Over the Hair Expo weekend, I had the pleasure of hanging out with Redken’s wonderful global artistic director, Chris Baran, who’s one of those warm, funny people that exudes great positive energy. One of the mantras that Chris abides by is this: don’t be afraid of making a mistake. If you go and do something and it fails, don’t beat yourself up about it. Instead, look at it as a learning experience and move forward. “I don’t take failure any easier than anybody else does,” Chris says, “but I approach it with a simple process. Two sentences – what did work and what didn’t work. If, after an experience that didn’t go so well, you have the common sense to take a breath and say, ‘What did work?’ you repeat it. Then say, ‘What didn’t work?’ And don’t.” Wise words.

 On the subject of Hair Expo, hearty congratulations to all of the winners of this year’s awards. It really reinforces that Australian hairdressing is a fierce force to be reckoned with.