Salon's success at the 'Oscars'

12:25pm Friday 10th March 2006

SALON owner Frances Lauire was on the edge of her chair earlier this year when Saks Hair and Beauty was nominated for five major awards at an Oscar-style awards ceremony.

The St Albans salon beat off more than 140 other salons to make it down to the final four salons competing for Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) Salon of the Year, which is a technique used for permanent hair reduction.

The George Street team were also up for IPL Operators of the Year; Beauty Salon of the Year; Hair Salon of the Year and Hair & Beauty Salon of the Year. Despite narrowly missing out on four of the awards, the 15-strong team scooped IPL Salon of the Year at a glitzy awards ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel, in London on January 15.

"The evening kicked off with a brilliant hair show, then we had dinner before the awards were announced," said Ms Lauire, who has owned the salon for more than 15 years.

"It felt absolutely brilliant to be recognised out of 140 salons, but I was not surprised that we had done so exceptionally well because we have got very good operators to carry out this treatment. I was particularly proud that our salon scooped the top prize for that category. It's a wonderful achievement and very well-deserved for my beauty team.

"It's something we've worked towards all year. We had to go up on stage to collect our trophy and a couple of bottles of champagne, which was great."

As well as first-class hairdressing, cutting-edge clinical treatments and sumptuous beauty services, Saks also offers teeth whitening clinics and collagenics injectables, which includes botox, lip augmentation, facial contouring and skin resurfacing.

Last month, Saks held an open evening of beauty demonstrations in its salon. One of the treatments on offer was injected fillers, which plump out the face and reduce fine lines and wrinkles.

Ms Lauire, who had some fillers injected on the night, said: "It was a great success, people were delighted with the demonstrations and a lot of people booked in for treatments.

"It wasn't painful at all, it felt like a little scratch. People have been coming up to me telling me how great I look. It's really all down to the nurse, Diana Towler, who was recently on GMTV with Lorraine Kelly demonstrating her beauty treatments."