Well hello and welcome back to 2012!as predicted I have started at the same pace as we all finished. January is a month were we spend lots of time planning the coming year, and what plans we have, but it also starts with our annual awards. This year we took over Mimosa bar and restaurant for the evening, and themed the evening with some rather potent and tasty cocktails!! (For those of you that have seen Pro hair this month, and then yes it was the biggest bar bill I’ve had) As well as the fun Gongs that were given out, and some special mentions, The were 4 major awards up for grabs. Dafydd Rhys won the employee of the year Sally Davies won the Assistant of the year Neryse Owen won the Customer care Award And Joanne Spencer won the annual Ken Picton Christmas Cracker, So well done to all the winners, we also had a champagne toast by all the team For winning the Most Wanted Salon team This month I was featured in the Elle runway edit, in conjunction wit L’Oreal proffesional, and as of the end of the month I will be doing lot’s of great seminars ect, as well as London fashion week, so plenty to keep me busy. Also this week has seen the launch of our new homepage, with the introduction of our live blog and twitter feeds, as well as a really cool new salon video on the homepage, as well as the full size version on the video section, check it out if you haven’t already!!!! And lastly we have a really cool new press section on the site witch you can view large screen with the page turner so at last we can start uploading all our feature’s in the press for you to see in all there glory. Over the next few weeks you will see lots of changes to the Ken Picton Boutique, especially with the gift section, so keep looking for the updates. xx

WOW, what an amazing finish to the year!!!! All the hard work paid off, as I mentioned in my last blog, we were in London for the British Hairdressing Awards, and I won the Wales and Southwest Hairdresser of the year, for the second time, It was an amazing night, with Jonathan Ross as the host. Then it was straight back to work for the busiest time of the year at the salon, And it has been, last week we recorded our busiest week ever in 21 years, So a big well done to the Ken Picton Team (there were not voted the best team at the most wanted for nothing) Then it was a quick dash up to Clothes’ Show live in Birmingham, to do my slot on Your Hair’s stop chop stage, before heading to London for the Fellowship Luncheon at the Dorchester, which is regarded as the Hair worlds Christmas party!! Again we had success there too, we won the consumer image of the year, and I was made a fellow with honours, so a very proud day indeed. Its amazing to think we will be starting it all again in January!!!! This just leaves me to say Happy Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year!!!! XXXXXX

Hello, I write this blog sitting on the Euro Star to Paris, with Thea Blight, the uk business and education manager of Shu Uemura art of hair, we are going to shoot the gallery of style collection for 2012,luckily my stitches are off from my finger, after slicing it with a Parma ham knife, so my hands should look normal in the step by steps. This is the start of a hectic 6-7 weeks for me, as I’m fully booked until January in the salon, and I’m away practically every week with different events coming up, Last week I was in London doing a shoot for ELLE magazines runway edit, in conjunction with L’Oreal professional, which comes out in January, and next week I’m doing a front cover shoot for Your Hair magazine, in conjunction with The Fellowship of British hairdressing, with the 6 people who are shortlisted for the Consumer image of the year. Ok I didn’t finish my blog, as it was hectic and 2 weeks later, I’m on a train with Mrs P, on my way to London For the British Hairdressing awards, after doing all the things above and they were very successful!! So this week Bha’s, then next week Clothes show live, doing the Stop and Chop with Your hair, where we take people from the audience, and revamp them, always fun!! Then straight to London for the fellowship Luncheon, where we are shortlisted for the consumer image of the year, and in the final 3 for the Salon Of the Year, which we are the current holders off, so fingers crossed on all fronts. Will promise to update your sooner than this one xx

WOW, what a week I’ve just had, it started with a 5am call on the Sunday to prep for Salon international, where we did a slot on the fellowship stage for L’Oreal. Dafydd, Paul Nicola and myself worked on 5 models, using the new super hero products, which was so super cool we had great fun! The new super dust is just Fantastic, we sold out at the salon in the first day, but don’t worry it’s arriving as I type. Next day I went to the Most wanted winners breakfast at Shoreditch house, and was great to meet up with all the winners, sadly though I had to shoot of quickly To a studio up the road for a makeover shoot for Candis magazine, The team were already there doing there stuff, when I arrived, so it was straight down to business, and it was for 2 lovely ladies, who for sure deserved it, Look out for the results in Jan and Feb. editions. Next day was back-to-back meetings in London, and then home to Cardiff. I then spent the next day with 3 doll heads working on my idea’s for the 2012 Gallery of style for Shu Uemura art of hair. I have to go to Paris to shoot it mid November, so I had to come up with 3 step by steps for cutting and styling my looks, based on there collection idea, s, obviously I can’t tell you yet but watch this space!! BUT there was something refreshing about going back to basics, and playing around with doll heads, it reminded me of my times with Sebastian. Then the following day saw the ken picton boutique go live online, It’s been a project that started after we won Website of the year, in 2010 And it was to create a shopping experience that mirrored that of our award winning salon, I think the guys in Holland have done a fantastic job,Check it out for your selves ,I,m sure you will like it ,especially the gift service which really makes the site unique!!!WWW.kenpictonboutique.com

