7 mins
NEWS
Dates announced for Professional Beauty & Hair 2023
Professional Beauty & Hair will be held in Dublin on 28-29 May 2023, with the event taking place in the RDS in Ballsbridge.
Professional Beauty & Hair, in partnership with Irish Beauty, returned to the RDS last November. The show, which is an annual fixture on the calendars of beauty, hair and spa professionals in Ireland, made its successful comeback after a three-year break due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Featuring exhibitors from across all sectors of the market, including skincare, hair, spa, barbering, aesthetics, nails, lashes and make-up, professional trade visitors attended the two-day event to reconnect and network with industry peers face to face, and to discover the latest products, brands and trends.
Three live stages – Hair and Barbering, Trends and Techniques, and Skin and Advanced Treatments – hosted a line-up of industry experts, who gave talks, live demos and advice on a variety of topics, including future-proofing your business, oncology aesthetics, balayage tips and social media management.
Meanwhile, the Nail Competitions area showcased and rewarded nail tech talent.
With the 2023 show already shaping up to be bigger than ever, you can now register your interest on professionalbeauty.ie, where the line-up of exhibitors, speakers, competitions and other exciting additions to this year's event will be revealed in the coming months.
New tipping law comes into effect
New rules about how employers in Ireland share tips, gratuities and service charges amongst employees are now in place. The Payment of Wages (Amendment) (Tips and Gratuities) Act 2022 became law on 20 July 2022, and came into effect on 1 December.
A tip or gratuity is defined as a payment made by a customer, which they assumed would be kept by the employee or shared with other employees. Tipping is common practice in the hair and beauty industry.
The Act makes it illegal for employers to use tips or gratuities to make up basic wages. It will also give staff and employees a legal requirement to receive tips and gratuities paid in electronic form.
Furthermore, any charge called a service charge, or a charge which would lead a customer to believe it is for service, will now have to be distributed to staff as if it were a tip. The legislation will be reviewed after one year to assess its effectiveness, and to decide if further measures are needed.
“Tips can form a significant percentage of a worker’s take-home pay, and these changes go a long way to ensuring those tips are distributed to the people who have earned them,” said Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
“This new law is a positive step towards improving the rights and entitlements of lower-paid workers, as well as providing transparency for customers. While most employers treat their staff fairly, this will help to stamp out bad practices where they exist, and give customers the confidence that gratuities are paid to staff.”
IN BRIEF
■ Colourist Amanda Hogan from Ross Adams Hair & Beauty, Tallaght, Dublin has won the Ireland final of the Alfaparf Milano Professional Next Color GenHAIRation contest, which was held at Accademia, Dublin. Entrants had to conceive, combine and create a brand new hair colour, with six candidates selected to compete at the Ireland final. They had to showcase their artistic talent with a wearable and contemporary creation that brought out the best of their colour mix. Hogan will take part in the global final in October next year, when each country’s winner will compete, using the same model from their local heat, to be crowned overall winner of the Next Color GenHAIRation contest.
■ Ultraceuticals has announced the winners of its Real Visible Results in 90 Days (RVR90) campaign. The skincare brand invited salon partners to take part, helping clients to understand the treatment journey and commitment it takes to achieve desired results. The winners in Ireland were Touch & Glow, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan (Anti-ageing category); Forever Young Beauty, Corofin, Co Clare (Acne category); and Beautique Skin & Beauty Clinic, Mullingar, Co Westmeath (Hyperpigmentation category).
■ A new art exhibition exploring the history of hairdressing is opening in the Irish Architectural Archive in Dublin on 17 January. A Spark initiative, funded by Creative Ireland, The Coiffured is a collaboration between artist Amanda Jane Graham, who previously worked as a hairdresser, Leitrim Arts Office, Local Enterprise Office, Image Skillnet and Habic. It will explore the landmarks in hairdressing, from the headdresses of Egyptian pharaohs to Edmund Burke, who declared “the occupation of a hairdresser cannot be a matter of honour to any person”.
