Tabatha Coffey – you must have heard her name, specially after two inspiring and jaw-dropping seasons of Tabatha’s Salon Takeover on BravoTV. If you are a professional stylist or salon owner or cosmetology student, you get a chance to pick her brain by entering a contest.

By entering the Matrix Mannequin Mania contest you have the opportunity to spend the day with Tabatha Coffey and win $25,000.

What is Matrix Mannequin Mania?

Matrix Mannequin Mania is an opportunity to express your creativity to its fullest. The Contest is a skill contest that invites the hairdresser community to create a complete makeover on a mannequin and enter it to win $25,000.

You may submit more than one mannequin as there’s no limit whatsoever. Another cool thing about this contest is that you can actually name your mannequin. Once your mannequin is ready, download this form and submit your entries via www.MatrixMannequinMania.com or by mail.

The Contest Entry Period will begin at 12:01 AM Eastern Time on April 1, 2010 and end at 11:59 PM ET on July 31, 2010. Please make sure that you go through the Contest Rules and Submission Guidelines before submitting your entry.

Matrix Mannequin Mania is open to all stylists, salon teams and students, which is great because you can enter individually and then use the same mannequin in a group collaborative effort. This contest provides an awesome opportunity to all salon owners to re-energize their staff and build teamwork.

To spend a day with Tabatha Coffey, you also have to impress the panel of judges. They include Mary Rector-Gable, Lotus Abrams, Managing Editor of American Salon, Karrie Fonte, Assistant Vice President, Matrix US Education, Jeryl Spear, Executive Editor, Beauty Launchpad and Maggie Mulhern, Beauty & Fashion Director of Modern Salon.

Matrix Mannequin Mania is super easy, fun and provides a lifetime chance to spend a day with Tabatha Coffey and win $25,000. To enter online, visit the Matrix Mannequin Mania site at: www.matrixmannequinmania.com

Technorati Tags: hairstyling contest, Matrix Mannequin Mania, Spend a day with Tabatha Coffey, Tabatha Coffey, Tabatha’s Salon Takeover

Hair Tactics is an exhibition guest curated by Rocío Aranda-Alvarado. Jersey City Museum is currently presenting this unique hair exhibition which will be on view through August 22, 2010. The opening reception for Hair Tactics will take place tomorrow, i.e. on Friday, March 5, 2010.

Hair Tactics explores hair as subject matter and medium. Increasingly, artists have begun to use both real and synthetic human hair to create works of art. Some use synthetic hair because it is widely and inexpensively available in urban neighborhoods, others because it is laden with social and political meaning, and still others because they are exploring the human obsession with hair.

Texts written in hair, fancy hair motifs used to decorate a love letter, extravagant and multi-colored wigs, drawings featuring hair-covered bodies, and ladies with elaborate up-dos are all featured in Hair Tactics. The exhibition includes works in a wide range of mediums, including painting, sculpture, prints, photographs, video, and installation.

Hair Tactics features over 30 visual artists who would be displaying their artworks. Some of the featured artists in the exhibition include Manuel Acevedo, Amina Ahmed, Elia Alba, Asha Ganpat, Melissa Calderón, Ursula Endlicher, Chitra Ganesh, Zachary Fabri, Carson Fox, Melody Boone, Irvin Morazán, Sa’dia Rehman, Roger Tucker III, Quintín Rivera-Toro, Jayoung Yoon, and more.

The opening reception for Hair Tactics as well as Jersey City Museum’s complete line-up of new Spring 2010 exhibitions will take place on Friday, March 5, 2010, 5-8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Hair Tactics is highly inspiring and a must see exhibition for everyone associated with the hair industry. For more information, visit www.jerseycitymuseum.org

Technorati Tags: hair exhibition, hair inspiration, Hair Tactics, Jersey City Museum exhibitions, Rocío Aranda-Alvarado

Hair Salon Marketing is essential to have a successful salon business. However, it does not only mean advertising your salon through all the possible channels. Hair salon marketing can be done effectively even without spending a dime!

The basic reason for hair salon marketing is to attract clients. Every salon owner thinks of ways to get more clients and the possible ways through which they can spend more money at the salon. To achieve this objective many salon owners spend huge amount of money in advertising.

There’s nothing wrong in advertising your salon but it should be done so that it provides efficient returns. If you ask any salon owner, how they are able to attract and retain their clients, most of them would say that their USP is their service.

