April 2006 proved to be another amazing month in this great life of mine. No sooner had I finished an extensive tour of Asia and returned to London than I hit the ground running with only a day to prepare a massive presentation at one of London's hottest venues—The Brewery—to celebrate 60 years of the Fellowship for British Hairdressing.
 Beverly C |
For those of you across the pond who may be unfamiliar with the organization, the Fellowship for British Hairdressing was founded to give all UK hairdressers access to the best of British hairdressing and ensure that their standards remain as high as possible. In addition to myself, past presidents include such industry icons as Richard Thompson, Jennifer Cheyne and Simon Forbes.
 FROM TOP: Richard Thompson and Beverly C (center) strike a pose with fellow hair gurus who participated in the Fellowship for British Hairdressing's 60th birthday celebration; Beverly created looks with strong, geometric shapes. |
The brainchild of past president Richard Thompson and new president Sean Dawson, the 60th birthday celebrated hairdressing through the decades, and I was honored to be one of seven elite hairdressers asked to bring a particular decade to life in a show format. Each presenter used four models to showcase a specific decade: Guy Kremer unveiled the '50s; Vidal Sassoon's presentation shined a spotlight on the '60s and featured an introduction by the fabled design maven Mary Quant; Trevor Sorbie focused on the '70s; Toni&Guy did the '80s; Charles Worthington recreated the '90s; I presented the first decade of the 21st century; and Richard Thompson focused on the future, unveiling the shape of things to come.
For my decade, which I enjoyed doing since it has everything to do with "right here, right now," my Essensuals team and I chose monochromatic clothes, as black and white are everywhere on the fashion runways today. As you can see from the images on this page, the hair was quite graphic, with strong emphasis placed on geometric shapes that were pushed to the limit to inspire the hairdresser-only crowd of attendees. The remaining two models in my segment wore highly dressed hair with a twisted texture that was high-impact and dramatic. My mini-show team—composed of session director Yumi Nakada-Dingle and international technical education director Francesco Fontana—had only hours to perfect the three-minute show, and it was flawless. Having an opportunity to present in front of the UK's hairdressing elite was indeed an honor and privilege that I shall never forget.