Since the start of my hairdressing career twenty year ago, I have never not been busy working on creative and educational projects.

When I was a salon assistant, I was studying for an NVQ. Being a late starter to hairdressing (age 20), I was eager to get this out of the way as soon as possible. With more experience I began entering hair shows and competitions like Wella Trendvision and L’Oreal Colour Trophy and spent many evenings cutting up magazines, moodboarding and experimenting on models. Later in my career, working as part of the Toni&Guy international artistic team, I studied for an assessor’s qualification in my spare time, traveled the UK teaching workshops as well as creating imagery, tutorials and education for the company.

Moving into session/editorial hairdressing, a lot of my spare time in the last decade has been spent assisting many established renowned session artists like Malcolm Edwards, James Pecis, Anthony Turner and Sam McKnight. Learning from the best, travelling the world, working on countless fashion shows, editorials and advertising campaigns. Most recently working as a session artist on my own projects, with fashion brands, editorials, celebrities and music videos. I’ve been busy!

Then Covid hit and the world went into lockdown.

It felt weird not being busy but I enjoyed being forced to take a moment to pause and slow down for the first time in twenty years. As the second lockdown kicked in, salons remained closed, photoshoots and productions grinded to a halt again and celebrities and public figures went back into hiding. I knew I needed to do something creative. I couldn’t do what I usually spend my time doing so - I NEEDED TO PIVOT.

Because as hairdressers our job is to literally touch people, which had now become not only discouraged but also illegal in London, I began playing with my session wig suitcase. My background in colouring hairpieces and the fact that most of my friends are drag queens meant that I am particularly versed in styling and dressing wigs. I began colouring, cutting, styling and videoing some time- lapse tutorials. There is a huge pressure to constantly produce content across social media platforms especially if you work in the visual arts so these tutorials and finished looks served a purpose for this but were also a good outlet for my creative energy. People seemed to respond well on social and the likes poured in. It reminded me that there is a thirst for knowledge for hairstyling education particularly session work.

The session world, for years, was very much behind closed doors, shrouded in secrecy and hard to penetrate into the inner circle. But with the advent of social media, everything is online immediately and people get a glimpse of behind the scenes, backstage at fashion week and candid moments of celebrities and models. What goes on backstage is almost more interesting than what parades down the runways or makes it to print in a fashion editorial of Vogue. People are interested in the behind the scenes, the preparation, the ‘how to’, the ‘get the look’ and the ‘step by step’. This is evident by the sheer volume of photographers, videographers and bloggers back stage at all fashion weeks. A common occurrence on an advertising campaign photoshoot now will be a Snapchat, Instagram or Tiktok photo/video shoot happening simultaneously.

Throughout my time assisting I was lucky enough to be given many amazing opportunities to work with the best and most famous Photographers, Stylists, Makeup artists, Publications, Fashion brands, Celebrities and Hair Stylists in the world. They shared their knowledge and experience with me and I learned so much from these artists. I began to think that I wanted to pass on this knowledge. I missed teaching and for a few years now have wanted to get back into it. From overseeing the education of the junior trainee hairdressers at my salon to producing online tutorials focusing on more advanced session/editorial hairstyling. This pivot that was forced upon me by Covid lead me to create a side project called Hair Academy London. It is a mentoring program for hairstylists that want to move more into the session world and assistants that want to become session hair artists.

My time in lockdown made me reflect on how lucky I was to have these opportunities and made me want to give some knowledge back to my assistants. The post Covid world will be difficult for every industry to bounce back and I think the best way to help the next generation of session hair artists is to equip them with knowledge and skills. Assistants are the future and as we move closer to the end of this pandemic, it’s time to look to the future.

Written by Declan Sheils

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In Declan Sheils online session hair masterclass, Fashion Week Trends, he covers techniques such as prepping the hair, backcombing, tonging, braiding, finishing, products. It is a really inspirational masterclass which is worth a watch. Find out more here