This years Las Vegas Cosmoprof was very, very similar to last years show. For those of you who are not familiar with Cosmoprof, in years past it was called the Beauty and Barber Supply International (or something like that, everyone just called it B.B.S.I. for short). This trade show is different from your typical hair/beauty trade show in that it is specifically for manufacturers and distributors. Say you are a distributor and are looking for a new line to bring into your distribution territory, you will go to this show. Say you are looking to manufacturer your own shampoo line, you will go to this show and find a contract manufacturer to make your poo. Say that you make shampoo that you want to sell to salons via distribution (the other option is to sell it directly to salons), you will go to this show. There are not demonstrations (well, maybe ONE), there are no seminars on how to be a better hairstylist, this show deals with the sales side of the beauty business.

My adventure starts on Saturday morning. I get up at 7 am and head to the salon for a busy day. After work, I go home, pack, take a nap, and hit the road around 7. I’m not a big fan of driving to Vegas in 110 degree heat, in a black car with black leather interior so I wait until the sun is going down to head out.

I arrive around 11:30. One of my friends brothers is getting married and is having his bachelor party tonight in Las Vegas and I am invited to make an appearance. They are at a club called Body English at the Hard Rock Hotel. I’m not a big club guy but I want to see the boys so I show up. Once I’m there I remember why I don’t like clubs. Ugh… I stay until 2:30, get a phone number of some hottie (I still got ‘it’, maybe) and head to the hotel room at the Wynn. Very nice room, I must say. The bed felt SOOOO good, I couldn’t decide if it was because I was so tired or if the sheets were that nice. I wondered how much they would charge me if I stole these awesome sheets as I drifted off to sleep.

The trade shows are always difficult to work. Your feet hurt, doesn’t matter what type of shoes you wear, and as I’m getting older it makes my knees hurt as well. Ugh. The good this about this trade show is all the people that are there. It’s like an industry ‘who’s who’. Especially since they have the North American Hairstyling Awards on Sunday night at this trade show. I saw Howard McLaren (who is one of my absolute favorites!!!) but didn’t get a chance to stop and harass him. I also saw Horst (he is the hairstylist that started a little company called Aveda)and got a picture with him.

Here are a few picts I took while at the show. Scissor Boy was in the house. Amy from Scissor Boy was so vivacious and friendly and they deserve all the success that they have. Keep up the good work!

I always give White Sands a hard time about the hair that they do but I will be the first to say that they work is improving and this style looked really intricate and impressive! The next picture was from the only hair demonstration that was going on at the show and it’s Moroccan Oil.

Next, everyone loves a Rolls Royce! Bang wiggletts and them me with “Flying Scissors” Emma Wang. I haven’t seen Magic Move since I was in NYC! Good stuff if you can find it!

See you guys at the next Hair Show!

R

I went to Las Vegas over the weekend.

I used the excuse of that I was going to go to the International Beauty Show Las Vegas trade show. “I’ll get a little education, a little fun, a little sun and who knows maybe a little payday from the casino”. I’ve previously learned that winning big in Vegas is a total ‘pie in the sky’ dream. Don’t ask.

I checked out the website that was IBS with information concerning the trade show. I figured that it would be a smaller show (nothing like Premiere in Orlando) but that didn’t matter. I just wanted a weekend away. I saw that you could book your room at the Las Vegas Hilton, which is the hotel that is connected to the Las Vegas Convention Center, where the show was to be held. The price for booking a room through the IBS website would have been $75. I thought to myself that I could do better since hearing that Vegas wasn’t doing well and business was down. Wellllll.. I decided to wait a few weeks and do the Priceline.com route. I first bid $45 for a 5 star hotel. Needless to say, my offer was rejected. So I tried $55 for a 4 star hotel. No dice. I then looked at current prices for a 4 star hotel room and decided that I’d try $85. Bingo! I got a room at the Westin Causaurina (or something like that), which is behind the Flamingo Hilton. I should have just booked a room at the Las Vegas Hilton in the first place! ugh…

