Alex Bilal-Spring
speaker
1,400 appearances
8 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2026
last heard 11 Aug
Alex Bilal-Spring’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 8 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 2.
Appearances
And it did.
But that single question about the 2025 UK budget uncovered something both shared and deeply charged, an undercurrent of grief.
You can hear it in the tone, the choice of words, the deep, deep sighs, the frustration, and the worry.
Sarah Schumach is the owner of Glow Beauty, with four locations.
Sammy MacDonald, the owner of Heritage Salons, three locations.
And Andrew Vorobjovas is the founder and co-owner of Silverclip, one location.
In 2026, the numbers back up many of the fears they'd shared.
The British Beauty Council's Value of Beauty 2026 report, compiled by Oxford Economics, found the industry contributed £28.3 billion to the UK economy in 2025, but employment across the sector fell as businesses faced continued economic pressures.
The total employment supported by the industry fell by 2.8% in 2025, with direct employment down 2.1% compared with 2024.
The report attributed the pressure on businesses to rising wage costs, national insurance contributions, business rates, and utility bills.
Which begs the question, what's next?
And in order to shape what's next, we must first sit with what was and what is, the essential groundwork upon which this entire episode is built.
In late January of this year, as 600 plus people gathered again for the Force Summit, we decided to begin production of this episode.
We sat down with four advocates and champions of the industry, people who sit at the intersection of owners, practitioners, brands, experts, and regulators to help us dig into what this taking stock moment really means.
To be absolutely clear from the jump, this episode isn't about wallowing in a woe-is-us narrative or dwelling on negativity.
It's a chance to reflect on where the UK and Irish industries actually stand now, as we cross the threshold of mid-2026.
An opportunity to dig into the individual and collective roles we play in navigating this transition, nurturing the culture, and defining what sustainable growth looks like next.
After all, transformation is a word everyone in hair, beauty, and medical aesthetics knows well.
These industries were built on it.
Joining us today for this exploratory conversation, Sophia Fey Roche, journalist at Aesthetics Journal, Nikki Pope, publisher of Tribute magazine and chair of the hair committee at the British Beauty Council, Ellen Cummings, deputy editor at Professional Beauty Group, and Jennifer Paxton, editor-in-chief of Barber Evo and Salon Evo.
Showing 321–340 of 1,400 · page 17 of 70
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