Believe in Authentic Beauty

Jul 8, 2024 | HOME INFORM, INDUSTRY NEWS, INFORM

Promotion – AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT

CATEGORIES > INFORM

Believe in Authentic Beauty

AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT was inspired by hairdressers, artisans and people who share the same values. Will you join the movement?

AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT Styling products

A desire for truth and authenticity – that’s what today’s modern consumers are searching for. They’re eschewing over-engineered formulas, over-glamourised and filtered hair looks, craving real and honest discussions instead of corporate speak. Shared beliefs, an eye on sustainability, community – this is life in the new now.

This is AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT, a holistic, premium brand inspired by hairdressers, artisans and people who share the same values. Something honest, simple and made with carefully selected ingredients, AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT has curated a range of hair and body products that fit with today’s beliefs. This is a brand that people can relate to, nourishing their salon experience and home beauty rituals to a new level, powered by beliefs that chime with your clients today…

We believe in… pure formulas

What is left out is as important as what’s put in. Its care and styling formulas are created with a free-from philosophy; they are free from sulphates,* parabens, silicones, mineral oils and artificial colourants. Natural ingredients are extracted gently while preserving their benefits. This is nature meeting science…

We believe in… a no-filter attitude

AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT was created as a movement with hairdressers and artisans sharing the same values, that build on today’s beliefs and individual experiences – this is a unique community embracing a new attitude towards beauty. The mindset behind the #authenticbeautymovement? ‘Be yourself’.

We believe in… authentic hair

The hair of today follows a new language, celebrating the free and unique textures of true beauty. It’s what you don’t see that makes the difference; care products create the canvas, styling products invisibly enhance authentic hair with a ‘no styling’ approach. It’s about building on the natural beauty that is already there. Effortless, crafted quality – a reduced luxury.

We believe in… a mindful experience

A mindful moment is about connecting inner and outer beauty through real experiences, reconnecting with yourself. AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT empowers the hairdresser to create a different, premium in-salon environment that blocks out the busy, crafting a moment to remember – a memento. The in-salon Momento Menu delivers a unique sensory journey with premium ingredients, blissful products and a relaxing, spa-like experience… with take-home treats allowing guests to follow their bliss back in their own bathrooms.

Carefully selected, pure ingredients. Real hair styles. Honest discussion. Artisan skills. Unique experiences. Shared beliefs. This is the new now – the authentic beauty movement. It just needs you to be part of it, too…

Recycle and Reuse – the AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT way

Sustainability runs through the core of AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT, enabling your salon to do more to protect the planet’s future:
• A partnership with Green Salon Collective aims to raise the standards of sustainability across the industry. From events to share and inspire sustainable salon practices to discounted services for AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT salons to recycle the traditionally impossible (hair, foil, colour tubes, towels) alongside plastic, paper, PPE, chemicals and general waste.
• There’s also access to GSC education on waste, energy, water, and food, as well as staff policies and social responsibilities.
• But it’s not just about recycling; salons can introduce an AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT refills bar to encourage clients to reuse their mindfully packaged bottles and tubs, often at a reduced retail price. Clear action, clear impact – beauty has. never behaved better

Join the #AUTHENTICBEAUTYMOVEMENT via authenticbeautyconcept.com and @authenticbeautyconceptuk on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube

CATEGORIES > INFORM > CONVERSATIONS

How To Give Your Team A Texture Skills Confidence Boost

Emma Simmons shares five tips to grow a team confident working with ALL hair types.

Emma Simmons

1 . Leverage online platforms

Our industry has a wealth of knowledge available online, with platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and specialised hairdressing websites offering access to tutorials and courses on diverse hair types. You’ll find detailed instructions and demonstrations to supplement hands-on training. Encourage your staff to dedicate regular time to online learning and share their insights with the team.

2 . Host workshops and invite guest experts

Invite industry experts who specialise in different hair textures to conduct workshops in your salon. These sessions provide hands-on experience and allow your staff to learn directly from those who excel in specific areas.

