Inside the 2018 Wella Professionals TrendVision Awards

Yesterday, IMAGE returned to the Wella studios in Dublin to be inspired and impressed by the Irish finalists from the Ireland Heat Color Vision, Creative Vision and Male Grooming competitors at the Wella Professionals TrendVision Award 2018. We were there, for the 8th consecutive year of our Wella Professionals partnership, to choose the IMAGE Style Award winner at Wella’s annual hair Oscars.

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 inspiration which included everything from The Big Snow 2018 to colourful crabs and femininity in all its guises.

Later, the finalists and their models took to an immense runway at The Intercontinental, where for the first time, the Trendvision Award 2018 Mentors – Leonardo Rizzo of Sanrizz, Charlie Taylor of Charlie Taylor and Darren Lacken of Crow Street Collective – presented their own creations to inspire Ireland’s elite in hairdressing talent. The Wella Professionals Style Council – six of the industry’s greatest talents in hair – in collaboration with Sanrizz – performed a show based on the concept of their shoot in the September issue of IMAGE; Parklife, the creative interpretation of the open, urban greenspace where the next generation of eclectic youth express their individual bohemian looks that are derived from a diverse range of old and new sources.

And finally, after a parade of models, it was time to announce the winners who will go on to compete in the final in London in October, and our IMAGE Style Award winner. For myself and IMAGE contributing editor Melanie Morris, we knew our winner the instant we saw her and were convinced after we heard her present her inspiration. So we are so pleased to announce that The IMAGE Style Award winner 2018 is Roisin Hynes of Sarah Mason Professional!

“Every year, the Wella Professionals TrendVision Award gives the hottest hair creatives an incredible platform to showcase their expertise and we at IMAGE love getting this up close and personal access, says Melanie Morris, contributing editor at IMAGE Magazine. “In collaborating on the IMAGE award, we’ve worked with some seriously talented hair stylists and this year we’re over the moon to have chosen Roisin to be our go-to expert. We are thrilled that we’ll get to have her voice, tips and expertise to share with readers in IMAGE and on IMAGE.ie over the next twelve months. Roisin is a very gifted colourist and stylist, but what’s more, she lives and breathes creativity and is a perfectionist, stopping at nothing to achieve amazing results.”

Roisin was also a finalist in Color Vision and will go on to compete in London, and she’ll also be kept busy working backstage at London Fashion Week, so when we can get our hands on her, look out for Roisin contributions over the next few months in IMAGE Magazine and on IMAGE.ie!

Pictures by Kieran Harnett.

Check out the incredible shoot from The Wella Professionals Style Council in collaboration with Leonardo Rizzo in the September issue, on shelves now.