MATRIX PLAYGROUND TOUR 2016

The fabulous Matrix Playground shows are back for another year, and this year they are even bigger and better. Adding a business segment to the already sold out creative evening shows, now giving hairdressers around Australia the opportunity to get business tips and tricks on marketing, sustainability, innovation and client experience as well as getting updates on the latest new colour & styling trends is proving to be the hottest ticket in town.

Kinky Curly Straight is proud to be a part of such iconic shows and our team members have been traveling around Australia delivering incredible looks and handy business tips.

Kicking off in Adelaide, our talented stylists Laura Ciccone and Cherie Falco represented Kinky Curly Straight by showcasing looks from their latest collections along side Matrix Design team members Paul Ricupito, Mat Johnson, Lores Giglio and Steve Corthine.

Laura & Cherie took to the stage representing the Matrix H.O.T. Team, a mentorship program for Australia’s up and coming stylists, and Laura and Cherie with their finalists nominations in Hair Expo and AHFA awards are truly proving to be the hot stars on the rise.

Continuing on to Perth and Brisbane, Kinky Curly Straight owners Uros & Mojca Mikic excited the crowds with their creative looks and marketing tips.

Uros, Matrix Creative Director, organised the creative shows and presented on stage with his fellow Matrix Design Team members delivering exciting looks in colour, cut and styling.

Mojca joined fellow business mentors in delivering an interesting business program to salon owners and managers, sharing her skills in marketing and tips on how to grow your brand.

With Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne next on this whirlwind tour, Matrix upped the experience by adding a global super star to the already impressive line up of stylists. Jamie Stevens, 3x UK Men’s Hairdresser of the Year, 5x UK Hairdresser of the Year nominee and an overall powerhouse joins the Australian Matrix Design Team in delivery incredible shows, sure to inspire and excite audiences on the east coast.

Thank you to the fabulous Matrix for always looking to deliver exciting education and help grow the Australian hair industry.

http://www.matrixaustralia.com

http://www.kinkycurlystraight.com.au

HAIR EXPO 2016 SUCCESS

By now most of you will know that our very talented and uber fabulous creative director Uros Mikic has won the MEN’S HAIRDRESSER/BARBER OF THE YEAR at 2016 Hair Expo Awards.

Deemed the ‘Oscars’ of the hairdressing industry this is the highest honour awarded in the Australian hair industry and we could not be more proud or happier for our hard working director.

This was the perfect ending to a fun filled Hair Expo weekend which saw our team present 3 shows and share tips and tricks on the expo floor.

In case you missed this year’s Hair Expo, here’s a quick recap of what our team got up to.

Kinky Curly Straight 2016 Collections @ Main Stage

We were so humbled to get invited to present our work at the Hair Expo Main Stage. We were all a bit taken back to walk on to the stage and see a crowd of over 300 peers all hanging out to see our team’s work and learn some new skills.

KCS team: Uros, Laura, Alyse, Cherie, Molly, Dana, Zena and Mojca.

Thank you to the Matrix crew for all their help and our assistants on the day Michael, Steph, Stephanie and Craig.

Uros Mikic @ ManSTYLE Lab

As one of most regarded Men’s hairdressers in Australia, Uros was invited to share his skills on the inaugural ManSTYLE Lab stage, dedicated to all things men.

As always, Uros’ show was a big success, drawing a huge crowd which saw Uros complete a beautiful men’s haircut with some stelar fade skills and a pre-done model with a very cool flat top.

The Consumer Stage

On Monday Hair Expo saw another first, a stage dedicated to showcasing the hair industry, sharing why this industry of ours is so fabulous and most importantly educating the consumers on what it takes to be a great stylist.

And when is comes to men’s cutting & grooming there’s only two stylists you’d like to talk to, the current and last years Hair Expo Man’s Hairdressers of the Year, Kinky Curly Straight’s Uros Mikic and Tognini’s Jules Tognini.

Joined on stage by the very fabulous Richard Reid the boys talked about how men’s styling and grooming has changed over the last few years and how big an impact it’s having on today’s hairdressing.

KCS on Expo Floor

Our fabulous senior stylists Alyse and Cherie got invited to share their styling skills with the crowd at the EVY Professional stand on the main Hair Expo floor.

Sharing their skills in straightening, curling, waving and up-styling the girls gave the crown some handy tips on how best to use the fabulous EVY straightening irons.

Meeting Tabatha Coffey

Starting the weekend by meeting one of most influential business mentors in the industry, the fantastic Tabatha Coffey, the newest MATRIX ambassador. We were all a tad star struck having drinks with this inspirational stylist and business owner.

And of course all those Parties

Hair Expo is a weekend filled with education, new tools and products, networking, shows and most importantly very fabulous parties. From the welcome function and GenNext show, the Hair Expo awards dinner and the many parties in-between, they make up for a truly fantastic long weekend.

Thank you Hair Expo for another incredible year.

 

KCS TEAM @ HAIR EXPO 2016

Our team of talented artists will hit the 2016 Hair Expo next weekend sharing some of their tips and tricks in creating fantastic and award winning collections.

Join us as we present our latest collections, which have among other been named finalists in AHFA and Hair Expo awards, from SA Hairdresser of the Year, New Creative Force, Australian Hairdresser of the Year x 2 and Men’s Hairdresser of the Year and have been published around the world.

Uros, Laura, Cherie and Alyse with the help of Molly, Dana and Zena take the MAIN STAGE on Sunday 12 June at 2.40pm and showcase some of their signature looks.

