Next Level By Lyndal Salmon

BIBA Next Level returned to the streets of Fitzroy with traffic-stopping looks for a huge sixth year of competition!

The brief for the day is simple—create an amazing (and flattering) head-to-toe look on your model that demonstrates both your technical skill and your creativity. The models are then judged live—first seated so that our judges can have a close look and then again as they stomp down our outdoor runway on Gore Street.

Holding a live event means that BIBA Next Level is accessible to juniors who may not have the budget or support for a photographic competition. But our entrants are also able to craft their vision on their own terms without the stress of creating the style in front of the judges under time constraints. It’s an exciting opportunity and especially so now that live hair competitions are becoming rarer.

The BIBA Academy building and Gore Street itself were both transformed into a creative’s dream on the competition day with colourful murals on the wall and a DJ spinning tunes. Everyone was in high spirits and generously assisting other participants where they could.

It was a very special opportunity for our students, many of whom have only been studying hairdressing or barbering for a short time—these competitors brought the fearlessness of youth and a fresh perspective to what hair can mean. Those entrants who are more established in the industry really appreciated the opportunity to break out of the everyday of salon and barbershop work to flex their creative muscle.

The standard from everyone was amazing and left the crowd completely inspired. As always, the street filled with spectators who danced along as our models paraded down the catwalk. The energy was electric! This year’s prizes were also thrilling. The entrants of the Master Cut and Master Colour categories competed for the educational trip of a lifetime including flights, accommodation, and a week’s hairdressing course in either Paris, London, New York, or Santa Monica.

But the entrants from all categories also had the chance to win cold hard cash and some brilliant prizes from our wonderful sponsors Wella Professional, Dyson, Amazing Hair, Colortrak, K18, Exclusive Shears and Andis.

This year, the entrants from BIBA Academy and the BIBA Professional Salons across Victoria were also joined by participants from salons and barbershops that send their staff for training with us. It was wonderful to see the stunning creations from our much-loved friends at Analog Hair, Telleish, Stache, Wieselmann, Flipped, Xiang, LNDN, MAMAWEST, Vantage Barbers, Alchemy, Razorsmiths and many more. And it certainly kept the entrants from the BIBA Group on their toes!

Our amazing judging panel this year was stacked with industry leaders and creative professionals including Sheridan Shaw (MAMAWEST), Jarred Stedman (Mocha Group), David Wieselmann (Wieselmann Salon), Biftu Gudina (AREA Studio) and Anthony Capon (Et Al). By having a different mix of judges each year, we keep things fresh for our entrants and benefit from each person’s unique point of view. It’s impossible to predict what will happen based on the winners from previous years which makes it even more exciting.

We offered six categories for our sixth year of competition—Apprentice, Full-Time Student, Master Cut, Master Colour, Barbering and Session Styling. We had over 80 entries in all which was an amazing result for our first year back since 2019. We have missed BIBA Next Level and, clearly, everybody else has, too! The number of exceptional looks on the day made our judges’ lives very hard but not so hard that they couldn’t come up with some winners!

BIBA Academy RTO Apprentice Award

Winner: Taylor Frangi of BIBA Richmond Second Place: Sam Bulmer of Flipped Hair Third Place: Jaimé Henderson of Analog Hair Encouragement award: Jade Ward of AZARI.HAIR

BIBA Academy Full - Time Student Award

Winner: Bridget Forbes Second Place: Hayley Lewis-Howlett Third Place: Aisha Rizig of BIBA Moonee Ponds Encouragement award: Annie Woodward of Alchemy Hair

BIBA Master Cut Award

Winner: Bridget Beaton of BIBA Moonee Ponds Second Place: Teagan Cousins of Telleish Hair Studio Third Place: Jay Blitsas of BIBA South Yarra Encouragement award: Mia Nicolson of BIBA Warrnambool

BIBA Master Colour Award

Winner: Jay Blitsas of BIBA South Yarra Second Place: Masina Iva of BIBA Moonee Ponds Third Place: Robert Watson of Wieselmann Encouragement award: Krystal Appleton of Stache

BIBA Barber Award

Winner: Lucky Milham of Lords of the North and Agencie Second Place: Moe Taraghi of Vantage Barbers Third Place: Jack Osborn of Razorsmiths Encouragement award: Moe Taraghi of Vantage Barbers

BIBA Session Styling Award

Winner: Maddi Rogers of Wieselmann Second Place: Harry Donovan of Stache Third Place: Noa Jablonski Encouragement award: Lucky Milham of Lords of the North and Agencie

A very special thanks to all the people who have helped record the day and the amazing hair on display—Elizabeth Kinnaird who captured lots of special memories on film and Elton Chong who created some incredible video of our competitors and their work. Thanks also to our major sponsor Wella Professional and all our fabulous partners for this event including Dyson, Amazing Hair, Colortrak, K18 and their distributor Ozdare, Exclusive Shears, Andis and, of course, the wonderful Mocha Group. And a final thank you to our brilliant team of judges and all the entrants who participated—we couldn’t do it without you!