New A Team 09 Attend their First Training Session

Alison Dace puts her new A Team through their paces!

Session 1 for the new A Team 09, began with a get to know each other session and a little exercise I learnt from my boyfriend. I thought it would work brilliantly in joining us bunch of strangers together as it helps to build teamwork very quickly. The rules are, from the many materials placed on the table (magazines,newspaper,sweets, etc), each team (we split the group into 3) must work together to create a Disney character of their choice. With a model and a spokesperson, you can share your crazy thoughts with the rest of your group. It went down really well, and very soon we had fizzy cherry sweets as a crown, and tin foil wings for a fairy, plus loads more as the picture shows. With a good team vibe in the room it was time to start the more serious business of the day.

This session was all about building presentation skills and developing the ways to create a professional mood board. We had so much fun, learning all about which TV presenters we all love and hate and the reasons why. Then using their new found skills everyone presented back to me, and received a full on critique. There was a great vibe and element of fun within the team, and the day ended with us knowing each other much better, after a psychology quiz.

I must now sign out for a couple of weeks as I am off on holiday, the lovely Mario Failla is taking session 2, so enjoy! But those of you on the team, don't forget your homework, I'm looking forward to seeing those mood boards.

Intense A Team Interview Day Leads to 14 Strong Team for 09

Alison Dace spills the beans on the Saks A Team 09

The day started with a normal tube journey to work, but the rush hour was not going to get me down, as I was so excited! I was going to see the best new talent that we have in our company, a chance to get up close and personal with the best creative brains within Saks!

We had an exciting start to the new season of the A Team, double the amount of applicants from last year, you could feel the tension in the room!

We started the day with a run down for the year ahead, and then straight into some creative hairdressing, with all the hairdressers pushing there creative juices, and creating some great results on the blank canvas training head. Next up was the individual evaluation, a chance for me to get to know the applicants further, and to learn more about what makes them tick creatively.

Then the all important one on one interview, this is always such a hard decision for me, as I would love to take on everyone, but we only have 15 places. Anyone who didn't get through musn't be disheartened, I really hope to see them again next year. The successful candidates were told immediately, and then off they went to celebrate!

So a massive congratulations to the NEW A TEAM 09...

Clayde Baumann – Saks Hammersmith
Benjamin Waines – Saks Southampton
Claire Czajkowski – Saks Bristol
Larraine Smith – Saks Bury
Christy Thompson – Saks Aberdeen
Greg Bloor – Saks Birmingham
Gemma Printer – Saks London Academies
Danny Lynes – Saks Kingston
Lyndsay Bellerby – Saks Guisborough
Craig Jenkins – Saks Southend
Nikki Annig – Saks Welwyn Garden City
Emma England – Saks Great Yarmouth
Chloe Roddam – Saks Darlington
Jess Lad - Saks Solihull Cranmore

It really was a brilliant day, I met some great Saks people and really look forward to working closely with them all throughout 2009.

Alison Dace to Open the Show for L'Oreal's 100th Birthday

Alison Dace to front fabulous show with H3 team!

What an exciting year I'm having. I've just returned from a pre-meeting in Paris where we started organising our show for the 100th Birthday of L'Oreal. H3 season 1 and 2 are joining forces, so there will be 9 international hairdressers building an event for 4000 people. across 4 shows.

It's just so great to be working with such great hairdressers from all over Europe… Darren Fowler from Clipso, Bertram K from Austria, Phillipe Gonney from France to name but a few. The buzz in the room was electrifying as we began our preparations for putting this event together.

On the second day my acting skills were tested as we filmed some footage for our background DVD. It was so funny, I was told, “Alison look serious, Alison laugh, look serious, laugh, look serious, laugh…. and so on! What a brilliant day though, especially as we all got on really well as a team and are now looking forward to the show in June. Then a quick journey home on the Euro Star and chance to relax and have a good gossip with the lovely Darren Fowler.

