Mark your calendars, salon pros: the Texture Style Awards are back and better than ever! Returning for its second year, the first-of-its-kind hair competition, which was first launched in 2021 by celebrity hairstylist Monae Everett, will be continuing its mission of celebrating all hair textures and the talented hairstylists who slay them.
“70% of the world’s population has hair that is considered textured,” said Everett. “The beauty industry as it stands today does not reflect that statistic. The Texture Style Awards are not just a celebration of those in the industry who do work with, feature, and have textured hair, but rather an invitation for all stylists to educate themselves to work with, feature, and have textured hair, but rather an invitation for all stylists to educate themselves to work with all types of hair. The ability to showcase all hair types should be the rule, not the exception.”
Presented by Beauty by Imagination (BBI) and The Aveda Arts and Sciences Institute, the Texture Style Awards will offer five main categories—straight, wavy, curly, coily, and student styling—along with subcategories for up and down styling. Not only will this competition support increased diversity and inclusion within the beauty industry, but it will also help empower and educate stylists to recognize that all hair is good hair.
“At BBI, we are more than the sum of our products. We are dreamers. We are innovators. We are a global company of like-minded people who love what we do and strive to make the idea of beauty accessible to all,” said BBI’s Lisa Shafer, AVP of Events, Education, and Ouidad Salons. “By partnering with Monae Everett, we plan to lift up the stylists community by encouraging, educating, and celebrating every hair moment as Gold Crown Sponsor of the 2023 Texture Style Awards.”
Tatum Neil, Creative Director of Elevate Hair and Aveda Arts, echoed these sentiments: “Aveda Arts and Sciences Institute is a large and diverse network of cosmetology and esthetics schools. We pride ourselves in developing a curriculum that achieves technical proficiency in our students and believes that can only be achieved with a full understanding of all hair types. The Texture Hair Awards embodies a shared value of celebrating hair across the full spectrum of texture and we are grateful for the opportunity to sponsor the event.”
Joining Beauty by Imagination (which houses Ouidad, CURLS, Bio Ionic, and Wet Brush) and Aveda Arts and Sciences Institute as competition sponsors are The Evoke Agency and, yours truly, The Tease.
How to Enter
No matter if you are a student or a pro, you have the opportunity to put your skills to the test and win big at this year’s Texture Style Awards. From March 1st to June 30th, stylists, students, and salon pros will have the chance to submit photos of their work that represent one of the hair categories. The entry fee is $30 per submission and $15 per student submission.
All submissions will be reviewed by an esteemed panel of expert judges from across the beauty industry that includes representatives from BBI and Aveda as well as celebrity and editorial stylists. Judges will be reviewing submissions based on technical skills, shape, and texture definition. The top 10 submissions in each category will move on to a second round of voting by the public and the final winners will be announced live in New York City, in August.
As for the prizes? The winners can expect to receive a custom trophy, one-on-one mentorship with a sponsor brand ambassador, up to $750 worth of prizes from sponsors, and tons of media exposure.
If you need a little guidance, Everett will be hosting four, brand-sponsored, live model class demonstrations through The Monae Life Academy. These workshops, which will be taking place in March and April, are designed to help increase stylists’ proficiency and confidence in styling all four hair textures. You can expect them to offer look-and-learn tutorials, including techniques for styling for photography and tips specific to each texture.
Ready to show the world your skill? Be sure to submit an entry at https://www.texturestyleawards.com/. For any and all competition updates, make sure to follow @texturestyleawards on Instagram.