3 . Use social media to find practice models

Instagram and Facebook can help you connect with people in your area who have diverse hair types and are open to participating in training sessions. Create posts and stories inviting volunteers, and offer discounted services in return for their participation.

4 . Establish a mentorship programme

Pair experienced stylists who are proficient in diverse hair techniques with newer or less experienced staff members. This one-on-one mentorship allows for personalised learning and immediate feedback, ensuring that knowledge is effectively transferred.

5 . Invest in quality tools and products

High-quality scissors, combs, brushes, and other styling tools designed specifically for various hair textures are essential. Stock a diverse range of hair products tailored for different hair needs, such as moisturising products for curly hair and lightweight products for fine hair. Train your staff on their proper use to get the best results and to cater to the unique requirements of each client.

CATEGORIES > INFORM > CONVERSATIONS

“This project is almost the catalyst for us” – Allilon’s Pedro Inchenko on collaboration and upskilling his team on textured hair styling

With a major show planned in Berlin with celebrated BIPOC vocal group A Song For You, Allilon is focused on styling texture with confidence and heart.

With the Allilon Education team hitting the stage in Berlin at the Davines World Wide Hair Tour 2024, co-founder Pedro Inchenko wanted to do something creative that would switch up their approach to stage presentations, while also working with local talent to deliver something different. The prep journey has seen him introduce collaborative workshops to ensure his team – both with Allilon and at the Ena salon he co-founded with Johnny Othona – are confident and genuinely ready to work with any hair type. Here, Pedro explains how he’s started the process…

Pedro Inchenko

Aminata Kamara with Ena stylist

“For Berlin, I wanted to break a little bit of that traditional mould – a show featuring a video, cutting and colouring on stage, then doing a catwalk presentation. I’m looking to stimulate my own creative needs as well. The idea is to find talent in Berlin, and we found a collaborative group of about 50 artists from the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) community. They’re sharing a place to communicate their talents, individually and when they come together as A Song For You.

About 10 of the artists will be our models, and we’ll be doing their hair on stage. In between, they’ll be performing. I really want the emphasis to be on the audience feeling and experiencing something in terms of performance.

We’ve had our first textured hair workshop, where we invited in some specialists to work with the team, starting with TV and film stylist Deborah Lola and session stylist Aminata Kamara, and we’re going to invite others along over the next few months. The idea is if they’re available, they’ll join us on stage. I don’t want it to be this group of white artists doing black hair; I want to give a platform to textured hair specialists who can collaborate with us.”

“As a company, we’ve always been inclusive when it comes to cutting and colouring hair. But in terms of textured hair – the styling, and the understanding of it, in terms of the approach, how different it can be – that’s something we’ve been leaning into more over the last few years. This project is almost the catalyst for us; it needs development and we need to outsource this to specialists, to help us really hone in on those skills.

In the first workshop, we chatted about what it’s like to grow up having Black hair, the psychological aspects of it, how it can become part of your identity. I really want us to do the work, to understand that because there’s a big movement in the community to lean into natural hair and to embrace it. Everyone brought a model, and it was about playing with hair, looking at how we would approach our models.

We’re doing more workshops to further our skills and we’re going to continue to do that across the board. We haven’t necessarily sought outside influences in the past, but it’s something that we’re going to be doing – with textured hair, with different tools, different philosophies, different approaches to hair. We’re really opening ourselves up – we’ve got our foundation, we know who we are… let’s see what else we can bring in for the team to inspire them to continue their journey.

The team are loving it, learning lots of new things around setting, braiding and twisting. It was great to talk about the simple things, like how to comb textured hair. Our normal approach would just be to brush it out and cut it. But Deborah was like, “no, you need to add moisture, add water, brush it out. And then the hair is ready to be cut and prepped”. The way that you put your brush in, the way that you prep the hair to be dried, or to be braided, or to be set. Unless you’re shown, there is a missing part of our education. This is about giving the team the confidence to be able to approach any hair type. They were buzzing afterwards.”

CATEGORIES > INFORM

Smaller, Lighter And With No Heat Damage – This Is The Hair Dryer You Need

Promotion – Dyson

Dyson knows how to innovate. Meet the pro-exclusive Supersonic r Professional hair dryer.

