Great news this week - andrew barton's diary

The highlight of this week has to be the phone call I received from Jayne Lewis-Orr at HJ telling me that I was a nominee for British Hairdresser of the Year for the sixth consecutive year.

I was with a client when I received the call and she ran straight out to buy a bottle of Champaign for us to celebrate.

All this week I have been up and down the country. I was in Bournemouth on Monday talking to a hairdressing group about creative cutting. Then on Tuesday I was in Birmingham for the last date of the tour I am doing with Kerastase. The aim of this road show has been to inspire young people and make them aware of the incredible opportunities they have in front of them.

I enjoy being a token of career success in hairdressing for youngsters to tap into.

On Wednesday I was working on a photo shoot for the new News of the World magazine, Fabulous. It was a colour story - brunette to blonde.

Although I'm not a colourist I enjoy using colour - it's essential to our industry. The salon of the future will be a colour house rather than just a cutting house. The modern client is more excited about colour than anything else.

I was back in the salon for the end of the week - always my favourite place to be.