Diary of an Educator By Fraser Forsey

This is Frasers’ first installation as Australian Correspondent. We will follow Fraser for the year, hear about what events he has been involved with and been to and also, get an amazing insight into what’s happening on the ground Australia and New Zealand wide, in terms of what our industry is wanting to learn about, look at and talk about in real-time…

FRASER FORSEY

Over the last 12 weeks I have been working with so many amazing talented barbers and hairdressers around the country. With the team of educators at Barber Temple, it has allowed us to offer more education and collaborate with a lot of the amazing brands and business’s, essentially being able to be in more than one place at a time has been a blessing.

Probably the first thing to share would be the incredible response to the Temple team that I have received, it has been mind-blowing, so many to thank for coming through or sharing on socials.

Something I am super passionate about as without them in our industry, the barbering trade would soon disappear is apprentices. So proud to say we now at Temple have just shy of 100 apprentices on board with us, which the team and I are so grateful for.

My Schedule went something like this…

So, we kicked off with a handful of education workshops at Barber Temple, I partnered with Clipper Kayne and held a 2-day Bootcamp and look and learn show. We had a great turn out of about 35 barbers and hairdressers from Brisbane, Gold Coast and even Mackay.

Steve Purcell Founder of Uppercut held a couple of shows and workshops which are always incredible with his 20+ years’ experience in the barbering world delivering his traditional roots of cutting.

Bootcamps have been kicking off really strong with barbers upskilling over an intensive non-accredited learning style over an extended couple of days and also had Alicia Robinson from Cut and Coat Blackwater North Queensland come down and spend 5 days with our educators and myself for a really intense 5-day bootcamp. Our resident educator Anthony held a 3-day bootcamp in Mackay with a team of apprentices at Jays Barber Co diving into all the practical aspects of barbering and inspiring them with the fundamental techniques of barbering.

Adding colour to mix…

We kicked off our first colour workshop focusing on modern fade techniques and bleach trends we are seeing in our industry; this was led by two amazing educators Kat Cruz & Holly Breen. This was great as it brought together both the hairdressing and barbering techniques and merged them into one amazing collaborative workshop. I am seeing and feeling that all aspects of barbering and hairdressing are influencing and crossing over each other more and more now which is so great and allows it to become more creative and challenging.

Then we headed to Perth with a team of 3 educators and held an apprentice bootcamp for Tommy Gun’s over 5 days, wow apprentices are just getting better and better with all the resources, social and online content growing and advancing the talent is just incredible all across Australia.

Uppercut Deluxe education team led by Steve Purcell were next up to hold a show at Temple with 80 barbers from Tommy Gun’s Australia all coming together for a night of timeless classics. This show was the beginning of a few that we offered around the country with another show at an awesome venue in Sydney called Harrys where we had another 40 barbers come together and the last stop in Adelaide.

STEVE PURCELL

We kicked off our 1st hands on workshop with TAFE in Bundaberg for the year with barber influencer Clipper Kayne, this was a great turn out of hairdressers and barbers from all walks of our industry.

One of the coolest and biggest things we have put together over the last few months was an event we held with ANDIS and CLUB products at Temple launching the brand-new Re-Surge foil shaver, planning, and facilitating events on this level are a huge part of the reason why I could never do anything else. Bringing together some of the best talent in education, best products, and a room full of about 170+ Barbers and Hairdressers who all share the same love, passion and care for 1 thing………. Hair!

ANTHONY NAFATALI

I remember getting home at about 1am from the event and scrolling through social media trying to turn off my brain in bed and calm down from the excitement and I was just blown away by video after video, message after message of how positively impacted our industry was by the event. Great feeling!

A huge amount of regional travel over the last few weeks, and honestly always refreshing as obviously in regional towns etc there isn’t much on offer for education or peers in the industry to get excited about or sometimes being in a smaller town there isn’t as much competition so it can become a bit trend stale or not as challenging.

JORDAN TABAKMAN

I so refreshing, as anyone I have ever thankfully worked with regionally are always so extra grateful and eager to take on everything. In regional communities we are offering and holding a lot more tailored education privately in salon or shop upskilling qualified seniors or training apprentices, there has always been good offer of funding for regional education so it’s a great assistance for small businesses to access. Tailored workshops across many places such as Gippsland, North Queensland, regional NSW and even in New Zealand. I flew over to NZ late April to learn about the barbering industry and plan an education tour in mid-June. I was blown away by the raw talent and to see the love for the craft over there. I was lucky enough to meet some of the legends of the industry and see some incredible barbershops and academies all sharing the same love for what we do here in Aus. We have been invited to educate and present at NZ Hair and Barber expo in Auckland in Mid-June over a couple of days with Clipper Kayne, Anthony Nafatali and myself. We then have partnered with Cut Above Academy in Auckland for a 2-day bootcamp and look and learn showcase at night, what an amazing academy for NZ also. Then heading south to Hamilton and Wellington for some more education, really looking forward to this trip.

KLIPPER KANE

One place that means a lot to me is Gippsland in regional Victoria, I have been so grateful to have worked here for the past 7 years roughly with some incredible salons, barbershops, and wholesalers. I was overwhelmed with excitement to be able to finally fly back to Melbourne for the 1st time since the beginning of covid, and we weren’t disappointed. Kicking off a 2-day bootcamp with Norris and seeing so many excited and enthused like minded people who were pumped to be able to sit in a room full of industry peers again. Caught up with lots of customers and friends from within the industry from Melbourne all the way out to Bairnsdale. We have partnered with an amazing shop out at Bairnsdale for a 5-day Bootcamp in late May, can’t wait for this one and to share with you about it in next issue.

@barbereducationbyfraser @barbertempleaus