The time is near. The salon team is revved up and ready for our trek to the Paul Mitchell Signature Gathering in Las Vegas, NV. Our salon guests are just as excited to see us travel for our continuing education. And, it’s not just because we will be bringing back everything that’s new in the world of hair for 2014. To help defray the costs of the trip, we have been holding an ongoing raffle the last few months. Along with free hairstyling tools, or a package of free blowout styles, everyone is anxious to see who will win the big prizes…a year’s worth of free hair color or free hair cuts!
This show is consistently the best. As with most events like this, the stage presentations are a conglomeration of Broadway shows and Vegas extravaganza. Each segment showcases Paul Mitchell Systems’ latest interpretation of the trends in fashion, hair color and style, along with the newest products and tools, using video, music, choreography and costuming. They are masters of “Edutainment”.
We will hone our skills in the breakout classrooms with hands-on training. Instead of just watching the internationally renowned educators from our seats, we will work on manikin heads to actually perform the haircuts, apply the color or create a long hair upstyle. And, other national educators are at the ready around the room to assist us in every way. My personal class choices include hair color with the Paul Mitchell Color Director, Blonding with Angus Mitchell’s team member and master colorist, hair cutting with an amazing artist whom I like to refer to as Paul Mitchell’s “Edward Scissorhands”, and a long hair upstyle class with a master hair designer from Italy.
Las Vegas offers the utmost in people watching. It’s where the slogan “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” seems to extend not only to behavior, but to clothing, makeup, accessories and hairstyle choices. There are a multitude of over the top looks mixed among the typical tourists’ bermuda shorts and sandals.
My favorite place to observe people is in the casino. Old gentlemen walk with young honeys on their arms, obviously proud to pay whatever it takes to have the company of a pretty woman. Men carrying briefcases, who look like friends of Tony Soprano, take a private elevator to the high rollers’ room. Little gray haired ladies sit plugging change into a slot machine for hours.
My voyeurism is especially piqued when we are walking through the casino on the way to the event. So far, in every hotel I’ve stayed in for an event like this, the only way to get to the venue is through the casino…they know what they are doing. All of the lights and sounds of chiming machines are quite mesmerizing.
It’s early morning. There are thousands of salon professionals, eager to get their seats for the show, parading past the gamblers that have been there all night long. There are no windows or clocks to distract them from their games or slot machines, only the constant flow of oxygen through the huge room that keeps their eyes open. The Paul Mitchell army of stylists, salon owners, managers and educators move through in waves, all smiles and hungry for the day’s presentations. The massive group, mostly clad in black attire, includes young stylists and students sporting tattoos and piercings, avant garde hairdressers from cities like New York, London, LA and San Francisco, trendy hair artists from salons like ours in Savannah, GA, and people who have ventured out of their little small towns in middle America for the very first time.
The weary gamblers, foggy from the long night of wagering, lift their heads from the poker and blackjack tables blinking their eyes in disbelief. Raspy, smokey throated utterances come wafting over us…”What the…? Who the…?. The whole scene is priceless. And, I haven’t even begun to describe the decor in the various hotels and casinos. For instance, it’s such a cool experience to see the ceiling “sky” turn from day to night.
I am so thrilled to have this opportunity to attend and learn once again. Be sure to w
atch for posts on the Sandy Colored Hair Facebook page. And, when time permits, I’ll be sure to update here with a blog about the event.
And, for those of you in our chairs after we return home, be careful when you ask us “What’s new?”
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