17 woman this month | February 2012 | forefront of the hairdressing industry for the last 30 years and this is how I became so closely affiliated with TIGI.” Indeed John Luke’s relationship to TIGI is really important. Together with the global hair product brand, John Luke and his team have launched the Elie & Jean Academy, a training institution designed to educate up-and-coming hairdressers in the region. It is their firm belief that the more any individual hairdresser learns and trains, the better the whole industry will be as a result. “As well as being creative director for Elie & Jean”, says John Luke, “I am also the TIGI educational director for the Middle East, which means that we are able to bring international designs, knowledge and expertise to the region as a whole. By educating everyone, even the competition, we feel that the reach and impact of professional hairdressing will grow and grow.” “The shows that we do and the seminars that we teach are also a great way of bringing attention, models and press coverage to the region”. His cousin Elias, or Lalas as he is more informally known, heads up the Salon Supply branch of the company. “If you are going to be performing the latest techniques and treatments,” says Lalas, “you need to be absolutely sure that the products you are using are really the right ones for the job. This is why we have opened the Elie & Jean Salon Supply, to cater for the needs of all the salons in the area.” The problem with this region, according to both John Luke and Lalas, is that rumours of new treatments, procedures and styles tend to spread like wildfire, via word of mouth or the internet. Salons in Bahrain and the surrounding countries want to keep up with the trends, understandably, but often don’t have access to the best products and the most appropriate training, to ensure that they are offering the best and most client-conscious services. “Some of the keratin products available, for example,” says Lalas, “are not altogether in the client’s best interests. Some of them contain a lot of formaldehyde, which can have harmful after effects.” “As the resident experts for the region, we have done enough research to know that the products we use and sell for this treatment — the Brazilian Blowout products, are the most safe and nourishing of the products available.” All-in-all it seems that John Luke and Lalas have built upon Elie & Jean’s original mission statement. Where once the Elie & Jean goal was simply to pull Bahrain to the forefront of the hairdressing industry, through cutting-edge design, daring and raw talent, the aim according to the next generation is to continue this brave and bold approach, whilst ensuring that it is not just Elie & Jean who can offer the people in Bahrain the best and most highly recommended services. By teaching at the Elie & Jean Academy and by offering top notch products at the Elie & Jean Salon Supply to all hairdressing outlets in the region, Elie and Jean are helping to ensure that the region’s hairdressing industry, as a whole, is nurtured into being the best that it can be. The vision has now gone beyond two brothers on a mission to prove themselves and has become a whole family, backed by an increasingly large and uniquely talented team, wishing to prove to the world that hairdressing is a constantly growing and inspiring art-form.
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