Beauty tales from London

South African spa consultant Marisa Dimitriadis shares her experiences of the recent Professional Beauty London Expo and its sister event, the World Spa & Wellness Convention UK edition

The world really is a huge place and I am amazed every time I travel – and I am lucky enough to travel a lot – by just how much is out there that we don’t know about or have not been exposed to.

This particular trip felt like my brain was going to explode with so many ideas and new experiences. What I ascertained that was different this year was an enormous technology jump like never before. I mean, yes, technology is always upgrading and improving, but this year is next level.

The Professional Beauty Show was held at Excel in London on the 5th and 6th March. There is so much happening all at once over these two days that you really need to plan carefully to ensure you get a good balance of information, but also to see and experience what’s in the exhibition halls.

As soon as you walk into Excel, the sheer size of the show is intimidating. What immediately caught my eye was how it has changed in nature quite dramatically. I have been going to this expo for about eight years now and for the first time, there was only a small nail presence. Every year I seem to get bombarded by nail stands, all selling at huge discounts, as well as by salon and make-up suppliers, but it was not the case this year. Equipment and technology are what occupied the bulk of the space and it was incredible to see. A true testament to the trends that we are seeing in our industry.

Here is a summary of what stood out most. 1. Skin scanners 2. LED light therapy 3. Sound therapy 4. Experience treatment beds 5. Equipment, equipment, equipment is clearly the future of the industry

“STAFF and the CHALLENGES that GO WITH THEM seem to be a GLOBAL PROBLEM in the spa COMMUNITY. The bottom line is that staff NEED MORE ATTENTION and FOCUS, so managers must GET ON TOP of this and MAKE IT PRIORITY. ”

“WHAT I ASCERTAINED that was DIFFERENT this year was an ENORMOUS TECHNOLOGY JUMP like never before – it is NEXT LEVEL. ”

Immersive spa experiences

The World Spa & Wellness Convention UK edition attracts over 200 professionals and with so many interesting topics covered in the sessions, it’s difficult to choose which to attend. Having said that, the main takeaway from this year’s event is that immersive experiences are the next step. They even showed us an immersive electronic gift voucher – where you receive the voucher in your inbox with a specific song and it is in the form of a clip, thus almost bringing the voucher to life. It really is spectacular.

To me, the most fun part of the convention was the ‘Movement’ session. Here, Salsatek taught us a few salsa movements which help to release the happy hormones and keep blood flowing in the body, thereby generally improving wellbeing. I absolutely loved this as we are seeing a definite ‘movement’ uptake in the world in general.

Staff and the challenges that go with them seem to be a global problem in the spa community, with a session dedicated to hearing different perspectives on this. The main conclusions drawn were the need to take longer to recruit, to have a thorough process and to not leave out any steps in that process. One needs to take the desperation out of hiring and do your background (social media) checks thoroughly too.

A proper and set induction plan and training period is a must, with regular check in sessions, monthly KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and bi-annual PDP (Personal Development Planning) meetings. The bottom line is that staff need more attention and focus, so managers must get on top of this and make it priority.

Manufacturing perspective

One of the conferences to take place at Professional Beauty London is the IMF (International Manufacturers Forum), where distributors and manufacturers of brands get together to discuss various challenges, changes, regulations and trends when it comes to either owning or distributing a brand.

It is really awesome to be in a room filled with people from different countries sharing experiences and best practices. One of the sessions that caught my attention the most was the sustainability session, where a panel discussion took place with different size brand owners, ranging from really huge international brands to small domestic brands. A salon owner’s perspective was also brought into the discussion. The takeaway from this session was that we all need to start somewhere and ensure we have the credibility of a company that tracks and monitors the practices put in place so that greenwashing doesn’t take place. Unfortunately greenwashing, where companies make unsubstantiated claims to deceive consumers into believing that their products are environmentally friendly, is becoming more common in a bid to gain market share.

War stories

The other IMF session that caught my attention was the ‘war stories’ that were told by different brands. Wow! What an eye opener to hear some of the survival stories of big brands which have been affected by issues like: ‘fake’ ingredient claims; huge print runs with errors that had to be recalled and cost the company millions; contractual challenges that nearly caused some brand owners to lose their businesses; and many more stories. I really appreciated hearing these as we never really get to find out about these kind of problems and automatically assume brands are fine and flourishing. It all just makes me appreciate that these are real people affected by real problems too.

Regulations

And, of course, the contentious subject of brand registration regulations in different countries takes the spotlight every year at the IMF conference. I am not sure how I feel about this as the regulations seem to change so often and it is an expensive exercise. However, this process needs to happen in most countries. Is this a good thing? Not necessarily, because brand owners might decide to take their brands into markets that are not so strict with their regulations. It sometimes feels like a money making scheme more than anything else when you add up all the fees and red tape. This could mean that countries with easier entry requirements could be exposed to newer technology and better brands? Maybe….

Marisa Dimitriadis is the founder and owner of The Spa Consultants and a co-founder of The Spa Professionals Guild. Email marisa@spaprofessionalsguild.com