Another c-r-a-z-y week - andrew barton

Last week was CRAZY!!!!! I don't feel like I have been to bed. Monday was the Saks Awards, which was a really big day to award all the company's big achievers at London's swanky Cafe de Paris. It was a very glamorous day and it was really great to see everyone together and catch up with all the franchisees. Being hairdressers, it goes without saying that we had a big party into the small hours! Tuesday, I had the press launch of Shiny Happy Hair at a suite at the Mayfair hotel. There were over 90 journalists from different publications. I was really nervous in the build up, worrying if anyone would come and how it would go down, but I was thrilled by the turn out and the response was brilliant. The journalists were excited about the vision and philosophy behind the range and, after two years in the pipeline, it feels great to finally be out there. After the official launch, I partied late into the night with lots of my friends. Asda, where the products will be sold, very kindly sent me round 40 bottles of champagne, so it was some celebration! Needless to say, the not-drinking-in-January took a bit of a dent for a couple of days, but I'm back to it now. Wednesday morning I had a really early start to get down to Devon, where Tracey, Alison and I were presenting for South Devon college. It was interesting because we were invited to present the Indulgence collection to students and local salon owners. Often the regions get neglected when it comes to these types of presentations so it was good to go out there, but I worked out that I spent 11 hours travelling in total, so it was completely exhausting! I spent Thursday in the office going through over 100 emails and then enjoyed a really special dinner with my first ever junior, AJ. He is actually Andrew too, but you couldn't have two Andrews in the salon so he said 'I'll be Andrew Junior'. AJ caught on and he's been known as that ever since - even by his own family! He works as a colourist now and it was really nice to catch up with him. As usual, I was in the salon on Friday, then Saturday was filming for the new series of 10 Years Younger before flying out to Bangkok for some seminars - more on both of those next week...