In 2021, we at KEVIN.MURPHY launched the first ever KEVIN.MURPHY ICON Award.
An award that celebrates the everyday heroes in our global network, who are going above and beyond to improve the environment, people’s lives and communities.
With 120 stories shared from around the world, we were proud to officially announce the first winner of the KEVIN.MURPHY ICON award in June 2022 at the Berlin FAST.FORWARD show: HAIR TOGETHER from Ballymun, Dublin, Ireland.
HAIR TOGETHER is an Irish Enterprise made up of three fully recovered people who previously struggled with addiction and grew up in Ballymun, a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Dublin. However, through all the hardships, a fantastic community lived within.
Recognising youths going through the same cycle of abuse they went through, HAIR TOGETHER felt the need to create a solution to this problem. Thus developing a 10-week educational and personal development program that utilises hairdressing and barbering to stimulate creativity and develop life skills—ultimately leading to a happy, healthy and productive mind.
Their mission: encourage personal creativity, invention, self-motivation, and positive risk-taking while creating a supportive and encouraging environment that provides a platform for individual expression and personal growth.
The program strives to pass on skills so freely given to them by their recovery and to serve those in their community, struggling in the same way. They are a safe place to go and feel at home, where they share their community and companionship.
Taking a break from driving Arctic trucks, Co-Founder, Eileen McHugh, returned to hairdressing and discovered KEVIN.MURPHY after working in a salon that carried the brand. She soon became a GOLD.KEY Educator and has since then assisted our SESSION.MASTERs and STYLE.MASTERs backstage on some of our major Fashion Weeks in Europe.
“I’ve done a lot with them [KEVIN.MURPHY] – it’s a very exciting company. So I try to bring all that energy back to the young people we teach the HAIR TOGETHER program to. And it’s working – they love it.” – Eileen McHugh
“They’re like heroes!”
The program started in 2018, and in 2020 the first version of the program, as it looks today, was piloted. An internal team from KEVIN.MURPHY was fortunate enough to meet a couple of the first participants when visiting Eileen, Gemma, and the rest of the HAIR TOGETHER team in Ballymun in August, 2022.
“Eileen and Gemma are great leaders, great with children, and great teachers,” says Taylor and Abbie from the HAIR TOGETHER program. “You’re learning good social skills and communication skills. Once you build confidence and people believe in you – it goes a long way. They’re like heroes!”
“How have you changed?”
“I definitely have more confidence. If you put your mind to something, and if you really really enjoy, like Eileen – you can go far. She’s definitely an inspiration to people in Ballymun, and I’m sure if more people heard her story and how she is getting on, they would be very surprised”, says Taylor.
She said yes!
About winning the KEVIN.MURPHY ICON Award, Eileen says: “When we actually received the ICON Award, that put us on the map and had people looking at us a little bit closer, and it’s from then we got the support from bigger local organisations, so it’s been an incredible award to win.”
At the end of our visit to HAIR TOGETHER in August, we asked Eileen to be on the jury for the next KEVIN.MURPHY ICON Award. It is a privilege and an honour to confirm that she said yes! “I know what to look for,” Eileen said, smiling.
Eileen will join Kevin Murphy and a few other jury members yet to be confirmed to find the next winner of the KEVIN.MURPHY ICON Award when we open up the submissions again at the end of 2023.
KEVIN.MURPHY will continue to follow and support Eileen, and the rest of the HAIR TOGETHER team, and we can’t wait to see how they will scale and develop the program in the future.
If you would like to learn more about the HAIR TOGETHER program and the KEVIN.MURPHY ICON Award, follow the links below:
Cover Image: @hairtogetherireland