HOB Salons Get Set For Trend Vision 2014 As Teams Compete For Wild Card Entry

Following the success of the last few years, yesterday marked the fourth HOB Salons’ Photographic Competition as it returned with a vengeance for 2014!

Employees across the 24 salon group turned up at the Wella London Studios to compete on Sunday 9th February, fighting for the chance to be entered into Wella’s Trend Vision 2014 to represent the award-winning group in the highly competitive regional heats.

No stranger to the Trend Vision Awards following a number of global and UK wins secured in previous years, the competition was set up by HOB to welcome the companies 600 plus staff to get creative as they enter and compete in five categories. Expanding year on year, 2014 saw the addition of the new Hair-up and Image of the Year categories which will reward the winners with opportunities to be involved in upcoming shoots and shows for the company alongside the Men’s category winners.

For the Young Talent category an age restriction of 30 was set in place whilst Colour was open to all, mirroring the Trend Vision Competition. It is these two prestigious categories that would reward the winners with golden tickets to represent HOB in their entries for the esteemed Trend Vision 2014 competition.

Whittled down to just five lucky finalists in each category, aside from Men’s, Hair-up and Image of the Year which saw six hopefuls compete on the big day, the competitors began the day by recreating their initial entry look which they submitted in December 2013 for the first round. Next it was into the judging room for the Young Talent and Colour finalists as they presented their model to the scrutinizing judges, showing their mood boards and inspirations to the panel which included HOB Salons’ Directors Paul Simbler, Clive Collins and HJ’s current and four times British Hairdresser of the Year, Akin Konizi, as well as members of the HOB Salons Creative and Education Team and Wella Technician Fae Hatton.

After a day of styling, colouring and presentations, the evening awards ceremony saw the night compèred by Akin and Paul, followed by a sensational showcase from HOB Salons internal creative platform HOB Jamm. Open to all 600 plus in the company, this monthly hub of creative expression saw stunning models take to the stage, bringing a real buzz to the evening before the lucky winners were announced.

With the competition so fierce this year, the judges unanimously decided to introduce a runner-up and winner in each category for the first time with both those announced in the Young Talent and Colour categories entering into the Trend Vision Awards.

First to be revealed was Men's Image of the Year runner-up Simon Wilson of HOB Loughton followed shortly by winner Danni Laye of the Amersham branch. Next, scooping runner-up in Image of the Year was Leeds Franchisee Shabaz Hussain with winner Peter Burkill of HOB Camden taking the crown. For Hair-Up, runner-up Viktoria Toth from Ruislip took to the stage whilst Whetstone winner David Sun took this category by storm. The penultimate award of the night saw 22 year old Chloe Backler of HOB Camden secure her Trend Vision place for Colour, joined by category winner Alex Freeman of HOB Leeds. Lastly it was Young Talent, and last year’s winner Peter Burkill scooped his second award of the night as runner-up, with Whetstone’s Nestor Sanchez taking the winning title as both celebrated their chance to now go and enter Trend Vision 14!

Speaking of the night, Young Talent winner Nestor beamed,

I’m so honoured to have won! The competition was very tough but after winning the Men’s category last year, I am so excited to have come back and won Young Talent this time, securing my place to enter Trend Vision 14! It is so inspiring to be part of this and I am thankful to HOB Salons for their ongoing support.

With the last four years of this competition showing great success including HOB Baker Street’s Sean Nolan winning the Colour category last year and going on to win Gold in the UK Trend Vision 2013 and currently preparing to compete for the Global title in Frankfurt, this year’s winners will now begin preparing for the prestigious competition as they get set to represent HOB Salons and fight for a regional place at Wella’s Trend Vision 2014.