Spring / Summer Trends Launch Hits Manchester

Katy Adamson gets a buzz from training in the North West

I've just returned from the Spring / Summer Trends Launch in Manchester, I just love the city so much, it has all the vibe of London but with lots of smiley friendly faces and a FREE bus around the centre…just brilliant!

Before heading to Manchester we had a model casting and colour prep at our London Academies in Covent Garden. We were lucky to have gorgeous models who were open to change…our model scouts do a fantastic job! We had a very busy day getting fully prepared, trying to leave as little as possible to do the next day as we would be arriving in Manchester at 12pm and the seminar started at 3pm.

Luckily all went smoothly… myself, Tracy Gallagher, Alison Dace, Lisa, our make up artist and the 6 models got the train without too many problems! No wasting time on the journey, all models had their fingers and toes painted en route.

On arriving in Manchester we met our new A team member, Lorraine from Saks Bury! Who was a fabulous help in prepping the models.

The seminar went really well, I worked on the asymmetric trend, with a soft romantic feel to the finish. I used a pin cutting technique which created a soft feathered feel with feminine tendrils at the base line. The finish was curly, wide, with a flat wave through the front area. I worked with the pastel colour trend on a natural red head, taking her richer in tone with placement of apricot mainly focused through the front.

Tracey worked with the metallic trend, using bronze tones, 07’s and golds, the colours were layered up alternating from root to tip which gave depth and a stacked appearance…faboulous! The overall look was the thatched trend with a DIY fringe giving an instant on trend look.

Alison worked with 2 of the colour trends neon and pastel. Alison used the new l’oreal mix tones which had beautiful results with strong vibrant colours.

All went really smoothly, with great feedback from both the audience and the models.

BBC Young Hairdresser of the Year

Alison Dace congratulates successful stylists!

Congratulations to the following Saks stylists who are through to the next round of BBC Three’s Young Hairdresser of the Year (part of their Young Talent of the Year programme); Andrea Walton, Craig Jenkins (Southend), Christopher Law (Saffron Walden), Greg Bloor (Birmingham), Claire Czajkowski (Bristol), Luca Terminiello (Guildford) and Antonio Di Gesaro (Hertford).

6 finalists will be selected to go through to the studio final, which will be filmed over one day and will involve 5 challenges. After each round, one finalist will be elimitated by an expert panel of judges, until they have their overall winner!

Greg Bloor, Claire Czajkowski and Craig Jenkins are also members of the Saks A Team 2009 (more to come on this very soon) so I look forward to hearing all about their exciting journey, and supporting them along the way. Good luck to all the successful applicants, I’ll be keeping everything crossed that it is a Saks stylist who makes it all the way…..

Milan to Manchester

Alison Dace jets off again!

I've just been on another H3 adventure, this time to Milan, for a 3 day trip. When I arrived we went straight into the model casting, over 100 girls and boys to choose from, just as well as I needed 12 models. Casting a success, I started colour preparations, experimenting and using the new L'Oreal mix shades, yellow / mauve and Luo p10 ( a lovely light blue).

Day 2 was rehearsal and show day. We ended the show by handing out 200 3D glasses to the audience and created a ten minute 3D finale on the screens with spinning models and flying trees, it was pretty cool!

Day 3 was 2 hands on seminars, me and 60 delegates, hard work but loads learnt by all involved.

It's not only me that gets to travel, while I was away, my baby son, Tristan, went off to stay with his Grandparents in Manchester. The plan being that I would pick him up after the Manchester Trends launch.

So I get back late from Milan on Monday evening and make an early start to join Tracey Gallagher, Katie Adamson and our models at London Euston, ready to head to the L'Oreal Academy in Manchester for the Spring / Summer Trends Collection Launch. As always there were various dramas, probelsm with tickets and a prepped model who didn't show! But the show must go on, so in stepped our gorgeous make up artist, Lisa Price. The Trends Launch went really well, with an enthusiastic audience who are now looking forward to getting hands on with the 4 day Trends training to follow.

All packed up and ready to head back to London, my parents met me at the station with Tristan, and it was cuddles all the way home for me!