RESULTS are in! Since my last blog several things have kept us really busy. September has been Awards month, which started with Creative Head’s Most Wanted Awards, Hosted by the hilarious Keith Lemon, and what a night it was As we came away with a double award win, scooping the Best Salon Team and the Best Salon Experience, which I have to say was well deserved for the team, They have been fantastic this year and deserve all the credit they get!! It truly was a memorable night and one we will all remember for a very long time. Moving on a week and we saw Our Dafydd compete in the semi final heats of the fame team selection, sadly he didn’t progress, but it’s his first year of trying, and he’s champing at the bit to try next year, great presentation tho!! Next day the salon launched L’Oreal colour, including Inoa, and the new dia richesse colours, and then the afternoon we all rushed up to London for the British Hairdressing Awards, Sadly we didn’t win any of our 4 shortlists, but we were honoured to be shortlisted, big congratulations to the big winner of the night, Michael Van Clarke, he scooped 4 awards, including the converted Business Director of the year. Now we will start our preparations for Salon International, we are doing a slot on the fellowship stand for L’Oreal, which is really exciting!!!!! As well as doing my workshop for Club Star next week. And a shoot for Your Hair mag, so busy as usual!!!! We also have had our City & Guilds EU visit and I’m pleased to say we have passed with flying colours, so well done to my team of trainers, So until next time X

Well as you’ve probably gathered from all the tweets ect ect, I did get shortlisted in the British Hairdressing awards, Wales and South West, so all the hard work has paid off!!! That’s means we have 9 shortlists in total, Amazing (fingers crossed we will land a few)! The last week has been hectic for myself and all the guys at the salon, as we have started the process of rebranding the products we use. After 20 years working with Wella, and becoming one of their brand ambassadors, We’ve decided to move forward with L’Oreal professional, last year we became the exclusive stockists in south Wales of Shu Uemura art of hair, and at the same time launched the fabulous Keraskin skin care line, they were both such a success, it prompted us to look at what other products were available, So I’m delighted to announce we now stock Kerastase, Redken and L’Oreal professional products as well!!! The team are soo excited about all the new products and are really looking forward to all the great opportunity’s about to come. Over the next couple of weeks we will be launching the new and exciting Ken Picton Boutique, witch will be an online salon/shop, exclusive gift site. And we will be the only online site with Keraskin in the UK, so watch out for the launch I’m also delighted to be introduced into the L’Oreal Portfolio, and looking forward To getting stuck into some exciting projects, I’ve made many friends working with wella, and would like to thank them for there support over the last 20 years!! Now I must get back to studying up on all my new products, so I can help and advise all my clients. Speak soon xx

GREAT NEWS AGAIN! We got shortlisted to all 4 category’s we entered in the British Hairdressing Business Awards 2011, we got thru to Salon Of The Year 1,Customer Care, Salon Team and myself for the Business Director, so that make it a clean sweep of all the awards we entered in these and the Most Wanted, lets hope we have similar news in the BHA’s !!(the letters arrive today,) As I writing this blog, I’m getting ready to go to London for the interview for the Business Director award, good luck to everyone involved today, I, m proud to be in the shortlist. Anyway after my little jaunt to New York I was straight back on it as they say, My team and myself did a seminar at the salon for the Fellowship Clubstar, which was great,I was amazed how far people travelled, and it was a sell out!!! The following week I was invited to the L’Oreal Colour Trophy, it was the first time I’ve ever been; it was a great night and congratulations to all the winners The salon has been so busy at the moment, which is fantastic,well done to my team, especially the management and front of house!!!!!

AMAZING NEWS, All that hard work paid off, since I last blogged we’ve found out we’ve been shortlisted to 4 awards in Creative Heads Most Wanted Awards2011. Congratulations to my team for getting thru to the Best Salon Team, and we are also shortlisted to the Best Salon Experience, Best Online Salon, and myself for Business Thinker. So Fingers Crossed we will have similar success in the British Business Hairdressing Awards, as once again it was a mad dash to get them in, but we made it on time!!! Dafydd and I have just recently got back from doing a show in Greece in the beautiful island of Mykonos. I was asked to go as one of SP, s global ambassador’s to do a motivational seminar to Greece’s best customers, it was great fun, and really well thought out, wella Greece are a great team to work with. We had some fantastic models, including Miss Greece, Who was a favourite for our Daf, and the hotel and resort was absolutely amazing, and boy they know how to party!!! After all the hectic workload, I managed to have a little break in New York With my wife and my oldest son Sam, It was fab, we stayed at the Gansevoort Park Avenue witch has a roof top pool, and we had plenty of sunshine and shopping (well my wife anyway) My son’s high lite of the the trip was flying upper class and seeing Sasha Baron Cohen going down 5TH avenue on a CAMEL,,,,,,, He’s shooting his new film The Dictator (check out the pics on my twitter page) Last week was all about picking our final 4 pics for the British Hairdressing Awards, which we’ve done. I’m really pleased with our shoot as it’s really fresh and different, so lets hope every one else thinks so, I think you will either GET IT or NOT.xx

