Alternative Hair Show 2012 celebrates 30-year legacy at Royal Albert Hall.

The 30^th Alternative Hair Show reached a new high in its campaign: Fighting Leukaemia, on Sunday 14^th October 2012, presenting awe-inspiring shows and raising over £193,000 for the newly recognized Alternative Hair Charitable Foundation. This steps the total raised in the history of Alternative Hair close to £9 million.

The evening opened with a special video montage celebrating the journey from 1983, when the first show was hosted at London’s Camden Palace, to the present, with recent shows being held in the prestigious Royal Albert Hall, and included a special tribute to Worldwide Honorary Patron, the late Vidal Sassoon CBE. Alongside many of the greatest names in hairdressing, Founder of Alternative Hair, Tony Rizzo presented Sassoon’s children, Elan and Eden, with a unique award in memory of the iconic hairdresser. As the family joined Tony on stage they received an uplifting and very deserved standing ovation.  Notable supporters of Alternative Hair, some of the world’s greatest hairdressing legends of today, were invited on stage including: John Frieda, Trevor Sorbie, Andrew Collinge, Luis Longueras, Daniel Galvin, Mark Hayes, Anthony and Pat Mascolo and Robert and Kay Lobetta, Wiel and Ell Essers, Fernando Romero, Andrew Collinge, Kohsuke Ueno, Klaus Peter Ochs and Clive Colman.

Following this, the 30^th anniversary show continued with one of the most popular parts of the show: the Alternative Hair International Visionary Award

featuring 22 up and coming industry names who each presented their ‘look’. Varying from tailored and textured avant-garde creations to less flamboyant yet still incredibly bold and beautiful geometric and structured cuts the 22 entrants made a strong on-stage presentation.   First place was awarded to Michelle McDermott, Ireland, Runner-Up to Mauro Santurro, Italy and 2^nd Runner-Up to Pawel Babicz, Poland.

The 2012/2013 Association Internationale Presse Professionnelle Coiffure (AIPP) Award Winners were also announced during the event. This year there were a staggering 423 entries from 22 countries. The winners received their awards from AIPP President and Estetica Network Publisher, Roberto Pissimiglia.

A surprise of the evening was the presentation of a special award to a special personality, the Founder of Alternative Hair Tony Rizzo, is more used to giving out awards than receiving them, but on Sunday night friends and colleagues Rebecca and Erwin Fehringer and Weil and Ell Essers honoured Tony for his charitable work over the lifetime of the organisation.

With creative Teams from around the globe including the UK, Ireland, Austria, Russia, Italy, Germany, Japan, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Spain each of the record 20 participating teams presented their individual interpretations of the 2012 theme, “Legends”; the ultimate inspiration for the evening in this year’s hairdressing calendar.

The evening culminated with a final presentation of all the Teams and the presentation of a cheque by Anthony Mascolo, Global President of Alternative Hair and Alternative Hair Founder, Tony Rizzo.  The event raised a staggering £193,000 for “Fighting Leukaemia”. The amazing evening closed to an explosion of gold streamers as the 5,500 audience departed into the night.