A feather in her cap

In a first for South Africa, Joburg-based hairdresser Candice Wyatt-Minter has scooped the award for the best stylist globally in the prestigious Davines World Style Contest held in Berlin last month.

Working to a brief that required the entrants to produce a "fashion forward commercial hairstyle", Wyatt-Minter was inspired by fashion icons from the '90s, particularly Bridget Fonda in her role in the movie, Single White Female.

The contest began with the South African finals held in Johannesburg, where a panel of local industry experts selected Wyatt-Minter's entry as the local winner. Her entry photograph was then submitted to the international panel, which selected it as the official entry for the Oceania region.

When she won the opportunity to present her style in Berlin, she could choose whether to take her own model, the lovely Carla Uys, Cleo magazine fashion editor, at her own expense or find a model when she arrived.

"I like to be very well-prepared," she says. "And so I opted to pay for my model to come with me.

"I've been on this wild journey with Carla since April," says Wyatt-Minter. "I didn't give a second thought to whether or not she should come to Berlin."

The competition is held as part of the Davines World Wide Hair Tour that the environmentally friendly hair company stages every second year to showcase the work of the best stylists in the world and to forecast new trends.

"On the first day of the competition we walked in and workers were setting up for 1400 audience members to watch the show.

"Stylists were cutting and colouring all over the place and tensions were high. In between all of this the anonymous judges were walking around. I'm glad that I didn't know who they were; being judged by my hair heroes would have made me nervous."

It took the team from 8am to midnight to complete the hairstyle.

The next day Wyatt-Minter ran into "the god of hairstylists", Tim Hartley, creative director of London hair salon Vidal Sassoon.

"He loved my hair colour and later in the day he found me to tell me that my entry was 'pure' and 'progressive', which means a lot coming from a Bauhaus enthusiast."

Participants were judged on technical skill, knowledge of product, stage presentation, suitability of model and an audience vote. The audience members were encouraged to take their country's flag and place it before the style they liked most.

Wyatt-Minter achieved a record by becoming the competition's first finalist to receive a 98% vote from the industry audience. She was also given a unanimous endorsement from the full jury of international experts, including Hartley, Frederique Verley, beauty editor of Paris Vogue, and well-known colourist Brian Suhr.

"It was the first time in the history of the competition that the judges' decision was unanimous," said Davide Bollati, president of Davines SpA. "The audience's vote proves that creativity outstrips national pride."

Wyatt-Minter's prize is to present her own show at the next Davines World Wide Hair Tour in Miami in January 2012. She will be participating in the international trend forecasting process, both in hair and in fashion, and has already approached designer Lisa Jaffe of Guillotine and interior architect Sacha Kahn to collaborate with her.

Wyatt-Minter says the best comment she heard in Berlin was: "Wow, I didn't think a South African would be progressive enough to compete internationally, let alone win." She sure showed 'em!