Superstar Apprentices at Hair Expo 2010

This past long weekend, Hair Expo was held in Sydney. Hair Expo is the biggest hairdressing event in the Southern Hemisphere, so to say it is a big deal is a bit of an understatement. Four of our apprentices: Raquel, Stephen, Jake and Naomi, competed in the Apprentice Cutting Competition onstage. ONSTAGE. This means that they planned their haircuts and had been practising for about 6 weeks, and on the day they arrived at 8.30am for the 10am start of the competition. This year there were 25 competitors from salon all over Australia, and the whole of the Stevie English team were in the audience to cheer on our future superstars!











Needless to say they all did us very proud. The haircuts were spectacular, the styling perfect and our youngest team members were absolutely brilliant onstage. Nerves, scissors, blowdryers and a very big day for the Stevie English apprentices. Well done guys!

Hair to The Rescue!

Unless you have been living under a rock, you would have heard about the biggest oil disaster in US history that is currently destroying the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding areas. The BP deep sea oil rig Deepwater Horizon blew up, sank, and now the well it was drilling is gushing crude oil into the ocean at a rate of 12000 barrels a day, and has been doing so for more than 30 days.

When things like this happen, it is difficult to see a way to help. We live so far away, and disaster is so enormous that there is little else to do but despair. Fortunately for hairdressers, there is a way we can be of practical use. Human hair, along with animal hair & nylon pantyhose, is used to create booms which absorb oil. We are collecting all the hair we can and sending it to the Gulf through an organisation called Matter of Trust, where it will be made into mats which will suck up some of the toxic sludge.

We can't stop the leak, and our 5 boxes of hair won't save an entire school of fish, but we are doing what we can to help, and have called on our friends in the industry to do the same. Every little effort counts!

Ksubi, RAFW 2010

Ksubi, one of the most famous clothing labels here in Australia, it's the hipsters choice. When Verity said she was going to be doing hair at Ksubi, all the staff were dying to assist. Ksubi is cooler than cool, and as they have not shown in a few years there was a lot of buzz and excitement around the show.
The hair brief was "Centre part, everyone had their hair extended with wefts (fake hair) and cut straight" and if you have seen models hair you know that's hard! Went with a geometric, sixties vibe. "28 models, not enough time to prep hair, HELL WITH THE LID OFF!!" said a very tired but clever Verity. Some times the most simple looks can be some of the hardest to pull off.
Verity was just one of the team directed by Jon Pulitano.

Hair and Sharks

Hairy sharks don't normally go, I've never seen one, nor do I want to but...
Stevie English is proud to support Dead Sharks ain’t Art, an arts event and auction raising funds to stop all forms of shark slaughter.

As an environmentally friendly salon, we are concerned by the fact that threatened and endangered sharks are killed for their fins off the coast of Australia in huge numbers. Already 90% of the world’s sharks have been wiped out.

To show our support, we have donated some hair cut and blow dry appointments for the live and silent auction. Other major prizes include specially commissioned artworks and a weekend for two scuba diving.

If you would like to join us on Tuesday please RVSP below, entry is free and drinks and nibbles will be provided. All money raised will go towards the NCC’s work for the greater protection of sharks and their habitat.



When: 6.30pm – 9.30pm, Tuesday 11 May, 2010
Where: Mori Gallery, 168 Day Street, Sydney

For more details please call The Nature Conservation Council on (02) 9516 1488 or email: jgarcia@nccnsw.org.au


Camilla & Marc Oz spring/summer 2010

Quite often in fashion shows, doing hair for 20 models in a short time can be rather challenging, so the hair is kept quite simple. For the Camilla & Marc show it was "dry textured, rough, and with a low pony". A ponytail can be the undoing of a hairdresser, it is not as easy as it looks, especially done well! I have seen many a hairdresser struggle to do perfect one, and with added time constraints it's tough work! ) Thankfully Verity, Kirsty and Jade are wizards at this and to have them passing on this knowledge to younger staff is great for our future, and Stevie English Hair.

Seventh Wonderland Australian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2010

So This week in Sydney is Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, and Verity and Raquel are out of the salon working on shows. We are going to be giving Verity's tips on how she created the looks for designers over the next few days. Most of it is going to be for the hairdressing nerds, but hey, we like to keep you informed. At The English: "Knowledge is Power".

These photos here are from the Seventh Wonderland show. "Hair was heavily gelled and section by section, working from the nape to the forehead, it was smoothly wrapped back and forth against the head. Front sections directed forward and then swept up and back in the crown sections. The very front/top sections were sculpted wet onto the face and flowed around the sides and onto the neck. The finished look was wet, modern, 20's/50's skull bathing cap. Was really beautiful with the swimwear",said Verity.
Love your work V.

Australian Fashion week 2010 And Hair

We are often asked to do shows and events, we have loads of things on this year and half the staff are going to be out doing shows during Fashion Week-the first week in May. But the first cab off the rank so to speak was Kirsty who was Hair Director for Justine Davis. Justine has been a fan of ours for awhile and we are huge fans of hers. Kirsty was up for many nights creating lots of hair pieces for Justine's models and looks. I know it was a big day with 5 strand braids and a young team from the English to help. Great work Kirsty.

