論起全球美髮產業的創意先驅，很難不提到X-presion，即使沒聽過他們的名字，也不可能不知道他們創作的像素染；他們是美髮界奧斯卡AIPP Grand Trophy最年輕的得獎者，更因為高達7次的得獎紀錄而名列AIPP名人堂。

創辦於2005年，X-presion由三位西班牙年輕人Marco Antonio Restrepo Muñoz、Jorge Cáncer和José Luis Almendral共同創立於馬德里，不同於髮廊或是學院的形式，三人將X-presion定位成「創意工作室」，以不斷研發前所未見的創新技術為宗旨，幫助啟發美髮產業。

自助理時期結緣，隨著年紀漸長，三人在各自的髮廊成為創意總監，也在同一間國際髮品公司擔任教育者。看似圓滿的生活卻成為創意的牢籠：「所有的制度和規範就像盒子一樣，限制了我們盡情揮灑的空間。直到有一天，我們決定辭職，做些不一樣的事！」Jorge說道。

Founded in 2005, X-presion is formed by 3 young entrepreneurs from Madrid – Marco Antonio Restrepo, Jorge Cáncer and Jose Luis Almendral, it is the first company worldwide dedicated exclusively to research and development in the artistic and educational fields of hairdressing. Marco, Jorge and José met at a young age since they were just assistances at salon. After years, they worked themselves to the creative director of different salons also as educators of an international hair company. At some point, they realized that working for a company was like putting their creation in a box that they'll always have to follow the rules and fashion. It was when they thought "Let's start something different!"

對自由創作的渴望趨使他們創立X-presion，以「為了美髮產業而做」為宗旨，現在他們不再對公司負責，而是對整個美髮產業、成千上萬的髮型師負責：「我們希望能對產業有所貢獻，將所有的時間和精力投入於分享我們所愛、所創造的一切，每當研發出一項新的技術，最開心的就是能看見世界各地的髮型師同樣在使用這些技術，揮灑他們的創意。」

Aim to work for the hair industry rather than a hair company. Instead of building a salon or an academy, they established a creative studio in Madrid where they can develop new cutting, coloring and dressing techniques. X-presion is far beyond the typical hairdressing. "The main concept of our company is to share what we create and what we like. We invest our time to create new ideas for the industry and the most rewarding part is to see hairdressers around the world create something with the techniques we created."

凡是團體組合，或多或少都曾被問過有沒有吵過架、是否不合等諸般問題。然而Jorge的答案卻出人意料：「我們三個人之間有種完美平衡。我們尊重彼此，說實話，對我來說，Marco和José是全世界最棒的兩位髮型師！」當一個團體的每個人都放下自我，以團隊的共同目標而努力時，自然就能減少紛爭。

「也許兩個人的團體比較容易針鋒相對，但是三個人團體，總是少數服從多數，當我們都能夠尊重對方的想法時，自然就能成熟的解決問題。」無論大小事，創意也好或是生意層面，X-presion總是一起做出每一項決定。曾與他們一同共事的人更形容：「比起三個獨立個體，他們更像是融為一體的創意核心，三個人，一個腦袋！」

Being a team of three, they've always been asked if there was a fight or an disagreement happened. To most people's surprise, they call this a "perfect balance". Jorge explained, "We respect each other a lot. To be honest, they are the two best hairdressers that I know. If there are only two people, you will have the opposite mind which makes things difficult. But in three, it's always two against one and the one will respect the decision made by the other two." The trio working as one piece, there's no ego. Unlike other creative team having people specialize in different fields, they make every decision together whether it's artistically or of business.

