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TAKARA BELMONT INTRODUCES THE COFF STYLING CHAIR

Every hairdressing service should be warm and inviting for the client and ergonomically perfected for the stylist, and both of these essential attributes are perfectly embodied in the NEW Coff styling chair by Takara Belmont.

With a slimmer backrest, that lends itself perfectly to cutting longer hair, 360˚ lockable rotation delivered via three base options and removable seat cushions making it easy to clean, the Coff is fashioned around the needs and demands of every stylist. For the client, the Coff is extremely comfortable with a deep cushioned seat and padded armrests ensuring supreme comfort and luxury that is felt in every salon visit.

With performance reliability and durability assured, the Coff delivers consistently high standards of comfort and service whilst capturing the essence of modern hairdressing that can be configured to complement any interior design from a wide range of upholstery colours.

For more information, contact Takara Belmont on 0207 515 0333 email hairdressing@takara.co.uk or visit the contact page at www.takarahairdressing.co.uk

Prices: £1200.00-£1380.00 + vat

BabylissPro Announce Team for CT Barber Expo!

BabylissPro have pulled together a star-studded team for this year’s Connecticut Barber Expo, some would say their biggest and best to date!

For anyone who is unfamiliar, Connecticut Barber Expo is a two-day event that brings some of the biggest names in the barbering and hairdressing industry together for trade-shows, education, hair competitions and so much more.

The event this year is held from August 14th-16th, and you can find out more about this incredible and career-changing opportunity here, and receive updates via their Instagram, @connecticutbarberexpo.

BabylissPro have curated a team so perfect for their booth, we cannot wait to share the undeniable supergroup they have formed!

We have:

  • Rob The Original – Babyliss legend (@robtheoriginal)
  • Sofie Pok – Babyliss pro and STMNT Grooming Educator (staygold31)
  • Joshua Hawkins – BabylissPro Educator (@thehawkvision_)
  • Patty Regan – NFL Barber and BarberEVO cover star (@patty_cuts)
  • Carlos Estrelaa – Babyliss Educator and NAHA Finalist (@los_cut_it)
  • Andy Mendoza – Babyliss Educator (@andyauthentic)
  • Vic Fontanez – Educator and YouTube king (@vicblends)

This year’s CT Barber Expo is going to be one for the books, make sure you don’t miss out and grab your tickets while you can – stop by the Babyliss booth and tell them we sent you too!

Let’s Ride!

Today starts our competition with our friends at BarbersRide.

In association with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, BarbersRide assist in raising funds for critically-ill children to help them and their loved ones make lasting memories, along with helping the child cope with the illness.

BarbersRide gives you full access to some of the industries finest barbers with six exclusive events across the United Kingdom, before hitting the road again the very next day. All rides to date 2017-20 have attracted huge media attention, with video crews filming the entire ride for separate TV and film productions.

The list of dates and cities for 2021 are as follows:

  • 7th August: Cut Throat Pete’s Barber Store, Liverpool
  • 8th August: House Martin Barbers, Glasgow
  • 9th August: Stag&Buck, Fort William
  • 10th August: Hard Grind, Dundee
  • 11th August: Ultimate Grooming, Yarm
  • 12th August: Lords’ Barbering, Leeds

To celebrate their incredible and kind act, we have partnered with them for a very exciting give away!

Starting from today, Monday 28th of June until Friday 2nd of July, we are launching an Instagram competition. The prize package includes 2 full access BarbersRide tickets worth £360 and some very special goody bags!

For a chance to win:

  • Follow @BarbersRide on Instagram
  • Follow @BarberEVO on Instagram
  • Comment on either of our posts/reply to the stories why you should win and which city you would like to attend (can be done once a day)
  • Share to your story (can be done once a day)

Winner will be picked midnight on the 2nd of July 2021 (GMT), so good luck!

The Professional Barber World Series Launches in Less Than a Week!

Some of the biggest names in the barbering industry have all grouped together to bring one of the most exciting and most anticipated barbering competitions to date!