Mothers Day Goodies from O&M

The Gang at O&M have some really cool Mothers' Day pressies for your pleasure. They are offering a very cool washbag/or makeup bag FOR FREE when you buy your usual awesome shampoo and conditioner combo from O&M. Come in to the salon before they all run out.

Charity in Glebe

We try to help our local community whenver possible. We often offer free haircuts to the local schools as raffle prizes, and another charity we like to promote is the Wheelie Warriors. It's a group who offer motorbike rides to kids in wheel chairs, they are awesome and it's great for the kids.

AHFA's Makeup Artist of the year goes to................

It's official: Verity Griffths is the BEST Makeup Artist in Australia!! Look -she is holding a big shiny award to prove it. I have never doubted mind you, Verity is a talent, and she needs no award to confirm that. She is a finalist for Hair Expo Session Stylist of the Year as well! Which will be judged in june, so watch this space.
Last night at the AHFAs at Sydney Town Hall I watched Verity take out the award and give a lovely speech, will also point out that she was the first person to swear up on stage. Its amazing to watch people you work with, who work really hard get proper recognition for all their hard work. Well done V you potty mouth.

Hair For Justine Davis

Kirsty was up at 3am for the Justine Davis, look book shoot. Justine is going from strength to strength and it's always awesome to work with her. Kirsty used a wig, which she carefully cut and styled- I think almost everyone in the salon wore it while she tried to cut it because was doing it in- between clients!
The photos speak for themselves, a great job by Kirsty and as always gorgeous clothes from Justine. Well done ladies!

The Original&Mineral Shoot

You know the coolest thing about working at Stevie English Hair? I work with my friends, the guys in the salon rock we have such a cool team! Another friend for us is O&M Original Mineral who are our main product company. It was such an honour to be asked to be in charge of hair for the new hero shots for their cool products. Original&Mineral are a mega cool Australian owned product company who believes in doing things their way. Their brand is modern, cool and image is everything! Stevie English is proud to be a part of their vision and are really happy to help inspire fashions.
The two day shoot comprised of one day in the studio and one day down the south coast in the National Park at a beach called Garie. The photographer was David Mandelberg. David is a world class photographer and it was amazing to be around him and his team. He was shooting both stills and moving image. The model was Annabella Barber,we have worked with Annabella before shooting for culture magazine, to say she is the real deal is an understatement. An awesome model who not only looks great but has the most incredible work ethic. For all of those that think models just look good and have great bone structure, genetics handed them a full house.............. TRUE, but they work hard. Annabella was a complete pro, and the shoot was quite demanding. Our Verity ran the hair department: I coloured Annabella's hair whilst Verity and our assistants Raquel, Jake and Naomi all worked on keeping the hair looking clean, contemporary and cool with a slight 60's feel with an organic natural edge. We did two very long fourteen hour days and lots my mates joke that is very glamorous, well getting up at 4am in the cold of the morning, and then the heat of the mid-day sun, is not all that its cracked up to be!But I'm not complaining, we all had a great time and the final shots will be just perfect. Great work from everyone involved!

Training: Hair Up Sydney Style with a Stevie English twist.

We put on a little training night for all our staff and some of the team from Muse hairdressing in Surry Hills. Kirsty, Jade and Verity all did hair ups and they all did different kinds. Kirsty showed what she called an 'easy' hair up, I beg to differ, it was a lot of very cool braids. Jade did a more traditional hair up with a modern twist using a hair piece/padding which was really cool. And Verity showed us a more editorial look using all hair pieces. It's so great to see our talented staff working and sharing their knowledge.

Re-Booking

We truly love all our clients here at Stevie English, and it is awful to turn them away because they can't get the appointment they need. We are getting busier all the time, and it is hard to find appointments with only a few days' notice. If you want to keep your fabulous style looking perfect- RE-BOOK!

I can't emphasise this enough. Booking an appointment four weeks from today is far easier than securing one for this weekend. It just guarantees your place, and means we don't have to disappoint you by not finding a spot. Please re-book. I'll give you a coffee!

Oscars 2010 Hair Report

The Oscars. Dresses. Glamour. HAIR. So who did we love?

Sandra Bullock: The Golden Girl. Beautiful, sleek, glossy brunette hair. She looked perfect, and she won! Does not really get any better for her.


Sarah Jessica Parker: The Risk Taker. Say what you will about her dress, but I loved her hair. The huge hairpiece is so dramatic, and you got to give her props for not being boring. I would have smoothed the front a little, but maybe it was windy!

Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz: The Old-Hollywood Glamour Girls. Long, blonde, cascading waves over one shoulder. It's a Hollywood classic, and both of these gorgeous women worked it beautifully.










Meryl Streep: The Class Act. She just gets better and better. Her simple french roll accentuates her beautiful face. She is just impeccable.
The Oscars are never usually the place for crazy styles, but these looks were classic, beautiful and effective.