不只是工作上的好夥伴，他們在彼此的私生活裡也同樣是非常親密的好友，Jorge表示：「我們連假日都混在一起，去亞馬遜雨林、印度或是偏僻的深山，一個遠離塵囂和網路的地方。」X-presion令人驚豔的原創性也來自於此：「當你上網尋找靈感時，不知不覺就會被這些圖像影響，最終創造出許多雷同的作品。但是一旦遠離了網路和雜誌，撇去任何的參考來源，我們就像一張白紙，能夠從零開始發想創作。」

"We work together and we are also very close friends that will spend the holidays together. Sometimes we go to Amazon Rain Forest, India or somewhere deep in the mountain with no internet or magazine. That's where we get rid of all the distraction and start something from zero and to create something authentic and original"

自2005年成團至今，X-presion已經創造出20餘種技巧，包含縫紉線條、像素染等最為人所知的成就；多年前他們的第一組創作旋即登上專業雜誌封面，更奪下第一座AIPP的冠軍獎盃，12年下來其作品替他們爭取到70本雜誌封面和7座AIPP獎盃。

AIPP由媒體組織主辦，五項類別的冠軍皆由全球專業媒體評選，公平公正公開又不受品牌影響的特性讓它被譽為美髮界奧斯卡。賽後由5項類別冠軍重新創作，爭奪最高榮耀獎項Grand Trophy更是美髮界最令人垂涎欲滴的金蘋果。

2009年，X-presion首次獲得AIPP影片組冠軍，更於隔年奪下Grand Trophy，成為該獎項最年輕的得獎者。Jorge表示，X-presion驚人的得獎紀錄並非因為他們真的「很想得獎」，而是他們「很享受整個過程」，並且發自內心的喜愛自己的作品：「每一組作品都讓我們感到無比驕傲，很難選擇一組最愛的作品，如果連你都不滿意自己的作品，又怎麼能要求別人喜歡呢？」

In such a short period of time X-presion has achieved to transcend beyond the boundaries of hair to all its possible forms. They create already more than 20 techniques. Their endless creativity combined with cosmetic innovation and scientific investigation let them create literal pieces of art and brought them numerous awards including 7 AIPP awards.

"Winning the AIPP awards and Grand Trophy is really a career high light for all of us. Our tips is that no to lose your mind thinking 'I have to win', but enjoy the journey of every creation. When we just started, we never thought about to win so many awards. We just enjoy every collection and everything we made."

原創性是X-presion深受青睞的原因之一，藝術涵養與文化背景也是主因，層層堆疊的創意架構出每一組作品。然而他們不只創作髮型，更包辦了服裝、音樂、攝影和影片剪輯這些需要「專業人士」操刀的細節。

也許是源於非主流文化的叛逆，Jorge說道：「我們不喜歡時尚產業的運作方式，攝影永遠是首要條件，接著是模特兒和時裝，最後才是髮型。X-presion是逆向操作，先有了髮型，其餘一切都是依據髮型的概念發想。」

除了強調髮型才是主軸，X-presion離經叛道的創新還有他們不特定發表作品的週期，正如創團時是受不了公司的限制，時尚產業每兩季或一年就得生出一系列作品的行徑也令三人感到不齒：「嚴格說來這就是一個很大的謊言，每六個月就得有一個全新的靈感幾乎是不可能的事，完全剝奪了創作最看重的原創性。」

Unlike hair companies, X-presion only launch a new collection when they really have something to share, "we don't launch a collection every six months or every year. That's why we stop working with company, we just don't like how the fashion industry work." says Jorge.

X-presion extend their work to the world of art, music and cinema. Their creations, representing an original mix of music, video, costume design and photography, count with more than seventy front covers of the most prestigious professional magazines. "Some people may not know that we actually create everything, not just the hair but the clothing, music and videos." It's again, different from how the fashion industry works. In fashion industry, the photographer is the most important, then the models and stylists. Hairdressers are the least important. However, X-presion do it an opposite way by starting from hair concept and build the rest from it.

