Like hair industry professionals have come to expect, the exhibition floor at Hair Expo 2012 was abuzz with new brand news, products and demonstrations.
was back on the exhibition floor for the first time in three years, showcasing plenty of new developments. Goldwell’s director of education Rita Marcon says the brand is not only launching its new ammonia-free hair colour product Nectaya, but also its new colour campaign, Don’t Be A Victim”, which encourages consumers to head into the salon for professional colour.
Another brand with a focus on colour was , which is rebranding its Permanent Caring Color range from July, and in doing so, launching six new shades and all new support material, including an emotional colour chart. It differs from the technical colour chart because it allows the colourist to consult with the client on a more one-on-one level, demonstrating natural colours and base shades,” said Indola’s Alex Klung. The stand was branded with Indola’s new SMART campaign, which represents five key pillars of the brand: portfolio, innovation, inspiration, support and partnership. The inspiration pillar refers to our new street style collection, which features five new looks inspired by fashion bloggers globally,” Klung explained.
’s focus for the weekend was Copyright Colour, the brand’s new colour range, as well as flagship brands Bedhead and Catwalk. We’re also promoting our education and sharing with the world what we do as a brand,” said Jacqueline Newman, national colour educator for Australia and New Zealand.
Headlines Hairpieces was promoting its collaboration with hairdresser Sharon Blain on new product range, the Sharon Blain Designer Pony Layer hairpiece. We just want to let people know we’re here,” said Headlines founder Barbara Hatten. We’re on Sharon’s app, which is worldwide, and we’re going worldwide with our products as well, so it’s important people know who we are.” Barbara and Sharon say they recognised a gap in the market and worked together on creating layered ponytail pieces made from real hair, created in Australia by Barbara. That way, clients can have an input in what we can make for them,” reiterates Hatten.
Headlines hairpieces.
Bringing attention to ’s stand was the brand’s charismatic creative and technical director Neil Cleminson, who demonstrated the benefits of bhave’s new Rescue treatment, which was launching over the weekend. Harnessing the power of functional keratin, Cleminson says the treatment changes the nature of the hair. It turns damaged hair around and restores it to almost its natural state,” Cleminson explained. As a repair treatment, it doesn’t rely on silicones or any of the other things a lot of treatments rely on. While Rescue is in the hair, hair doesn’t feel soft and silky, and we don’t want it to – when the hair feels like that, it means the treatment has coated the hair – we want the cuticles to stay open so the keratin can go deep into the hair and repair it properly.”
Professional salon brand Matrix used Hair Expo to launch it’s new range, the affordable Total Results line. Product manager Matt Ngan says that Total Results is the perfect entry-level professional product. The price point is $15 for a shampoo and conditioner which is fantastic,” says Ngan. It actually works out to be priced cheaper per mil than the number one semi-professional range in the market.” Sold through current Matrix distributors, Total Results has lines for different types of hair – Repair, Colour, Sleek, Moisture, Curl and Amplify.
Another stand receiving plenty of foot traffic was , a popular one with consumers and salon owners alike. We’re targeting salons mainly, but it’s fantastic to have consumers here as well,” says the brand’s Sophie Pownall. We’re here to educate people about the broader range, outside of Moroccanoil’s hero treatment.” To help do so, Moroccanoil’s Australian and New Zealand educator Jesse Boag, and international artistic director Antonio Corral Calero were on hand to talk with consumers directly.
Hair Expo sponsor maintained a big exhibition space at the event, which showcased new and existing lines in addition to housing a pop-up coffee shop. It’s our fourth year sponsoring the Awards and also being present on the trade shop floor,” said Janet Thomas, Senior Brand Manager at Henkel Australia. This year we’re very much focusing on Essential Looks collection and we also have international session stylist Tyler Johnson here who drives our Essential Looks collection internationally.”
In terms of new launches, Schwarzkopf Professional introduced , it’s new men’s range for colour care and styling, BC Color Freeze from it’s core colour care range which includes liquid silk extract, and the new BC Oil Miracle care line which will launch soon. Thomas points out that one of Schwarzkopf Professional’s core brands is IGORA Royal, and that it always that has a presence on the stand as this is the most important part of what they do as a colour company.” Hair Expo was also used to showcase the new IGORA Royal Fashion Lights, which are used for highlighting. It’s really about showing the industry what we’ve got on offer at the moment and getting everyone to take part, come to our event, see our stage shows and really just yourself,” surmises Thomas.
