The faces behind eleven australia answer our questions

HJ speaks exclusively to award-winning Australian hairdresser Joey Scandizzo and award-winning photographer Andrew O’Toole about their new professional hair care brand and the differences between the Australian and UK hair market What is ELEVEN Australia? It all kicked off in 2011 – we were working on a magazine shoot together in Sydney where we had to shoot lots of different products. Joey wasn’t impressed with the performance or the packaging of any of the products. We realised there was a gap in the market for a simple and easy brand that hairdressers and consumers could understand. At the time we didn’t know anything about products or how to run a business but we decided to try it and now we’re in over 27 countries! What is ELEVEN Australia’s unique selling point? We’re a fun, affordable brand that has a young and cool image. We give our customers educational support and we create products that fill a need within the professional hairdressing market. One of our tag lines is that hair doesn’t need to be complicated – it just needs to work and that has always been part of our philosophy. How would you describe the Australian hairdressing industry? Over the past few years Australian hairdressers have taken a different approach to the way they present hair. The photographic work has become much more fashion-based. The Australian hair market is taking risks with edgy concepts and fewer edits post production with a growing number of hairdressers not wanting any retouching after their shoots. The result is photographic work that looks raw yet beautifully authentic. How do you juggle ELEVEN Australia with your existing roles? Juggling everything is a challenge because We’re juggling kids and partners on top of another month’s schedule overseas and trying to cater for existing clients. It’s a challenge trying to fit it all in – you want to have that perfect balance of work and home life, which we’re only just starting to master. What are your tips for creating an award-winning hair collection? Planning is the secret to success – look at your six to eight looks and number them from the strongest to the weakest. Once you know which looks are weak, you can decide how to make them as strong as the rest. If you work with the best team, it will always pull you up and make sure you have a degree of perfection about your work. Don’t stop until you get the ultimate shot.

Joey and Andrew’s must-have products for the salon:

The miracle hair treatment is our hero product – it started the whole collection. It’s the first product we launched and gives your hair eleven benefits. Our finishing spray is a re-workable hair spray and the texture spray is a dual action product, so it is a sea salt spray and volume powder all in one. It gives great grip to the hair as well as volume, body and texture.