The 2008 World Hairdressing Championships—the Olympics for hairstylists, brought over 800 competitors from 5 continents and 40 countries to Chicago earlier in March.
The United States team included Jimmy VanBoxel, Jr., a graduate of Empire Education Group’s Grand Rapids, MI, Chic University, who competed in the Senior Gents division. “It was a long, wild, non-stop, sleepless weekend,” says Jimmy, who arrived in Chicago and quickly turned his hotel room into a studio, removing the lamp shades and setting up a chair to make the final adjustments and tweaks to his model.
While practicing, cutting and coloring on his model, he was also filmed by a documentary team which followed his every move around the city of Chicago and at the competition. “They were tying to capture the story and the dynamics of preparing for competition,” he said of the film crew. Jimmy’s Uberzoot! Hair Company street team also covered ground promoting his new product line at the competition and in Chicago.
Preparing for the competition took a new turn when Jimmy’s model, who grew out a cookie duster mustache months before the competition, got a shave and ended up with a goatee to complement his black, red and silver hair, and ensemble.
At the competition, the models were set and the judging began. “It’s like displaying a piece of art on a gallery floor, you have about five minutes to pose your model before the judges come through,” he added.
The Europeans brought a new trend to the competition with “geometric cuts and heavy layered lines, there was so much good work there with their approach, placement and techniques,” Jimmy said of the other competitors. Indeed, the Europeans had extreme fashions as Jimmy described one of the model’s ensembles as colorful and impressing. “Europe and Asia are very similar with extreme fashion and it’s more acceptable. America is much different because high fashion isn’t as appreciated as much, the focus is a little different,” he said.
“Our objective was to create a conceptual style with an outfit that could be high fashion, and a realistic style you’d see on the cover of a magazine,” he said.
Though the U.S. team didn’t place, Jimmy is already part of a small team representing the United States at the 2010 event set to take place in Paris, France. “Regardless of how the competition goes, seems like as soon as the excitement is over we move to the next thing and there’s no time to linger on old thoughts,” he added.
The team will participate in preliminary competitions in Greece, Latvia and Germany, “We try to hit three of those before the big one,” Jimmy said.
The renowned competitor did walk away from the competition with motivation, momentum and a possible distributor for his product line which received overwhelming recognition, “It created an impact and I want to bring it to the next level to get it in salons,” he added. “We created positive commotion,” he said of his Uberzoot! street team and film crew during the long weekend.
In June, Jimmy and his Uberzoot! street team will head to Florida to continue promoting Uberzoot! “It’s all about momentum – you keep going – I don’t want it to stop,” he said of the buzz surrounding the new product line. Uberzoot! was inspired by Jimmy’s experience in competitions. The product is competition quality and can be used in salons. “Ultimately, taking my experience and linking it to my new passion,” says Jimmy of his product line and company, Uberzoot! Hair Co.
Regardless of the outcome of the competition Jimmy added that the experience of promoting his product line and focusing on competing during the World Championships was “successful on one end and challenging on the other.”
To learn more about the product line and the full story about Jimmy VanBoxel Jr. visit his myspace page.