So after slowly recovering from my Tour of Asia (and Manchester) It was back down to business as they say!!! The last couple of weeks have been hectic, with getting my awards entry’s in for the Most Wanted Awards, It always amazes me that even if I give plenty of time, it is always a mad scramble to get them in, But we did,Phew!! So fingers crossed, and watch this space. I was asked to judge a category at the awards but unfortunately I’m away doing a show in Greece, which is what I’ve been doing today MODEL HUNTING. Any way I’ve been asked to go to do a hair show as a global brand ambassador for SP, and enthuse them in to the benefits of the brand and business. Since my last blog, which was a month ago, I’ve also shot my new collection, but you’ll have to wait to hear about and see, as I would like it to be a surprise!!!! Been to Manchester to do Red Carpet Hair at the Wella studio, it was with our boy Dafydd, and it was his first seminar that he had to lead himself, and he was fab, so well done my BOY!!! We also managed to sneak in a little match at Old Trafford, against Chelsea, great game and great result. The following week I was back in London for a fellowship master class, with the like’s of Gary France ,Paul merit Chris Appleton and so on, well done to Ann Herman for pulling such a gaggle of hair masters together!!!! The students got one to one expert tuition, from everyone. Now off to London to judge the Southern heat of trend vision, and then back to fully booked salon, then Greece!! So until next time bye bye xxx

So I arrived in Jakarta on the evening of Saturday, and straight away went into a meeting about the launch of SP. The next day had me prepping 6 models, choosing clothing, and planning the event, which was a 2-hour launch at a club with lasers, celebrity host and singers!!!! The next morning was an early one, model call was 7am,as we had to do rehearsal and prep. Then 12 pm was the press launch for an hour Photo’s and then 2pm the launch. It went really well and at 4 pm I was whisked of to the airport to fly to Kuala lumpar. The next day I did a business seminar at the wella studio between 10-5pm,and then straight to Borneo over night, ready for an early morning flight to Brunei, Where I landed and was taken to a conference room in the airport to do my next all day seminar, Crazy Crazy, although the audience in Malaysia and Brunei were fab. It was such a relief to get to the end in one piece with great feedback, but boy was it exhausting, so much so when I flew back to Bangkok before flying back to London I just eat and slept and didn’t bother to explore. After such an exhausting trip there was no let up for me I’m afraid I was straight back into work, the next day and then Dave and I went up to Manchester for a 2 day cutting seminar teaching Classic cutting techniques to a lovely bunch of hairdressers. So that was my whirlwind tour of Asia!!!!!!!Phew

So I didn’t stick to my plan (which was to blog after every country)!!! I will start by telling you why I’m in Asia, I was asked by Wella Asia to come and Launch the SP alchemy club in Asia, as they have launched later than Europe. This meant to do a business seminar and share the successes of Sp in the UK. They then thought it would be good to offer my services to other countries also. So it turned into: 2 days Bangkok 1-day Singapore 2 days Jakarta 1 day Kuala Lumpur 1-day Brunei As I’m writing this I’m in the air travelling from Jakarta to Malaysia, so I will start with Bangkok, The first day I did an all day business seminar to around 75 salon owners and managers, which is always interesting when you have to use interpreters, but I have to say it went well as it was the first one. That evening we had a welcome dinner at the State Tower in central Bangkok, Which had one of the most amazing views I have ever seen. The next day saw the launch of the Asia Alchemy Club, so my role was to share my successes in business and with SP. As soon as I finished that I flew to Singapore, Which is definitely my kind of city. I did a business seminar there, and then in the evening went to dinner with the owner of the distribution in Singapore and his wife, AiChoo who bless had the job of coordinating my whole trip, which I’m sure gave her many sleepless nights, Her only consolation is I’ve had as many while on my travels. The next morning I met up with n old colleague from the Uk, Eddie gave me a mini tour around Singapore, starting at the Marina Bay hotel which has a viewing platform on the top, which allows you to see all over Singapore, another incredible View!!!! Then that afternoon of to Jakarta, Indonesia for the launch of Sp, so finally some hair to do. I will give the next part of my leg the attention it deserves so for know I’m checking out and will be back soon with the next update,

