The iconic Roundhouse in Camden Town, London, played host to the spectacular 42nd Alternative Hair Show on Sunday, October 13, 2024.
The 42nd Alternative Hair Show welcomed hundreds of hairdressers from across the globe to share their latest creative work under the theme ‘Evolution’. A fitting title for how far the AHS has progressed and evolved over the years from the very first show in 1983. Long-time AHS supporter Linda Evans was back to present the show, alongside AHS Founder & Director Tony Rizzo and AHS President Anthony Mascolo. Following tradition, each AHS Artist was presented with an award and acknowledged for their incredible dedication to this annual charity event at their own expense.
This year AHS President Anthony Mascolo received the Legend Award in recognition of his outstanding work over the years as President of the Alternative Hair Show. Throughout the show Anthony also shared some creative films inspired by his earlier work that have been reinvented through the power of AI.
The show officially kicked off with the International Visionary Award which this year celebrated its 20th Anniversary. 38 finalists took to the stage across Cut & Colour, Mens and Avant Garde. The Winners & Runners Up were:
CUT & COLOUR:
► Winner – Matteo Susini, Italy
► Joint Runners Up – Petra Blatnik Macek, Slovenia and Josh & Sophie-Rose Goldsworthy, UK
MENS:
► Winner – Josh Lamonaca, UK
► Runner Up – Luigi Guardascione, Italy
AVANT-GARDE:
► Winner – Tan Wei Jun, Malaysia
► Runner Up – Yu Zhuwen, China
Throughout the show we saw the incredible creative films of the 11 Visionaries Artists: Ahkim Anthony Tan – Australia, Alla Tcaciuc – Moldova, Anakin Chan – USA, Daniel Gallego – Spain, Pino Troncone – Italy, Sara Piera Cano – Spain, Shogo Ideguchi – Japan, Tom Yek Teng Siong – Malaysia, Ulderico Nasti – Italy, Viktoriia Vradii – Ukraine, Yildis Charbachi – Sweden. Also, during the show there was a touching message from Worldwide Honorary Patron of the Alternative Hair Show and hairdressing legend, Trevor Sorbie MBE: “I think this show is important… it’s about letting your creative mind just go and being let loose. It can be whatever you want it to be and it’s for a really good cause, to try and find a cure for leukaemia…” Trevor is a true inspiration to everyone at the Alternative Hair Show and across the hairdressing community, he was greatly missed at this year’s show.
On the night the Alternative Hair Show paid tribute to Vidal Sassoon who for several years was Worldwide Honorary Patron of the show. In celebration of 70 years of Vidal Sassoon, Mark Hayes, International Creative Director of Vidal Sassoon said: “Vidal was always so generous and polite, when he passed we lost a visionary and creative genius… Rarely do we meet someone who had the profound impact that Vidal had.”
The Alternative Hair Show has never been anything less than extraordinary, this year was no exception as 14
Headline Artists from across the world took to the stage to present their latest work: Dmitry Vinokurov, Russia; HC Salon, Italy; Jaeyoung Lee, South Korea; Tindaro Orifici, Germany; Gogen, Italy; Vidal Sassoon, UK; Ken Zhou, China; Paul Stafford, Northern Ireland; Marc Antoni, UK; Saco, UK; Kohsuke Visual Network, Japan; Anne Veck, UK; Rudy Mostarda, Italy; and Sanrizz, UK.
Besides providing one of the very best creative platforms worldwide, it cannot be forgotten that the main purpose of the Alternative Hair Show is to raise money for Fighting Leukaemia. Tony Rizzo and Anthony Mascolo closed the show with all artists on stage, presenting a cheque to announce that this year’s show raised an astounding £116,000 for the Alternative Hair Charitable Foundation, Fighting Leukaemia (Registered Charity: 1147189) and Blood Cancer UK.
Alternative Hair Show headline sponsor is Alfaparf Milano Professional with Wella Company as gold sponsor. Charity sponsors are Eugène Perma, Semi di Lino, Infringe, Amos Professional, Alternative Hair, Onacis and Linda Hair.
All images by Alex Barron-Hough