With over 40 years of experience, Lesley Stitt, owner of Power Cuts, has been appointed OSMO Global Educator.

Lesley’s passion for hair started at a very young age – as a child she would paint her doll’s hair with boot polish!

Once Lesley carved out her career within hairdressing, she began to move into education. Lesley wanted to share her own struggles she had overcome in understanding all the technicalities of applying hair colour.

Lesley was drawn to working with OSMO not only through a genuine love of the quality and variation of their product ranges but also the brand’s ability to listen to their brand experts and customers, using their feedback to channel new product development and launches.

Lesley comments: “I’m absolutely thrilled and excited to be part of the OSMO team, to me it feels like family. I’ve never come across such loyal, talented and passionate people – I’m forever feeling like a proud mum!”

Following Government being dissolved last November, preceeding the General Election, all APPGs (All Party Parliamentary Groups) were dissolved as well. Now with the new Government being formed, the Hair and Barber Council and BABTAC attended the Palace of Westminster last Wednesday 15th January, where their industry APPG has been reinstated as an official All Party Parliamentary Group.

Following a formal AGM, MPs cross party voted to reinstate the group where John McNally MP and Christina Rees MP were voted in as Co-Chairs. Once the AGM affairs were completed, the council discussed the platform and main strategy for the Hair and Barber Council and BABTAC, was to fast track their campaign to have their current voluntary Act of Parliament amended to mandatory, whilst adding ‘Beauty’ into the body of the Act.

With the AGM completed, there followed a presentation from Tom Chapman and Dan Davies from The Lions Barber Collective on what their charity is doing to support mental health awareness, loneliness and suicide prevention in the barber industry. It was a fascinating presentation, totally supported by the MPs that attended, with many offers of support resulting from the amazing work the Lions are doing for the industry.

Global grooming competition in search for the next hairstyling star begins.

Happy New Year folks! It’s here, the first 2020 edition of BarberEVO UK & Ireland!

BeautyPro are ending the year on a high with two exciting bits of news.

On the 5th December, BeautyPRO were honoured to win SME Business of The Year at the Sussex Business Awards. 

This award reaffirms BeautyPro’s position within the market place as a leading sheet mask brand, with a key focus on innovation and creating result driven products that resonate with their consumers.

The second piece of news is that this year BeautyPro have decided to support those less fortunate than themselves by donating to the homeless charity ‘Crisis’ instead of corporate cards and gifts. Their donation to Crisis this year will provide 70 people with food, warmth, company and support this Christmas.

In 2020, BARBER PRO is teaming up with cancer support charity Look Good Feel Better to curate a limited-edition gift set, containing a selection of their award-winning BARBER PRO sheet masks.

Look Good Feel Better run confidence Workshops providing attendees with valuable skills and techniques to better manage the side effects of cancer treatment, using appropriate products to care for their skin and help promote wellbeing during all stages of treatment.

The Workshops provide women, men and young adults going through treatment a welcoming and relaxed environment where they can openly discuss their experiences and challenges.

The gift set contains a collection of sheet masks for face and eyes that are enriched with powerful ingredients offering anti-ageing benefits.

1 x BARBER PRO CBD Oil Mask
1 x BARBER PRO Post Shave Cooling Mask
2 x BARBER PRO Under Eye Mask

For every sale of this gift set, BARBER PRO will donate 10% of the RRP (£1.50) to Look Good Feel Better. Their goal is to raise £30,000 for the charity by the end of 2020.

The limited-edition box will officially launch in January 2020 and will be supported with a full 360 marketing plan to raise as much awareness and money for the charity. The gift set will be available from all leading wholesalers and from www.beautypro.com/trade

BARBEROLOGY, the award-winning Midlands-based barber group, has unveiled a revamped and extended interior to its first-born barbershop, launched in 2015. The group, which boasts two experiential barbershops in Birmingham, re-opened its freshly transformed Jewellery Quarter salon in November 2019, following both an extension and extensive renovation. 

The barbershop now boasts a vast 1,700 square foot of space, as well as an attention-grabbing décor rich with original building features sympathetic to the heritage of both the building and location. 