Hello it’s day 2 of my Asia tour, so before I start this marathon sets of blogs, I have 2 weeks to catch up on (by the way its 4am and I can’t sleep) and I have probably the longest day of the tour today. Since my last blog I've done 2 great events, Firstly Presidents night At the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel. It was the president’s night for the Late Terry Calvert, so it was an honour to be asked to be one of 20 hairdressers to be asked or picked by him to show a model, The evening had a theme of Burlesque, and saw some amazing looks by every involved, my model Emily looked amazing (pictures to be up on our face book page shortly) Thanks to my amazing make up artist Lara, (just like old times) And Rachelle and Nicola for all there help. Then the day before flying to Thailand, I did 2 presentations at the Pro Hair live Exhibition in Manchester Central. The event was great with some great speakers and live shoots going on, plenty of Quality on Show, My first seminar was Called Wonder Web, and focused on creating a great online salon, With lots of nerdy fact’s I was pleasantly surprised how the audience responded, Lots came back to my seminar at the end of the day, which focused on creating a perfect destination salon, Thanks to all in audience, it was a pleasure to meet you all, and the pro hair team for your help. I then made a quick dash down to London, ready for my flight to Bangkok, So now my plan is to blog after every country, whilst on the plane, so keep tuned Ken x

What an intriguing event the Fellowship Power night was! Last week at the Sassoon’s academy all the Fellowship Award winners got together and were questioned on what makes them tick ect ect, Now I know my story, but it was great to listen to all the other guys!!!!!, there was something refreshing about going to a hair dressing event and just listening to everyone’s story’s, I think we all love a good story. The last 2 weeks has seen the announcement of the Awards, so now we are working on which one’s to go go for!!!!!, I say every year im not going to do so many, and not leave it to last minute, Lets see if I can stick to that. At the minute I’m bust preparing my Presentations for Professional Hairdresser live In Manchester, were im doing presentations on websites and social media, and one on the salon of the future!!!!! The following day see’s me flying of to Asia, were I’m doing presentations in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and East Malaysia. Somehow I DON’T think I’m going to Stick to that resolution DO YOU? This month was also the Awards night for the WELSH WOMEN MEAN BUSINESS, which was held at the Vale Resort. We in conjunction with Pontcanna Dental Care Were the sponsors of the Best Woman In Beauty Award, which I was delighted to see go to my dear friend Leigharne for the Hair business in cowbridge. And also big congratulations go to Helen Molyneaux for winning the overall title, very well deserved me thinks!!!! On a personal note this last month has been very tough. Some of you might have seen my tweets and gathered I’ve had a serious bout of food poisioning, which has lasted for 3 weeks so far, But also my dear mother sadly passed away very suddenly, Now I’m not a person who would normally write about things like that, but I do think that it’s fitting that I pay tribute to what she has done for me, not just personally but in Business. As some of you might have read in numerous interview’s, My mum was the person who made every thing possible for me, it was her Loyalty and hard working ethic that was installed in me from an early age, and her helping hand was always grateful, I remember at the age of 21 after opening my original salon the Zoo, every Saturday going home to my mum on the bus (as I still lived with her and couldn’t Drive) with the towels and gowns for her to Wash and dry ready for Monday. I’m just really pleased that for the last 7 years of her life she worked with me at the salon and enjoyed seeing all we have achieved xxxx Bye for now

Well what a start to 2011!!! After all the chaos of the snow just before Christmas, which I have to say I’ve never seen anything like it in Cardiff bay, we’ve hit the new year running as they say. On the 9th of January we had our first ever awards night, it was held in mimosa and the theme of the night was KEN PICTON COCKTAIL PARTY, Rather foolish of me I think!!!The biggest bar bill I’ve ever had. Special recognition go’s to the winners, Employee of the year; Sian Bowen Assistant of the year; Charlotte Gammon Customer care award; Linzi Picton Ken Picton Christmas Cracker; Dafydd Rhys Thomas The following morning I was away first thing to meetings in London at the wella world studio, to go through all the course formats and new shows (so looking forward to some great gigs. A couple of my guys went on the Great Lengths Training course, so everyone is now all buzzing at the salon, because they now have long thick luscious hair!!!! Feel free to book a consultation to see what they can do,Amazing!!! I was asked to join the Global Masters Alchemy team, which is currently 5 people from around the world, to be the voices and hands of SP globally, so I had my first meeting with the team 2 weeks ago, which was fun, had to do lots of filming, and pics ect, then ending up at the Wolseley in their new private dining room, which was fab. On the way back on the train from that event ,I found out the tragic news that Terry Calvet’s battle against cancer had ended ,and he passed away. As the current president of the followship and an inspiration to many he will be sadly missed> I also found out at the same time he had put me on his list to show a model at his Presidents night ball with the theme of Burlesque, Which as always he made me smile and that’s what I do when I think of him!!!!and I’m sure I’m not the only one. On that note will be in touch soon.

