Colour trophy winners: pushing boundaries

Among all the beautiful hairstyles that graced the stage at the L'Oreal Professionnel Colour Trophy Grand Final, the winners Mack Hairdressing and Men's Award winners Trevor Sorbie Brighton had one major thing in common: they really stood out from the crowd.

While the women's category was dominated by Agyness Deyn-inspired crops and funky fringes; brunettes were the order of the day in the Men's Image Award. That is with the exception of the winners who'd opted for on-trend curls and a pure blonde boys cut.

They both admit that they were well aware that they were taking a gamble by going against the norm, but both felt it was a risk worth taking to create a look that they really believed in.

Lisa Redman from Mack Hairdressing says: "We wanted to do something different so we said 'let's take a risk and go for curls this year as it hasn't been done before'.

"It was a big risk because curls can be so unpredictable. We knew want we wanted to create but we didn't know what might happen with the curls on the night - and whether we'd even be doing the look we had created."

Men's Image Award winners Trevor Sorbie, Brighton, were equally conscious that they were doing something different to the usual men's entry, but they loved the bleached blonde look, not least because it really showed off Salon Director Kate Wilson's colouring ability.

"We really wanted to make a bit of a stand and push the boundaries, which is why we went for such a strong colour," explains Kate. "When we had been looking at what happens in the Men's Image Award we saw that they tend to go for brunettes.

"But we had come across a really strong image that we think is really now and happening, and went for a full head bleach.

"We choose it partly because it really shows technical skill to get a perfect full-head bleach on a model without any nasty yellowy tones; but also because we knew it would really stand out."

Having brought their creations to life, the Grand Final was a nail-biting evening for both teams who could not fail to miss how different their hairstyles were from the competition.

"We were a bit surprised that there weren't more curls in the competition," adds Catherine Wilson from Mack. "As we saw the other regions coming through and they were all straight we didn't think we would win.

"But we were just going on with what we'd created and what we strongly believed in. It was such a shock when we won. We really wanted to win the regional but didn't expect any more than that."

Anna Chapman and Kate had the same fears, but they too felt satisfied with the on-trend look that they had created. 

"On the night the other finalists were all brunettes," adds Anna. "There wasn't even any dark blonde.

"Even when you looked in the brochure our model Scott really stood out. We were really proud of what we had done but we knew it could have gone either way.

"It proved to be the right decision, but it could have gone oh so wrong!".

And so to the year ahead when the girls are looking forward to lots of fantastic opportunities, including a shoot for Vogue, but they all know what they are most looking forward to: "Staying in a top hotel in New York, learning how they do a shoot in America and all that shopping!" they all agree.

Click here for more details about the L'Oreal Professionnel Colour Trophy and see the full interviews with the teams from Mack and Trevor Sorbie, Brighton below.

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