Its so obvious that if you are able to provide excellent service to your clients, you’ll win them for life. Also, not only will they be loyal to you but they’ll refer more people to your salon. There’s no better marketing strategy for hair salon marketing than word of mouth.

Providing the best service to your clients is an inclusive process. It starts from the moment your client enters your salon. Its very important that your receptionist greets them with a smile and makes them feel comfortable. Once they feel at ease in your salon, they’ll be more open to discussion and you can win them over by doing a consultation.

There are many more cost effective ways to successfully market your salon and services. Learn about them in detail by subscribing to Scissorboy’s online cosmetology program. The Cutting Edge Hair show is intended to give inspiration, motivation and advice to stylists/salon owners that are hungry for more.

Salons with big marketing budgets can afford advertising. If you have a small businesses with limited financial resources, make sure you learn the cost effective ways of salon marketing by subscribing to ScissorBoy. After all, hair salon marketing is not only about advertising.

Technorati Tags: Hair Salon Marketing, online cosmetology program, salon advertising, salon marketing, ScissorBoy

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall ‘10 recently concluded at the New York City. The semi-annual event is one of the four major fashion weeks held in New York City. The event was held during February 11 – February 18, 2010.

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall ’10 included some of the best stylists from the industry who demonstrated their creative skills. The event was fun as it marked an occasion for everyone involved in the hair and beauty industry to meet and share their expertise.

Here are some unique styles that were evident at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall ’10:

Odile Gilbert’s Blondie-inspired rock ‘n’ roll hair

Sophie Théallet works on a country-girl-becomes-a-princess theme

A swept-up, amazing moment in hair at the Christian Siriano show

Stunning J. Mendel presentation

A Brigitte Bardot-inspired, half-up hairstyle that mixed a partial French twist with soft, loose strands.

Technorati Tags: celebrity hair, Christian Siriano, J. Mendel, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall ‘10, New York Fashion Week 2010, Odile Gilbert

Shear Genius Season 3 premiered yesterday and saw one of the twelve stylists get eliminated. Joey Scandizzo, a stylist from Melbourne, Australia had to say goodbye on the very first episode of Shear Genius after he lost out to other stylists during the elimination challenge.

Shear Genius returned to Bravo for its third season and looked fresh and exciting. The changes were apparent from the start, with a new host – Camila Alves, new judges, and of course, new contestants. The fact that the show has gone international and picked up cutting edge stylists from every part of the world make it more fierce and challenging.

In the premier episode of Shear Genius 3, host Camila Alves greeted the 12 stylists who had gathered at Los Angeles and introduced them to new judge Jonathan Antin, and their mentor Orlando Pita. The guest judge was Monica Wise, creator and designer for LSpace Swimwear.

The challenges are just like the previous seasons, with two per episode, a Short Cut and an Elimination challenge. The elimination challenge for the premier episode of season 3 required the stylists to come up with a hairstyle that could go with swimwear.

The stylists had to make sure that their styles covered the top body portion of the models as they were supposed to wear only their bottoms. This challenge was a bit tough since none of these models had enough hair to completely cover themselves and that made the elimination challenge very fierce.

Joey Scandizzo’s style appeared disconnected as compared to that of other stylists and hence he was eliminated. Joey is a popular stylist from Australia who has made a name for himself by directing hair for the Perth Fashion Festival, styling hair for “Precinct and Cream.”

He was recently honoured as one of four finalists at this years’ prestigious Hair Expo Australian Hairdresser of the Year Awards. Joey is currently the artistic director and part owner of Rokk Ebony salon and has won accolades at several cutting competitions including Hair Expo, Wella Trend Visions and Star Search Collections.

With Joey Scandizzo eliminated, there are eleven stylists who will fight for the ultimate prize of $100,000. Stay tuned to all the updates from Shear Genius Season 3 by following Bravo’s website.

Technorati Tags: Bravo TV, Camila Alves Shear Genius, Joey Scandizzo, Shear Genius 3 premier episode, Shear Genius season 3

For the past 10 years, freelance hairstylist Diana Schmidtke has been responsible for making sure some of our favorite Hollywood guys — including Vin Diesel, George Clooney, Taylor Lautner, Jon Hamm and Ashton Kutcher — look their best on their big days.

Diana Schmidtke is highly regarded for her work in the hair industry among celebrity A-list talent. She brings the glamour and mystique of celebrity hairstyling to you in a down-to-earth, step-by-step manual. Her thinking? “If I can do it, so can you!”

