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Mrs. Verhulst-Santos, you have been working in the
Professional Products Division for over 20 years, what
is your vision for this sector?
It is a great privilege to work and serve a profession as
wonderful as that of the hairdresser. The professional
sector is very varied, depending on your observation
point of the world. Between areas that are expert and
mature in their know-how, and emerging countries
where the profession is just waiting to be developed; so
I think we have a tremendous pool of development
opportunities for hairdressing and for professional
beauty trades.

What are L’Oréal’s future projects in the hairdressing
industry?
Continue to provide professionals with the best in terms
of innovation as high performance tools and products
allow to assert even further the value-added work. Our
obsession is also to get closer to women’s daily desires,
in order to seduce them with the new services we
imagine for hairdressers in salons.
We will also increase our connections with the world of
fashion. This year we have signed a partnership with the
Fashion Week in Paris and our brands are present in over
20 fashion weeks around the world and in more than 500
fashion shows, including those of some of the most
prestigious designers. This immersion of our brands in
fashion is a source of inspiration that we strive to share
with our customers.

What are the strong points that connect your company
and Intercoiffure Mondial?
We share the highest standards, the ones that any
professional would respect to excel and be the best in
his field. We also believe in the power of this profession
to transform lives; that of the professionals as they
develop their skills, but also that of the people who pass
in the hands of the hairdresser.

How important is this partnership for you?
This partnership is essential as I believe in the value of
the example. Some professionals have the ability to find
the key to success; they become an inspiration for an
entire profession.
Our profession always needs to be inspired.

What are the goals you want to reach together

with Intercoiffure Mondial?

Our aim must be to shake up the perception of

our profession from the outside. We must do

everything to ensure that this profession is visible,

recognized, valued and sought by both young

people who are choosing a career and by women

who are our clients and must always guide our

requirements.

How do you see the development of the haircare

industry around the world?

I think we are on the edge of beautiful years for the

field of hairdressing and professional beauty... but

I also think that only the fittest to face change will

survive.

Our industry must question itself, particularly in

developed countries. We have several studies that

show the alienation of women for their hairdressing

salon; these are not considered to be really able to

give them the individual welfare they expect from

a beauty place.

The salon has to reinvent itself and professionals

must bring a very special attention to the marketing

of their services ... for this we have very interesting

tools and trainings, some of which will be launched

in 2013, to support our hairdressers and partners.

Can you give us three words for "beauty"?

With our program Hairdressers against AIDS, we

have shown for over 10 years the beauty of

commitment and what a network of professionals

like ours can accomplish when it mobilizes.

"Beauty for a better life": is the name of the brand

new program launched by the L’Oréal Corporate

Foundation in 2013, and at the heart of this

program, there is hairdressing.

In fact, in many countries, our activities are ways to

access a better life by providing people on the

margins of society with a way to meet their needs

by learning a profession, that of hairdresser. I strongly

supported this initiative within our Corporate

Foundation because it is an exceptional project that

will transform lives and contribute, in some areas of

the world, to profound changes in society.

Interview with An Verhulst-Santos,

Worldwide General Manager

L’Oréal Professional Products

ICDMAGAZINEINTERVIEW

By Petra Weinzierl

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