Hair Asia’s 23rd National Open Championship set

MANILA, Philippines - Following the back-to-back success of both events in 2012, Hair Asia is now gearing up for an even more exciting 2013 starting with the 23rd National Open Championship for Hairstyling and Makeup Competition today and Hair Asia magazine kicks off with Style and Flourish. Unveiling a chic, new masthead and featuring even more fabulous spreads on fads and finds from the world of hairdressing, Hair Asia is set to kick up a summer storm. Julia Montes is on the cover.

For more than two decades, Hair Asia’s founder and organizer Evelyn Alvaran-Cruz has churned out brilliant ideas that continue to surprise even the most regular attendees. She did it again last November. The red-letter day that celebrated the country’s finest hairdressers in competition and commemorated the late, great Vidal Sassoon, was a chartbuster event.

Sassoon Academy alumnae demonstrated Vidal Sassoon’s enduring legacy through L’Oréal Professionnel’s Retro Nouveau Collection with a fabulous hair show — from wit (an onstage cameo of an Austin Mini Cooper), to pomp (an abundance of box-shape dresses with thigh-high hemlines and psychedelic prints over patterned stockings and go-go-boots), to good, old fashioned rock (stylists and models alike gyrating to the swing-inducing music of the Beatles).

The proud Sassoon alums (Pin Antonio, Jude Hipolito, Angelo Justin, Louis Phillip Kee, Gigi Lagman, Jesi Mendez, Lorna Sandoval, Kris Virtucio and Andrea Zulueta) as well as Hair Asia alums Rolly Catingco and Ren-Ren Santos were honored with plaques of recognition for their works that embody the Vidal Sassoon philosophy. Matrix SOCOLOR, L’Oréal Professionnel’s premium hair coloring line also introduced its very first Filipina product ambassador, Bianca Manalo.