FULL IMMERSION

A new venue and a fresh tech-driven approach heralded a new era of the UK’s longest-running colour competition, the L’Oréal Colour Trophy. Creative HEAD was there to see the UK winners unveiled…

Bubbling Metal Detox cocktails, fashion-forward displays from one of the UK’s hottest young designers, a jaw-dropping stage and video wall… The 2024 UK L’Oréal Colour Trophy turned up everything to 11 to deliver a final unlike any other.

From its launch, this year’s competition has felt distinctly amplified, as also signalled by its move to London’s Old Billingsgate on the Thames as the Grand Final venue. More than 1,000 attendees enjoyed installations from fashion designer Jack Irving – as seen at London Fashion Week’s On|Off – with hair by Jack Merrick-Thirlway and the Neville’s team during the pre-show reception. Intermixed with the army of 155-plus Colour Trophy models on stage were two exceptional shows, inviting a mix of talent – Giuseppe Stelitano and the Trevor Sorbie Creative Team, and Robert Eaton with the Russell Eaton Art Team – to get playful. The Grand Final itself – hosted by Clara Amfo, with help from DJ Lisa Snowdon, Vogue’s Twiggy Jalloh and make-up influencer Hannah Martin – played out on a circular stage with an interactive video wall. This proved an impressive backdrop particularly during the art team shows, immersing the audience further in the hair artistry shared on stage.

But when it came to David Higgins, managing director of L’Oréal Professional Products in the UK & Ireland, and Ann-Marie Humphreys, UKI general manager at L’Oréal Professionnel Paris, to reveal the winners, you could feel the buzz in the room. The winners will now enjoy an incredible year of opportunities and no doubt extra clients winging their way into their chairs.

And once all the winners had been revealed? It was on to a barn-storming set delivered by TikTok DJ twins ALTÉGO, a fitting high-energy climax to the night. But who were those winners? Let’s find out more…

And the winners are…

L’Oréal Colour Trophy – first place: Gee-Kent Ho, Newcastle upon Tyne

L’Oréal Colour Trophy – second place: Marlon Hawkins, Brooks & Brooks, London

L’Oréal Colour Trophy – third place: Viktoriia Vradii and Francesco Merico, Trevor Sorbie, Covent Garden

L’Oréal Colour Trophy STAR Award: Tyler Knox, Peter Mark, Belfast

L’Oréal Colour Trophy Colour Specialist Award: Amelia Hall, Frances Marshall, Sunderland

L’Oréal Colour Trophy Afro Award: Edd Moss, Headmasters, Soho

On stage

The 2024 UK L’Oréal Colour Trophy Grand Final spoiled its 1,000 guests with two exceptional shows from Trevor Sorbie’s Giuseppe Stelitano and Russell Eaton’s Robert Eaton. Pure artistry incoming…

STYLING Clare Frith. MAKE-UP designed and created by Lucy Flower, assisted by Egle Bee

LUMINAIRE BY ROBERT EATON AND THE RUSSELL EATON ART TEAM

What an introduction to the L’Oréal Professionnel Paris world from Robert Eaton and the Russell Eaton Art Team – Daniel Couch, Spencer Farrer Jones, Angela Thompson and Luke Foreman – who joined the brand not even a year ago. Robert always delivers something colourfully epic when his work makes it to the stage. This was no different, with all models dressed in white bodysuits as the perfect canvas to spotlight the sumptuous hair creations, and for light displays to play across their faces and bodies. We saw a fusion of thigh-skimming textured lengths kissed with indigo, two-toned precision bobs in lavender and aubergine, fuchsia and candy pink. With a voluminous cube of textured sunshine yellow and blonde juxtaposed with bleached-out close crops, it was a masterful display of creativity. No Eaton mess here, just beautiful and accomplished examples of artistry.

ASSISTED BY TheTrevor Sorbie Creative PathTeam: Sophia Martin, Helen Keegan, Zeno MarquesVita, Alice Darrell, Anisa Loum, KimWebber, Marcos Garcia, Erin Marley. STYLING Katelyn Cutbirth and Oliver James Broughton. MAKE-UP DESIGN Lan Nguyen Grealis and the @Lanslondon team. CREATIVE DIRECTION GarethWalker.

METABALL BY GIUSEPPE STELITANO AND THE TREVOR SORBIE CREATIVE TEAM

A former double It List winner, Giuseppe Stelitano absolutely knocked it out of the park with MetaBall, ably assisted by the Trevor Sorbie Creative Team (Tiziana Di Marcelli, Benjamin Bradley, Kate Wingrove, Ryan Forsythe and Ilaria Capitanelli). Introduced by Trevor Sorbie MBE himself, who described the young talent as “a visionary”, this was a properly breathtaking affair, fitting for a salon brand that’s celebrating its 45th birthday this year. An amplified display of texture and wig artistry – calf-skimming cherry cola lengths, high pompadours and neon yellow shags – the presentation kicked up into high gear when dancers decked in feathered headpieces, Brat green mullets and more took to the stage in a celebration of New York’s ballroom scene, soundtracked of course to a remix of Madonna’s Vogue. When Giuseppe and the team took to the stage to strike a pose themselves? We died…