Matt gavin's year of fame: part one

Matt Gavin has been a hairdresser for eight years and is artistic director at Christian Wiles Hairdressing in Northampton. In 2014 he was crowned as a winner of Destination Fame. No stranger to the competition, Matt has entered every year since it launched and previously made it through to the live finals before narrowly missing out on the title. Now it's his time to enjoy a year of fame with a prized photoshoot, presentation work and plenty of amazing opportunities with Matrix to come over the next twelve montths. As one of his mentors for the year, we're thrilled that he’ll be charting his journey in a regular blog on HJI.co.uk! [hji-gallery-legacy] Since my win last month it's been a bit of a whirlwind. The publicity both in and out of the salon has been massive. With social media word spreads so quickly - myself and the salon have had a massive response on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. There was a big write-up on the salon's website which has brought in new clients and it's been exciting showing existing clients all the press coverage. Now down to the really exciting part. The huge Matrix shoot in November. My other mentor is Jamie Stevens and we have been working hard together to make this one the best shoot yet. The brief is right up our street. I've been taking inspiration from anything and everything. I'm really into researching and I've been spending my evening sifting through magazines or getting lost on Pinterest. I love searching for anything like tropical bird colours which could then lead me on to textures of flaking distressed walls. Jamie's an incredible mentor, but a very busy man, so we've been catching up over FaceTime to talk about our inspiration and where we want to take the brief. The moodboards are finished now between Jamie and myself and we both feel the images are going to be amazing. Just can't wait to shoot it now.