I drove up Saturday night after work, which means that after packing I was finally on the road at 7:30 ish. A few years ago I gave up caffeine because it made it hard for me to sleep, and let me tell you, I was GROUCHY getting off the caffiene bus! I decided that after a long day I might need a little ‘pick me up/keep me awake’ for the drive so off of McDonalds to get a Coke and maybe one of those new coffee drinks. After the soda was gone, I started on the ‘rocket fuel’ err. coffee. Boy oh boy!! I could have sworn that I felt the ground shaking the entire drive to Vegas but I assumed that it was from the coffee. I didn’t have to worry about falling asleep, that’s for sure!

Sunday morning I hit the trade show. I walk slowly when I peruse the trade show floor, as I don’t want to miss anything that might really be useful. I was finished in about 30 minutes. The biggest hair booth there was Farouk, and I could actually hear the platform artist as they were not blaring dance music for once. I can’t blame them though, loud dance music always attracts hairdressers like moths to a flame. I decided to check out a few business classes and sat in for the first time on a class taught by Jon Gonzales. I was quite impressed. He seemed very sincere and knowledgeable and what more could you ask for a presenter? I decided to purchase a few of his management/salon development books. The only other thing that I bought was a few brushes from Y.S.Park (my favorite hair tool manufacturer at the moment). 

Sunday night I went to this cool, celebrity chef restaurant in the Treasure Island hotel called Isla. It’s mexican food and besides the mahi mahi taco, was pretty good. The tamale was the best I’ve had. Woowzers! 

Monday I took the opportunity to visit ‘old’ Vegas or ‘downtown’. It’s still Vegas but a different side of Vegas. Just as flashy but in a old flashy sort of way. I went early and evidently no one is awake before noon downtown. 

Of course, I did the obligatory ’drive by’ shots of the Strip. I think that they came out fairly good as I was driving alone with one hand out the sunroof trying to snap pictures!

Overall, I had a nice time away from work and home. The trade show needs some juice for it to be worth while just to go for the show. I would be more than willing to lend my hand at working a classroom and a booth if IBS was interested (hint hint haha). 

Till next time. And hopefully next time will provide more hair and trade show pictures!

This year when I was in Las Vegas for the annual buyers convention, also knows as Cosmoprof (or for the old school, B.B.S.I.), I was lucky enough to get a ticket to this years North American Hairstyling Awards. Thank you Mr. Reed. (ERGO’s Velectra Paramount are the only blow dryers that we use!)

The place was packed, I know that it’s in the same room as last year, but the atmosphere was totally different. The energy in the air was more festive and casual than last years presentation. Maybe I was more festive and casual than last year, who knows?!?The show started off with a presentation by Salon Gregory’s from Newport Beach, California. This is the home base for a big winner in years past, Dusty Simington. He also won Master Stylist of the Year this year with an ALL MALE entrant which I have to saw was really excellent. There is no denying the quality of work that he and photographer Babak create. The presentation was a bunch of Zig Zig Sputnik inspired post modern punk chicks wearing only body paint graffiti and skimpy skimpy micro thongs and boots. While it seems a little racy, it didn’t come across as trashy, although I do think that the hair was over shadowed by the lack of clothing.Award, award, award..Presentation number 2 was by Van Council. It was a Chinese Emperor/New Years dancing dragon type of image. I was way to far in the back to be able to see any of the hair but it was your standard fare when you think of Chinese presentations. Lots of bobs, shiny black hair. You know the routine. The fashions and visuals as a whole were breath taking and interesting. The music was well chosen, though I cannot remember now what it was. Good showing by Van Council and his team.Award, award, award…Jim Markham was given an award and half the crowd must have worked for Pureology and were screaming the entire time for Philip Wilson and Jim Markham. This one chick 2 rows behind me was giving me shrills down my spine with her obnoxious banter. Ugh.. Why do I have to sit in front of those crazy, drunk bitches? Lord I apologize…Speaking of sitting behind me, well actually he was in the seat in front of me talking to Kiara Bailey from Blow Out until he got bored of her (I’m just assuming here, I wouldn’t get bored of Kiara trust me… anyway) then moved behind me with the Pureology crowd, was Tyson from this seasons Blow Out. You know, the one who ruffled Tabitha’s feathers from day one. He seemed like a cool fellow to me. When he was behind me, I told him that Theresa (one of my stylist) was in LOVE with him and was a HUGE fan of his and if he would be so kind to make her happy by allowing me to have a pict for her. He said “sure” and was very accommodating. Thank you, Tyson.

