Olga Olikova, founder and CEO of our e-shop Dream Braids won the most prestigious award in the world for hair styling - OneShot Hair Award! 🎉🎉🎉
But let's start from the beginning
It's only been four years since Olga began braiding. She's very competitive and often heard from customers and colleagues that her braids were the most beautiful. She deeply desired to win a prestigious hairdressing award, where she could compete with many for the top spot. And of course, she wanted it confirmed "on paper" that her braids are TOP.
Soon she learned about the OneShot Hair Award, which is like the hairdressing Oscar, held annually in the USA. One of the competition categories is dedicated to hair braiding - Intricate Braids & Twists.
During her first participation in 2021, she made it to the TOP 25, which was very encouraging as those who make it to the top 25 are considered "finalists". Hence, they are invited by the organizers to the award announcement and receive VIP access throughout the conference. However, Olga couldn't make it to America due to the ongoing Covid crisis, making travel to the USA virtually impossible. The competition also influenced her to change her Instagram profile name from @vysnivanecopiky to @oobraider. One reason was that nobody outside of Slovakia could pronounce 'Vysnívané copíky' correctly. 😊
In 2022, Olga made it to the TOP 25 again!
At the last minute, she managed to get a visa and attended the award ceremony in Orlando, Florida. Although she didn't win and wasn't selected for the final TOP 5, it was a huge challenge for her to overcome her fears, self-doubt, and shyness due to her weak English skills. Besides, being her first time in the USA, she received encouragement from the CEO of the organising body, Mary Rector, who assured everyone during her conference speech that everyone has an equal chance of winning, regardless of whether they are from the USA or not. In reality, about 95% of the winners of this competition come from the USA or another English speaking country. It was often heard among the contestants that participants from other countries are just in the top 25 for variety.
The third time's the charm!
In 2023, Olga encouraged her students and followers, because the more participants and competitors, the more valuable the prize is for her. Even Olga's second journey to America was filled with fear and uncertainties. But life teaches us that fear is an opportunity for growth, and it was proven in this case. The journey to the USA brought new demand for training abroad, appearances at exhibitions, or the opportunity to expand our goods to foreign markets.
As they say: “Third time's the charm.” Olga WON! On Sunday, August 20, 2023, in Austin, USA, during the award ceremony, they announced: "The winner is OOBRAIDER!!!"
It was a real delight to all of us that in this category, the winning piece wasn’t like an evening hairstyle or lace knitting but a full-fledged braiding with kanekalon. We believe that this will bring even more participants in the braiding category in the future.
And what were Olga's words and feelings when she heard her name announced from the stage?
"An indescribable feeling of happiness. I think no one in the hall wanted to win that prize as badly as I did. It stay as one of the most beautiful memories of my entire life!"
Part of the prize is also the fact that out of almost 2000 works presented in the competition this year, 12 of Olga's students made it to the TOP 100 and two to the TOP 25!
Competition Statistics:
- For the 2023 edition, almost 300,000 works were submitted from over 80 countries!
- The competition is organized by behindthechair.com - the largest community website in the world for salon professionals.
- The CEO and founder is Mary Rector.
In Olga's category, Intricate Braids and Twists:
- For the 2023 edition, 1939 works were submitted from more than 20 countries.
- Before Olga's win, the winners were always only from English-speaking countries, and the closest winner to Slovakia was from Ireland in 2019.
If you want to watch the entire show, you can do so HERE.
HERE you can see the winners from previous years:
Here you can watch the announcement of results in Olga's category.
