Local home hair salon owner Faith Warwick had the experience of a lifetime recently, being one of nine hair stylists to travel to Venice for the Inspirational Hair Artists Conference 2018.
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The conference was organised by the Italian hair color company Fanola and was to launch their new No Yellow hair colour range.
Faith, along with the other hair artists, were challenged with colouring a models hair for a photo shoot along with learning about the new product range.
Faith said she was surprised when she found out she had been selected to attend.
“I was shocked and I had to ask them if they were sure they had the right person,” Ms Warwick said.
“I didn’t even get my passport until they had given me the tickets to go because I didn’t believe them, that I was being given this opportunity.”
The hair artists were chosen through their ability to inspire others in the industry.
“The other hair artists have quite a big following on social media, I don’t. But as well as having my hair salon, I also mentor and assist around 8,600 hair stylists around the world on what colours to use or I help them if something has gone wrong with their client,” Ms Warwick said.
Ms Warwick was born and raised in Kempsey and said being able to show her children and the community that you can achieve your dreams is important.
“Location doesn’t determine you. This was an amazing and overwhelming opportunity for a small town girl.”
The competition, although it wasn’t a win or lose situation, was still competitive.
“It was very competitive and quite intimidating to be working in a room with my idols, but I didn’t let the fear grab me and I produced a high-end product.”
Ms Warwick said one of the highlights was being complemented by one of her biggest idols, Sammi Wang.
“At the beginning I was definitely underestimated by the other hair artists, but then to have people of that level complement my work was amazing.”
Ms Warwick said that sometimes people in the industry look down on home salon hair dressers and don’t think them capable of coloring hair and she said this perception is completely wrong.
“Just because I’m home based doesn’t mean I can’t do anything a commercial hair dresser can do. It was quite groundbreaking for Fanola to choose me because I am from a small town and I’m home based.”
In the age of social media, and in particular Instagram, Ms Warwick said many hair artists rely on altering their images to enhance the colour which is something she doesn’t do.
“I don’t touch my photos, they’re all taken on an iPhone and they’re not edited. It was very rewarding to see my work next to the other hair artists’ with no filters.”
Ms Warwick is hoping to travel back to Venice with Fanola again in the future and said she would love to do more work with them.
Ms Warwick said having been given this opportunity, has allowed her to realise her potential and she want’s others to do the same.
“It just shows that small town girls can do big things and it’s never a good thing to underestimate someone,” Ms Warwick said.
Check out Faith’s Instagram page, just search ‘Faith in the Hair’ or her Facebook https://www.facebook.com/faithinthehair/ to see her hair creations.
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