Sassoon Academy Toronto celebrated the renowned global company’s 70th anniversary with a spectacular presentation at the 2025 Contessa Awards. Learn more about the presentation in our one-on-one chat with senior creative director, Lorraine McAndrew.
Tell us more about the presentation.
It’s a presentation combining our collections, Noir, Blanc and Rouge. It’s basically three segments of different collections that they have done for 2024.
What are some of the key looks in the presentation (colour, cuts, styles)?
There’s quite a bit of texture and a combination of some pinks, blondes, brunettes, with some blue. We have a combination of different colours. We’re trying to show some looks that have different [techniques] based on the collections. In Rouge, there are more red tones. Noir has some darker tones and Blanc has a bit more blonde.
What are some trends that you’ll be showcasing that stylists should keep on their radar for 2025?
I feel like the bob is always there. We have 70 years as a company with the bob haircut. We basically have released a lot of bob shapes this year on our Instagram. Our team did a photo shoot and presented all bob models, which is our signature look. It never goes out of style. Everything sort of comes back, but in a new form, whether it be in the clothing or makeup, but also the styling of the hair. I think it’s combination of long, texture and shorter. At Sassoon, we’re always working with different lanes. It’s never just one look.
Sassoon is celebrating 70 years. What do you think is the secret to being a leader in the industry for so long?
We never stop learning. I’m very lucky to work for a company that releases three collections every year. When they release the collections, we also get diagrams and there are new haircuts presented online that we can watch. As a leader of a team on the creative side, we then show our staff the new collection. We’re always working with creative as well as classic, but we’re showing that to our staff and then we take our staff through our workshop. I think that’s what keeps us unique because our stylists are closely learning, and you never stop learning in this industry. I feel fortunate that the education is ongoing. There’s always something new and it keeps us on top. Sometimes, it’s not always extremely different but it gets hairdressers inspired on how you’re going to section the hair or do something different. Then, you take that inspiration and put your own mark on it also. You don’t always do exactly the same, but it just gives you an idea.
With Sassoon Academy Toronto being the Contessa 2025 Education Sponsor, what courses would you recommend that Contessa winners, finalists and attendees consider attending?
I think the ABC course is number one; that’s where you start off learning the techniques and perfecting the lines, balance and shape. After that, we’ve got ABC Plus, which is a newer course that we have that’s a little bit more advanced. Then, you’ve got the creative and the colour course, too. It depends on what area and stage you’re at in your career, but I think if you come to Sassoon for the first time to take a course, you should always do the ABC—whether you’ve been doing hair for 30 years or not—because that’s where you want to start, and then you can progress from there. We have some people coming back for ABC every year. You have to keep coming back, so that way you just keep getting better.
You have to revisit the foundation. Even myself, I’ll watch the haircuts online before I teach just because I want to just brush up a little and refresh.
What are your next steps? Is there anything exciting that you and the team are working on that you would like to share?
Next year I’d like to work on some photo shoots on my own; just working with some nice models.
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