Yesterday was beautiful. I woke up to the sounds of Paris coming through my hotel window, along with some of the nicest weather I could have hoped for. I blogged, ate some deli meats and cheese for breakfast, and thought about how I could, very much, get used to this!
The stylists who are here on this trip are so much fun to be around. I really could learn so much from them. Last night, at the Welcome Party for the event's FULL guest list allowed me to meet Deb Gavin and Laurie Haney, owners of Fresh Hair Studio in Pennsylvania. They are brilliant business owners, in addition to being genuinely interested in elevating the professionalism in this industry. I truly enjoyed meeting them and would love to visit their salon--it sounds fantastic!
Anyways, rewind a few hours so I can touch on the amazing day I had prior to the evening's events. After breakfast, I headed over to Halle De Freyssinet, where the live competition was taking place all day. In the morning, the Partner Category competed, then it was onto New Talent and then onto Creative. I was so excited to watch the Creative Category compete because they all had such unique technical applications I had never seen before... including sponge painting hair color on to selected strands--very cool!
While I was there, I got the chance to interview Goldwell's International Guest Artist John Simpson, who is so full of life, love and passion for the industry. It really was lovely to talk with him. "When competing, you really want to challenge yourself...I think it's about looking at where are you in terms of your technique and design--all the foundations that you do every single day but really disciplining your own work. So, I think in competing, you're challenging yourself to really be at the top of your design. In this arena here, you're not only competing for just North America, you're competing against the globe... it's so easy to fall into doing the same things over and over at the salon, so competing really keeps your creativity going."
The competition takes place in one of the coolest areas in Paris (wish I could tell you more... but I wasn't familiar with where we were!), but it's in a very industrial area in what looks to be a warehouse. Then, salon owner Robert Allen, Goldwell's Paige Fadden and the rest of my group got insanely confused on the Metro coming back to the hotel!
Earlier in the day, we went to the famed Angelina's, which was VERY highly recommended to me by the entire Modern Salon staff! Here, you can order a hot chocolate that is so rich, so thick that your spoon will stick straight up out of it! They, too, had beautiful macaroons and was located in such a gorgeous area! 
Back to last night, sorry for all the jumping around! Last night I had dinner at a restaurant called Alcazar with the salons that belong to Goldwell's Titanium group--top-selling salons that carry both color and wet line. Very cool. I really enjoyed meeting these people and hearing a little bit about their stories. Then, afterward, we went to the welcome reception. It was so fun! There was a live band playing crazy '70s music and guests from all over the world were dancing and dancing. It was wild!
Tonight (Monday), is the Awards Ceremony, which is going to be SO fantastic!! Stay tuned for the results!!!
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