Diary of the uk fame team's trip to hair expo in australia

The UK FAME Team Dafydd Rhys Thomas, Ellenora Dean, Simon Tuckwell and Leighanne Regan, recently flew to Australia to take part in Hair Expo. Here’s a diary of some of the highlights courtesy of Dafydd. Day 1 4:45am: We're up and getting set for an adventure of a lifetime! It was clear at check-in that the FAME Team girls don't travel light. Elle's case weighed in at a very close 29.9kg but when Leighanne arrived and painfully pulled her gigantic case onto the scales, we all held our breathe..35kg!! No surprises there.! The flight was epic! Very long and not a lot of room for noing around. But nothing could hinder our excitement. We had the most amazing welcome ever. As we were wandering through the arrivals area of Sydney airport we were greeted by a very loud and very British "F.A.M.E. TEAM UK, F.A.M.E. TEAM UK" from team mentors Bruno Mark, President Errol Douglas and ghd’s Andreas Stavrou who had unexpectedly came to meet us at the airport, complete with hand-made banner, balloons and confetti. Honestly, it was all a bit surreal and quite overwhelming, but in a good way! After a quick freshen up we headed straight down to the harbour. It was beautiful. We just so happen to be over here while the Festival of Light is taking place. The Sydney Opera House and all the buildings where alight with amazing colour displays. Breathtaking! DAY 2 First full day in Sydney and after meeting Bruno, Errol and Andreas  for a healthy breakfast and a catch up at the Royal Park Hotel, we discussed show times, stylist plans and the run through for the week. Our first job was to meet a model agency to begin our search for the perfect girls for Hair Expo Australia. In total we saw 25 girls - one was from East London so naturally we all got chatting and quickly learned that she used to be a singer alongside Alesha Dixon in the garage girl band Mis Teeq. Awesome! We left the casting feeling positive thanks to the possibility of three of our first choice models, and two of our second choices. Bruno assured us we'd be fine as we were seeing another five agencies tomorrow so we were going to be spoilt for choice. After a great morning of casting, we all took a sightseeing tour around Circular Key to take a look at the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Over lunch we chatted all things hair, models and F.A.M.E. We were still recovering from the long flight so after another long day we were all feeling tired and achy. Errol told us about a great massage place near the hotel, so we all treated ourselves. Feeling refreshed and revitalised, we went  for dinner at Darling Harbour and had a toast to an incredible trip and some amazing work Day 3 Today is the first real prep day for our big Hair Expo show on Sunday. We have kindly been given the studio space by Wella Professional Australia. The models have all been selected, booked and confirmed so it's all systems go. It's great to finally get creative with the team since arriving in Sydney and what a great help it is to have our team mentor Bruno, Errol and Andreas on hand for some vital tips and advice and support on the occasional breakdown. Leighanne worked mainly on colouring her models today. Working with the pallet of burnt orange with distressed rust ends, these will be worked into a hair piece she has created ready for the Gala show. Simon's worked on transforming his model's hair from girl next door to super sassy with a sharp geometric shape with deep copper brown and striking panel of intense tangerine. Ellenora prepped her model ready for the next few shows. by colouring and cutting her hair. Dafydd worked on creating a hairpiece for one of the show models working yacht varnish onto a black wig to create a bold statement shape that will be placed on a model with blond hair. to create a stark contrast of dual texture from oil slick roots to dry airy ends. After a very busy day, I think it' s going to be an early bed time for the team! Day 4 After days of castings and prepping, Hair Expo has finally arrived. It was an early start - 4:15am!  We had to be ready to start prepping by 6am. The models began to arrive, so one by one we got started. The concept for the entire three days of shows was 'Acid Reign' which is about the uprising of post apocalyptic survivors. It's the reign of a new era. The colour palette is a combination of toxic neons, rusty metals and oil slick tones. First up is the main stage, then it’s on to the ghd Australia stage. Working with the amazing ghd tools we each created: Ellenora's look was a combination of padding/backcombing to create a 3D anti-head shape. She used neon elastics to cinch in the shape. Her second look was a contrast of extreme texture through the top and then a soft floaty perimeter. Leighanne created a look using a looping braid technique and a short, quirky, blonde bob. My first look was corn rows with neon stitching ( a technique used by Tracey Devine) and for my other look I created a short blonde look and incorporated a 'noodling' technique. Simon worked with pulling pieces of hair through a scalp plaits to create intricate detailing and then he created a sassy red bob. After a long day of shows we were all tired. But the day wasn't over yet! We were all invited to the opening night at Hair Expo Australia. Where we got to go back stage and met up with Frank Apostolopoulos! Amazing! His show was phenomenal.