When Dyson unveiled the Supersonic Professional hair dryer nearly a decade ago, it was a game-changer. Lighter, quieter, like nothing else on the market, the Supersonic empowered stylists to create beautiful hair with a focus on maintaining its health and shine, always. But innovators never stand still…

Revealed at New York Fashion Week, there’s a new tool just for the pros that has everyone talking once again. It’s smaller and lighter, and is packed with new technology to avoid heat damage to hair. This is the Dyson Supersonic r Professional hair dryer. Its genesis has the stylist at its heart. Seven years of ongoing surveys and interviews with nearly 700 stylists has fuelled Dyson’s designs. Having identified the challenges hair pros were facing, engineers were keen to design a tool that would respond to “real world demands” while still delivering on stellar styling experience and stunning results.

Its research found that a stylist will typically see between four and 16 clients each day, spending on average 30 to 60 minutes styling per client, adapting the angle of their arm and hand up to 30 times during one styling session. That all adds up; just look at the prevalence of strain-related injuries among stylists. So Dyson labs have been busy creating something that will look unique, perform brilliantly, empower you to style beautiful hair, all without the arm ache! This is what you need to know…

New ergonomic design

The Dyson Supersonic r Professional hair dryer has been designed ergonomically in an ‘r’ curve and, at 325g, weighs less than a can of hairspray. The shape allows stylists to reach where it’s normally difficult, for better control when styling hair, and better comfort. It’s 30 per cent smaller, 20 per cent lighter, and more manoeuvrable to deliver fast drying, alongside smoother, frizz free and shinier results on hair!

New heaters = even heat

The new curved heater ensures the dryer heats the airflow more evenly, with no hotspots. For stylists, this means you can rely on more even temperatures (including when using the attachments), a higher temperature for faster drying and styling, with no heat damage. The dryer checks the temperature constantly using Dyson’s intelligent heat control – seen in its other hair tools, too – measuring air temperature more than 20 times a second.

Attachments with sensors… and a memory! There’s a range of attachments that have integrated RFID sensors, which communicate with the dryer, automatically adjusting the motor and the heater to deliver what the Dyson engineers have set as the ‘optimal’ airflow and temperature. For example, the diffuser is set to low flow and low temperature to reduce frizz and enhance curls without disrupting the curl pattern. By contrast, the rough dry mode uses maximum power heat and flow to minimise drying time. But stylists can tweak these settings to best suit each client in their chair, depending on the hair type and style of each client… and the dryer will remember that setting the next time the attachment is added! Not only that, the 3D mesh filter at the bottom of the dryer, designed to capture salon pollutants, now lasts up to two times longer in-between cleans.

The Dyson Supersonic r Professional hair dryer will not only give professionals the ability to execute amazing work, but also at high speed and the highest quality

Larry King, Dyson global styling ambassador

Smaller, lighter, faster, no heat damage – and exclusively for professionals. The Dyson Supersonic r Professional hair dryer is tomorrow’s tool, today. Elevated styling, stunning results, beautifully healthy-looking hair… r you ready to see what you can do?

To secure your own Dyson Supersonic r Professional hair dryer, visit dyson.co.uk/commercial/hair-care

CATEGORIES > EXPLORE > CREATIVE PROJECTS

THE MISSION? TO "DECOLONISE" PERCEPTIONS OF TEXTURED HAIR – AND STOP THE SHAME

Yasemin Hassan deep dives into her photo series and exhibition Talking Textures – celebrating, educating and redefining the cultural significance of textured hair.

Talking Textures event, April 2024

Curated by barber Yasemin Hassan and captured through the lens of photographer Yeliz Zaifoglu, the photo series and exhibition Talking Textures dives deep into the intricate relationship between beauty, cultural identity, and the resilient nature of hair, especially within the Southwest Asian & North African (SWANA) communities.

