Tracey gallagher on creating the perfect hair show

Whether you're a regional independent salon or part of a major salon group, a hair show is the ideal opportunity for you to showcase your team's creative skills or unveil this season's key trends. A slick, professional show can help you to impress your current client base, attract new clients and create media attention. Get it wrong, and a poorly executed show will have the opposite effect. Saks director of shows Tracey Gallagher has helped to wow audiences all over the world by creating the Saks Art Team shows and says that the secret is all in the planning.Here's her guide to some of the most important things for you think about before you even consider taking to the catwalk:

The Brief/Theme

This is the starting point forany show we plan at Saks. The brief will give you an outline of what will and won't work, audience size, who the audience are, stage layout, screens/visuals, stage set, theme, the reason for the show, length of show - the key pieces of information needed to start the planning.

Models

They can make the difference between a good show and an amazing show! Always make sure you allow plenty of time when casting to find the right ones. Key points to look out for when casting models:

1. Height: the taller the better, make sure you have your chosen models all stand together at the end of the casting to make sure they look great together, with no major height differences.
2. Confidence: must be good walkers (make them strut).
3. Great bone structure and skin.
4. Hair: lines/condition texture/suitability, wefts or extensions.

If you are planning to have more choreographed routines, you should think about using dancer/models.

Clothes/Make-up/Team

Even for a smaller type of show the clothes are really important in creating your vision. For our shows, I usually begin by looking through fashion magazines and tearing out pictures of make-up and clothes that I think will work for each section of the show. The tears are always a great way to share your ideas pre-show with the clothes stylist and make-up artist. Getting their feedback and ideas is always important and the tears are good to pin up on the wall on the show day too. It's also important to have the right people for the right job and to know their strengths and weaknesses so you can sort out who is to do what during the preparation time and during the show.

Music

The music can make a great difference so it's important to get the right tracks, usually the choreographer will source the music so it's important to make sure he/she understands your vision for the show and what sort of music is needed. Usually the music will be the first part of a show, it will start before you see any models etc so must create an impact.

Showblock

A show block is a great tool when planning the running order of a show, it will help you plan everything to the last second and it is a great way for everyone involved to know exactly what’s happening and when. It needs to list times, music tracks, any DVDs, intros, the activity to be on stage, who is doing what etc. The better the planning the less chance there is of things going wrong on the day/night of the show so you might actually be able to enjoy it!