Jamie stevens’ x factor diary – best of british week

As official hairdresser on The X Factor, Jamie Stevens and his team have been responsible for creating all of the contestants live looks – and we’ve been going behind the scenes with him. Here, he shares his latest backstage diary… "Fresh off the plane from a few days working in New York last week, I shot home, showered, changed, packed and headed to the X Factor studio on Saturday for this weekend's live shows with only adrenalin and coffee to keep me going! "While I was away my team have been amazing with Jonathan attending the weekly creative meeting to agree on the looks for this weekend with the production team, and Megan doing a shoot for Heat magazine with Luke Friend. In these situations, we end up doing a lot of FaceTime and Skype to agree the looks and, as things change so quickly, it’s important to be on top of it in case we need to order hairpieces and wigs or need to refresh a contestant’s colour ahead of the show. "As Sam Bailey is one of the more mature contestants on the show, so far it’s been about giving her something that suits her - soft natural looking colour and texture - rather than going too directional or edgy with her hair. We are talking about giving her a new look before the series is out though as I have a colour and style in mind that would really suit her. In the meantime, we got the chance to experiment with her normal style and give her something a bit different this weekend. "After seeing the glamorous dress that clothes stylist Frank Strachan was planning for her, we felt that it was time to show off her gorgeous face and so pulled her hair back in a glamorous structured 40s-inspired style. It hinted at the dual texture trend, combining sleekness with curls to maintain softness and worked with the high neck of the dress. "It’s also great to see Hannah having fun on stage this week as she’s such a bubbly character backstage and we wanted her hair to reflect that too. She’s always up for experimenting with her hair and this weekend we worked with a wig to give her a voluminous, full-bodied look. "We’re now past the half-way mark on this series which means that it gets a little calmer with less heads to do. This is fortunate as the salon is starting to gear up for Christmas and I need more of my staff in the salon creating show-stopping looks for our clients. It also gave me a bit of time to give Caroline Flack a new blunt, long bob cut and catch up with my team about my upcoming show at HJ's British Hairdressing Awards. "With this weekend’s X Factor show theme – the Great British Songbook – coinciding with the biggest event in the hairdressing calendar happening next Monday, it got me thinking how both hairdressing and music are similar in that they are both proudly flying the flag for their respective industries around the world and so I feel very fortunate to be working with the UK’s leading entertainment music TV show to showcase my work. "With the Saturday show over, it was time for a quick briefing with my team on the looks for the Sunday results show as I was then packed off into a waiting car and on the road to Birmingham where I was the guest of honour at the NHF Britain’s Best event yesterday. Whilst my team got to hang out with Harry Styles from One Direction backstage at the X Factor on Sunday, I was glad to help the NHF at their annual event and it was promising to see so much talent in the future of British hairdressing. It again got me thinking to the British Hairdressing Awards next week – can’t wait to see you all there!"