When 2 Artistic Worlds Collide

BY REX A.C. SILVER

Hailing from The United Kingdom, James Beaumont is an International Men’s Hairdressing educator, and the Global Ambassador for the Keune Haircosmetics Men’s Range; 1922 by J.M Keune.

The Creative Director and partner of Longbrook Hair and Beauty Salon, originally founded by his father and chief mentor Richard in 1974, James brings his highly refined hairdressing skills, and marries them with modern contemporary barbering, in a seamlessly intertwined dance that merges the two artistic forms together in an exciting display of movement, texture and form.

Tell us about your early days in the trade and what drove you to excel to such a high level, mentors, dreams and goals.

Along with Richard, my father, visiting Salon International at a young age I got to see the atmosphere from the creative side to our industry which inspired me. Being given the opportunity and privilege of becoming an educator for Keune years ago, kept me focused, I strived to do my very best. They taught me how to project my knowledge. I was lucky to have my best mentor in the family, another mentor and friend who always inspires and motivates me is Dove Palmer, check him out for a precision artist. One of my dream goals was when I arrived at Keune Haircosmetics 90th anniversary, this is one of hell of a show, over four thousand hairdressers, an incredible stage. A seriously inspiring show with some of the best global hairdressers showcasing their talent, I stood there in awe and from then on, my goal was decided, in 10 years would be their 100th anniversary and I was determined be on that stage. Five years later I hit the stage launching their new men’s range for the 95th anniversary showcasing my work and I couldn’t have been more happier, a memory to always treasure. Dreams can come true, aiming high with hard work working with a passion you can achieve.

Please tell us about your bespoke education services.

The education platform ‘Male focus’ the focus is the detail of purity when working with hair, the explanation and method has a meaning to how and why and very importantly, when we deliver certain methods and techniques. I don’t just show case a haircut, the information excels to how to alter a design to fit other subjects such as head shape, face shape, textures, following to proportions and geometry of the designs. I break my education into many factors, we have 3 subjects within the foundation, then following to the creative courses. One to one can be bespoke by having consultation with the client to see what he or she wishes to improve on.

What’s it like being a Global Ambassador for a brand?

Becoming a global ambassador of Keune was most definitely a highlight within my career. One of my memorable experiences, myself and my good barber friend Tom Chapman were launching the range to a meeting with Keune’s global distributors. This was an event held on the top floor of the tallest hotel in Amsterdam, The Sir Adam Hotel. Over ninety countries of distributors from all over the world were observing the two of us deliver a very important presentation; a showcase of the range. It was an incredible high-class event, spectacular experience.

Also, our Australian visit was one of my favourite events, we held the 1922 by J.M Keune presentation for the ‘A DAY WITH KEUNE’ hair show in The Star Sydney casino, an incredible show full of inspiration, super after party too, I highly recommend a visit to this Event.

You are a multi-award-winning artist, kudos for the achievements James, why is competing so important to you?

Thank you for the title! At first it was my goal in getting my name out there. I wasn’t living in London where the big companies were. I was working in the south of England in Exeter. I needed to get my name out there, so competitions gave me that stool to leap from. NHF Men’s British photographic trophy was my first, then I achieved it second time around after which people became interested in my work. Competitions certainly were my launch pad, from the exposure and seeing myself grow I thought this was the right road of competitions, they are also actually a good marketing tool, the more I achieved of becoming a finalist the more people wanted to know how I create which followed on for selling my education. I absolutely love the project of entering a competition, my philosophy is to enjoy every process of what you do, don’t focus on the end result, just enjoy the process and the result will surprise you. I get very involved, research into catwalks, what’s trending in the complete attire, what everyone’s doing in other competitions, are there some trends emerging etc. From all of this I create approx. three mood boards per model, one for the attire, one for the haircut design (different variations that could suit) and another for the hair styling, the model’s hair texture what can we do with it within different lengths. These boards get my brain popping, exciting. Bringing the boards back in on the day of the shoot reactivate the brain which again expands the vision. One tip is always style the models hair in a few different ways to pick the best variation, play music, which helps with the vibe and in facts unlocks creativity.

Let’s talk about your photography and how that adds another dimension to your creativity and ability to present your work.

I started working with my photographer Felix Northover when he was aged 16 straight out if college. We literally learnt of each other. We were both young, excited to learn new things therefore we grew over the years together. Felix is fantastic and we both enjoyed spending a lot of time on a shoot to find new angles and new lighting ideas with photography and hair to ensure it worked well together as you can capture hair as an art so well.

Unpack for us your NOXIOUS collection, where you have stated, “Two Artistic Worlds Collide” by wonderfully combining the two skills of Barbering and Hairdressing.

My education is a refined hairdressing terminology and I also love working with the barbering tools, Noxious was released around 2018, this is when the hairdressing vision or trends would, I say, started to come into the barbering industry. With this collection I wanted to express them both but on quite an extreme creative level. The model Ross, with white and grey hair was actually inspired by “reptile scales” as you can see the patterns around the back of the head, also the texture shapes silhouette gives a shape reptile pattern, including the tone. Emjay the model with the neck tattoo is a more rounded 70s volumed shape. Henry the model who wears the short finger waved crop for softness, but also sharp clipper design on the side to balance the strength. Charlie the model in denim was something where I wanted to try out colour pixels, patterns within the colouring process to give an even more harassing vibe.