2021 AHIA CREATIVE Best Men’s Hair Specialist
Anthony Staltari with Rex A.C. Silver
Anthony’s journey into men’s hair is quite an amazing story, so is the tale of how he did this collection. He told his place of work he was going to London to do a cutting course and came back with this amazing body of work. It seemed Anthony had it all worked out and pulled of this feat with military precision. This is a young man with great talent, creative vision and drive. Let’s get to know him a little better shall we… To kick things off, can you give us a brief summary of your career so far? I began cutting hair in my garage for my friends when I was 14 and this is when my passion began. After a year I started posting photos of my haircuts on an Instagram page. Don De Sanctis the owner of Barber Boys came across my Instagram page and contacted my high school to offer me an apprenticeship. At age 16 I left school and began my apprenticeship with Barber Boys and never looked back. I entered my first barber competition at age 17 as a second-year apprentice. I entered the Senior Men’s Hairdresser category in South Australia and ended up winning. After winning this competition I had a drive to enter more competitions. I found barber competitions interstate and travelled there to participate. One of my achievements was winning the Australian barber title. After winning the Australian Barber title in Sydney my sponsors decided to send me to New York to participate
in one of the largest barber competitions in the world. It was such a privilege to be part of this and to meet so many people within the industry. I didn’t get a win, but it was definitely an amazing experience. I was also lucky enough to travel to Las Vegas. I then decided I wanted to focus on education which was something I really have a passion for. My first experience educating was at the Melbourne Hair Expo at age 17. I was told just to demonstrate a haircut and explain how to use the clippers. After this my sponsors regularly sent me to educate interstate. I was also able to educate in China and New Zealand. I could never have imagined when I started my career at the age of 16 where this industry would take me, it has enabled me to travel to so many places and educate. I have put in a lot of hard work to achieve this and have been very lucky and honoured to had so many opportunities in past 7 years. In 2019 and 2020 I entered a collection in the Australian Awards and resulted as a finalist for each category I entered. I was determined to work harder and to create a winning collection. In 2020 I decided to travel to London for my collection as I believed it provided the best resources available for the collection I wanted to create.
38 Barber Shop Year 10 Issue 3
