The Contessa Entry Guide is Here!

The 2024 Contessa Awards entry guide has gone digital! Now, you can find all the info you need about this year’s awards, including rule changes, info on our newest category (Emerging Colourist), photo shoot tips and more—all by simply scanning this QR code.

Open your camera and scan here

Whether you’re a first-time entrant or Contessa veteran, make sure to check it out for everything you’ll want (and need) to know about entering. A special thank you to our Contessa experts for their contributions to this year’s entry guide.

Entries open in May!

Deadline: September 6, 2023

Gala Date: November 12, 2023

Refresh and Rewind

Help your clients extend their styles between washes with Olaplex’s No.4D Clean Volume Detox Dry Shampoo.

In addition to providing the common benefits of dry shampoo, such as absorbing oil, odour-causing pollutants and sweat, Olaplex’s No.4D Clean Volume Detox Dry Shampoo is designed for all hair types and textures and is formulated with the brand’s patented Bond Building Technology to help repair damage and strengthen hair by relinking broken bonds. It also contains rambutan seed extract, which helps detoxify and soothe the scalp, and ultrafine micro starch, which helps absorb oil and buildup without clogging pores. Plus, it’s vegan, colour-safe and free of sulfates, parabens, gluten and phthalates, without leaving behind a powdery residue.

Balanced Blondes

Create the ideal shade of blonde with Moroccanoil’s Color Calypso Demi-Permanent Gloss, now available in three new shades.

With a balance of cool and warm tones, these shades offer multidimensional blonde results suited to all skin tones and hair types. With Lightest Ash Gold Blonde (10BG/10.13), Medium Ash Gold Blonde (7BG/7.13) and Dark Ash Gold Blonde (6BG/6.13), each provides the same Color Calypso benefits, which include increased shine, and more conditioned and manageable hair with more than nine weeks of vibrant colour. Plus, they feature the brand’s signature combination of ProArginine, an amino acid that’s found in the hair fibre and helps to support the hair colour chemistry while repairing and restoring damaged areas of the hair’s cuticle, as well as ArganID technology, which infuses the hair’s cortex with antioxidants for additional moisturizing benefits.

Competition Bound

Showcase your craft at Wella’s 2023 Beauty Envision Awards, now featuring video entries!

From haircuts and colour to styling and nails, show off your skills and techniques at Wella’s 2023 Beauty Envision Awards (BEA). For this year, the brand is entering its “Neo Flux” era, which challenges stylists, colourists and nail artists to “dig deep into your arsenal of abilities.” With 15 subcategories within its four main categories of Color, Cut, Style and Nails, the competition now requires entrants to enter by posting a 60- to 90-second video (reel) on Instagram that showcases their creative process, story and end result, along with an explanation of why they decided to enter, their interpretation of the Neo Flux theme and descriptions of their techniques, formula and products in the caption, among other entry requirements. In addition to competing for BEA’s trophies and titles, entrants have a chance to win prizes ranging from cash to education. The deadline to enter is August 1, 2023.

Built for Bonding

Achieve stronger hair with less breakage with the Bond Rx System from John Paul Mitchell Systems.

From chemical to heat damage, clients with overprocessed hair are in need of some extra TLC. The Bond Rx System includes its two-step Professional Treatment, which is ideal to use with lighteners or permanent hair colour (but can also be used as a standalone treatment service) to help target weak and damaged bonds and restore strength to the hair fibre. Formulated with a patented silicone-protein bond-building technology, Bond Rx forms a protective barrier on the hair while restoring lipids within the hair to help strengthen and replenish strands. The system’s technology is heat-activated (i.e. blow-drying hair) to help strengthen and restore hair from the inside out. The Bond Rx System also includes a shampoo, conditioner and treatment for clients to use at home to continue building their hair’s bonds in between salon visits.