St. Albert is home to North America’s top hair dresser.
Tony Ricci of Ricci Hair Co. snagged the hairstylist of the year award from the Professional Beauty Association, which held its annual North American Hairstyling Awards in Las Vegas July 18.
“It’s starting to feel more real now. It feels great,” Ricci said from his salon in St. Albert.
Ricci is no stranger to awards. He’s twice been named Canada’s stylist of the year, in 2008 and 2009. But this latest award is his biggest coup yet, a North American award from a contest that attracted about 800 entries.
“This is the biggest prize. It doesn’t get any bigger,” Ricci said. “Pretty shocking.”
The contest calls for entrants to submit five photos of styles they’ve created, which are judged on creativity and originality. Ricci beat out four other finalists from Montreal, California, Maryland and Texas.
Ricci entitled his collection “Cyber Vixens.” He was going for a futuristic, spacey look, he said.
Once he’d been declared one of the finalists, Ricci heard from many people that he had the win in the bag but he didn’t count on it. He said he was still shocked to hear his name announced.
This latest award doesn’t come with a huge amount of hardware or swag, just a glass trophy. But the real prize is all the press coverage and notoriety that follow, which have a huge impact on business, he said.
Since learning of his win, Ricci has been contacted by magazines based in Spain, Italy and China, seeking to publish his work, he said.
Ricci operates two salons, one in St. Albert and one in Edmonton. He also attends a handful of trade shows each year as a professional trainer and demonstrator for l’Oreal. Winning high-profile awards is “huge” for business, he said.
Earlier this year Ricci’s protĂ©gĂ© Danielle Barbey earned the title of Alberta salon stylist of the year from the annual Mirror Awards.