Well hello peeps, Long time no speak as they say, apologies but things have been very very busy indeed!!!!! Firstly I’d like to say big congratulations to my team and clients as on the 6th December, we were crowned the Salon Of The Year 2010 at the Fellowship for British Hairdressing Luncheon at the Dorchester in London. This the second time we have won this Award in the last 3 years, which is a fantastic achievement, and I believe we are the only salon to have won it twice!!!!!!!!! It made up for the disappointment of not retaining the Wales and South West award at the British Hairdressing awards at the grovenor, but congratulations to the guys from Cream, and all the other very deserved winners on the night. Well done to our boy Dafyyd on getting to the final of Young Hairdresser of the year at the clothes show live in Birmingham, which I went to as I did a slot on the Celebrity Stop and Chop stage were we take people from the audience and give them a radical change, nice to see one of my victims loved her hair after the event as she face booked the salon, which reminds me check out salon face book page as it’s were we post all the pics of events ect ect I’m so looking forward to the coming year, as it’s our 21st year in business, and we will be launching the Ken Picton Boutique So watch this space as they say

Since I last spoke to you, which was about a month ago I seem to have been permanently either travelling or doing clients at the salon, so where shall I begin? October ended with a lovely week in Marbella with my family, so was super charged for the coming month. It started with a Trip to Paris for the World Trend Vision final and a visit to Mondail Coiffure Beaute It was amazing to meet up with colleagues and friends from the hairdressing industry, and we were all there to support Dan spiller from Marc Anthoni and Leslie smith from K2S Big congratulations To Dan for getting to the final six in the WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!! Then came the big trip to China!!! NOW this could be a marathon blog, so I will keep it shortish. After getting back from Paris on the Sunday evening, it was no back to my house as I had to be at Heathrow the following morning, so after a quick and rather lovely homemade pasta at Simon Giamettei, s house, it was straight to Bruno’s house to sort our bags and model’s clothes and sleep ready for the following day. A 13 hour flight to Shanghi, a 6 hour wait in the lounge and then a 2 hr flight to Xiamen, which incidentally is Twinned with Cardiff, to be greeted with flowers and lots of big smiles ,really refreshing after a long journey. IT was straight to work, and we were taken to the hotel were we were staying and where the show was, 3000 red velvet seats in the lobby of the hotel, certainly got the excitement going! We were then whisked of to the academy to do the casting for the 12 models we needed, at this point it was 9pm,and we had been up 30 hours, Day 2 Straight to the academy for a very long prep day, we had 4 pre done show models between Bruno and myself, and 4 each to do on stage live. Carly Roberts, who is Bruno’s amazingly talented colourist did all the colours for us, and as she had to work with colours she hadn’t used before, they were amazing, we then finished the day at 11pm after doing a quick rehearsal run through. Day 3 Again an early start, straight to a rehearsal on the main stage and at this point we realised the size and magnitude of the event, so by 10am we were back to the academy for final prep, make up ect ect. Show Time was 3pm till 5pm, and as we arrived back at the venue we were told it was being filmed for live TV in china, so NO PRESSURE THEN!!!!!!!!!!! The show went amazing the models looked fab, and it was an absolute pleasure working with Bruno and Carly, When we were called out onto the 150ft catwalk at the end of the show the noise was incredible and we all agreed it was an UNFORGETABLE Experience, for the rest of the evening we were guests of victor and OBA at the event giving out awards, Day 4 At last a lazy start to the day, we went down for breakfast!!!!!! This took about 2 hours as everyone there wanted pictures with the 3 of us (Which was pretty much the theme for the next 2 days, photo after photo after photo) Then a meeting about the next 2-days of seminars and then another casting. Now for anyone who hasn’t been to china, you need to be aware it is Chinese food for breekie lunch and dinner, pretty much Day 5 and 6 These days consisted of the 3 of us doing live demonstrations to about 180 people in the morning and then workshops in the afternoon to 35,so they went in a blur!!!!!!!!!!!! Day 7 Home time!but not before a tour of Xiamen, Beautiful people, beaches buildings, Cant wait to go back, We also attended a lunch at a management event that Victor from OBA was running for all his best customers, and then for the official Photographs. (It never stopped Honestly) Check out our Ken Picton Salon face book page to see some photos Then the long old slog of flying home, I used my many airmiles to upgrade us to Virgin Upper class, RESULT ,flat beds jammies and smiley faces from Bruno and Carly.Shame it was the most turbulent flight iv,e ever had. And that was china Well until next time xxx

Well what a month October has been, after Nicola’s bronze at trend vision, it was straight back to business, the following week Dafydd and I went to the Manchester Wella Studio, to do an Inspirational Icons day, which was fun as always. Oh I Nearly forgot to mention we also had The Ryder Cup, down our neck of the woods in between that as well, HONESTLY it doesn’t rain that much normally. Next came my shoot for Vogue and wella. We worked with photographer Jonty Davies, and a fabulous model from Brazil The brief was editorial, with the look at feel of the brand of SP. We had to shoot 2 campaigns, one for January and one for febuary, so were all looking forward to seeing the results in print as they say! Which should be out in December (we will blog and post pics as soon as it’s out! so until then) On the same day the salon had a City and Guilds inspection for our training school with the new standards, and im really pleased and proud of my team, as we passed with flying colours and the made comments about what amazing training and facilities we have, SO WELL DONE!!!!!!! Then came Salon International at the Excel center in London, always busy. Always hectic, and always inspiring. I worked on the fellowship stage for Wella on the Saturday and Sunday, and on the Monday did a stint for the fellowship long hair, and judged the Club Star competition, so all in all a very busy weekend!!!! The highlight of the weekend was the British Hairdressing Awards Gallery, the collections for the British were amazing, GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE! Will check in shortly as I’m off to Paris and China, so watch out for my tweets and blogs!!!!! X

