15 Key Insights From The Hair Festival Education Sessions

If you were jumping from one education room to the next at Hair Festival 2022 you probably left with a laundry list of ideas on salon business, colour artistry, cut and style intricacies, hair extensions know-how, barbering skills and so much more. The Education Sessions across Sunday and Monday, June 12 and 13, at Hair Festival covered all of this and beyond, handing the mic to a myriad of respected industry leaders, renowned educators and beloved brands to share their knowledge.

Team INSTYLE were there for all 15 sessions, and we jotted down some key takeaways from these education highlights. Grab a pen and learn from the best.

Caitlyn Menzel Coaching – The Ultimate Client Experience, Caitlyn Menzel

Caitlyn Menzel delivered a motivating session predicated on specific business instructions to assert yourself, offering tips such as asking for referrals, educating clients on retail and how to handle rejection, showing how to respond to a variety of nos. She gave post-appointment advice around asking for feedback, booking reminders, follow up calls and down-selling if necessary. “Feedback is paramount for growth, you can learn trivial things that are easy to fix by asking questions,” she shared. “Know your value, don’t cheapen yourself but provide cheaper options, they’re not paying for 30 minutes, they’re paying for the 20 years of experience that goes into that 30 minutes.”

Showpony Education Hair Extensions – Peter Thomsen, Belinda Mills & Adriana Marmino: pastels, partials, and placement

Blonde maestro, Peter Thomsen, together with the belle of pastels, Belinda Mills, and the indelible artist, Adriana Marmino, unveiled their secrets to quick and easy hair transformations using a wide range of Showpony hair extensions. The trio shared their expert tips on pastel colouring, the perfect placement, cutting for hair extensions, and it-girl styling. “Use the lighter extensions colour underneath to create a pop then the warmer colour for the top to match the warmer tones of her hair,” Adriana explained.

ANTI Collective – The Art of Now with Monique McMahon and Nathan Yip

This power session with two industry trailblazers head-to-head offered polished luxe looks created with Monique’s healthy hair techniques mixed with Nathan’s effortless cutting and grungy styling, built with ANTI Collective products and merged with important business insights. Nathan discussed the fact that it’s important to listen to your client. If they come back to the salon and say they cannot recreate the look you have given them, then that is not the way to service a client. “If your client likes low maintenance hair give them a low maintenance cut that they won’t have to style every day. By giving your client what they need, you will facilitate great hair the whole time.”

Elite Hair Education – Pricing your Services, Strategy & Structure, Mick Dwyer

Mick Dwyer’s session covered finding your place in the market, deciphering your clients’ value points, which don’t include a lower price, and the division of business needs. “You must be focused, you can’t be everything to everyone so don’t try and be,” he instructed. He delivered an action plan that included identifying and surveying your target clients, focusing on their values, calculating your cost and margin price and then charging for extra value through perceived value pricing, while also perfecting your pricelist, planning a strategy for small, regular price increases and marketing yourself.

Piloroo Events – “Open Mic with a Twist” compered by Gary Latham and Clive Allwright

The internationally renowned Clive Allwright, together with Gary Latham and a panel with dozens of awards on their mantle, presented a must-see show. The crowd roared with laughter as the two hilariously hosted the education session with Jayne Wild, The HOTSHOTS Team, Benni Tognini. Caterina Di Biasè, Shane Henning, Ali Holmes, Dave McColloch and Adam Dyer teaching all things colour, textures and cuts.

ghd Hair – Wavy, Curly & Afro education with Rumbie Mutsiwa

Rumbie and her team came together to celebrate the art of textured hair and educate the packed house on all things curls, waves and texture with live model demonstrations featuring multiple hair textures and ethnicities. Rumbie’s driving passion and purpose is to create a community that not only understands but truly celebrates curls. “It’s important as hairdressers that we know the science behind the hair as professionals. Like doctors, if they prescribe you a medication and you ask them why, you don’t want your doctor to say ‘I don’t know’, it’s the same for hairdressers, if you suggest something to a client you need to know why you’re prescribing it and why and how it will help,” she said. “Make sure you build your curl clientele. Don’t get left behind.”

The Sales Catalyst, Neil Osborne

Neil Osborne explained Spendsuasion, where you and the client can reach an agreement where both parties win, making it easier for clients to buy. He instructed on the power of the statement of “that’s not a problem”, which can diffuse rejection so you can put forward an alternate solution, as well as finding and responding to buying signals. “Think about the questions you get asked in the salon and on the phone and how many opportunities slip through your fingers without awareness of a buying signal,” he said. He taught to be fluid in your conversation style and decisive about your questions, as well as suggesting questions that gain micro-commitment towards a larger “yes” for your clients and create a psychological pattern.

