Fashion shows to bha judging - andrew barton

I've spent a busy week in the Cribbs Causeway Shopping Centre in Bristol with Mark Heyes from GMTV. We are doing four fashion shows a day for six days as part of their Fashion Week.

I'm not actually doing any hair on the stage; instead I am presenting the shows and doing a series of meet and greets and the odd free consultation. It's all good fun and Mark and I are good friends so there is plenty of banter.

Our last shows are on Sunday afternoon and then, on Monday, I'm off to Epsom for the second phase of the judging for the 2008 British Hairdressing Awards.

I am really looking forward to it as I am often asked to judge industry competitions, but have to turn the opportunity down because I am out of the country.

What will make it really interesting is that this will be the first time that I can judge the British Hairdresser of the Year entries, as since I have been a judge I have always been one of the nominees.

I suspect that when I see the entries, I might feel a little twinge of sadness at not being a part of it; but I am quite certain that I made the right decision. I knew that I couldn't give the awards 100% and I feel that it is such a worthy award that anyone entering it should give it 100%.

That will also be the philosophy I take into my judging. Anyone can turn up with a great photographer and do a good photo shoot but sometimes the hair gets lost. I'm not saying that everyone does it but we do see lots of wonderful imagery where the hair isn't quite as good as it should be.

For me, whenever I do a shoot I put so much into it and I always try to make my hair front cover perfect. Unfortunately, in these days where computer technology is so good and photographers and re-touchers can do so much with air brushing, I'm not sure everyone is always quite so scrupulous.