YES YES YES We finally managed to bag on of the many awards we have been shortlisted for! We all had a great time at the British hairdressing business awards, And managed to win the Website/Innovation of the year for our Website. Bart from U-LAB in Holland had flown over for the awards, so I was sooo relieved we won! I would like to say congratulations to all the winners on the night, and hope everyone who was staying at the Lancaster hotel, were not to disturbed when the fire alarm went of at 4.30 am in the morning. As you can guess I had a very early wake up call, from the alarm and got myself ready for a 9am call at the BBC on regents Street. I was asked to go on the show Woman’s Hour on Radio 4, discussing Thinning Hair. I shared the waiting room with Karen Elson the Model now turned singer and her band. Thanks to all you clients and Welshy’s who tweeted and called in to chat and say hello!!!! The following week, was the Trend vision Final in the Roundhouse in Camden, What a stunning location. We had Nicola in the colour catogory, who managed to pick up the bronze medal SOOOO WELL Done We were also really proud of rachelle who did a stella job in the young Talent Category. We all had an amazing night and paloma faith was fab. I will be back shortly with the next update, including my shoot with vogue magazine, and my plans for salon international and my week long trip to China. xxxx

Well since I blogged to you last, I have to say my feet haven’t touched the ground, I seem to either been on a plane, train or automobile!!!!!!!!!!!!! I recently had to fly to Geneva for the day to take part in an innovation think tank, with proctor & gamble. (They have there own taxi rank at their offices) I can’t tell you what we talked about as I had to sign a confidentiality agreement (felt like I was in the secret serviceTho!) At the moment I’m in London every week, either doing courses at the wella studio, or as last week was the case The Most Wanted Awards. Congratulations to all the winners, although we didn’t pick any up on the nite, I remember from last year how amazing it is to win, so I’m sure they were all well chuffed, It was a great nite if not a long one as I had to be up early the next day to do a press launch to a group of beauty journalists from Asia, although my team who came with me managed to make it a late one! Jammy sods. I’m currently on a train coming back from London town after having a meeting with the SP Alchemy Club, looking at what’s coming soon, Will let you know when I’m allowed!!!!(More secret service) We are all really excited at the salon at the moment, as yesterday we Finally launched SHU UEMURA ART OF HAIR, The beautiful skin care KERASKIN, and lara Will be using the Shu Uemura Make Up Professionally, She’s soooo excited. I also yesterday (how I fitted it in Who knows) did a presentation for ISA, on their Conference in a hotel in Cardiff, Talking to trainee’s about the opportunity’s in Hairdessing, it made me look at all the things I’ve been so lucky to have done. But I will save that for another time. We are all looking forward to the business awards next week!!! Once again fingers crossed

WOW !!!!! What an incredible month we’ve had since my last blog. As you might have seen on our news and tweet pages we’ve had lots of great news! Firstly we found out we’d been shortlisted to the British Hairdressing Business Awards, For The Salon Of The Year Innovation/website of the year Business Director of the Year, We found out about the shortlists on the 13th july and I was flying out to Marbella for a two week holiday with my wife and 3 children on the 17th. The only thing was I had to come back to London for the business director interview > Now here’s the bizarre thing about it, I was sitting in the lounge at 6am in Malaga airport waiting for my flight back to Gatwick and who should walk in was Mark Woolley from Electric Hairdressing,who was also coming back from Marbella for his business interview as one of the other 5 shortlists. So Thanks mark for the company!!! I then returned to my hols and then found out I’d been shortlisted in the British Hairdressing Awards 2010 ,which im well chuffed about as we tried something different this year,which you will see shortly on our collection pages. And also a very well done to Dafydd Rhys,who has got into the Wella generation Team,so I’m sure he will have an amazing year as on of the up and coming stars of the future> KEEP CHECKING OUR SITE FOR NEWS ABOUT THE AWARDS!!!!!

Last week, I had great fun at the Clothes Show Live in earl’s court, I did a 2-hour slot on Your Hair’s celebrity Stop Chop stand, were we Picked some people from the audience for some dramatic make over’s. It always amazes me how many young women put their hands up for the big chop, yet when your looking for models for a seminar, they are scarce!!! After I finished my stint I was invited to the VIP area of the Clothes Show Style Awards in association with OK magazine. At the ceremony I sat in the front row with Desmond Murray, always a pleasure!!!!! Big congratulations to Jamie Steven’s for winning the celebrity hairdresser of the year. The fashion photographer went to the great Rankin, and the fashion stylist to Jonny Blue eyes. Paloma Faith sang and was amazing (she also won the best dressed woman of the year), and best-dressed man went to Ricky Whittle, The only shame was I had to drive back home to Cardiff and had to miss the after show party!!!!!

