The American Crew® All-Star Challenge: How To Enter + How It’s Changing

Calling all men’s groomers! Sharpen your shears and line up your clipper guards because American Crew® is now accepting submissions for its 2020 All-Star Challenge—a global search for the next men’s hairstyling stars. Five winners will each get $5,000 AND a free trip to LA to work with American Crew® Founder David Raccuglia! Keep reading to learn everything from how to enter (the deadline is March 1!) to what makes this year’s competition majorly different than past years.

How To Enter

1. Using American Crew® products, create a look that you feel is the ultimate contemporary interpretation and expression of American Crew® style.
2. Capture two black and white photos from the chest up in front of a blank background: One face forward shot and one profile shot.
3. Write a brief paragraph explaining the inspiration behind the look and include the products used to create it.
4. Enter your submission at allstarchallenge.AmericanCrew.com before the March 1, 2020 deadline and make sure to include the following:
   1. Your name, contact info and home country
   2. Two black and white images (face forward & profile)
   3. Look inspiration and products used

In need of inspiration? David says a throwback to the ’70s, afro centric and square shapes—both an aggressively short square shape and a longer square shape—are all super on-trend right now. “If I were entering the contest, these are the things I would take into consideration,” he says. “These are the shapes and the textures that are being promoted in fashion as well as in grooming right now.”

How This Year Is Different

When it comes to this year’s All-Star Challenge, there are three major changes: the number of winners, the prize and how the winners will be chosen and announced.

The Number Of Winners

The All-Star Challenge has always crowned one global winner (minus last year when two winners were named for the first time ever). This year, American Crew® has decided there will be five global winners. “The All-Star Challenge has progressed so much since its existence…The talent is just unbelievable and the global footprint is unbelievable, and we’ve gotten to the point where the entries are so brilliant and overwhelming that we decided to expand it a bit,” shares David. “The category of men’s grooming right now is diverse…You have to be good at all of it, so we want to celebrate that by giving five people the opportunity to showcase their talents.”

The Prize

Each winner will receive a number of prizes including a $5,000 monetary award PLUS an all-expense paid trip to Los Angeles to participate in an editorial campaign shoot alongside David, who is also a renowned photographer. “Now we’re going to take your winning entry and we’re going to give you the opportunity to work in the real world of editorial,” shares David.

How The Winners Will Be Chosen & Announced

In the past, the finalists would be flown to the U.S. for the All-Star Challenge event which is when the judges would choose the winner and the winner would then be announced. However, American Crew® is switching it up this year since all five winners will be flying to LA as part of their prize:

• First, individual in-country judging panels will select their national winner who will then move forward to participate in the global competition.

• Then, American Crew’s global committee will name the top five competitors from over 40 finalists, which will be announced in a press release.

Advice From American Crew’s Founder

Ready to get to work on your 2020 All-Star Challenge submission?! Before you do, remember this word of advice from David: “Where their talents are showcased and resonated is where they should focus…Focus on your mastery of skill. Don’t let trend drive you all the way there. You adapt that trend to your mastery as opposed to abandoning your mastery for a trend.”