Always a hive of activity, Dateline Imports’ stand was showcasing products and tools across its portfolio of brands, including , BabyLiss PRO, Argan Oil by BabyLiss PRO and . Significant launches include Macadamia’s new No Tangle product, a leave-in conditioner that contains macadamia and argan oil to detangle hair and provide ongoing heat protection. Argan Oil, meanwhile, is expanding on its hero product with a spray treatment, which is lighter and therefore more suited to fine hair, as well as a new hairspray and the Thermo Shine Spray. BabyLiss PRO was all about texture, with bigger jumbo rollers than ever (at 5cm in diameter) and the launch of Deep Waver, which is used like a crimper, to be clamped and moved down the hair in sections.
TOP SALON SUMMIT
The Top Salon Summit Lounge provides a quieter area for Expo attendees to talk with brands in a more professional setting. Returning for its second year, the Lounge this year was home to Aveda, , , La Biosthetique and . La Biosthetique’s Nicole Henry says the brand is a proud sponsor of the Lounge, as it’s an important collaboration for the brand. Our home in the Top Salon Lounge provided us with a casual, relaxed atmosphere away from the Expo floor to continue to develop the valuable relationships with our salon partners.”
Similarly, uses the Expo to communicate with its salons, which is why they have a stand on the expo floor, as well as a presence in the Lounge. Aveda’s marketing manager Louis Chabert explains that the stand is an area to welcome salon owners and have a cup of tea, before sitting down with them properly in the Lounge. The Top Salon Summit is a bit of a chill-out area where you can just talk business,” Chabert explains.
COSMETICS
It wasn’t just hair brands on the expo floor, with plenty of cosmetic brands showing what they had to offer. Making their debut this year was salon-only brand Mirabella, whose stand was fronted by Australian distributor Jai Harvey-Yin, of Absolute Spa. Mirabella is the number-one salon brand in hair salons in the USA, so we thought this was our target market,” Harvey-Yin says of her decision to show at Hair Expo. We wanted to share with hairdressers that they can capitalise on retail by giving customers a two-minute makeover at the end of their appointment.”
Salon-only make-up brand introduced a couple of new display stands to salon retailers – a new master stand and the Best of Bodyography” stand. Despite being in a quieter position on the Expo floor, director Rob Tamburro said the end results were on par with those they recorded last year. I believe we did have more quality time with the people that came by the stand and [the results] also verified that the company is growing and we weren’t reliant on heavy passer-by traffic,” Tamburro said.
Additionally, mineral make-up brand Youngblood attended the Expo to increase small brand awareness, according to the brand’s Australian supplier Lisa Williams. We made the decision to move into hair trade shows – this is our third year – because we find that hair salons are more creative and tend to be better with colour,” Williams said at the Expo.
Perhaps the biggest cosmetic stand on the floor was that of . According to the brand’s managing director (and brother of Napoleon) Emanuel Perdis, they haven’t missed Hair Expo since the day the brand was born. The hairdresser is truly our most vocal professional advocate,” Perdis said. Over the weekend, Perdis said the brand’s focus was on the lash bar, as well as make-up education. We do four daily shows to push that education element.”
OPI this year made its first appearance at Hair Expo in about 25 years, said educator Gina Schacht. This weekend we’re introducing a way to put OPI into the hairdressing salon, and of course with the new gel colour, introduce a new service that will be very profitable for them,” she explained.
THE EVENING SHOWS
Saturday evening saw last year’s Australian and New Zealand Hairdressers of the Year showcase their ideas on the big stage. This was followed by a spectacular show presenting ghd’s Australian Fashion Week looks. Funnily enough, as both of last year’s winners – Jayne Wild (Australia) and Sara Allsop (NZ) – are ghd stylists, ghd had control over the entire show.
’s Alan White says that because of the ownership the brand had over the evening gala, they were able to work with Expo organisers to develop a fashion show. So it’s less hair orientated and more showing what it’s like on a catwalk,” White says. We had a big presence at Fashion Week this year, so we pretty much covered the gambit in different styles and genres. And because we’re primarily working with the , I’m adapting some of my looks so we can get more hair moving on the catwalk.”
Headlines hairpieces.
Sunday night’s show, Generation Next, gave up and coming hairdressing talent their chance to shine. Made up of a series of fashion-style runway shows, the evening culminated in a main act by Redken’s international artistic director Chris Baran.
Reflecting on the weekend, event director Julia Erben says she couldn’t be happier with Hair Expo 2012. It’s been extremely busy, which is obviously a great thing as it shows that the industry is as alive and kicking as ever,” says Erben. It’s amazing and outstanding – every year again, I don’t know how it happens – it’s not us, it’s the talent, it’s the hairdressing world that is so passionate that every year they create something that’s completely new.”