X-presion的另一項生涯高峰，就是在2015年紅遍全球的像素染，這項革命性的上色方法不只在美髮界掀起軒然大波，影響力更擴及時尚與藝術產業。

自X-presion的第一組作品開始，他們就在嘗試染髮時不同的排列：「大多數的染髮技巧都是垂直式的在髮片上刷染，但是我們一直在思考水平刷染的可能性。」在多年的研發中，像素染在一場染髮的小意外中誕生。當時X-presion受邀在美國Minneapolis舉辦髮秀，Jorge的其中一位模特兒在染髮時出了差錯，意外出現色塊的疊影。他們以此為原點，多番嘗試不同的組合，運用不同淺的色彩層層加疊，成功創作出震驚世界的新技術。

In 2015, a never before seen coloring technique caused a huge sensation in hair industry. #xpresionpixel is a revolutionary color technique. An innovative coloring process that achieves a new chromatic dimension and color pixelated effect on the hair, while playing with movement and transforming these textures into the appearance of the pixel effect – something mind blowing!

#xpresionpixel is a consequence of one after another collection. "It's not an idea came up nowhere in day or two. Normally, hair color is to see in vertical rather than horizontal. If you've seen our first collection, you'll notice that we've been thinking about how to create new shape with color since then. "

像素染發表的數個月後，一支由X-presion發布的影片將像素染的風潮推上高峰。影片裡的模特兒甩動頭髮時，經典電動人物超級瑪莉竟以8bit的復古樣貌出現在髮片上。單單一個超級瑪莉的圖騰就花了他們將近兩週的時間創作：「就如同在建造房子一樣，你必須有一張藍圖，明確知道每一個色塊下筆的位置，精準的掌握髮絲的動向，無論梳開哪一個區塊，都能夠清楚看見超級瑪莉。」

這部影片被Allure雜誌譽為「Instagram上最酷的東西」，更登上電視新聞和雜誌，在世界各地泛起漣漪，光是影片就有4百萬的觀看次數和1千多萬的迴響，被Jorge稱之為「最偉大的宣傳」。

Months after, they published a short video on the Instagram in which when the model's hair is in motion or tousled, the video game characters, Super Mario, is brought to life in hair-form. It became a hit on social media. According to Allure Magazine, Super Mario was "The Coolest Thing On Instagram".

"It took us a week or more to create it. When you comb the hair, there's a Super Mario in every section." This takes time to make plan, just like an architect, we have to draw a blue print before actually do it. You’ll need to be very precise to create a piece."

#xpresionpixel is already a revolution on Instagram, Facebook, TV, and Fashion Magazines and already made more than 130 million impacts. The Super Mario got 4 million views, "it's a huge advertisement of our work" says Jorge.

X-presion深知網路的優點：「10年前有一個專門提供搖滾樂團的網路平台叫My Space，我們很早就開始使用社群媒體做宣傳，這也是我們能擁有這麼多粉絲的原因。分享創意是很重要的一件事，我們會將X-presion與分享的技術結合成標籤，例如#xpresionpixel或#xpresionthread，網友會受圖片吸引，進而想學習技術。」

Social media has become very important for any business than ever. X-presion started to use social media long before Facebook was born. "We started at the very beginning by using My Space 10 years ago. I think it's why we have so many followers. It's important to share your creation. We always use #xpresioncreativo when publishing collections. We also add the techniques on it as #xpresionpixel or #xpresionthread because people around the world want to learn this when they see it.”

X-presion謹記創辦初衷，替美髮產業帶來新技術的同時，也以教育幫助行業成長。「我們不相信在台上示範幾款髮型就是在預告趨勢，X-presion不教趨勢，而是技術。分享技術旨在啟發，幫助髮型師們發掘內心的創作力，技術只是一把鑰匙，讓他們能解放創作的小宇宙，在各自的生涯上有所突破，我們稱之為啟發式教育（Creative Education Method）。」

Be true to their leitmotiv, X-presion create techniques that can benefit the industry through creative and education. "We don't believe by showing three or four haircuts and it could be the trends for future. What we want to do is to inspire the hairdressers to discover their own creativities. We teach techniques, we don't teach trends. We call this creative education." The absolute goal of the Creative Education Method is to bring back the excitement for doing hair and give hairdressers the freedom to execute the type of work they perhaps had never imagined.

With Madrid Show Posetive coming, we are aspiring X-presion to bring something original and innovative to stage and to blow our mind again.