Colour Congress 2018
INSPIRED ! That’s the word that comes to me when talking about L’Oréal Colour Congress 2018. I got the pleasure of going down to London with our Salon Manager James for this fab event, and to hear from some of the best stylists in the business!
Sunday 28th Jan 9:15am
And we’re off ! With an early start, we were ready to go. Once we arrived at the ME London Strand Hotel we had a refreshments reception for everyone to chat and to get to know each other. After that we started off the afternoon with a presentation from some of the L’Oréal Team with what was to come over the next couple days and for the year ahead. We heard from some amazing people such as Siobhan Jones, Darren Oram & Sophia Hilton.
Hearing Siobhan tell us the new looks and trends for 2018 was my absolute favourite. From minimalistic colour to colour blocking with bright vibrant colours, it was amazing to see and to hear how passionate she was at her job The colour of the year for 2018 revealed by Pantone is… PURPLE! It instantly got my mind running with ideas for clients, girls in the salon and even myself!
Then we went onto Sophia Hilton, who runs her lovely salon in London called Not Another Salon. I have done a course with Sophia in the past so was looking forward to hearing her speak. She went through how hairdressers can sometimes be made out to be GODS and how we can’t get things wrong and we have to create something out of nothing. With all these new trends coming out constantly and the standards we have to bring everyday, it was nice to hear Sophia tell us that we are still HUMAN! All of us have bad days, all of us don’t always get it 100% right, and I loved the sincerity and the openness she had to say I get it wrong too! I instantly felt what was she saying…I’m not perfect but I am amazing at what I do !
After all the amazing talks, it was time for a drinks reception to mingle with everyone, then onto an amazing dinner in the ME London Strand restaurant! I got to sit next to one of Kathryn Davenport from L’Oréal who gave me the best advice to help me achieve one of my goals for 2018 (which is to go in for the Saks Awards Colour Category for 2019). She gave me amazing confidence in myself to go for what I want and how to achieve it. Once the lovely dinner was done it was time to go up to the open top bar and have some more drinks ! The view was stunning, and I got a good catch up with Vicki from L’Oréal! Finally after a few drinks it was home time. We stayed at the Luma Concept Hotel which was different and interesting. Highly recommended.
Mon 29th Jan 9:30am
For day 2 we changed venues and were heading off to the London L’Oréal Academy ! I have never been there before so it was exciting to see. We started off the morning with a coffee/tea break for everyone to chat and mingle before the busy day ahead.
The first speaker for me that day was Siobhan Jones (I was very excited to see her again). She gave us a demo on a colour pattern she had created with the Colourful Hair Range from L’Oréal. The colours she made were gorgeous! I can’t wait to try out the technique in the salon.
Next speakers were Skyler Macdonald and LLoyd Court from the first ever colour only salon in the UK called Skyler London. They talked to us about how their business is run and how she had created her salon to be what it is. It was funny to hear the research she had done to create certain aspects of the salon, for instance she wanted to understand why people coloured their hair at home and if clients understood what colour they were choosing, so she went and stood in Boots in the colour aisle and pretended to be a customer buying colour! It was a funny story to hear. Then LLoyd went onto talk about the services they do in the salon. The most interesting one was their Silk Baths, which is basins of hot water mixed with neat colour to give you a personalised colour to run through the hair at the backwash and give the hair a beautiful wash through!
After lunch we had a presentation from the L’Oréal Innovation Team, they had put together an amazing set of models who they had all coloured and styled themselves. I wrote down all of their formulas for the colours as they were gorgeous!!!
And that’s it! L’Oréal Colour Congress for 2018 was officially finished! I had the best time, and experienced things I never thought I would! I encourage anyone who is a Colour Specialist to go to 2019 Colour Congress…it’s soooooo worth it !!
Caroline x