We have already done a small ‘meet the judges’ on our Instagram but in case you missed it, we have;

  • Sid Sottung – Global Andis Educator with over 30 years in the industry
  • Baldy – Owner of Baldy’s Barbers and Lead Global Educator for Andis
  • Simon May – Founder of Dapper Dan and owner of Wolf & Co Barbers
  • Brandi Lashay – Owner of The Barber Doll House LLC and Babyliss Barberology Platform Educator
  • Colin Petrie – Founder of Hard Grind and part of the American Crew Elite Team
  • Tyrik Jackson – CEO of Premier Barber Institute & Sharper Image Barbers

The prizes for the winner promise to be career changing; a cover shoot with us, BarberEVO, a DSLR camera to make sure your photos are always sharp as your cuts, £500 voucher from Barber Blades, a five-day training course from Sid Sottung himself, and £400 credit from Nearcut!

Submissions open July 1st 2021, so make sure you’re following @probarber_worldseries on Instagram for all the updates!

Turning goals into action!

Business consultant Phil Jackson from Build Your Salon, offers these tips for getting the most from your goals.

It used to be rare to encounter a salon owner who had any kind of plan for their business, much less tangible action plans to get those goals achieved. But not anymore. I guess we have had to get to grips with the business side of salons – the competitive market is too fierce, our finances too precarious to leave these things to chance. But it’s not all good news. As much as I welcome seeing owners taking their business goals seriously, that has brought a huge amount of overwhelm.

The danger is that we still don’t make the progress we need to for our businesses to thrive – not for want of planning, but for want of a meaningful way to implement those plans.

Some goals, particularly those well within our comfort zone and areas of expertise, are easy to plan. But of course, for exceptional results we need to set goals outside that comfort zone – and that means we don’t always know where to start.

Let me help you with a few questions which can get a sticky goal moving, reduce overwhelm and perhaps encourage you to set more goals that stretch your current abilities and

knowledge. In short, it’s OK to set a goal that you don’t quite know how to achieve yet. In fact, I would encourage it. But these prompts might help you get started or unstuck when you do.

Get clear on the WHY

It’s perfectly natural for your enthusiasm to wane a little over time. That’s when you need to get back to why this goal is important to you. Spend some time journaling what your life or business will look like if you hit that goal. Will you have more time?

Money? Freedom? Self-respect? What will your friends or family say about you? How will things improve for you? The more emotionally bought into this picture you are, the more effective the exercise will be, so focus on how you will feel once this goal is achieved.

The second half of this exercise is less pleasant. Spend some time exploring what happens if you don’t achieve the goal you have set yourself? Is it simply a case of ‘nothing changes’, or are the repercussions more serious? What is the impact on your longer-term future? How does failing affect your family? Your finances? Your self-esteem? Again, really connect with

the emotion behind this exercise. It may not feel pleasant, but turning back to these thoughts will help you keep going if your commitment or enthusiasm starts to wane.

Three questions to get you unstuck

Occasionally when we’re setting a goal which is outside our comfort zone (and after all, that’s where the magic is, right?) it can be hard to get started. We get past the initial

excitement of stretching ourselves and succeeding in a way we haven’t before, then hit a wall because it’s not immediately clear what we need to do next – how we can break that big, exciting goal into tangible action.

Asking these three simple questions in relation to your goal have helped me and my coaching clients immensely over the years:

First, what do I need to START in order to hit this goal?

Are there new habits I need to start? Research I need to do? People I need to reach out to? Skills I need to master?

What do I need to STOP in order to hit this goal?

Are there patterns I keep repeating that aren’t helping me here? Relationships I need to end or contain? Spending I need to curtail or projects or work I need to let go of?

What do I need to CONTINUE in order to hit this goal?

What am I currently doing that is helpful? What has worked for me so far that can help me achieve even more? What methods and strategies are still working for me? So any time you’re feeling like you don’t know what to do next, think, Stop, Start and Continue to clarify your next move.

