Defining trends

By Cheranka Mendis

Sri Lanka is getting ready to host the country’s largest hair and beauty festival next week at the BMICH. Titled ‘Sunsilk Style International’ the festival will run for three days starting Friday and would host a number of workshops, product stalls and demonstrations.

Organizers of the event, Professional Hair Dressers and Beauticians Association (PHABA) and Sri Lanka’s premier shampoo brand Sunsilk, the event will see the presence of internally acclaimed stylists from Thailand, India and maybe even France as well as renowned local hair and beauty experts. Announcing the festival, Unilever Brand Manager for Sunsilk Jude Martino stated that the festival will give the additional boost for the industry to make a stronger presence in the market. “This aims at giving proper education, novelty and innovation to both the industry holders as well as the consumers,” Martino said. Some 100 or more experts are expected to attend the event which is targeted to attract 600, 000 people. Participants will have the opportunity to win gifts, get free makeovers along with a host of other interactive sessions.

The festival will cover the main grounds of bridal dressing, novel hair styles, fantasy hair styles and nail art. With demonstrations and workshops scheduled to be held on the three days of the show, the event will be highly valuable to all corners of society.

Chief Organizer of the event Shiran Perera expressed that there will be national and international level competitions on the three days as well. Scheduled to take place between 9 am to 12 noon. “Day one would be on bridal and flower arrangements, while day two would be on low country brides, nail art and photography and day three would feature international competitions under five categories ladies haircuts, gents haircuts, western bride, western evening dresses and fantasy hair,” Perera outlined. The overall champion will be awarded the ‘Sunsilk Style International Championship’ trophy.

The show will also present latest hair, beauty and bridal trends for 2011. Fashion shows will be held on all three days of the event, with the fashion show on Friday titled ‘Brides in Glamour”; by leading local and international bridal designers, Saturday will host ‘Salon trends’ by local hairdressing salons featuring the latest style for the coming year and on Sunday the grand finale will be on hair innovations by PABA stylists. Sunsilk being the leading brand in Sri Lanka for shampoo under the 70 year old powerhouse Unilever has invested substantially on research and development and formulation and innovation. Unilever Director Ramani Samarasundara said that the brand has grown with the people over the years and that this is an extension or the next phase of the regional ‘Sunsilk Hadakari’ workshops.

Samarasundara said that Sri Lanka is still a soft motor country with the use of hair care products on a low scale when compared to other countries in the region. “Only one in three households use shampoo on a daily basis and even though pretty much everyone has a bath per day only three out of 10 wash their hair with shampoo on a daily basis.”