Hosted at Ugly Duck London, Yasemin sees Talking Textures as more than an exhibition; it’s a movement to celebrate, educate, and redefine the cultural significance of textured hair. Spanning across 26 photographs, a short video, and a panel discussion that was held on 12 April, the project seeks to bring to light the challenges, beauty rituals, and the profound connection between hair and cultural identity in SWANA regions.

 Yasemin herself has emerged as a pivotal figure for individuals with textured hair in London, particularly within the SWANA community. While that’s thanks in part to extensive experience on high-end fashion shoots and London Fashion Week, it’s also coupled with personal conversations within her community. Her mission is to “decolonise” perceptions of hair and address the underrepresentation of SWANA identities in the hair industry.

Yasemin Hassan

Working closely with Dania Arafeh, founder of 3EIB – a SWANA fashion platform reclaiming the Arabic word 3Eib, meaning ‘shame’ – this project is a reaction to the underlying shame that SWANA individuals often experience from others within their own cultures, as well as what’s taught in the mainstream media about beauty.

Yasemin breaks down the concept behind each image, and the powerful message each shot conveys…

Reclaiming Control
Riyam Salim 

Reclaiming Control
Michaela Mousicous wearing 3EIB 
Hair makes us feel powerful. We use our hair to reclaim our identity. Talking Textures explores this by considering the amount of people that go to a salon after a big life change and want to consolidate this with a drastic hair change. These images in the series are about power and taking control over our hair. 

Carving Imperfections
Ali Nasreldin wearing Mehdi Studio 
The media often idealises the ‘perfect curls’ – no frizz and a solid, clean shape when focusing on afro textures. In the full series of images Talking Textures plays on the phrase ‘bedhead’ to contrast to perfect curls.

Changing Shape
Peyam Zangana   
People with curly hair often talk about it being ‘too big’ and ask me to make their hair sit flatter. In full series collection, Talking Textures celebrates the shape using the concept  of ‘hat hair’, contrasting to this image which is the unrealistic flattened hair shape.

Masking Identity
Eman Alali wearing Isis Dünya 
Many people use hair length and fringes to mask and hide their SWANA features. Talking Textures plays on the use of hair as a mask by using the concept of ‘straggly ends’ to do this.

Embracing Femininity
Tahini Molasses wearing Ziyad Buainain
Talking Textures closes the series by questioning: What is femininity? Does femininity have to be gendered within SWANA communities? Many women idealise long hair as being the height of femininity and beauty. The final set of images through this concept makes the statement that femininity can be unconventional.

Director/curator/lead hair: Yasemin Hassan
Photographer: Yeliz Zaifoglu 
Make-up: Tina Khatri 
Styling: 3EIB / Dania Arafeh
Hair assistants: Shaun Birmingham, Amy Clarke, Matthew Tharp
Shot at Woolf Kings X

Promotion – AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT

Believe in Authentic Beauty

AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT was inspired by hairdressers, artisans and people who share the same values. Will you join the movement?

We believe in… pure formulas

We believe in… a no-filter attitude

We believe in… authentic hair

We believe in… a mindful experience

Recycle and Reuse – the AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT way

Related

How To Give Your Team A Texture Skills Confidence Boost

Emma Simmons shares five tips to grow a team confident working with ALL hair types.

Related

“This project is almost the catalyst for us” – Allilon’s Pedro Inchenko on collaboration and upskilling his team on textured hair styling

With a major show planned in Berlin with celebrated BIPOC vocal group A Song For You, Allilon is focused on styling texture with confidence and heart.

Related

Smaller, Lighter And With No Heat Damage – This Is The Hair Dryer You Need

Promotion – Dyson

Dyson knows how to innovate. Meet the pro-exclusive Supersonic r Professional hair dryer.

New ergonomic design

New heaters = even heat

The Dyson Supersonic r Professional hair dryer will not only give professionals the ability to execute amazing work, but also at high speed and the highest quality

Related

THE MISSION? TO "DECOLONISE" PERCEPTIONS OF TEXTURED HAIR – AND STOP THE SHAME

Yasemin Hassan deep dives into her photo series and exhibition Talking Textures – celebrating, educating and redefining the cultural significance of textured hair.

Related