SOCIAL MEDIA INTERNATIONAL BARBER OF THE YEAR
e n o c c i C Frank BY REX A.C. SILVER
Amongst Rock Stars, Sports Stars and Actors, Frank Ciccone finds himself backstage at Awards like the Aria’s, the Logies, in the US at the Emmy’s or on-call to a host of Australian and International A-List talents to do their hair when they need to shine in the spotlight. Now, it’s Franks turn for his close-up. Frank entered The Social Media Hair and Beauty Awards (SMHBA) out of the UK and his star-studded followers and loyal clients rallied behind him to take out the honours!! Well Deserved Frank! Firstly, Congratulations on representing Australia and taking out the top prize” International Barber of The Year” at the SMHBA out of the UK, Sponsored by Wahl and Schwarzkopf. Thank you, Rex. I’m stoked about this award and very thankful to everyone who supported me during the process. How did you come across the SMHBA and what did it take to enter? I came across the awards via a sponsored post on social media. I clicked on it to see who was being nominated. There were many talented British, American and even Dutch entrants. I decided to submit a pic of my work and I left it at that. I didn’t really look at the criteria when I submitted it, as I was overwhelmed by the quality of entries. I thought I had no chance. I understand to win, after you have qualified as a finalist, you have to have people like your entry on the official page, so is this something your clients, friends and supporters rallied to get you there? Yes, that is correct. Once I was notified, I then reached out to all my clients, friends and high-profile clients who in turn rallied behind me. That’s an amazing show of love and support for you and your staff and business after such a hard past 12 moths for Victorians! I know that the hair and beauty industry suffered across the country but for businesses here in Victoria it was very hard. We were closed for about 5 months all up. We actually closed for 6 weeks prior to being forced closed as our area was very high in cases. It was a tough decision to close earlier but we’d rather be closed by choice than to be forced closed with our business name all over the news for the wrong reasons. This award just gives us hope that as a business, like many, we are heading in the right direction when you know awards and events are happening again. What do you think this means for your business and staff; a great motivator? Any type of award for your business is a blessing. It gives you self-worth for starters, especially when you have been in the industry for 25 years plus. The clients love it that their hairdresser/ barber has an award as they boast about it that “my barber is better than yours” lol! The staff love it, especially the younger ones as they can see that there is appreciation & gratitude in the industry by its peers and they can work towards an accolade themselves one day. For the business itself it’s amazing as we have some marketing power up our sleeves with posting about this award. Take us through the event when the winners were announced, I understand you had to get up at 4am and thought you were going to just watch? Yes, I smashed out a few espressos that morning. When it was announced that the awards ceremony was being held at 8pm I had to work out the Melbourne time and realised it was an ‘am’ event. Went to bed early Friday night and was up at 4. The hosts of the event were 2X British Barber of the year Mathew Guerin and renowned make-up artist Sophie Williams. It was a live feed for everyone around the world. Because it was in Britain, they couldn’t do an event due to covid restrictions. So, it was held online. When they announced the winners from each category such as “salon of the year” etc, they would then do a live cross to the winner via Instagram to accept the award. When it was the turn of the International Barber of the year, I was just watching waiting to see who would win. 34 Barber Shop Year 10 Issue 2