Later that day, Uros will share his men’s trends at 4pm at the inagural ManSTYLE Lab stage.

Stop by the EVY Professional stand on Monday to chat to our team and get some handy styling tips from these EVY tools ambassadors.

And visit Uros when he takes the stage on Monday together with Jules Tognini sharing their mad men’s hairdressing skills.

Join us for some fun and see how this Hair Expo Salon Team of the Year finalist works together in delivering inspirational work.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NEW YORK

Did you ever wonder how New York looks through hairdresser’s eyes? The fashion, the photo-shots and all that fabulous hair?

We are itching to know … so we contacted Uros while he was in New York at start of the month, to get the low  down on all the incredible things he was getting up too.

1. What do you love the most about New York?

The energy and the atmosphere of the city; it truly is a city that never sleeps; there’s always something happening, there’s always people running round, it so vibrant.

And Manhattan is awesome as everything in one spot, from food, to fun, sports, concerts, shopping, culture, and sightseeing – I love walking up and down Manhattan visiting the sights, museums and taking in the city.

2. What is your favourite thing about working with the Matrix Global Team in New York?

Definitely the sharing of knowledge and ideas with other global artists from all around the world. The Matrix Global team has stylists from Russia, US, UK, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Italy and Australia so it’s wonderful to meet new talented stylists and to be able to spend a whole week with them learning from each-other is incredible.

When we come together in New York to create new trend collections, which will be taught and shown around the world, it’s humbling to see all these talented stylists work together to one goal and share the same vision to crate beautiful work that will inspire hairdressers around the world.

3. What does a typical day of working with the Matrix Global team in New York look like?

An early morning start for one 🙂

Stop by the Chelsea Markets for a quick breakfast and coffee on the way to the studio for prep work or head to one of our on-site locations for the day for a full day of shooting.

We work together as a team in creating looks; colour is done in the first few days at the studio and usually some of the cutting might be done in the studio as well, so on-site we complete the hairstyle, tweak the cut and style; the models get their make-up and styling done and off to shot in some very cool locations.

As always with photo-shots you are looking at long days so the team always likes to catch up and  wind down over a nice dinner.

4. What are your favourite places in New York?

Favourite place – Chelsea Markets, it’s such a cool vibrant place with loads of things to do; eat, shop, meet people and always done up for the season or specific holidays. Ever-changing and quite unique.

Favourite suburb – has to be SoHo, I love it for it’s quirkiness, arty feel; it has some awesome dinning spots and shopping ain’t bad either 🙂

Favourite restaurant – Bobby’s Dinner, cool traditional american dinner just of off Chelsea Markets with the best breakfast in town

Favourite NY food – pastrami sandwich from the world famous KATZ’S Deli in Downtown Manhattan

Favourite hair salon – a few that are a must to visit: the Cutler hair salons, Ruggeri hair salon (both Aussie owned, so a bit special to us at KCS) and Bumble & Bumble hair salons; all excellent salons with incredibly talented teams

5. Favourite moment of this trip?

It has to be the NBA game in Madison Square Garden – Indiana Pacers vs. NY Knicks. As someone who used to play basketball and still follows NBA, this was definitely a highlight and also a tick of my bucket list 🙂

6. Are there any more exciting trips planned for this year, maybe going back to New York? 

I’m hopefully heading back to New York next year for training with the Global Matrix Team.

And for this year, lots of interstate trips for my Matrix classes, Matrix Playground events and Hair Expo in June, where our team is doing a show (whop whop) and then back to Europe later in the year for Matrix annual conference and maybe some down-time with my family back in Slovenia.

KINKY CURLY STRAIGHT & TAFE SA 2016

Kinky Curly Straight is super proud to be able to support our local TAFE and their Hairdressing classes. In 2016 our team will be putting on 2 classes for Certificate 4 in Hairdressing, with Uros presenting men’s cutting & grooming and Laura and Cherie doing a class on long hair design.

Our team has in the past presented classes on creative colour, curly cutting, men’s cutting and styling and we are happy to again this year share our team’s knowledge with the next generations of hairdressers.

You can see our team at the City TAFE on these dates:

Uros – Men’s Cutting & Grooming, Monday 9^th May, 6-9pm

Laura & Cherie – Up-Styling Construct, Monday 13^th September, 6-9pm

MATRIX ARTISTIC CONFERENCE

 

It’s been a year since Uros has been appointed Creative Director for Matrix Australia and last year has been a whirlwind adventure, but what has 2016 in store?

Our creative director Uros and business development manager Mojca have flown to Melbourne during the first week of February to join the Matrix family for the 2016 artistic conference. They were busy planning for the eventful 2016, putting together exciting new creative classes, expanding the business mentorship programs and preparing incredible new shows.

Matrix has really outdone itself with their 2016 Education Calendar and Kinky Curly Straight is proud to be an integral part on their education, with Uros and Mojca presenting creative and business classes, and Laura and Cherie assisting on classes and shows.

 

ADELAIDE HAIR AND FASHION SHOW 2015

On the 27^th of September the Kinky Curly Straight team were a part of the Adelaide Hair and Make-up Show 2015. There was massive, feathery, braids that came together to create some stylish head pieces especially for the night. The show was all about show casing some stylish, out there hair and the team really got their creative caps on and came up with some awesome ideas.

However, this didn’t just happen overnight. It took weeks of preparation and a lack of sleep! We are so dedicated to hair! The night went as planned and our models walked down the runway strutting their stuff in Kinky Curly Straight’s incredible work.

We are so proud.