessions @ No.5

Without a doubt our best Electric Sessions to date! The entire team headed down to the stunning No.5 Cavendish Square in London – it really was the perfect venue to host our Sessions. The morning session included a talk from myself to inspire the team and thank them for all of their great work over the year, followed by a business talk from Julie Eldrett a top industry consultant who has vast experience and knowledge to ensure our clients are continually treated to the best service possible. After a few words from Alan Short, manager of our Reading Salon, on client liaison and how we can all work together to improve the customer experience the Art Team then kicked off the afternoon session by demonstrating their trends on stage for 2010 building up a great momentum for the coming year. The Electric Sessions are also a time to recongise my amazing team with the Electric Awards so massive congrats to all the winners and of course to the whole team for such a fantastic job this year - I’m so proud of the outstanding standard of work that has been produced both in salon and creatively, thanks so much guys and keep up the great work. Me and the Art Team then closed the Electric Sessions with the most stunning catwalk show ever - themed around ‘Vampires’, before moving downstairs to relax and unwind over a few festive drinks. Join us again for our 2010 Sessions which will also include our new London salon team, oh and look out for our next venture, Electric Coffee…

Nice to be in Nice

Hi all, so sorry I’ve not been in touch for a while but I’ve been jet setting about L’Oreal Professionnel. Huge thanks to the team for inviting me to fly out to Nice with them to shoot the H2010 Collection. I can’t say too much about the shoot yet, but it was such an exciting experience. Location shoots are a great chance to really show off your expertise and make working with hair a more natural experience as you really have to battle the elements! Luckily for us, it was gorgeous weather and we all got to style the hair outside in the fantastic sunshine, I’m so excited for you all to see the results so watch this space.

I-D Exposure Tour, Barcelona

I went over to Barcelona with some of the L’Oreal I-D Artists to catch the Angelo Seminara Show in the annual Exposure Tour, after completing all of our hard work on the L’Oreal 2010 shoot in Nice. Angelo is such an inspiration and real role model that young stylists and hairdressers in the industry should look up to. It was great to see his work at the show, and his techniques and ideas we’re fantastic!

Sussex Business Awards

We won! Electric salons had a top night at the Sussex Business Awards and came home with an award for Small Business of the Year – another award to the growing number Electric has! I work with such a brilliant team and it’s down to all of them that the business is so successful - the guys work so hard and give their all. Congratulations to all the deserved winners and nominees on the night too.

The Fellowship Awards

Watch this space… I was invited to judge The Fellowship Awards and wow, there’s some tough competition out there! The results won’t be announced until December’s Luncheon on the 7th (which sold out in just 2 hours!) but I can tell you that I was extremely impressed with the entries for the Consumer Image of the Year and Industry Image of The Year. Good luck to everyone who entered!

Electric Salon Photo Shoots

We spent the past couple of weekends shooting our bi-annual Electric Photo Shoot with everyone from the Reading and Brighton salons getting involved. It’s a great opportunity for everyone to get creative and really show off! I get everyone to create a mood board before hand and then talk over their inspirations to the group – its great practice for presentation skills. The team can then use their final images to enter our own Electric Session Awards or even industry awards so it’s important that the standard of model selected is very high. We probably got around 50 shots over the 4 days which is pretty impressive! When the London salon opens next month, it’ll be great to get the new team down to the Electric Studio in Brighton and get their creativity flowing too.

Sussex Business Awards

Good news – we’ve been nominated for 3 categories at this years Sussex Business Awards! This is the 21st anniversary of the awards and being held at The Grand Hotel, Brighton, so it’s a great one to be involved in. The organizers were in the salon to film me for the big one - Sussex Business Person of the Year but I’m also up for Entrepreneur of the Year and then Electric Brighton salon is up for the Small Business Award - so keep your fingers crossed for us. I’ll let you know how we get on next week…

Salon International

Last weekend the Electric Art Team and I headed down to Salon International at the ExCel London. Salon is such a huge event and I couldn’t believe the turnout, it was great to see so many students, manufacturers and hairdressers come together for the three day event. Salon is hosted in London every year and brings together so many of us from the hairdressing industry where we can watch presentations, check out what the big names in the industry are up to and find out about a whole host of brand new products and services coming into the fold.

I was heading up presentations on the Denman and Fellowship Stages over the weekend and it was such a fantastic chance to show you all what the Electric team have been up to and to create a selection of editorial looks for all of those who came to the Denman shows, we demonstrated different brush techniques to achieve two or three different looks out of one model.

There were hundreds of hairstyles being show cased by many different brands from the colour presentations at TIGI - accompanied by their bedhead bus banging out some real tunes, to the Wahl catwalk creating its usual interest and hive of activity (including raising money for charity in a traditional barber shop) plus it was great seeing the crowds around the HABB Stand waiting to get their signed copies of the new 2010 HABB Calendar with the likes of Paul Merritt and Errol Douglas as you’ve never seen them before!

