Professional Beauty UK Salon of the Year 2016

BATG Winners of Professional Beauty’s UK Salon of the Year 2016.

We headed down to London on Sunday morning, excited but with more hope than expectation.  It was a fun journey down with a few bottles of Prosecco before checking into the Malmaison hotel, getting hair and outfits sorted for the big event.

The awards were held at The Brewery, a large corporate event venue and from the moment we arrived it was red carpet treatment all the way. A champagne reception was followed by locating our table for a 3 course meal. To be honest, no-one really felt like eating too much as the nerves started to kick in. We could not help feel a little bit intimidated and out of place rubbing shoulders with some of the most influential people within the beauty industry worldwide. 

The awards kicked off and were hosted by ITV star Stephen Mulhern who ha the audience in stitches with a few jokes and tricks. The awards started and we soon realized that we had quite a wait, as our category was the penultimate award to be handed out.

The nominations were the read out by Stephen. He stated that the winning salon impressed the judges, with an excellent business model and incredible marketing. This only sufficed to make our hearts stop and think it could just be us. Lisa Carr from the award sponsors London Lash & Brow came onto the stage to announce the winners.

When our name was called out there was a mixture of disbelief, shock and excitement all of which were captured on a video that can be viewed on our Facebook page, I think it’s safe to say that we were the most excited winners on the night and taking to the stage to receive the award was an amazing experience for us all.

We felt it important to congratulate the other finalists in our category as they really are amazing businesses who all have a similar outlook to us when it comes to running a salon. In particular it was lovely to speak to Perfection Health owner Michelle Stead who has guided her salon to the finals for 3 years out of the last 4, the other year they were not in the finals they didn’t actually enter. They are certainly an inspiration for us in terms of looking to return to the awards again. They also put a lovely post on their own Facebook page afterwards congratulating us, not only a great business woman but a genuine and gracious one too.

It certainly was party time after receiving the award with all the girls celebrating well into the early hours of the morning. In fact 2 stayed out until 6 in the morning 

Along with being an amazing experience winning this award has already opened new doors for us in that we were approached by a few big brands who want their treatments and machines in the salon. This will allow us to grow and bring some more amazing new treatments to all of our clients.