Things we do for our profession!!!! Monday I went to the House of Commons, for a luncheon with the hairdressing council and then afternoon tea on the terrace. All the good and the great were there, and there were passionate speeches from Andrew Barton and Akin Konizi, with regards to the need to state registered hairdressing,(shame the hosting MP couldn’t be there to see and hear the passion) In between the lunch and the afternoon tea, a couple of us went up to the public gallery to see what it is all about!!!!(Simon Bryer managed to sneak us to the front of the queue) I have to say it’s rather a bizarre spectacle watching these grown men and women jeering and standing up and down like yoyo’s, strange job indeed!!!!! The following day I went to my gorgeous daughter’s first ever sports day, She came first, second and last, so make of that as you wish, was funny though.

Well hello, Can I just say how chuffed and pleased we all are! As we found out last week that for all the effort and hard work wev’e been shortlisted in the MOST WANTED AWARDS 2010 We’re thru to the BEST SALON EXPERIENCE 2010 BEST ONLINE SALON 2010 BEST BUSINESS THINKER 2010 So well done and thank you to my team for their commitment!!!

WOW!!!!! What a month may was! It started with an amazing 2-day photo shoot with the genius Andrew O’toole, For the British hairdressing awards, and some editorial shots for press and the salon. The look was a complete move forward from last year’s collection, this year it’s very Italian Vogue’s keep a look out on this site for the launch! The following day I headed over to wella London studio,to take part in an event Called Winner night,in aid of habb. It featured all the guys from Hob salon,Darren Ambrose,Michele Thompson from Francesco group,I had the great pleasure of taking to the stage with the fabulous Desmond Murray,which was a pleasure!!!!! The following week was an experience,it started with me doing a business seminar to 220 Greek salon owners on “How to win in a Recession” Which was ironic as there country is in so much trouble!!!! And then the next day a front cover shoot for perfect wedding magazine from the Origins group which is always a pleasure. Then we had the ulcer enriching last minute dash to complete writing ,designing and printing our Most wanted award entrys.WHY WHY WHY do I always leave it so late! After the crazy week ,I headed up Birmingham to support Nicola,mellisa and rachelle who had all qualified for the midlands heat of Trend vision(apparently wales is part of the midlands).A gang from the salon came to support and were rewarded as Nicola got thru to the final of the colour catogary ,and rachelle qualified to the final of the young talent category,which will be held at the roundhouse in camden in september,which I’m sure will be an amazing event. I judged the final last year and it was fab we partied with feeder and jo whiley was a great compere,one things for sure my two have stopped me being able to Judge this year, The next day I went to London to judge the southern heat, with my good friend Simon bryer from Michael van Clarke and the lovely Leona from Sassoon’s. I have so say you can see why British hairdressing excels as the commitment and thought that people put into these competition amazing, and well done to them all. In between all this I’ve managed to be fully booked and look after all my clients Few!!!!Check back next week for my next blog x

Just finished 2 days in London, what a contrast. day 1 a buisness seminar for 250 Greek salon owners. Day 2 a front cover photoshoot for perfect wedding magazine. Now starting my arduous journey back

Thanks again to Thea from shu uemura who came to the salon on Monday to remind us why we love their products ,although I've loved them ever since we were lucky enough to have in the salon , as do many of my clients , they really are something special ! So if you've not tried any of their products yet check out what's available from our boutique , a tip from me if it all seems to much ,everyone needs essence absolue in their lives and I'm loving the cleansing oil shampoo to .. A goods days training at ken picton salon !!!

I'm back again and as usual January makes me very twitchy about my hair .im having a personal dilemma , so it's not just you clients who need advise , shall I go short ?? I'm about 70% up for it , judging by my profile pic you proberly think it's already short , but it grown a lot since then , so what's a girl to do ??????

Looking forward to spending a birthday weekend with ken and the kids x

Well my tree is up so it's officially Christmas at my house , so would like to say a big merry Christmas and happy new year to all of my clients and I hope to see you all lots in the new year . And to all of our wonderful staff who make going to work a pleasure I wish you all a merry Christmas and happy new year to , thank you for all your hard work xxxxxxx

Well I just have to congratulate my hubby and his team , , rachelle, ,dafydd , lara and Laura ,on the big win at the British hairdressing awards last night , another magnificent night of glitz and glam , and to be bringing the award home for Wales and west hairdresser of the year is testament to all their hard work , well done guys ,and a massive congrats to all he other winners of the night , first class !!!!

