Jamie stevens’ x factor diary – jukebox 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…

It was great to see everyone at the British Hairdressing Awards on Monday night and what a fantastic night it was - thanks to all the hard work that Jayne, Ruth and the team at HJ always put into making it a big success! Unfortunately neither myself nor my sister and salon manager, Tasha Stevens, walked away with an award but it was great to be up there with the rest of the nominees and celebrate the best in British hairdressing. Well done to all the finalists and congratulations to fellow nominee Akin Konizi who took away the ultimate award. With the number of contestants getting smaller each week and my education work slowing down as the festive season kicks in, I enjoyed spending some quality time in the salon this week both doing clients and press appointments and putting up our Christmas decorations as the countdown to the holidays begins. Then it was back to rehearsals and prepping our remaining X Factor contestants hair for the quarter-finals this weekend. This weekend it was double songs for each artist, giving them a chance to show off their range and us an opportunity to give them two different looks which means quick changes between performances. There couldn’t be two more different girls in the competition than Tamera or Sam image-wise. Both have incredible voices but there’s a big age gap between them and they appeal to completely different markets so I’ve really enjoyed working with them both as it allows us to demonstrate how much of a transformation hair can give you, whoever you are. It was sad to see the gorgeous Tamera go this weekend as it seemed like she’d come back into the race with some strong performances and also because she has such a chameleon-like ability that it allowed us to really experiment with her hair from dark to blonde, from long to short, from sleek and straight to disco diva curls and everything in between. After last weekend, it was important that Tamera relaxed and had fun on stage, so in contrast to the previous week’s sleek styling, we worked with lots of texture and movement to give her a lovely voluminous, wavy bob. She looked absolutely stunning and though she has now left the competition, she’s destined for great things and I have no doubt we’ll be seeing much more of her in the future. She's the last lady standing, but Sam Bailey is a shining star. Her transformation has been subtle but the results are really starting to show as the weeks go on. She was a complete blank canvas at the beginning as she’d never styled or coloured her hair, so it was a wonderful opportunity for us as hairdressers to really show what a cut and colour can do. Initially, we took her hair darker for the first live show but the gradual lightening of her hair really complements her skin tone and has taken years off her. For me, keeping it simple and glamorous really works for Sam so this is a look we’ve been tweaking and subtly changing each week, but with two songs this week, I wanted to give her a completely different look with a topknot updo, for a youthful, fresh look whilst keeping it flatteringly soft and undone. The nerves are kicking in for the semi-finals weekend but we’re looking forward to cooking up some more X Factor hair looks for Sam, Nicholas, Rough Copy and Luke next weekend and looking back at how their styles have evolved. Before then, I look forward to catching up with many of you today at the Fellowship for British Hairdressing Luncheon & Awards at the Dorchester, one of my other favourite events in the yearly hairdressing calendar.

Update! Congratulations to Jamie, who was awarded Media Personality of the Year at the Fellowship Luncheon for the second year running.