Inside the 2019 Wella Professionals TrendVision Awards

Inside one of the biggest hair show of the year: the Wella Professionals TrendVision Awards 2019. 

This Monday, IMAGE returned to the Wella studios in Dublin to be inspired and impressed by the Irish finalists from the Wella Professionals TrendVision Award 2019. It is a dynamic industry competition showcasing a fusion of hair, fashion and creativity, and we had been granted close and personal access for a mission.

Our mission, on the 9th year of our partnership with Wella Professionals was to choose our IMAGE Style Award winner from the Ireland Heat Color Vision, Creative Vision, Male Grooming and Runway competitors.

The IMAGE Style Award offers the winner a very exciting package of opportunities for the year ahead; they become our go-to hair expert in IMAGE and on IMAGE.ie for advice, tips, trends and rescue remedies. They join us at The IMAGE Beauty Awards and judge the greatest hair products to launch that year and they lead the charge in hair features for the next year. So we look for a finalist with an editorial eye, international perspective, someone articulate, passionate and of course, insanely talented.

This year, Wella had a record number of entries, and as per, there was truly exceptional creativity at work, creating looks they’d spent months perfecting into trending styles and shades aided by graduate fashion designers and make-up artists to bring their vision to life. Finalists presented their masterpieces to a panel of judges, explaining their techniques used, styling, colour concept, shades mixed, colour placement and inspirations. The judges deliberated over their finalists, ahead of the Awards, held in The Intercontinental in Dublin.

This year, the event took on a new format, complete with a model showcase,  inspirational catwalk shows from HOB Academy’s award-winning hairdressing icons Akin Konizi and Jake Unger, followed by the talented Stephen Aiken from Conroy Hair. The final show by The Wella Professionals Style Council collaborated with Bruce Masefield from Bruce Masefield Hair. The event also featured a live DJ set by Mona Lxsa, creative demonstration zones, a competitor gallery and Robert Eaton’s wig installation.

And finally, after a parade of models, it was time to announce the 14 winners who will go on to compete in the TrendVision Award UK & Ireland Final, in London in September, and our IMAGE Style Award winner. For myself and IMAGE contributing editor Melanie Morris, we knew our winner the instant we saw him. We are so pleased to announce that The IMAGE Style Award winner 2019 is Vitor Pessoa!

Vitor was also a finalist in Creative Vision and will go on to compete in London, so when we can get our hands on him, look out for his contributions over the next few months in IMAGE Magazine and on IMAGE.ie!

Photography by Kieran Harnett.

Check out the incredible shoot from The Wella Professionals Style Council in collaboration with Bruce Masefield in the September issue of IMAGE Magazine, on sale now.