Edmonton stylists win ‘hair Oscars’ in Paris
Blue Gemini duo wins ‘Oscars of hair’
A team from an Edmonton hair salon won the “Oscars of hair” in Paris earlier this week, trumping teams from Russia, the Netherlands and other parts of Canada with their orchid-inspired hair design that swung with movement on the stage.
“You only have one chance,” said Paulina Truong, the lead stylist who worked with makeup artist Genevieve Davis to win the Haute Coiffeur Francaise Trophy 2014 during a live competition in France on Sunday. The two stylists from Blue Gemini Hair Studio in southwest Edmonton had 90 minutes to style a model from hair and makeup to dress and shoes during one of the top hair competitions in the world.
Truong, 41, and Davis, 26, woke up at 5 a.m. on Sunday to first dye the model’s long hair from light brown to an orchid-inspired sheen: pearly pink darkening to a soft rose pedal toward the ends in a technique called ombre, or shaded in French. The dyeing took place prior to the timed competition.
Then, with about 10 judges circling and studying the 10 teams at work, the Edmonton team focused on transforming their model into a “beautiful, sophisticated, rich” look of a princess, Truong said. Davis had 45 minutes for the makeup before Truong cut the fringe and blow-dried the hair to a shiny finish. A black strapless asymmetrical dress draped the model in haute-couture lacy style.
Other teams — four from the Netherlands, two from Russia, one from London, Ont. and two from the Montreal area — leaned toward more punk looks, Truong said. Hair was cut shorter, some even shaved on the sides and at the back. Other models were cinched in corsets or shorter dresses, Truong described.
Truong and Davis’s look was “more sophisticated,” Truong said, adding she spent more time blow-drying than cutting. She suggested some of the art of hairdressing has been lost with the use of flat irons rather than the proper drying techniques. “Her hair was really simple, shiny.”
The win means Truong will go back to Paris next year to be one of the judges. She may also be involved in creating the 2014-15 autumn-winter collection by the Haute Coiffure Francaise Club.