At the entrance of the Hair festival in Sydney’s ICC exhibition centre in late June, mannequin heads with luscious locks silently cast me as a fraud. I’m no hairdresser and this is an industry-only event for hairdressers, barbers and stylists. Rainbow cheetah-print buzz cuts, sea-green rat-tails and blunt mullets – on human heads – pass me by as I make my way into the centre of it all.Bass-heavy music echoes around the hall and the crowd heaves with excitement as a large timer counts down to the final 10 seconds. Pushing through the crowd, I’m trying to get a view of the most popular event of the day, the live hair cutting competition.Contestants only have one rule: they must cut at least 1.5cm of hair. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The GuardianContestants are judged on metrics such as creativity, trendiness and suitability to the model. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The GuardianThree events – the barber competition, the emerging talent barber and the women’s cutting competition – are all taking place on the floor at the same time. Approximately 30 competitors and their models are wedged almost shoulder to shoulder, across five benches. The models’ hair falls to the floor softly, while the competitors standing behind them are a flurry of hands and scissors.They’ve had half an hour to deliver a technically proficient haircut and time is closing in on them. The only criteria they need to meet is to cut a minimum 1.5cm of hair. Aside from that, judges are assessing less tangible metrics: creativity, trendiness and suitability to the model. The overall winner is the person who accumulates the greatest number of points, and competitors can enter in multiple events.The timer rings out and the MC grows increasingly disgruntled as he repeatedly tells the competitors to down tools and to stop touching their models’ hair. One model looks as if he needed more time in the chair – a noticeable chunk of hair is missing on one side of his head. Other hairstyles are quite simple, with tapered fades or clean lines. Another model sports a mullet with silver sparkles; a star stamped on one side dazzles in the fluorescent light.Lilla Lehtsaar with hair by Pearlin McCarthy. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The GuardianCameron Pont from Asri Hairs studio. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The GuardianNewcomer Jeremy Stott only became a barber eight months ago. This is his first competition, and he admits the style he chose would be hard to pull off in the time limit: an anime-inspired look that’s long at the front and spiked at the back.Some competitors have roped their friends into getting a free haircut, but Stott’s model is one of his regular clients. “He’s got really, really nice hair that’s super thick, so I was a bit panicked about the time,” says Stott. “My hands got crazy shaky towards the end … But I think we did all right.”Stott “never in a million years” expected to be a barber, let alone a competitive one. But two years ago, he was in a serious motorcycle accident: “I broke my neck and my back and my leg and both my wrists.”