TONI&GUY – ‘Co-lab’

TONI&GUY presented both Co-Lab and Immersion in live hair and runway results. Immersion showed off looks with strength and dimension, marrying warm and cool tones to add width as well as texture and layers. The hero Co-Lab collection was predicated on responding to individuality, offering 16 techniques as a tool kit and wider foundation when used as a platform for young staff. This diverse imagery progresses the industry and is an asset to clients that are leaning into their individual hair needs.

AREA Academy – The Wonder Of Why, Eoin McCarthy and Leigh Winsor

Eoin McCarthy and Leigh Winsor delved deeply into the art of consultation to uncover not just the what, but why they do what they do as barbers and their desire to collectively raise the profile of the industry. “What we can do and what we offer is so much more than what is often valued or what we are currently doing,” they said. “We want you to go deeper into the meaning of what we do from value and pricing, we can’t devalue ourselves and we need to display our worth as much as possible and this should be reflected in our pricing. We need to close the disparity between the consumer and what we do as professionals.”

Dyson – Experience Dyson with Damien Rinaldo and the Boris the Cuttery team

Influencer, director, and speaker Damien Rinaldo shared that his priority, these days, is to attract talented, bright people into the industry and solve real-world hair care problems like protecting natural shine and smoothness while preventing extreme heat damage, with Dyson. Together the team showcased three looks with the Dyson hair dryer and straightener. Adriana Marmino shared her thoughts on the Dyson Supersonic with the audience and said, “it’s super smooth to create volume with less damage, it’s my best friend.” Damien added, “the Supersonic is about air drying the hair, not the heat, keeping hair in the best condition it can be.”

Excellent Edges – One Night Arvo Stand, Pete Walstab, Jules Tognini, Tom White and Sam Overton

Excellent Edges Ambassadors Jules Tognini, Tom White and Sam Overton along with Pete Walstab filled the room with eager on-lookers ready to learn their haircutting techniques. With key takeaway tips on directional haircutting and how the direction of the scissors really makes a difference in the direction of the cut, they also spoke on hair texture and how everyone right now is embracing their natural texture. The team also spoke about the importance of maintaining and taking care of your scissors.

De Lorenzo – Festival of King and Queens, Ryan King, Lisa Polini, Holly Breen and Angela Soong

De Lorenzo’s mission is to provide professional salons with the best quality, natural-based haircare, manufactured in an environmentally responsible way. The King of Cutting and the De Lorenzo Colour Queens spoke about their techniques for bringing depth and dimension in hair with De Lorenzo colour.

Richard Kavanagh – Session Styling Secrets Unplugged with 5 x Australian Session Stylist of the Year, Richard Kavanagh

Five-time Australian Session Stylist of the Year, Richard Kavanagh shared his secrets to consistently creating award winning imagery. The audience learned how to understand what your clients see in an image, and how to interpret that, with effective techniques on how to translate your vision on camera effectively every time. Richard shared his top tips for winning photography, including suggestions for choosing the right photographer and the ideal talent and focusing on the silhouette of the hair.

Seamless1 – Zero Visibility & Lights.Camera.Action!, Sarah Emilia and Matthew Jabbour

Sarah took the audience through her technique for applying tape extensions seamlessly to the front areas of the head to ensure zero visibility when wearing out or tying up. Sarah completed this session using her favourite Seamless1 curling wand and giving her model a Sarah Emilia signature style as seen on her social platforms.“ Always go close to the hairline when adding in extensions and place them on an angle. Always match the top layer then add in lightness below for a seamless blend. Make sure you have that colour match above,” she said. “I want to break the stigma of extensions being bad for your hair, they are healthy and won’t affect your hair.”

Pivot Point– Unlock your Potential, Andrea de Deugd, Mikail Dasko and Vic Piccolotto

Pivot Point’s mission is to empower through education. Their extensive brand folio allows them to do so, catering to industry professionals and non-professionals, at all stages of their careers. This look and learn seminar allowed the audience to get up close and personal with the Pivot Point National Education Team, led by international educator Vic Piccolotto, as they walked through a step-by-step series of creative looks and showcased how hairdressers can implement a systems approach that will allow you to grow as a creative artist.