Profiles Model Shoot

I was set a wonderful task last week that I couldn’t wait to share with you all! Profiles Modeling Agency saw our Electric advertising campaign and after having been blown away by our models look they got in touch regarding one of their stunning new faces, Kitty. When Kitty came into the salon we were wowed by her unique look and set to work straight away to re-create the classic Electric crop for her, (looks like this has become our signature style!). Kitty came into the Brighton salon with a mass of glossy long dark locks that we had been briefed to chop off– its fantastic when we get the chance to work on a project like this at the salon as it allows for total creative freedom on our side. I have to say her new look is gorgeous and really suits her face shape. I loved working on this project and think that creating bold new styles for models, or anyone for that matter, is something that stylists shouldn’t be afraid to go for. The Electric team and I are wishing Kitty all the best with her new look and hope that the bookings come flooding in for her!

The Hairdressing Awards Season

Wow, this week feels as if it’s been non stop with awards! Firstly we joined the guests at the British Hairdressing Business Awards to see Michael Van Clarke sweep the floor picking up 4 awards! I was nominated for Business Director of the Year for the first time following my launching of the electric salon group, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be this year – but there’s always next! The following night saw the Wella Professionals Trend Vision awards where Lindsay Grossman of hob and Zullu Holland’s Angelo Vallio’s win will see them representing the UK at the international final in Berlin next month – well done guys! After two big events on the hairdressing calendar,the last award night was the HAIR Magazine awards where I picked up a highly coveted award – Salon Stylist of the Year! It was a great night, with good friends, celebrities and a fair few Curator UK featured hairdressers attending and winning awards. It’s been a brilliant week with so many new and established stylists and salons being recognized all around the country for their creativity and business minds. It’s such a fantastic feeling to be given an award myself too and I’d like to say a big congratulations to all of the other winners and nominees from the week, it’s been great to see new talent coming through and the old pros still full of fresh ideas and creativity.

The Regaine Hair Loss Knowledge Centre

I have recently been asked to join the Regaine Hair Force as their hair expert for a new consumer campaign, The Hair Loss Knowledge Centre. This is such a great campaign to be a part of as hair loss is such an important aspect of the industry and affects so many people throughout the world. I was invited to take part in a filming of a new Hair Force Advice Panel, with experts from different industry sectors giving their advice and recommendations - it was fascinating to join Trichologist Marilyn Sherlock, Pharmacist Nicola Matlock, Dermatologist Dr Paul Farrant and Men’s Health journalist Jonathan Thompson and hear their perspectives on losing hair. We all gave interviews, mine about different ways to style thinning hair, and hope that all of our advice will help men suffering from the condition. With a few clever styling tips I know that those who catch the video will benefit, feeling confident with your hair means so much and I’ll be sure to pass on the information I’ve learned off the guys at the campaign to at the salon team too! Don’t forget to log onto http://www.regaine.co.uk/ in November to catch my film!

London Fashion Week SS 2010

I went to this season’s London Fashion Week with the Electric Art Team where I headed up the Orschel-Read show for L’Oreal Professionnel. The menswear collection was inspired by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and London’s multicultural eclectic youth so we worked with the designer’s inspiration and brought 7” bright green Mohicans and punk looks to the catwalk.

We had a fantastic time watching the show and it was great to see the Electric team drawing so much inspiration from the day. London Fashion Week was buzzing as usual - Vivienne Westwood show which was amazing; Vivienne always showcases the most stunning collections keeping true to her British routes, proving that the UK is still the world’s style capital. Before I go, did anyone catch the Charlie Le Mindu show? I can’t stop thinking about a future of pieces made out of bats and rats; Charlie is a mad talent and such a bright young star within the fashion world mixing his hair wigs with fashion and just bursting with creativity and ideas. Bring on February 2010!

‘Hidden Detail’ -5 Point Alliance Photo Shoot.

I met up last week with a few members of the 5 Point Alliance’s creative team to bring a new hair collection to life. If you’re not sure who they are, the Alliance are an industry body providing educators throughout the industry for shows, seminars and product launches etc. in all disciplines of hairdressing.

Everyone came down to Brighton and we shot in the Electric Studio – a real coup for us! The shoot included me, current British Hairdresser of the Year Akin Konizi, Debbie G, and Stephen Mackinder, we all met up to share ideas and inspirations, then shoot a collection. Keep your eye on the hairdressing publications for the collection as we are all so excited for everyone to see the images! We were all given creative freedom on the day and the theme I took for the models was ‘hidden detail’. I cut panels into the models hair to create a wearable, edgy chic look consisting of strong tailored connections for an ultra feminine crop.

It was great to work with the other members of the creative team, and I’m so proud of the work. I’m looking forward to sharing more with everyone reading this next time I work with the Alliance.

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