Final presentation was another Salon Gregory’s. I don’t remember what they did. Oh yeah. It was another Zig Zig Sputnik show with a little bit of Ratt/Motley Crew 80’s heavy metal hair band thrown in. The first presentation was more innovative and unique than the second one, not that it was bad.The biggest highlight of the evening (other than having Ira Sage saying “hi” to me as I walked in) was my friend Bennie Pollard winning the Contemporary Classic category. When he went on stage to accept his award, he was a natural, it was as if he BELONGED up there. His words were heart felt and sincere and natural. I’ve always liked Bennie and had a lot of respect for the man, but this was just deserts for him. He deserved it. Congratulations Bennie!

I just got back from Las Vegas. I was attending the Cosmoprof show and I went to the North American Hairstyling Awards presentation.First off let me say CONGRATULATIONS to my friend Bennie Pollard for winning his second NAHA. This one he won in the category of Contemporary Classic. Bennie was gracious and motivating in his acceptance speech and I’m proud to call him a friend!Secondly, this trade show is more about the distribution and manufacturing side of the Trade. This is the show you will go to if you want to manufacturer your own flat irons or blow dryers or you want to find a new product line (both skin, and hair or spa) to distribute in your area. Pretty boring stuff unless your in that side of the business. There is not much going on as far as hair goes.One booth that I’ve seen the group before, but have not had much time to interact with was the VERN group. They are a crew of girls from Taiwan selling, manufacturing and distributing their own line of scissors. The scissors they use are stackable, meaning that you can take up to six or more scissors and stack them together and they click together so you can use them as one scissor with multiple blades. You can stack thinning shears, or straight blades or any combination you choose.You can check out a video of theirs here on YouTube.

Their technique is very free form, but it is not without rock solid technical skill and training. You can see years of developed skill in their cutting. I admire what they do and one of the girls has a huge crush on me, but don’t worry, I wont let it go to my head. ; )I’ll post picts in the photo forum tomorrow.You can check out more VERN videos on YouTube here.

I would like to give a huge thank you to Martin Parsons!The Beauty Revolution was my first trade show where I was a guest speaker and had my own class room as well as a booth on the trade show floor. That being said, I was learning the process as I went along. When everything was being planned I did not realize that I had to book a prep room, I just assumed that a prep room would be provided. WELL, I was wrong. Come show day. I’ve no place to prep my models for my class and it’s too late to set one up.With no options available. I asked Martin Parsons if he had some extra room to spare. He was gracious enough to allow me a table in his prep area both days to do my pre-done models and prep my stage models. What a GREAT guy. I cannot thank him enough. I’m humbled by his accommodating my crew, which I know can get a little rambunctious at times and being so genuinely nice.3 cheers for Martin!!!Thank you again, sir.On a side note. I met a group of guys called The Netwerk at the show. I listed my class as Bauhaus Hair Concepts, I guess that they could relate to what I was doing and sharing at the show so they came to the booth when I wasn’t there looking for me. Theresa told them about my philosophy and what the Bauhaus means to me (or how I use the ideas in my cutting and salon). I went to their booth to check them out but they were in class, so I check out their DVD and bought one to help support another group trying to make a difference in the educational vacuum that the industry has become stuck in. I eventually stopped by their trade show booth again and met John Alanouf. Great guy and very passionate about his craft. Check out their website here.