Rules for participation

The IHA are an international photo contest of images of hairdressing styles, which consist of eight categories: Best International Women's Commercial Collection, Best International Men's Commercial Collection, Best International Avant-Garde Collection (this can be feminine and/or masculine), International Artistic Team of the Year, International Hairdresser of the Year, International Hair Legend of the Year, International Influencer of the Year and International Film & TV Hairdresser of the Year

The competition is open to hairdressers and hairdressing firms from anywhere in the world. The minimum age to participate is 18 years.

The participation fee is 130 euros and you can present as many collections as you want: www.ihawards.com/participate.

Requirements for participation

• To compete in the categories of Best International Women's Commercial Collection, Best International Men's Commercial Collection and Best International Avant-Garde Collection, participating hairdressers or firms must submit a collection of four photographs with four different styles. The photographs must be professional, paying careful attention to all aspects of the picture (hair, photography, make-up, styling, model, staging). Photographic collections that do not meet the required quality criteria will not be accepted.
• Candidates in the categories of International Hairdresser of the Year and International Artistic Team of the Year must have been pre-selected. The pre-nominees list include individual hairdressers and teams that have won selected hair competitions worldwide plus individual hairdressers and artistics teams that have been nominated by the organizing committee with the help of the editors of the Estetica Magazine International Network, taking into account their career, the quality of their photographic work and their educational/artistic activities during the last year. Once pre-selected, each hairdresser or participating team will submit a collection of four photographs with four different styles. The photographs must be professional, paying careful attention to all aspects of the picture (hair, photography, make-up, styling, model, staging). Those not meeting the required quality standards will not be accepted. They will also have to fill in a form that will be provided to them, indicating their professional activities (events, training, press appearances, awards and recognitions, etc.) from July of the year prior to the current year of the awards.
• It is not necessary for the collections submitted under any of the categories to be unpublished, but they must be done in the current year. Any submitted collections found to have already been published (in magazines, internet or social networks...) during the previous year will be automatically disqualified.
• All models showcased within the collections across all categories must be individuals of human origin. The utilization of virtual or computer-generated models, as well as the exhibition of hairstyles solely on mannequins, is strictly prohibited. Should the organizing committee identify potential disparities concerning the genuineness of models featured within a collection, the committee retains the authority to request verification through the submission of valid government-issued identification, such as an ID card or Passport. If the resulting verification confirms that the models are, in fact, not authentic individuals, the respective collection may become susceptible to disqualification.

Evaluation system

• For each edition, the organizing committee will appoint a jury panel of 5 hairdressers of international renown in order to evaluate the dossiers presented for International Hairdresser of the Year and International Artistic Team of the Year and the collections submitted under the rest of the categories. The panel of judges will change each year.
• In the categories of Best International Women's Commercial Collection, Best International Men's Commercial Collection and Best International Avant-Garde Collection (men’s and/or women’s), the jury panel will evaluate the submitted picture collections.
• For the categories of International Hairdresser of the Year and International Artistic Team of the Year, the jury panel will evaluate, in addition to the collections submitted, a report compiling the professional activity (events, training, press appearances, awards and recognitions, etc.).
• The organizing committee will make a pre-selection among all the participating collections according to quality criteria and then the jury will evaluate the collections and decide the winners. The organizing committee is led by Mikel Luzea, director and founder of the IHA, and composed of a group of image experts with the support of Estetica Magazine's management.
• The judges will evaluate the collections anonymously, will evaluate the dossiers submitted for International Hairdresser of the Year and International Artistic Team of the Year and will choose their three favourites from each category in order of preference. The first will be awarded 15 points, the second 10 points and the third 5 points. Voting rounds will be done online, independently.
• The three finalists in each category will be the collections that score the most points with the votes of the five members of the jury. If there is a tie, the judges will be asked to break it.
• The winner in each category will be the collection that gets the most points from the three finalists. If there is a tie the jury will be the tiebreaker.