The original building, and the location of the barbershop – Birmingham’s fashionable and historical Jewellery Quarter – provided a rich source of design inspiration in the early stages of the renovation work. The foundations of the salon space have been stripped back to reveal the building’s bold, original features, including exposed brickwork, cool copper piping and visible ceiling beams, and it’s these traditional features – together with tan brown metro tiling on the walls, monochrome mosaic floor tiling and stainless steel backwash basins – that lend the salon the exact industrial element and the precise retro feel that Adam was keen to create.

Traditional Takara Belmont barbershop chairs, in maroon leather, exude a Peaky Blinders’ vibe and complete the barbershop’s design nod to the 1920s – an intentional and clever move, considering it’s the era famously associated with the establishment of the barbershop scene. 

As Barberology Founder and Director, Adam Gore, explains: “When I set about designing the look and feel of Barberology’s revamped Jewellery Quarter location, I wanted to create a place where clients could come and relax. In fact, more than that, I wanted every client to feel like they’d stepped inside their favourite pub, and that’s exactly what I feel we have achieved. We wanted an environment where all the senses come alive, which has been achieved through the devil in the detail within everything from the design and décor to the music, fragrance and artwork. I feel with this interior we have stamped our true vision into Barberology, which will allow us to take the business into a new era in style.”

Groomsman Barbers, a new barbershop in Eastbourne, is proud to have received the Autism Friendly award; one of less than 70 award-holders in England and the only awarded barbershop in the United Kingdom! 

The barber shop, owned and run by accredited British Master Barber Tobias Wardleworth, was designed with care for the community in mind.  Tobias’ wife, Kate, has spent many years teaching in schools that care for those with various special educational needs so when Tobias opened his new shop on the corner of Cavendish Place and Seaside Road, they incorporated ideas into their design to cater for everyone.

“We know that letting someone into your personal space can be very traumatic for some, let alone with the sensory triggers of clipper sounds or scissors snipping so close. We wanted to offer a location that can be completely turned over to the needs of a client or family,” says Kate.

Appointments are bookable, so that the entire shop lighting, music and other aspects can be tailored to each person. 

Tobias explains “This also means that parents and carers aren’t going to worry that a queue of people are going to be watching and waiting.” 

Groomsman Barbers is also Dementia Friendly and aim to help every person enjoy the experience of personal grooming. 

Bookings can be made via the Booksy app or at GroomsmanBarbers.co.uk 

Two barbers will stage a 24-hour haircut marathon in Rutherglen this month as a show of support for a teenage customer.

Jordan Rae and fellow barber David Murray will set a town record by giving gents’ haircuts all day and all night at Slicks Barbershop on Duke’s Road.

The special event was organised to raise money for Beatson Cancer Charity after they learned that regular customer Jack Flexney, 17, was diagnosed.

The barbers will welcome clients to the shop throughout the 24 hours, asking for donations to Beatson instead of payment.

The 24-hour marathon begins at 9am on Monday November 18, finishing at 9am the following morning.

Leicester entrepreneur Barrie Stephen is expanding his business portfolio in a partnership with internationally renowned barber Sid Sottung.

The collaboration between the city’s most decorated hairdresser and American born barbering industry icon, will form the men’s grooming destination, ‘Sid Sottung Barber Shop’, and will bring world-class barbering to Leicester. The new concept will open in December.

Barrie Stephen says: “Sid Sottung is already an integral part of Barrie Stephen Hair’s professionalism and growth. Over the last four years Sid has trained up all our Barbers Lounge stylists, helping us skill up and provide amazing male grooming. I am so excited to be partnering with such an internationally recognised expert to bring world-class barbering to the heart of Leicester.

“Bringing so many amazing hair stylists under one roof is a response to the demand for more top stylists at our King Street salon. This marker driven merger between our two styling arms, BStyled and Barrie Stephen Hair, will make space for our new concept that also meets market forces for barbering.

“We are consolidating and bringing all our BStyled customers into the King Street salon, so that the new Sottung Barber Shop venture can really fly and have space to flourish.”

On the collaboration, Sid Sottung says: “Both Barrie and I have the same energy and drive to make things happen. We share the same goal of outputting high-quality hairdressing. Our new concept will combine all of the excellence of men’s barbering, attention to detail styling, traditional wet shaving and beard design with great attitude. Men can come and feel like a man without all the macho vibes – it’ll be comfortable yet creative.”

Sottung Barber Shop will open in December with a new team of five barbers employed from Leicestershire. All BStyled staff remain at Barrie Stephen Hair across the salon portfolio.