Oh... What A Weekend! - Hair Expo Sydney

Oh, What A Weekend! As we headed home from Sydney last week, it was hard to believe just how much we had managed to fit in, in only a few days. Our weekend started on Friday morning at the Opening Press conference held at the Bayside lounge, Darling Harbour. There media were introduced to four International Hairstyling Superstars headlining the 3 day event by Julia Erben, Event Director for Hair Expo.

Antoinette Beenders, AVEDA Global Creative Director from London, Mark Hayes, SASSOON International Creative Director from London, Paul Serville, Founder and Owner, Servilles Group, New Zealand and Sam Villa, Redken Education Artistic Director from New York proceeded to give us an informative summary of their own amazing careers and their personal insight into future hair trends. Plus a sneak preview as to what to expect from their shows.

Saturday morning saw us waiting anxiously outside the Convention Centre for Hair Expo to open. We were not disappointed! Each year the standard of exhibitors and stands just keep getting better and this year proved no exception. Jaw-dropping stands included a massive TIGI circular stand, smack bang in the centre of the Expo floor which was really impressive. Good music & tasty fruit smoothies served from their central bar kept the Tigi stand extremely busy. 




Moroccanoil was another very popular stand, with just about everybody walking around with their ‘see-through’ heavy plastic bags filled with goodies. AVEDA was another classy stand along with the REDKEN stand which was certainly hard to get any where near when Sam Villa was on stage. 

Cosmetics played an important role again this year, with crowds gathering around the NAPOLEON PERDIS and YOUNGBLOOD stands pretty much all day long. 

Another exciting new development this year was the introduction of the TOP SALON SUMMIT Lounge sponsored by AVEDA, ghd, L’Oréal Professional, La Biosthetique, Goldwell and Kevin Murphy. This is where their clients could relax and have coffee while discussing business. Later in the afternoon the TOP SALON SUMMIT, an invitation only event now in it’s second year, took place and featured guest speakers, Alex Perry, Macala Wright Lee and Aurelio Costarella and Ant Williams. 

Another Expo feature which we particularly enjoyed was the ghd VIP room. Guests were treated to a glass of bubbly while top hair stylists like Jayne Wild and Robert Kovacs produced a ‘Katy Perry’ look-alike hairstyles on a variety of younger models at 2 hour intervals. Education was also a biggie on the floor, with Sassoon Academy, Servilles Academy and Tracey Hughes Education all offering various training options.

The Saturday night gala featured Shane Henning, 5 times winner Australian Hairdresser of the year and AVEDA Creative Director Antoinette Beenders, while Sunday night’s GENNEXT Gala consisted of a series of catwalk shows culminating with the main act, TIGI’s Anthony Mascolo and his International Creative Team. A mind blowing performance by the hair maestro!






The Expo finale was the Schwarzkopf Professional Hair Expo Awards held on Monday night in front of 1200 people. An amazing night with the ‘whose who’ of Hairdressing attending. Images were delighted to present the ‘Excellence In Marketing’ Award to Lorna Evans from Zúmay. Mary Rector Gable from ‘Behind The Chair’ USA was also a surprise awards presenter. Congratulations to all the winners! A wonderful night which ended with the After Party continuing on at ‘Hugo’s’ in Kings Cross.