After successfully concluding the west zone semi-finals, Streax Professional Times of India, India Hairstyle Icon 2023 moves towards the next stop of North Zone. Vidhi Arya from Professional Beauty India shares glimpses of the north zone semi-finals.
Streax Professional Times India, India Hairstyle Icon 2023 hosted its north zone semi-finals. The event took place on 7th July 2023 at Four Points by Sheraton, New Delhi. The event commenced with 50 hand-picked semi-finalists from over 2,000 entries. These entries originated from Delhi, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh.
The semi-finalists could choose to perform in one of the three categories. Female’s Creative Cut & Colour, Female’s Commercial Cut and Colour — both with three hours slots. The third category, Men’s Creative Cut & Colour had a 2.5 hours slot. And the jury empanelled celebrity stylist Vipul Chudasama (Artistic Brand Ambassador, Streax Professional), hairstylist Shiva Kumar, and Artistic Development Manager at Streax Nikisha Bhatia.
Also, the contestants were judged by celebrity judges — singer Shibani Kashyap, designer Joy Mitra, and actor-model Mia Lakra. Speaking to Professional Beauty India on this occasion, Rochelle Chhabra, Streax Professional Head Technical explained, “We realised that we need to acknowledge the challenge we have in this industry. It is that the hairstylists were not getting their right dues and that’s how we decided to come with this platform and stream.”
“The judgment is based on two parameters — objective and subjective. Objective parameters include the judgment of clarity, neatness, rules, presentation, and hygiene of the look. Subjective parameters include the evaluation of creative acumen. She further said that the competition is free of all bias and selective judgments. This is because judges are not aware which model carries the work of which participant. And that is the beauty of the competition,” mentioned Nikisha Bhatia, Artistic Development Manager, Streax Professional.
Each participant created a unique look on their muse which was carefully assessed by the judges.
The Winners of the North Zone Semi-finals of India Hairstyle Icon 2023:
For the Creative Cut & Colour – Men, the Winner is Pushkar Sen from Studio 36, Rajasthan and the Runner-up is Suraj Sharma from DS Modern Hair Studio Delhi.
In the Commercial Cut & Colour – Female category, the Winner is Mohammad Kaleem from New Style Studio, Delhi and the Runner-up is Mohammad Imran from Hair India Salon, Delhi.
For the Creative Colour – Female, the Winner is Shahrukh Salamani from Naseem Salon and Academy, Delhi and the Runner-up is Mahesh Kumar from Looks Salon, Gurgaon.
Each runner-up won a cash prize of Rs.40,000/- and each finalist won a cash prize of Rs.75,000. The finalists will now perform with the other zonal finalists at the IHI grand finale at Bombay Times Fashion Week. The next leg of the competition will be for the South Zone in Bangalore.
Speaking on the response received by Indian Hairstyle Icon 2023 from the industry, Rizwan Ahmed, Vice President, Streax Professionals mentions, “Most participants I have seen this time are young hairdressers. Probably, they would be in the age group of probably 20 to 30 at the max. And, some of them are as new as one and a half years old in the industry. Still, they are zealous to participate. IHI should help build competitiveness in them.”
He further adds, “This would also help them establish their credentials and credibility. The participants can always boast about the exposure and chance they got here. It’s also a way of personality development for them. Most importantly, if they’re wise enough, they’ll also reflect — what they tried, what went wrong, and how they can improve. It should help them become a true hairdresser.”