Well finally the ken picton boutique has finally arrived and it looks fantastic ! As a serious Internet shopper , I have to praise all that helped pull it together as I've surfed many a boutique and even though I'm biased it has to be said its a great way to shop and looks super slick ! Maybe now ken will put the laptop down for a while !!! Unlikely ... He's sure to be making improvements and updates . You have to check it out and treat yourselves !!

Wow what a week , ken and the team attended the creative head Most Wanted Awards on Monday evening ,it was set to be a wicked night with Keith lemon as the official host , already very gutted to not be going myself as someone has to get the kids back to school ! And to top the night off , we bagged two awards , Best Team Award and Best Salon Experience , so so proud of all the guys in the team , well done to all , keep doing what your doing .!!! And best of luck to us all again and ken next week for the Business Awards ..

Well its time for some serious swatting up , with the arrival of our new brands to the salon ,we are all experiencing brain over load ! All good though , very excited to be using and helping our clients with all the new lovely goodies ....already hav a few fav's , every girl needs a bottle of beach fizz , and guys to ! All soon to be available online to ,watch this space !

A massive congrats to ken and the guys from the team ,Well done for acheiving a nomination for the British hairdressing awards , knew you could do it ! ,fingers crossed some more and looking forward to the night .x

Welcome back to Lucy ,we've missed you x

Time to congratulate ken and all the team as news has just landed that ken and the salon are nominated in the British hairdressing business awards , well done to all a great achievement ,so it's fingers x again for a win !!

Back from my fabulous trip to new York , third time and it just gets better and better , one of the most amazing cities in the world , plenty of shopping done ,but a word of advise for any ladies planning a trip there in the summer , kera straight before you go , omg new York was not kind to my hair , serious frizz ! So next time it's kera straight for sure ..

The month just gets better , a massive congratulations to ken and all those that worked so hard on our most wanted awards entry's , great news today ,we're nominated for best salon experience , best salon team , best online salon, and finally best business thinker for ken .what amazing news ,so all that's left to say is fingers x and well done to us all x

It's officially nearly my fav month , wedding anniversary / bday / new York !!! Can't wait to go now ,third visit to new York for me ,but not pregnant this time ...so watch out ...and while I'm here just want to say well done to our team for working soooooo hard lately and getting stuck in ...

Well it's been a long Easter holidays for me and finally life gets back to slightly more normal , ken is well kind of back from his work commitments oversea's , ken took his team this week to shoot his new collection , so a massive well done and everything x for some fabulous pic's ! , I'm sure they all worked very hard to pull out some awesome award winning shots . Let's just say with my insider knowledge what I've seen so far there looking pretty wow !! Just wish I could hav been there

Great lenghts has offically landed .. myself millie and izzie have all recently returned from our training course , and they are fabulous , we are on hand any time for a chat or consultation , i'm sure it won't be very long before many of the ken picton team have been transformed !!! watch this space ...

Happy new year to all , finally back in work after what felt like a long Christmas holiday , kids back in school yippee .... And really looking forward to my up and coming training with great lengths this month , myself Millie and issy will be soon able to transform your hair to a whole new level , more info will be added to our services page soon , but we're very excited !

well its time to wish all of our staff a very merry christmas and thank them for there hard work and support through 2010 ,looking forward to seeing whats in store for 2011.... and not forgetting all our fabulous clients ,merry christmas to you all and a happy new year .. x

would like to congratulate my husband and his fabulous team on winning the salon of the year award today ,well done everyone and keep up the good work .Onwards and upwards...

Not long now and ken will be making his way back from china after a whirlwind 9 days on stage to thousands of spectators ,looking forward to hearing all about the shows , plus my kids are very keen to have daddy home ..

just wanted to let all those cloud nine fans out there know,that we've recently acquired some rather nice vanity case sets ,limited edition so hurry and check them out ,there not gonna be around long !!

just wanted to congratulate dafydd on his recent appearence on stage in paris , I"m sure he did us proud with his model , looking forward to seeing all the pic's ...well done .

So my husbands off again this weekend to do his thing at salon international in London ,got some great models to , I'm sure he'll wow the crowds as always !!!! Me xfactor all the way....

we're freshly back from a great weekend in london to support rachelle and nicola in the uk finals of wella trend vision ,both we're through to the final few after lots of hard work ,held at the camden roundhouse ,wicked venue and an amazing performance from paloma faith added to an already cool night ..we were all a bag of nerves and the standard was very high , but i'm pleased to say that nicola our amazing colour technician managed to bag the bronze award .... and very well deserved it was,i'm sure we'll be posting pic's from the night for you all to see ,so would like to say a massive well done to her and to rachelle for all their hard work ,i'm very proud and i'm sure i speak for the whole team , you we're both amazing...and to add to all that excitement we launched the fabulous new product line shu uemura to the salon ,which we're all loving ,i adore the shampoo's and conditioners their pretty special ,then it all is, to many to have a favourite ,its a must to check out ...

And should add nice to have my husband home after a very busy time , working on all the salon award entries , let's hope it's worth all the hard work .

Hi all!