Hair Icons Celebrate at AHIA Creative 2022

Monday the 13th June saw Australia’s leading creatives joining together at International Convention Centre, Sydney for the annual Australian Hair Industry Award’s Creative 2022 gala awards evening to honour their peers.

Coming off the back of a difficult few years for salons around the country due to the impact of COVID, this was a chance to celebrate one another in person as the industry looks ahead to exciting times. Launched in 2012 by esteemed trade visionaries Mocha Publishing, the AHIA’s are celebrating their 10th year as the trusted national award platform which provides a benchmark of excellence across both specialist and individual Educational and Business categories and the second year that the Creative categories have been given their own awards program.

The event was held as part of the inaugural HAIR FESTIVAL over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, an exciting new initiative which maintains the legacy of the industry’s much loved and most celebrated hair event, Hair Expo, which was sadly cancelled in 2020.

MC and Creative Director Adam Williams

The evening saw 800 of the most talented hairdressers and their salon teams watching on as the awards were announced with the gala night MC’d by Creative Director, Host and Media Personality Adam Williams, styled to perfection in a stunning Jade Green velvet jacket from Politix Menswear. Adam produced the two epic runway shows for the night featuring 33 models and dancers in an explosive fashion rocks, runway spectacle. Having previously collaborated with Vogue, Bvlgari, Meta, Harpers Bazaar and many more, Williams brought the ideal blend of elevated editorial and theatrical flavour to the AHIA runway shows, which featured pyros in abundance, waterfalls of aqua fog, fashion direct from the 2022 fashion week catwalks, and an intricately choreographed explosion of fashion and dance against the backdrop of a 32 meter LED screen and custom show tracks reminiscent of a Madrid circuit party.

Hair teams from O&M, ghd and Revlon Professional with hair extensions provided by Amazing Hair showed fashion forward runway style hair to compliment the theatrics of the showcases in true high-end luxury style.

Owner/Publisher Linda Woodhead was thrilled that this second year was so successful;

“After launching the Creative AHIA’s last year, we were thrilled at the overwhelming industry response and the huge amount of entries. These very special awards continue to highlight the quality of the industry’s editorial and trend focused skills and have allowed our entrants to show their clients and communities just how talented they are. The quality of the Australian hair industry is clearly evident here and every finalist and winner should be incredibly proud of their work.”

AHIA’s Creative partnered with the best names and brands in the industry to bring the evening together including brand partners O&M, Revlon Professional, ghd, Excellent Edges and Amazing Hair. The awards were judged by a phenomenal group of esteemed international and local experts enlisted to hone in on the impressive entries with business, media and industry icons including Angelo Seminara, Errol Douglas, Sally and Jamie Brooks, Sam McKnight, Charlotte Grant-West of HJI, Sergi Bancells of Esthetica, Cameron Pine of Instyle, Louise May of HAIR BIZ and Christina Butcher of Hair Romance. The evening also saw announcement of the much-anticipated HOTSHOTS team for 2022, putting a spotlight on the industry’s most exciting next-gen talent and providing the chance for these 31 and under superstars to take their career to a whole new level. This crew were judged by familiar faces including Dee Parker-Attwood, Jayne Wild, Benni Tognini, Stevie English, Sharon Blain and Brad Ngata.

AHIA CREATIVE Winners AHOTY Dee Parker Attwood Danny Pato NZHOTY and Dee Parker Attwood AHOTY