Here at the Bangstyle offices, as the annual Artist to Reign Supreme Contest is underway, we can’t help but feel competition in the air all around us. Throughout our lives, we experience competition in many forms, from getting good grades in school to winning in sports competitions. We learn early on that a healthy level of competition drives us to grow as we push our talents and ourselves further. This priceless lesson stays with us throughout our lives and can be the driving force to help us succeed in our careers.
As stylists, competition is around us every day as we try and see how many likes we can get on Instagram or shares on Facebook. While these are important daily tasks to keep us focused, sometimes we need more. We need something to help us realize why we got started in hair in the first place. Why we decided to pick up a comb, a brush, or our first pair of shears and create something new. This sentiment is in part why we created the Supremes Contest on Bangstyle. As an artist, there are many ways to express your talents beyond what graces your chair in the salon each day. Pushing yourself, challenging your techniques, taking inspiration and vision to reality… it’s all critical to the artist spirit. What better way to push yourself, and see what you are really made of as an artist, than competition work?
We wanted to give artists a playground to express themselves and their talents outside of the constraints of the salon. We want to celebrate stylists as artists and recognize them as such. As the biggest hair competition in history, Bangstyle picks 6 winners every week, a finalist every month and an Artist to Reign Supreme each year and you can enter just by uploading your image to Bangstyle.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to have a massive budget to shoot a collection and enter competitions. Take Palma N'Sheluvzit for example. This NAHA and Contessa winning artist created her first Avant-Garde collection using extension hair weaving it through a trash can from the Dollar Store! You also don’t have to break the bank when it comes to a photographer either. If you can afford one of the greats, amazing! If you can’t… it doesn’t exclude you from entering or even winning. What does is not trying! Vision and skill will take the win every single time, not budget. I can tell you first hand as a competition judge, I have no idea what was spent on a collection when judging the imagery. I can only tell you if their heart was in it, you can tell when passion and love for their art is literally beaming through the image. I can tell you from experience… we judges can spot that a mile away.
I urge you, I even beg you…. embrace your creative spirit. It’s what makes you special. Don’t lose that passion that led you to pursue this industry in the first place. Take that artistic fire deep in your soul and feed it! Wherever you are around the globe, look into the world of competitions. Why not try? You’ll never know if you don’t!
While there is still time to vote to influence this year’s Reign Supreme winner (simply click below to vote), why not start uploading your own entries and start thinking about how you can challenge yourself for the year ahead!
