More than 60 years of hair fashion, heritage and education was heralded locally in Melbourne with more than 120 TONI&GUY salons and stylists nationally uniting for their love of hair and most importantly each other on February 11 and 12, writes Cameron Pine.

Merging TONI&GUY’s values of creativity and innovation with much needed connection and the ability for the entire Australian network to come together from a place of love became the overwhelming protocol at a conference with an inherent level of heart.

Leading with the head and practical strategies proven to grow, educate and propel hairdressers to the best in their field is bolstered by a brand with an overwhelming sense of legacy, a family business with the edge of a global brand continues to navigate TONI&GUY as a leader through a forever changing business landscape.

Beyond the global collections that TONI&GUY is synonymous for, celebrating the artists through knowledge and recognition have become testament to the success of the label that has seen many well-known hairdressers rise through its ranks during what will soon be a three-decade long tenure in Australia, since Dennis first laid the foundations in Australia in 1995.

With attendees flying in from as far as the West Coast all the way up the East Coast and into Melbourne, the two days of festivities kicked off on Sunday afternoon with an immersive mixology experience led by award-winning bartender Alex Boon of Pearl Diver Cocktails and Oysters – a sophisticated yet cosy cocktail and Oyster bar in the heart of Melbourne, amass with the creativity and enthusiasm that is palpable in a room for of hair devotees.

Alex and TONI&GUY Sales and Customer Experience Manager Beau Walker explored the surprising number of similarities between hairdressing and bartending – with a specific focus on the importance of client experience and interpreting the specific desires of the customer in your chair. Not only this but the importance of knowing your ingredients and how to cocktail certain ingredients, sharing many synergies with the leading Label.m range.

The afternoon of team building and encouraging conversation concluded with a cocktail-making competition inspired by ingredients within the Label.m portfolio and got the room ready for the annual TONI&GUY Party to be held later that night at the Morris House rooftop where the dancefloor seemed to be busier than a salon floor on Saturday well into the evening.

The riverside Metropolis events became the backdrop for salons, speakers and educators that continue to inspire the next generation of TONI&GUY hairdressers, as one of the only vardering programs that continues to elevate the craft for aspiring hair heroes, TONI&GUY proved why creativity will foreign reign supreme in their 30 salons nationally and staggering 475 globally.

Jack Morton, long-time awarded TONI&GUY artist and general hair education guru and advocate kicked of the second day of education, welcoming the many new faces into the unique fold and family that is TONI&GUY.

“The whole idea of creating this opportunity to connect to the brand, re-ignite the passion and uphold the standards that we need to have when we work with such a prestigious brand – to enable us to educate ourselves and to reach our life goals together, Jack said.

The strikingly tall, always heartfelt and forever grateful Sara Langford, TONI&GUY’s CEO, took to the stage to recap on the importance of bringing the family together and to celebrate the past, present and look to the future TONI&GUY stars. With a focus on education and development of their own, TONI&GUY’s mission is to continually up-skill from creative to programs like assistant manager programs that continue to lead the business side of the brand in every salon. From business but to salon owners like Kelly Wright jumping on monthly calls with 50 people to dedicated time to the LGFB (Look Good Feel Better program), the brand continues to hit the mark in both philanthropy and fashion.

“The theme that we have for this year is ‘have you heard’, you’re going to see this go through the whole year, you’ll see it when we have our creative collection reveal soon. I guess the biggest thing for everyone here is that we’ve been really busy. The things that we have achieved over the last 12 months are none other than impressive. As a brand, we’ve celebrated 60 years globally and we’ve seen the celebrations with the whole team going over to London, we’ve seen it on socials, we’ve seen it through our marketing, we’ve seen it everywhere,” Sara said.

“It’s a huge, huge achievement for any brand to be around that time and to continuously evolve and change. We’ve had 28 years in Australia, which I know there’s a couple of you in this room that were here from the very beginning. In the last 12 months you saw 86,056 clients, across 20 businesses,” she added. “We set out since the 2022 conference with the mission we would have growth, and that we’ve achieved and with everything that’s happening across the globe, you all grew your average bill.”

With a huge focus on learning and digital connection between the teams and groups, from Facebook page to Instagram noticeboard – all with a focus on pathway and progression, education continues to run through the veins of a brand that remains one of the only globally to produce a world-class annual collection that unites hairdressers from all corners of the globe.

“2023 was certainly a year of growth for us but more importantly a year of growth for some of our esteemed team members and educators immersed in the brand,” said TONI&GUY General Manager, Marie Bombardieri.

“In 2023 we set out to reach our industry more and collaborate with others. Our Artistic team blew it away at Hair Festival – creative triumphs and collaborating with a sense of community we will continue to lead with creativity in 2024,” Sarah confirmed.