A mid-goal sanity check

With goals you are trying to turn into habits, or where bigger shifts in your routines and behaviours are needed, it can be handy to stop and take stock of what you’re doing in the moment. Try to get into the habit of bringing your attention to what you’re doing in the moment at regular intervals throughout the day. You can even set a reminder or alarm on your watch or phone to make checking in a part of your daily routine. For example, let’s imagine you have a goal to lose a little excess weight. When your alarm tells you it’s time to check in, ask the following question:

Is what I’m doing right now bringing me closer to or further from my goal.

If you check in and you’re sat binge-watching Netflix or opening a second bottle of wine, stop and replace the behaviour with something that is more helpful. Take the dog for a quick walk, fix yourself something healthy to eat or switch off the TV and take 10- minutes to meditate instead. If, of course, you catch yourself in the moment doing something that will help you towards your goals, congratulate yourself and wear a cheeky, smug grin. You’re doing great!

Tibetan Refugee Wins Scholarship for Barbering

Tenzin Khenrab has been awarded a scholarship of $1,000 to help him finish his course in barbering and be one step closer to achieving his dreams.

This award was given for UN World Refugee Week and will help Khenrab the opportunity to complete his course in barbering at the Canberra Institute of Technology.

He and his family fled Tibet and settled in India, where he was born and worked as a barber without the qualifications. He is now well on his way to rectifying that, being one of 49 refugees and asylum seekers in Canberra to receive this grant to help cover the cost of tuition.

Khenrab was one of 6 students that Canberra Institute of Technology awarded this grant to, students who showed a commitment and excellence to the education. His Teacher, Tegan Riley, even went on to say “Tenzin goes out of his way to help other students and it’s a pleasure to have him in the classroom“.

He works as a barber part-time currently to help him pay for his education but he said “I hope to complete my course within a year and eventually run my own salon”.

Wahl Professional Hires Stephanie Polansky as New Global Director of Education

Wahl Professional has named Stephanie Polansky as its new Global Director of Education. Polansky brings 27 years of industry experience, beginning as a stylist to most recently serving as Global Director of Education and Shows for Sexy Hair while heading two sister brands, STMNT and MyDentity, under the Henkel umbrella. Prior to that, she served as Head of Global Education Innovation at KMS and managed education development for Pureology and Redken. 

In her new role, Polansky will work closely with Wahl’s education leads around the world to create consistent, sharable assets via a global knowledge hub, strengthening the company’s position as a global brand. She will drive content creation including product knowledge on all of the Wahl tools in each country’s native language, as well as create virtual academies featuring Wahl educators in countries around the world.

What drew me to the brand is the fact that they are family owned and have an entrepreneurial spirit. The Wahl brand itself is just so amazing, and to be a part of it is huge,” Polansky says. “Being able to help barbers and stylists become stronger at what they do is a big draw, as well as creating new content to help them better understand the Wahl tools. There is so much potential for education that can make them stronger.

Polansky’s background as a stylist combined with her experience in education management makes her ideally suited for the position, both in developing curriculum and teaching proper technique in using Wahl tools.

We are very excited to see how Stephanie will leverage all the education work Wahl performs around the world and funnel it all in a way to grow our overall brand, and flat-out teach the professional hair industry how to cut hair even better,” said Lance Wahl, Global Vice President of Professional Products for Wahl Professional.

APPG for Hairdressing, Barbering and Cosmetology Reconstituted on the 14 June

The All Party Parliamentary Group for Hairdressing, Barbering and Cosmetology was reconstituted at the AGM on the 14 June.

This APPG is the ONLY All Party Parliamentary Group representing the hairdressing and barbering sector and serves an important role in the industries access to Government in conjunction with the new Personal Care department at BEIS.

Joined by many MPs from all political parties, Christina Rees MP was voted in as Chair with the following MPs voted in as Vice Chairs;

  • John McNally MP
  • Catherine West MP
  • Ruth Jones MP
  • Caroline Nokes MP
  • Tonia Antoniazzi MP
  • Sir David Arness MP

In addition, Connect Communications was voted in as the group’s continuing secretariat and the Councils political PR organisation.

Great news for the sector knowing this APPG in Westminster is fully active with increased political support.

