Last night saw the great and the good, the glitter and the glitz at HJ's British Hairdressing Awards, sponsored by Schwarzkopf Professional - and what a night it was! Sally Brooks clinched the top title - British Hairdresser of the Year - with her stunning debut collection. Very much deserved and Sally will be a great ambassador for British hairdressing over the coming months. 

One of the biggest PR assets your business has is your team, and one of the most important weapons they have to promote your business to clients is the consultation.

Soon, any salon owner will be getting their head down and working solidly through to Christmas Day. So, before you get too busy to think about it, now is a good time plan your PR strategy for the year.

Yes, we know there is nothing more annoying than hearing Christmas songs playing in shops in mid-November – unless you’re Elf – but if you’re running a salon business you do need to start getting festive.

Most of the major awards in the hairdressing industry don’t open for entries for several months, but it’s not too early to start planning.

Many hairdressing awards, including HJ’s British Hairdressing Business Awards and Creative Head’s Most Wanted, have the same, or similar, categories each year, so you can start researching which awards and categories you want to enter now.

Just like any partnership, the relationship you have with your PR company needs to work. You need to “get” each other and be the right fit.

At RedMane Media we are never afraid to tell a potential client that we don’t feel we are the right agency for them. We know where our expertise lies and the ways we can help a person or brand grow.

Wow! RedMane Media had an amazing three days at Salon International 2017, and more importantly, so did our client Secret Hair, who exhibited there with their luxury extensions brand for the first time. It was great to see their stand mobbed for the whole three days, with the team receiving so much positive feedback on the high quality of their product.

It’s been an eventful first month at RedMane Media. At the end of July, Ruth and I said goodbye to our fabulous colleagues at Hairdressers Journal International and headed off into the wonderful world of PR.

Building your profile within the industry can have a direct impact on your business. Seeing the salon or brand they work for in the pages of their favourite trade magazine is a great motivation for your team members – especially if it’s a news story about an event they helped to organise!

Ruth and I have worked as journalists in the hairdressing world for a combined 33 years. Luckily, we love the industry.Why? Well, there’s loads of reasons, but predominantly, it’s the passion hairdressers have for what they do. I worked on magazines in a variety of industries before I joined HJ in 2006, and I had never witnessed the enthusiasm and energy shown by hairdressers towards their job.

Having worked on the other side of the PR/journalist fence means we’re ideally placed to know what magazine teams are looking for. While you decide whether you need a PR agency like RedMane Media, the following insights might help you.