Top ten

You can’t turn 10 without celebrating in spectacular style, so we did exactly that – shooting an exclusive cover and collection with photographer Dan Smith, a creative collaboration we’ve been dreaming of for years. But it wasn’t only our birthday we were marking. Also toasting the birth of L’Oréal Professionnel’s new care range, Série Nature, we were in for an even bigger treat with a handful of hairdressing’s finest talents joining forces to help us celebrate even more stylishly. Headmasters’ Jonathan Soons, Cutting Room Creative’s Carly Aplin, and Chris Appleton from George’s Hairdressing worked their magic, whipping up the most strikingly natural looks on gorgeous Katia, our cover girl, Emily, our ravishing redhead, and beautiful brunette Dar.

We couldn’t have been happier when we discovered Dan, make-up artist Kim, and stylist Thea (whose designer gowns had us all hot-clicking it to Net-A-Porter) go back years – in fact our dream team couldn’t have been more close-knit with Dan and Creative HEAD publisher Catherine putting faces to names and remembering shoots of years gone by. A fabulous start to the day (that and the pains au chocolat that met us à l’arrivée!)

As a lucky onlooker I got to watch creativity at its best, the masterminds behind this stunning collection working tirelessly to produce the fresh, sparklingly natural styles that we wanted to pop off our September pages. Boy did they deliver – and it was a privilege to join ‘team 10’ on their journey to the front cover and beyond… Here’s to a decade of style, and to a new beginning! Whoop-whoop!

Chris Appleton

Jonathan Soons

Carly Aplin