Aveda Institute Denver kicked off their Earth Month events with their Cat Walk for Water on Saturday, April 4 alongside partner salon, La Tierra Salon and Day Spa in which 40 models took the stage and featured hair, makeup and upcycled looks inspired by recycling, composting and pollution. Looks were created by team, students and graduates. The show opened with a special sound healing featuring a drum circle, didgeridoo and chant to invoke the intention to create transformation: the idea that when we come together as a community with a common goal, we can transform and create change. The intention for this show is all about water conservation and supporting local partner, Western Resource Advocates to protect water resources in the West. The show raised $3,000 to go towards Aveda Institute Denver’s goal of $65,000. Aveda Institute Denver Phoenix also kicked off their Earth Month with their Cat Walk for Water and raised $1,800 from their show.

The shows primarily focus on hair and makeup using only Aveda products; however, some models did wear upcycled garments made from various materials like Aveda packaging, Aveda color tubes, paper products, aluminum foil sheets, soda cans, plastic water bottles, post-consumer goods, compostable materials that naturally return to the earth, and materials donated by , a Boulder-based company supplying natural compostable materials like cups, plates, cutlery.

The Provo Institute is changing up the Cat Walk for Water theme with a fashion show called “Fashion 2 Trashion'” featuring designs made out of recycled materials and materials from Kinabuti, a Nigerian-based design house. The show is presented by the team and students on Earth Day, Friday 4/22 at 6 pm. Tickets range from $10-$42. Aveda Institute Tucson will host its Cat Walk for Water on Saturday, 4/23 at 6 pm. The show carries the same theme as Denver and Phoenix but will be hosted at the Arizona History Museum. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.com and range from $15-$40.

All shows support Earth Month partner, . Visit the Inspire Greatness Institutes on Instagram for more pictures from the shows and future show info @inspireaveda.

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Madison Wade working on her NAHA application.

As the deadline to apply for Beacon 2016 nears, we caught up with our graduate, Madison Wade to shed some light on how she got her start to success in this industry. Ironically, it all began with her application to Beacon.*

śMy advice to students currently enrolled at Inspire Greatness Institutes is to apply yourself. Just try. Sometimes it™s intimidating but if you don™t try, youl never have the chance,ť “ Madison Wade.

Though she didn’t move along through the Beacon process back in 2014, she didn™t get discouraged or give up. It was the beginning of a journey where she learned to never give up. Madison eventually went on to take Editorial ReMix in Denver, London Study Abroad and eventually applied for NAHA, all while she was a student at Aveda Institute Denver.

Madison credits her NAHA experience in teaching her how to work with a team, and more importantly how important having a team is.

śI would never be able to do this without Brad. He™s been my mentor, my teacher and inspiration,ť says Madison as she mixes color. She™s working with Brad Van Dyke, Education Director for Inspire Greatness Institutes as she prepares her next application for NAHA. Brad is coaching Madison and overseeing her finished looks.

Each Inspire Greatness Institute had one student finalist for the NAHA 2015 Student Hair Stylist of the Year!

Brad shares, śMadison being here today working with us in our Institute is a representation of how once you graduate from IG, you™re always a part of our family.ť

She applied for NAHA 2015 in the category of Student Hairstylist of the Year. Madison, along with students from our sister locations in Tucson, Phoenix and Provo became a finalist for the competition. The winner was Dustin Villa from Aveda Institute Tucson but all four nominees, including Madison, were recognized at Aveda Congress this past fall and were able to be backstage working with the industry professionals, including the Aveda Institutes section which was formatted by our Creative Director, Heggy Gonzalez.

śBeing a part of the NAHA experience has opened so many doors for me in this industry. I™m building an incredible network, sharing talent, meeting so many inspiring people and working more and more to build my career. NAHA was just the beginning,ť says Madison.

Currently Madison is working at Matthew Morris salon but she shared it wouldn™t surprise her if becoming an educator is in her future, maybe even here at Aveda Institute Denver.

śFoundation is everything, it™s who you are. My foundation is here at Aveda Institute Denver.ť

Madison Wade’s collection for NAHA 2015 Student Hairstylist of the Year

 *NAHA, North American Hairstyling Awards, is a globally recognized opportunity to receive recognition in our industry for our technical skill. Our NAHA Experience continues to be a significant Point of Difference for our Inspire Greatness Institutes. We were excited to celebrate NAHA finalist from each of our Inspire Greatness locations in 2015 in the category of Student Hairstylist of the Year.

