Aveda Masterjam in Berlin

April 8, 2008 3:50 PM

I’ve just returned from Aveda’s fantastic Masterjam in Berlin, where Antoinette Beenders shone onstage, along with the company’s brightest talents.

More than 800 hairdressers from all over the world flocked to Germany’s buzzing capital city for the three-day event, which included workshops in cutting, colour and the company’s beautiful new Transparency collection. The highlight, however, was the Masterjam itself – a five-hour extravaganza of technical demonstrations and shows starring experts from across Aveda’s global network.

For me, the highlight was Antoinette Beenders’ show, which opened with wearable, dishevelled and pretty looks in delicate shades. Next HJ's former British Hairdresser of the Year showed how to recreate one of the most captivating looks from her 2007 British collection – a style which was smooth around the crown, fringe and ends, but with a line of frizzed texture that nestled above the model’s shoulders. Apparently the secret is to wrap sections in figures-of-eight around a hair pin, and press with a straightening iron while counting to 20, before combing through to achieve the cloud-like frizzy feel.

Antoinette’s finale was a trio of eerie avant-garde clowns – one with a spiral of cotton-wool blonde, one in gothic black and the centrepiece an orange-haired clown with two cones of piled-high curls either side of her head. The result had the audience on their feet.

I was even more impressed after catching up with Antoinette the next day, when she revealed all her equipment – from hairpieces to hair pins – had gone missing in the chaos at Heathrow Airport’s new Terminal Five. Apparently she’d had to recreate every hairpiece from scratch the previous night – it took hours and involved a team of people to get it right. But her results, as ever, were amazing.

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• Antoinette Beenders
• Aveda
• British Hairdresser of the Year