About us
In 1983 hairdresser Tony Rizzo and his wife Maggie lost their first-born child, Valentino, to leukaemia at the tender age of 2 years and 7 months. They decided to hit back at this vicious disease in the best way they knew by engaging their many friends and colleagues in hairdressing worldwide in an entirely new and audacious charity fund raising event.
The Alternative Hair Show was first staged at London’s Camden Theatre in October 1983. The Show was a huge success raising an enormous £7,500, which was immediately donated to Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research the UK’s leading blood cancer research charity. The Alternative Hair Show was born!
The Shows have grown into one of the most exciting and sought after events in the international hairdressing calendar. The flagship London Show is now in its 42nd year, and has taken place in prestigious London venues including The Royal Albert Hall, The Hippodrome, The freemasons Hall, Excel & more. There have been Shows in Chicago, Bologna, Vienna, Moscow, Seoul, Italy and Tokyo. Proceeds of the Shows, now in excess of £15 million, were donated to Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, now Blood Cancer UK and to leukaemia charities in the host country.
In January 2012, to mark the 30th Anniversary of this unique fund raising initiative, it was decided to set up The Alternative Hair Charitable Foundation (Registered Charity 1147189).
The Foundation is a grant making trust committed to funding charities with established experience and expertise in the advancement of research into and the treatment and welfare of people suffering leukaemia and related cancers of the blood.
FOUNDERS OF ALTERNATIVE HAIR
The Foundation wants to build upon the success the Alternative Hair Shows have achieved over the last 42 years by establishing a focal point for hairdressing, a profession renowned for its qualities of caring and generosity, to bring forward the day when leukaemia and other cancers of the blood no longer threaten the lives of our children.
So far, its declared aims are to support the outstanding work of Blood Cancer UK, which truly is making a real difference to the outlook for children with leukaemia. The Foundation is also working with world-renowned Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, The Royal Marsden & World Child Cancer an innovator which strives to spread successful treatment of childhood leukaemia to poorer parts of the world.
PRESIDENT OF ALTERNATIVE HAIR
The Alternative Hair Show has been an important event in many people’s lives since the first show, 42 years ago. Inspiring, informing and entertaining, Alternative Hair is unique in the content it shares with the audience, and the funding it achieves for its charity, raising millions of pounds for Leukaemia Research and supporting families with a sick child.
I am honoured to have supported Alternative Hair, as a hairdresser and now as Global President and my respect and admiration for Alternative Hair Founder, Tony Rizzo, continues to grow.