*The Professional Beauty Association™s Beacon program is a renowned program designed to encourage and inspire beauty industry students to effectively and aggressively prepare for successful careers. This program provides the nation™s most promising cosmetology students with education and opportunities to network with the industry™s highest profile salon owners, professionals, and stylists during PBA Beauty Week.

To learn more about Madison Wade, visit her or book an appointment with her at Matthew Morris Salon in Denver, Colo.

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He shared his timeline of his full career in the beauty industry, which began at age 16 when he started school. The program is much longer in England so he was 18 when he completed his education and started his career. Today Ian has been with Aveda for 17 years and as a part of the Aveda Global Artistic Team, Ian spends his days working on education pieces, discovering new ways of teaching others, overseeing how education is pushed out to the network, he collaborates on Aveda collections and product development, works with marketing and also travels and presents often. Though it may seems he spends a lot of his time on stage, he shared he’s literally only on stage maybe a few hours a year. Prior to Aveda, Ian got his start at Toni & Guy.

“Aveda is a company I can work for and feel really proud of.”

Having shared that he feels he could die happy tomorrow because he’s lived the life he wanted, Ian said that he still desires to take a few months off from work and spend some time in Cambodia to help young women trapped in sex trafficking.

Ian shared some of his work with Aveda and a teaser of never-before-seen images of some recent work he’s done on his own. Editorial work is hard work and Ian called it “grueling” when giving an example of the photo shoot in Hawaii for Aveda Damage Remedy. The rain, the lava rocks and the continued challenges with weather in creating a perfect image that was about beautiful, healthy, conditioned hair, that would tell the story of quinoa protein in the products.

“It’s not always about the hair, it’s creating the mood to create the image. And it’s not about YOU. It’s about the model. Editorial style is not the same in real life.”

Understanding what you want from a picture is unique to the subject, Ian says. You have to understand what you are trying to show, tell in the picture. Going back in time a bit to November, 2014 when Aveda shared on their Ian’s work featured on the cover of American Salon magazine, Ian spoke of seeking to inspire more diversity with models and how he loves the “in-between” when it comes to images – that place between the current image and the next one about to happen. The image that cannot be recreated, that’s what he’s capturing.

Color Wheel from Ian Michael Black Living Aveda Blog

“What makes something great is when you create your own version of it.”

Ian doesn’t really think often about what’s happening tomorrow but he will question where he will be in the next five years. Will I be doing the same thing? Will it be different?

Ian didn’t shy away from sharing that this is an industry that requires hard work to start. He urged us to continue on our own journey and make it our own. First, we must master the basics. If we don’t learn to create perfection from the basics, we’ll never learn to advance. This is where establishing trust begins. Trust in the process. Trust in the unknown. Trust in the fear.

“You’ll learn the most when you’re uncomfortable.”

What else did we learn from Ian today? With over 150 of us in the audience today, I’m sure each of us learned something different and the journey will continue to unfold. Having personally watched Ian from afar, in the fan club of many, and seen his work come to life in our Aveda collections, seen him on stage at Congress, seen his work from a screen – having Ian walk from behind-the-scenes in what seemed like a far-away world and suddenly arrive in person, made me realize how our Global company is a community. I was most inspired by him sharing that at Aveda, “the people here work with each other out of respect. You build relationships.”

That’s what it was all about for me today. The inspiration to continue to live the Aveda mission, inspire others and build relationships. And also keep posting Instagrams about my new #avedacolor

Ian Michael Black with Alicia Christus, the voice behind this blog today.

“What I love most about this career is you don’t have to fit a mold. You don’t have to be anyone else. You don’t have to be the best but you need to be consistent and be consistently good. Do your own thing, don’t be like everyone else.” – Ian Michael Black

Aveda Institute Denver is a school for cosmetology, esthiology and massage and is a part of the şÚÁĎרÇř in Colorado, Arizona and Utah. We also offer an Editoril ReMix class, a week-long course focusing on editorial photo shoot practice for hair, makeup and the full production of a shoot. For more information about Aveda Institute Denver, visit our Web site or follow along on Facebook: Aveda Institute Denver or on our Instagram or Twitter feed @inspireaveda.

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