Personal experience: what is it like to be the absolute champion of Ukraine?

In this material, we asked several questions about the preparation and participation in the Ukrainian and World Championships to the absolute champion of Ukraine - Alexey Baluev .

Describe your attitude towards competitions and championships for hairdressers. What can you say about them?

At the moment, there are a huge number of competitions, and they are all different in terms of level of conduct, prestige, and preparation of participants. There are competitions that are held on behalf of associations, such as OMS, which unites the best hairdressers from all over the world. There are competitions held by brands or independent organizations, and this is a very interesting movement because it allows you to be creative in your work.

Communicating with my colleagues, I meet different opinions about the championships, but from myself I can say that this is an excellent platform for growth and development. Many people talk about how everything is bought, everything is dishonest, but in fact, few people know how much work and effort it takes to competently prepare a great, competitive work that can take a prize.

Therefore, I believe that no matter what place you take, the preparation process itself and participation itself is an excellent opportunity for a master to become exponentially better and jump above his head, which, in principle, is what I did this year.

“One of my friends once came to a carpentry shop about her business; she needed to repair a box. And she accidentally saw how a mother and daughter placed an order for the production of a box with a drawing of my work. Then I realized that this was popular.”

What is your motivation? What goes through a participant's mind when he trains endlessly?

I don’t know about the other participants, but when I decided to participate in the Ukrainian Championship this year, I set myself the goal of getting the title of absolute champion of Ukraine, and I succeeded.

The preparation process took three months, I went to training in Kharkov with Yulia Matviychuk, an international coach and compulsory medical insurance judge. There was only one thing in my head: if I feel sorry for myself and don’t train, don’t practice my competition hairstyle, then I’m simply wasting time, because someone is taking advantage of this moment and scratching it right at that moment, and the realization of this was very motivating to get up and do it. Continuously for 3 months in a row, every day, regardless of whether I worked or not, I found time to train (an average of 4-5 hours).

My personal growth was also a strong motivation, since I am quite famous as a colorist, I do excellent coloring and cutting, but the big problem for colorists is that they cannot present their work favorably.

I specifically focused on participating in the championship in those categories that I least come across in the salon. I chose complex technical hairstyles for myself, which, according to international compulsory medical insurance rules, train the technique of creating a hairstyle. And now I get great pleasure from the process of creating hairstyles in the salon. I can create commercial styles with ease, I’m faster at work and I see cleaner shapes. This cannot but please me and my clients, who also note that my handwriting has changed. And he has definitely changed for the better.

How do you formulate an idea for a work for a competition?

As I already said, I went to training in Kharkov, with Yulia Matviychuk, a Ukrainian coach and international compulsory medical insurance judge. Since the coach has a lot of experience, I competed in the technical category, which is very different from salon work.

I relied on the knowledge of my teacher to point out what shapes were trending and what to look for. Creating an idea was the coach's job. I had to replicate this form as best as possible and bring it to perfection.

I had very little time to train, but when a person has a desire, then everything else fades into the background. If I have a day off, I trained from morning until evening. It happened that I came from the salon at 11 pm and started training, and such training often ended at 4 am.

This year the World Championship took place online. What advantages of this format can you highlight?

Yes, due to the pandemic, the championship was held online, this is a grand event, but there are both pros and cons. Among the advantages we can note: you have unlimited time, you can easily comb out the shape, re-comb it or repeat the photo shoot. But! Creating a beautiful, well-thought-out hairstyle is one thing, but photographing the work beautifully, with the right angles to convey the shape and silhouette as correctly as possible, is another. Few hairdressers have the skills to organize photo sessions and see the work in the frame; for many this was a test and stress.

The compulsory medical insurance has been holding a photography competition for several years, regardless of whether there is a pandemic or not. This competition is called OMC Stylist World. It has five nominations. I took part in the “Creative Coloring” nomination, since this is the only nomination for colorists. I prepared a very cool work, which took second place this year and became very viral: it was posted everywhere and even drawn by artists.

A friend of mine once came to a carpentry shop about her business; she needed to repair a box. And she accidentally saw how a mother and daughter placed an order to make a box with a drawing of my work. Then I realized that this was popularity. Many famous world magazines have also published my work. And it's incredibly nice.

What is the price of your victory?

The price of my victory is, of course, sleepless nights, worries, stress, a lot of work on myself, overcoming pain. If everything is going smoothly and evenly for you, then you have either outgrown this level and need to rise higher, or you are simply in the wrong place. In my case with hairstyles, I overcame myself and did not regret it for a minute.

Will the prices for your services in the beauty salon change due to the fact that you are the absolute champion of Ukraine and the world champion?

The price for my services has not changed - it increased even before I took part in the competition ( laughs ). He probably went ahead of the curve. My internal perception of myself as a champion has been there for a long time, so the overall championship was proof that this was really the case and that I was already at the level where I could win the world championship.

I will definitely take part in championships more than once and in different categories. Now, thanks to the pandemic, many events around the world are held online, and if previously you could not participate in a foreign competition for some reason, now everything is possible thanks to photography.