'your image is so important' - mark leeson

British Colour Technician of the Year Mark Leeson wowed a 60-strong audience at The Academy in Mayfair in an exclusive ‘Evening with Mark Leeson’, presented by Goldwell. While demonstrating his cutting, styling and finishing skills, Mark answered questions from the audience and talked through his trend predictions for the forthcoming season and how these can be translated to clients’ hair. Working with eight models, he showcased a variety of different techniques inspired by the Newstalgia look from the Trend Zoom collection and up-coming catwalk trends.From stack perms to pin coil curl and backcombing, big hair and the season’s trend for texture in the hair were top of the agenda. Mark says: "It is essential to teach your junior team members the foundations of hairdressing. "Techniques that are maybe not used much today may come back into fashion in the future and it is important to have a good grounding and be able to know how to work with the hair." The ‘king of colour’ also gave suggestions for building the best possible salon business and says there are two factors: the service you offer and the image you portray. "You can charge more for better service, if you make the whole salon experience perfect and pay your client’s lots of attention. It’s how much you are worth after all," he adds. "The image of your team is really important as they can sometimes attract new clients. Make sure their image reflects current trends in cut and colour, they will inspire your clients." And he believes that image is also essential when it comes to attracting male clients into your salon. "The salon's image is really important when a guy is choosing a salon to visit and an overly feminine feel would be a big turn off. "Men’s hairdressing is a technique that needs a lot of practice as male clients can be more particular about cut and style, and generally the cuts are more precise," says Mark. Pictures from an Evening with Mark Leeson >>