By Rob Kotevski December 18 2008
 The winning look from the team at Hair Graffiti.
An Australian hairdresser is set for a celebratory homecoming as she took out the Bronze prize at the Wella International Trend Vision Awards 2008.
Stephanie Bellairs-Fleay from Hair Graffiti in Mandurah, Western Australia won the Bronze Young Talent title at the international competition.
Her award-winning look took out the top honours at the Australian Wella Trend Vision Awards where her hard work saw her whisked away to Lisbon, Portugal to compete against thousands of worldwide applicants.
Stephanie was impressed by the high standard of cut and colour at the international competition.
“There were some really talented individuals there and it suddenly became reality that the winning looks depended totally on the judges. My fate lay in their hands!” she says.
“Somehow I felt less pressure at the international finals than at the national ones in Sydney. I knew that the competition would be so tough that all I could do was give it my all. Luckily it paid off!”
Coming home with an international trophy under one arm is no small feat and it took a while for the news to take hold.
“I was in complete shock when my name was announced, I thought I’d heard wrong! As soon as it sunk in I was ecstatic!”
Stephanie chose the Wonderland theme for the Australian competition, which then saw her compete on a global scale.
The look Stephanie created was truly unique and yet still managed to capture the essence of the Wella critera.
“We chose the Wonderland theme as we thought that this was the most global trend. We also felt that it was also the most current trend,” she says.
“Wonderland to me conjured up thoughts of romance, innocence, almost childlike. This was what I was wanting to portray in the final look.”
The end result was an avant-garde creation that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a European fashion show but still managed to capture the hearts of the public without alienating any potential clients.
“We wanted to make the look as editorially friendly as possible to make it more accessible and realistic to the high street consumer,” Stephanie says.
D’nae Udall from London’s Hob Salon won the Gold trophy for colour while Fumiaki Sato from Cuts in Japan won Gold for the Young Talent Title.
Comprised of some of the world’s leading names in the industry, the jury that handpicked the winners included Stephen Moody, Sassoon International Education Director; Catherine Rame, from the global trends agency Carlin and the Wella Professionals Global Creative Directors, Eugene Souleiman (Care and Style) and Josh Wood (Colour).
The Wella International Trend Vision Awards is the only event of its kind where emerging hairdressing talent from across the four corners of the globe can be recognised and rewarded. The Young Talent title is open to competitors under 30, while for the first time a separate Colour trophy was awarded, open to colour technicians of any age.
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