So how did Diana Schmidtke make it to the top?

Her secret of success comprises of hard work, patience and persistence. After her High School, Diana attended Pivot Point International Beauty School and, upon graduation, she worked at Chicago’s Trio Hair Salon where she trained under Phillip Palmeri, a former head colorist at Vidal Sassoon.

After her training at Trio, Diana moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in freelance grooming. Since then Diana has styled clients on film sets and photo shoots, and her work has been featured in Esquire, Men’s Journal, Vogue, GQ, New York Times, W Magazine, and InStyle. Her expertise and popularity is a benchmark for new stylists and proves that there is no substitute for hard work.

Diana Schmidtke was featured on the Cutting Edge Hair Show where she shared valuable tips for becoming a Freelance stylist. In another episode, she had also interviewed Kirby Morris from the National-Interstate Council of State Boards of Cosmetology.

Diana is regularly featured on TV shows where she provides her expert advice on men’s grooming. She has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey show sharing “6 Steps to a Great Shave.” She was also seen on a special Father’s Day episode on the Today Show where she gave two deserving fathers new and much-needed looks.

Diana has also authored a book – SHORTCUTS, offering tips and advice for artists interested in breaking into the business. The book can be purchased by visiting – www.shortcutsthebook.com but you will have to hurry to buy it since the book is on sale for a “limited time only.” Buying “Shortcuts” is your first step to your new, amazing and lucrative career.

Her knowledge and experience in this field is vast and she often travels to various beauty schools as an educator in cosmetology. SHORTCUTS is a very inspirational book and so are the classes she teaches at cosmetology schools which are interactive in nature and provide all the tools to make you an expert and top resource in this exciting arena.

If you wish to invite Diana to your beauty school for a seminar, get in touch with her by visiting her website – www.dianaschmidtke.com

Technorati Tags: celebrity stylist, Diana Schmidtke, Diana Schmidtke on Oprah, ScissorBoy, Shortcuts by Diana Schmidtke

Lady GaGa’s hairstyles are truly inspirational. Every time you see the Poker Face star, she simply amazes you with her extreme fashion and wonderful hairstyles.

After sporting Yellow hair at the beginning of the year, Lady GaGa changed her hairstyle in just two weeks. She was spotted at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas with a weird hairstyle. She never fails to make people’s eyes go wide with surprise.

Lady GaGa showed off a spray of hair atop her head, in the shape of a wide-brim sunhat. And it’s not just any kind of hat; it’s actually made of her signature platinum hair!

If you see her from a distance you’ll think she is sporting a wide-brim hat that tips on one side of her head. However, it was a very well executed celebrity hairstyle. It was styled like a spiky hat, with the portions evenly distributed around her head.

One can imagine how much hair gel and cream her stylist must have used for Lady GaGa’s hat hair. Kudos to her stylists for such an innovative celebrity hairstyle as it’s difficult to make hair stand out like that.

Lady GaGa’s hairstyles and her outfits have been pretty ridiculous at times. She was sporting a hairstyle that looked like a massive dome a few months ago. Professional hair shears were used to cut her hair then and give them an even look. However her hat hair look required more styling than hair cutting.

I think Lady GaGa’s hat hair is her most avant-garde headgear to date. She not only displayed a creative style but also gave a new meaning to hat hair. We’ve already seen her ditch those yellow locks in less than two weeks and can’t wait to see what the Paparazzi singer comes up with next!

Technorati Tags: celebrity hairstyles, CES Show in Las Vegas, hair shears, Lady GaGa hair, Lady GaGa hairstyle, Lady GaGa Hat Hair

Photo Credit: INF

Britney Spears has given her fans a gift for the New Year. She has changed her hair color back to Brunette. Brit had been showing off her trademark blonde locks for months until she got a new darker hair color.

The “Womanizer” singer was spotted with new hairdo at the posh Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood. Britney Spears’s hairstyles have always made a transition from time to time. The 28 year old singer had first showcased the dark color back in the summer but soon switched back to her natural blonde.

Brit tried to sneak into the hotel unnoticed, but unfortunately even with her new hairdo she was easily recognized. After all Britney Spears is popular for her celebrity hairstyles and one can recognize her in any style that she sports.

It’s interesting to note that Britney Spears has traded her flaxen tresses for a raven color during the end of the year. I hope she allowed her stylist to work on her hair with hair shears and color. Do you remember how she had gone crazy in 2007 when she headed to a salon and asked a stylist cut off all her hair? When the stylist refused, Brit grabbed the clippers and did it herself.

