At the end of October PS’ owners Pippa and Paula took some time out to join the Davines World Wide Hair Tour 2014, and have shared their experience of the event with the rest of us at PS.
Founded in Italy in 1983, Davines started as a research laboratory producing high-end hair care products for renowned cosmetic companies worldwide. The company has since gone on to create their own brand of Davines hair care products exclusively for salons, along with skin care for premier spas.
Nowadays Davines is present in over 80 countries worldwide and visits a different one every year as part of the Tour – and this year it was London’s turn to host.
Our salon joined the world of Davines at the start of 2014 and after learning a lot from the company we were excited to experience the true welcome into the Davines family that the tour would give us.
The venue for the show was the Masonic Headquarters in Queen Street, Covent Garden. Built in 1920 to commemorate the fallen heroes of WW1, the chosen venue seemed particularly poignant, given that it is the centenary anniversary of the end of that war.
“Now there are hair shows and there is World Wide Hair Tour! It’s like nothing we have experienced before; the combination of drama, training education, philosophy, well being, visualisation and art were beautifully put together.”
Throughout the tour attendees were able to learn fully about how Davines operates. This starts with their conceptual ideas stage and includes worldwide farming using small family-owned businesses, packaging made from recycled materials, distribution using family-run companies to hair salons like our own.
“Although these fabulous hairdressers were presenting to a crowd of 1500 people, they remained relaxed and humorous, which made watching them very inspiring”.
The Allilon education team from Ena Salon (home of Davines HQ in the UK) were particularly cool to watch: “The way they work together and spar off each other made for a lovely show. It was like the atmosphere we have in the salon on a busy Saturday!” And that didn’t detract from the amazing collection they delivered... all based on the drawings of Kevin Okafor – and well worth a ‘google’!”
Angelo Seminara, Davines’ Artistic Director and three-times ‘British Hairdresser of the Year’, did two shows during the event; one of which is his current ‘Woodland’ collection – a theme which has been present in our own salon these past 5 years. Presenting both an interesting and amusing show, Seminara delivered very cool and simplistic ideas, which our team have already started introducing to our clients in Frimley.
“With Davines showing how beauty can be, and is, sustainable – we were struck many times at how well the ideals of Davines fit with what we have been doing for the past 6 years, and are aiming for in the future. This gives us a very comforting feeling.”
#ISustainBeauty
‘I Sustain Beauty’ is the tag line for Davines that sums up a way to want to inspire, create and grow in the hairdressing world. Out individual USP at PS, that we have always stuck by, is using classic and contemporary hair styling to welcome every member of a family (whether it be the matriarch or the new bundle of joy) into our boutique high street salon.
#ISustainBeauty allows us to help the environment using a #skill and #craft that we love. During the WWHT, Davines taught us how sustainability, eco-awareness and charity can be used in normal day-to-day salon life, without jeopardising our business reputation and whilst developing a positive relationship with the community around us.
Whilst we are an individual and unique salon, our main values and practices are mirrored with those of Davines; this is something which became even more apparent during the tour.
Davines recognises the importance of business’ awareness and contribution to charity, which is something we have always demonstrated. Through each year we have various charity events for both the Little Princess Trust and Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. (A previous post on our charity work can be found here.)
Putting aside the charity contribution, the main business foundation for Davines is to be eco-friendly and sustainable. We are constantly demonstrating the same values in our salon from every day recycling and turning off lights/water, to using old recycled furniture to decorate our salon, creating a unique and homely atmosphere.
Wood and woodland has always been a main theme in our salon, with a man-made tree always being the centre of our various window displays. Wood has also appeared in our salon in more recent times in the form of picture frames and coat hooks made from old pieces of re-worked wood. Angelo Seminara’s woodland collection (presented at the tour) emphasised how closely our salon fits with Davines and provided us with further inspiration on how to continue to introduce this theme in PS Hairdressing.
The attitude of the stylists at Davines WWHT was very relaxed and informal, which really allowed their individual personalities to show through. This combined with a high level skill of hairdressing creates a comfortable and reassuring feeling of not being afraid to ask for what you want, and knowing you will walk away with a quality cut and colour that you love. This really is what we aim for in our own salon – PS Hairdressing.