Irish Government launches new resource for SMEs
The Irish Government has launched Skills for Better Business, a new two-part initiative to help SME owners and managers across Ireland.
It features an online tool for management skills assessment, complemented by a resource to provide contact information for management education and training.
The Online Assessment allows SME owners and managers to assess their own management skills in less than 10 minutes by answering a series of questions about their management capabilities. They will then receive a bespoke report outlining their current level of skills, and identifying critical areas to improve upon.
The Courses and Contacts resource allows them then to see at a glance the range of education and training providers in Ireland, and to make contact immediately with an advisor who can direct them to the training and education they need.
“The Online Assessment will make it easy for busy small business owners and managers to assess their own management and leadership skills,” said Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar. “This can make a real difference to them, as top-class management skills make for top-class businesses.
“The Courses and Contacts resource will make it easy for them to find the training and education available to develop those skills. Research has shown that firms that invest in management development grow faster, survive longer and innovate more effectively. I would encourage any SME owner or manager to take the Online Assessment and then reach out to the contacts for specific advice and guidance.”
Apprenticeship award for Donegal salon
Kim Kelly, a member of the Patrick Gildea Hairdressing team, has been named a National Apprentice of the Year Award winner.
Patrick Gildea and Kim Kelly
Over 180 apprentices from around the country were nominated for the inaugural awards, with 12 winners announced by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris at a ceremony in Dublin’s Mansion House.
Kelly, who is an apprentice in Gildea’s Donegal salon, was awarded as part of the Generation National Apprenticeship Programme. She is currently in her second year of the three-year National Apprenticeship Programme with ETB.
“What an amazing achievement for Kim to get such an award,” said Gildea. “We are so proud of her. Her talent, dedication and passion for hairdressing is something that every young person should aspire to.”
“I am delighted and completely over the moon to have received this award,” said Kelly. “It means so much to me to get recognised for my hard work and commitment, as I have such a passion for hairdressing, and always strive to do my very best. I am so focused and dedicated to my apprenticeship, and to receive this award is a huge step in my career.”
IN BRIEF
■ Aimee Connolly has opened The Academy, which is located in a purpose-built studio space on the second floor of her new store on Grafton Street in Dubln. Connolly is the owner of cosmetics business Sculpted by Aimee. Following a number of years working as a make-up artist, the Dublin native founded her brand in 2016, and set up Sculpted The Academy in 2017, when she introduced her own certified make-up courses. She also offers a special Sculpted Pro Programme to the brand’s growing make-up artist community in Ireland and the UK. Among the range of courses being offering at The Academy is The Art of Photographic Make-up, a 10-week VTCT-certified course.
■ Matrix UKI is has announced Zoe Irwin as its new editorial colour & trend ambassador. According to the hair brand, Irwin will lead the development of curating emerging hair trends and techniques from global inspiration to the Matrix salon floor. She will be partnering with Matrix on upcoming projects to develop new services and skills within Matrix’s colour and styling portfolio. “We’re delighted to welcome Zoe to the Matrix family,” said Sussan Verghesse, brand general manager, Matrix. “Her editorial vision, combined with our formula innovation, will bring a new dimension to Matrix, and inspire our community of hairdressers.”
■ A new barbers has opened on Washington Street in Cork. Hive is owned by Tyrone native Brídín Ward, who trained in South West College in Tyrone and taught in Belfast Metropolitan College. After moving to Cork in 2017, she worked in a number of salons in the city, and completed a Start Your Own Business course in 2021 with her Local Enterprise Office. “The course gave me the tools, resources, networking opportunities and knowledge which has helped me to open Hive,” she said. “It has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember to start my own business, so I’m thrilled that all the hard work has paid off. I'm now planning to open an academy this year.”
This article appears in the Jan/Feb 2023 Issue of Professional Beauty & HJ Ireland
If you would like to view other issues of Professional Beauty & HJ Ireland, you can see the full archive
here.