Britney Spears hair always makes headlines. She is one celebrity who never fears to try on different celebrity hairstyles. This star has notoriously sported everything from her signature baby blonde to a completely bald look.

Britney Spears is currently spending her time in conservator-ship, meaning she will remain under the watchful eye of her father. This is the reason why Brit changed her hair color since Brunette has always symbolized independence for this pop star.

We’ll see how long Brit remains Brunette as her summer hairdo was short-lived.

Do you like the Brunette look of Britney Spears? Tweet us your thoughts! @TheScissorBoy

Technorati Tags: Britney Spears Brunette, Britney Spears’s hairstyles, celebrity hairstyles Britney Spears’s hair, hair shears

Ivan Zoot aka ClipperGuy is the world’s fastest haircutter who has three amazing world records to his credit. He currently is the Director of Education and Training at Andis Company with 15 years experience as an Andis educator. During his stint in the hair industry, Ivan has become a champion stylist and has also taken his knowledge to the product side of the business, becoming a hair care product manufacturer and inventing many salon tools.

Ivan currently holds three Guinness world records in haircutting:

Fastest single haircut (55 seconds)

Most haircuts in 1 hour (34)

Most haircuts in 24 hours (340)

Ivan Zoot created these records on August 22, 2008 at Rooster’s Men’s Grooming Center in Austin, Texas. He completely obliterated the previous records as he beat each record by a significant margin. It’s amazing how Ivan stood behind the chair for 24 hours straight and never lost his drive or excitement.

We had featured Ivan Zoot on the Cutting Edge Hair Show, which is the only online TV and video education series providing cosmetology education. Ivan loves clippers and in one of the episodes, he demonstrated how to achieve a modern contemporary Mohawk haircut using clippers. In another episode, he showed how to achieve a classic tapered men’s haircut using the reverse blending technique.

With three Guinness World haircutting records, Ivan’s expertise as a stylist and educator is unrivaled and can be seen in numerous hair shows and haircutting videos. His immense knowledge and contagious energy levels are a treat to watch. He is a big fan of clippers and has popularized clipper cutting in the industry and is famously known as ClipperGuy.

Though he says that he will never do another haircut with someone timing him, but we all know that he has the strength to perform the same feat if someone breaks his record. It won’t take much time for Ivan Zoot to reclaim his title as World’s Greatest Haircutter, which he truly deserves.

Technorati Tags: clipper cutting, ClipperGuy, Cutting Edge Hair Show, Ivan Zoot, Ivan Zoot Andis, ScissorBoy, world's fastest haircutter

Don’t be surprised by the title of this post. Its indeed true that continuing cosmetology education can make you super rich, according to a study. And whats more interesting is that cosmetology industry is going to offer enormous employment opportunities in near future.

Popular sites like Yahoo!, US news and World Reports have inferred that cosmetology is one of the top jobs and education for cosmetology is a bright career option. Even the U.S. Department of Labor and the National Accrediting Commission of Cosmetology Arts and Sciences indicates that employment of cosmetologists and skin care specialists through 2010 is projected to grow between 20 and 30 percent.

So what makes cosmetology education such a hot career option? According to Jim Cox, Executive Director of the American Association of Cosmetology Schools “Its the popularity of makeover programming and a general interest in anti-aging.”

But other factors which are of equal importance are: entrepreneurial opportunities, attractive earnings and diverse work environments. Also the availability of tutorials on the internet makes this a preferred career option. With a high speed internet connection anyone can have education for cosmetology in the comfort of their home. There is no specific requirements to find a job in this industry except that you should be creative and hard working.

One of the famous online cosmetology program is The Cutting Edge Hair Show. It is a very popular show that highlights and demonstrates how to achieve various hairstyles, benefits of hair care products, hair shears, etc. Also, it shows you how the real experts in hairstyling go about their daily job. Its really awesome to get a sneak peak into the popular hair salons and see the experts in action.

So if you are a fresher who’s just out of college or a career changer, continuing cosmetology education must be your mantra. Remember that analysts have projected a growth of about 30 percent in this industry which is enough for hair professionals to become millionaires.

Technorati Tags: American Association of Cosmetology Schools, continuing cosmetology education, cosmetology education, Cutting Edge Hair Show, hair shears, online cosmetology education, ScissorBoy, training in cosmetology