With some streamlining, restructuring and re-assessing at the head office level, it’s been a year of evolution for the brand and now the structure is set for considerable progress. From strong sectioning patterns in the 80s to texture through products and leading styling tips in the 90s, TONI&GUY’s heritage is forever referenced.

Label.m and the distribution company run by Beau Walker, ID Link, will still be processing all the orders but no longer distributing ID colour to other salons when the focus is now going to be a pure TONI&GUY focus. Beau is coming on board to also help boost salon retail sales, mentor and coach overall salons in a broad retail and service role.

Next up was the official launch of not one but two new collections – UNFOLD and Hair @ TONI&GUY – presented by TONI&GUY’s National Creative Team. Led by National Creative Manager Jo Smith and comprised of Roberto Pozzato, Eunji Kim, Cathy King, Maddy Robinson, Morgan Weiss and Aarron Baker, the two collections certainly stoked the creative fire within the room as the Creative Team unpacked how to achieve each of the cuts and colours presented in the collection.

“As a business we need to have an awareness and an education on current and future trends. So, we now do that with two credit collections, we have one that’s designed exclusively for us as taken by the Justice and one that we educate out to third parties. So to present our two collections to us we have the Australian artistic team. And the first collection we’re going to present to you is that correct collection, which is UNFOLD,” Marie Bombardieri said.

“We were so excited to launch two new collections at Conference,” shared Jo Smith of the collections debuted. “The first collection, UNFOLD, is our Creative Collection that was brought together by the TONI&GUY Artistic Team using imagery from the British Hairdressing Awards and techniques that they had pulled together to create a vision of motivation and inspiration for the hairdressing industry.”

“For this one, they really looked back at our heritage and sourced inspiration from some of our most iconic collections across the past 60 years as it’s so important for us to look back in order to go forwards,” Jo continued. “When you look at the timeline of hair – not just our TONI&GUY collections but also hairdressing in general – it’s so interesting to see how hair has evolved through cutting techniques, colour technology and innovation within the product space.”

“The second collection that was showcased on Monday was our in-house collection, HAIR @ TONI&GUY. You’ll see this on all of the brand’s marketing for the year as well as through social media campaigns. It truly does have lengths, textures, cuts and colours to suit everyone. HAIR @ TONI&GUY has evolved from our previous collection REVIBE and has kept a strong emphasis on our signature feel – individuality, suitability and beauty,” Jo said.

While creativity is the crux of it for the brand, business and consultation skills are required to be razor sharp and TONI&GUY Head of Customer Experience Adie Luff inspired with his practical approach to business, defining the difference between service and hospitality, while imparting a refreshed, passionate and simultaneously realistic in-salon approach as to how best to optimise your guest experience throughout service.

An afternoon packed with insightful speakers served as the perfect end to an unforgettable two-day immersive experience. TONI&GUY’s Beau Walker took the crowd through the fundamentals of the recently relaunched Label.m range. Wella Professionals’ Nadene Heapy and Stevie Haydiscussed the 20 year partnership between the two brands with a fun and interactive quiz style seminar, testing stylist’s recall of key technologies and ingredients including the new Wella Ultimate Repair and System Professional Blonde with its new in-salon opportunities.

From introducing new services, increasing your knowledge of products and ingredients, inspiring with collections from catwalk to street and reinforcing what gets the hundreds of TONI&GUY hairdressers out of bed each day, one thing is for sure, no matter how large or small the family DNA of the business is a heritage that will forever live on.

After looking forward at the collections set to guide the TONI&GUY Creative Teamin 2024, the success and creative triumphs of the year prior were celebrated through the 2024 TONI&GUY Awards.

Congratulations to the full list of 2024 TONI&GUY Award Winners.

2024 TONI&GUY AWARD RECIPIENTS

Rising Star | Georgina Fardoulis, Cronulla
Stylist of the Year | Roberto Pozzato, Sydney City
Technician of the Year | David Peek, Perth Central
Dual Stylist of the Year | Liam Johnson, Mosman
Social Media Influencer of the Year | Roberto Pozzato
Salon Team of the Year | Cronulla
Salon Business of the Year | Armadale
Gold Star 2023 | Morgan Weiss, Bondi Beach
Commercial Image of the Year, Apprentice | Georgina Fardoulis, Cronulla
Commercial Image of the Year | Delphyne Kanuma, McMahons Pt
Creative Image of the Year, Apprentice | Tori Yardley, Mosman
Creative Image of the Year | Maddy Robinson, Mosman
Hair Shot of the Year | Eunji Kim, Georges

For more information visit www.toniandguy.com.au

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