Cool haircuts & colours

Winners of the L’Oreal Colour Trophy celebrate their success at the cocktail party in Dublin and (above) models Devdutta, Atreyee and Shreya at the same party.

Splashes of vibrant colours and stylish cuts ruled the ramp at ITC Sonar Bangla Sheraton and Towers, on Thursday night. Instead of garments, what took centre stage was a collection of innovative hairdos.

It was the fourth and last regional round of the L’Oreal Professional Colour Trophy, the most glamorous hairdressing do around.

The Calcutta leg followed the elimination rounds in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The finals are in Mumbai on October 4 and 5.

From a total of 300 regional entries, only 23 talented individuals were called to the Calcutta round.

One of the three primary categories for which participants were competing was the New Generation Hair Colourist Award. This, for budding hairstylists below the age of 25 and in the first year of their hair dressing careers.

The second was the Men’s Image Award, a challenge to create a hairstyle for men that would (optimistically, perhaps) carve out an identity for them. The third coveted award was the Colour Trophy for female hair styling.

The judges ‘ fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, fashion photographer Jatin Kampani, style icon Nonita Kalra, make-up artist Ambika Pillai and hairstylist Adhuna Akhtar.

The New Generation Hair Colourist Award went to Sujata Prasad of Headturners and Pardeep Kumar of Habib’s Hair and Beauty Academy. “The feeling is just amazing. I had worked hard, but frankly speaking I had never thought it would be this good. I am really excited about going to Mumbai,” smiled Pardeep.

For the Men’s Image Award, male models displayed all kinds of colours and cuts, long and short. Dilip Kumar of Hair ’’ Face was declared runners-up in this category, while Pooja Lama of Eye Catchers was crowned winner with her creation of silver streaks.

“I am too excited to say anything. I can’t wait to go to Mumbai. The next few days are going to be really tough, with a whole lot of work,” gushed Pooja.

But the show stealer of the evening was easily the Colour Trophy that had models Priyanka Kohli, Atreyee and Devdutta walking the ramp in the finest of colours and cuts.

From the straight-haired blonde look to red tresses, this category witnessed the maximum experimentation and each of the 11 finalists seemed to better their predecessor.

Finally, Jolly Chanda of Satin Rose was declared second runner-up, Suranga Thameel of Squeeze first runner-up, and Raman Bharadwaj of A.N. John was crowned winner.

After showcasing a fine blend of the Sixties’ look with a touch of today, Raman was flying high. “Oh, it feels absolutely great’ Can’t be expressed in words. So far so good. Am waiting to see what happens in Mumbai.”

Judges Sabyasachi and Ambika said: “It was indeed a great effort on the part of all these young people’ It is good that the city is beginning to experiment. We can feel the buzz for sure.”

The show was followed by a cocktail party at Dublin, where participants, judges and models were seen swinging to popular numbers like Aashiq banaya aapne, Woh lamhe and Kajra re.

Celebrations continued well past midnight as cakes were cut, drinks were downed and dreams lived out.