Hair & Barber Council Registrar, Keith Conniford, says: “Never before has the industry needed a stronger voice to Government more than now, and as we emerge from this pandemic, the continuance of our APPG at Westminster is critical to the future positioning of our industry in the political arena. To be wholly recognised as the professionals we are, this APPG will focus on the many needs and concerns of our sector, whilst continuing to fight for mandatory registration, and the Hair & Barber Council are proud to support and sponsor it.

“Just a Little Off the Top, and a Vaccine Please”

In a previous article we spoke of the unlikeliest pairings, vaccination centres for COVID and black-owned barber shops, were about to find their way together.

Well as the weeks went on, this action came into play and we now understand how this amazing idea can operate.

Chicago native Channel Coleman partnered with the City of Chicago to help her clients and neighbours in Englewood, which is a predominantly black neighbourhood in the town, with the lowest vaccination rate in the area.

To help fix this, they launched an ingenious incentive – cut for a jab.

This new project is taking place just weeks before the deadline of President Biden’s objective to make sure at least 70% of American adults had their first dose of the vaccination by Independence Day. And as Black Americans are lowest number of vaccinated people, in terms of racial and ethnic groups, this substantially helps bring healthcare to those have more barriers to get to it.

The shots just happened so fast. I think that’s what was kind of scaring people. And then you have people just having different reactions to it” says Coleman.

This incentive is aptly named “Vax and Relax” and allows anyone over the age of 12 to receive a haircut and tickets to the American theme park chain, Six Flags, in exchange for a shot of the Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

Many health experts have concluded that many people form disadvantaged areas with low-income families cannot afford to take time off work or travel to vaccination sites – and this opportunity allows people not only to receive the healthcare they are entitled to, but are also rewarded for it.

American Crew® Announces Thomas Mitchell as USA Winner as 2021 All-Star Challenge Competition Advances

American Crew™, the Official Supplier to Men™, has announced that Thomas Mitchell has been named as the U.S. Winner of the 2021 All-Star Challenge in the first-round of the brand’s highly-anticipated global grooming competition. Additionally, Ryan White has also been named as the Challenge’s first ever Student category winner.

Participants from all around the globe are encouraged to showcase their extraordinary skill and technique in creating original hair looks using American Crew products to embody both the timeless feel of the brand, but also something trendy and current – with both aspects perfectly capturing the brands essence.

Despite the many challenges the grooming community and salon industry faced during the global pandemic, these Professionals never cease to amaze us with their creativity and talent. We are honored to have given professionals an outlet where they could bring their originality and imagination during a challenging year,” said American Crew Founder, David Raccuglia. “These countries’ winners brought their A-game on creating fresh, elevated looks and I, along with the rest of the All-Star Challenge Global Committee have our work cut out for them as we move forward with selecting five global winners of the competition. We are also thrilled with the submissions that came through the Challenge’s new Student category and are proud to give upcoming professionals a platform to show their work and gain recognition.

As the All-Star Challenge progresses, the cut and style created by Thomas Mitchell will be submitted to the American Crew™ All-Star Challenge Global Committee for consideration, which consists of David Raccuglia, Founder of American Crew™, Paul Wilson, Global Artistic Director; Phoenix Thomson, Global Education Director; and Luke Munn, 2019-2020 Australian All Star Challenge Winner. The panel of extremely qualified judges will deliberate with the following criteria: Barbering: mastery of clipper skills, fading and shaving; High Texture: ability to display technical skills, shape, and control whilst working with highly textured hair; Length: excellence in cutting and styling hair with length while maintaining a masculine edge; Retro: ability to recreate a classic cut from the past, with technical excellence in cutting and styling; and Trend: ability to be creative and think ahead by producing a shape or style that could become a trend, the committee will name five top competitors as the 2021 Global All-Star Challenge Winners.

Along with receiving the fantastic prize of $5,000 reward, the winner will also receive an all expenses paid trip to Barcelona, Spain they will be whisked away in style to participate in an editorial shoot directed and shoot by hair and photography legend, David Raccuglia. The winner will be announced in June 2021. The Student category winner will receive $2,000 value in product and merchandise, as well as invaluable one-on-one training session with a seasoned American Crew All-Star Educator.