Patrick cameron salon seminar at salon international 2021

Patrick Cameron is a name that’s synonymous with Salon International – and 2021 marks the 30th anniversary of the long hair maestro’s sell-out seminars at the show. His long-awaited return to the stage was packed full of the styling and dressing techniques that have made him one of the industry’s best-loved educators, as well as insight into how he pivoted his business to online training during lockdown. As a truly global hairdresser whose life is spent educating internationally, the pandemic caused Patrick’s world to grind to a halt. “But I’m a positive person,” he told the audience. “And I want to find the positive in everything. We already had a social media presence, but I asked myself how we could use it to stay relevant when we couldn’t see people in person. I started reaching out to my community and realised we all felt disconnected and out of our happy place – doing hair.” Building on his existing platform and a highly-engaged audience thirsty for knowledge during lockdown, Patrick launched Education In Isolation to bring hairdressers together with live streamed education each Monday at 8pm – and 83 weeks later, he’s still going. His global audience - with viewers spanning from Fiji to Afghanistan - tune in weekly for education, insight and connection; and many of them were in the room at Salon International to see some of their favourite looks recreated in person. Over the course of his 90-minute show, Patrick presented six beautiful step-by-step looks, inspired by viewers’ choices of their favourite hairstyles from his weekly show. As ever, each look was built on simple, effective techniques, created to make dressing hair easy. Building on versatile foundations, Patrick stressed the importance and effectiveness of repetitive movements for maximum results. “My long hair education is all about building confidence,” he said. “If I can give you even one hairstyle that you can take away and recreate after today, it’s all been worthwhile.” As well as evolving his education methods to adapt to a changing world, Patrick also reflected on how finishes and shapes have also moved on with looks that were more undone and textured than traditional hair ups. “These textures keep long hair relevant,” he explained. “Don’t overcook it – it’s important to keep things simple and remember that less is more.” Showcasing a series of braids, twists and clever wrapping techniques, Patrick’s finished looks included a braided chignon forming a Mohican silhouette, a corset-laced effect and an exceptionally clever updo formed using a chopstick inserted into a hair pad to act as an anchor for loops of hair. As well as sharing how to create the looks, Patrick also gave tips and techniques for keeping hair ups in place – and how to use them in the salon and on social media to make money, engage your audience and attract new clients. “I love seeing people reimagine my techniques on social media,” he told his adoring audience of fans – and after an inspirational afternoon packed full of practical tips and tricks to take away and try, there are sure to be plenty more tags coming his way. Thank you to LWPR for reporting on this seminar.