Head judges

Choppy blonde locks with pink or lilac tinges or Bieber-esque fringes seem to be the way to do well in hair awards right now. This is the winning look from L’Oréal Colour Trophy Awards New Zealand Hairdresser of the Year 2011…

Choppy blonde locks with pink or lilac tinges or Bieber-esque fringes seem to be the way to do well in hair awards right now. This is the winning look from L’Oréal Colour Trophy Awards New Zealand Hairdresser of the Year 2011 held in Auckland on Saturday 2 April.

The scaled-down event was planned after L’Oreal channeled funds into earthquake-ravaged salons in Christchurch instead of their usual massive knees-up at the Aotea Centre.

Armie Aninion Avillanosa from Servilles, Takapuna took out the Supreme Award judged live by a panel including two top international stylists – Caterina DiBiase of Melbourne and NZ-born, Sydney-based Brad Ngata. There were also four individual judges for make-up, style, photography and fashion elements.

Head judge Caterina DiBiase says, “Armie used gorgeous soft and warm copper, strawberry and apricot tones to create a mysterious colour that you can’t see where it starts and finishes. We were looking for something that was beautiful top to bottom and Armie achieved this with her commercial look that is highly technical yet still looks effortless.”

Runner-up in the Supreme Award was Janic Leech from Servilles, Albany, Auckland.

Two other individual awards and a team award were also announced. The Next Generation Award for a stylist with five years or less experience went to Jamie Hoogduin from Venom in Invercargill.

The Men’s Colour Award was presented to Paul Hala from Hala Hair in Auckland.

Megan Robinson, 4 April 2011.