“I am a very passionate charismatic person with a very loud laugh. I am down right loud and my soul always yearns to be surrounded by beauty.
Music, food, nature, clothes, fashion, hair, people, horses – all these compete for the chambers of my heart. Waking up in the morning is mostly occupied with some kind of excitement and most of my activities are accompanied by involuntary singing and sometimes the odd dance, so often people are entertained by what I do. The value that kindness brings into my world is unmeasurable. That makes the most difficult of moments in life a lot more bearable than brash unkindness that is sometimes part of our world.
I started my career as a hairstylist apprentice in 1994 after a professional career in fashion design and a part time career in opera at the State Theatre with the former PACT as an opera chorister.
I always did all my friends and family’s hair on the side in the kitchen as an extra addition to my passion for beauty – I had a natural talent and flair for it. Never did a career in the hair industry ever cross my mind until a good friend and client of our fashion boutique learnt of my intention to leave the fashion industry. She suggested I join their team in a hair salon and it made sense to embark on this journey because of my talent.”
Stoffel enrolled as apprentice in 1995 and was sent to the Vidal Sassoon Academy in London to complete his studies. He participated and excelled in various competitions, participated in many different fashion shows, hair shows and theatre productions. He won Twincare ‘s Paul Mitchell Men’s Hairstylist of the Year, South Africa, in 2004 and has an accolade of editorial shoots, both locally and internationally, behind his name.
“I will be eternally grateful to Gillian Holmes Viljoen for always believing in me and giving me opportunity to prove myself.”
Stoffel’s dream of starting his own brand happened quickly after he married Antoinette, a visionary in the media industry that was prepared to share his dream to open a salon that was different in creative execution, offering a boutique service, and most importantly with a focus on training and how to assist in realizing people’s dreams.
In 2005, Antoinette and Stoffel embarked on a journey of starting their own business with an industry friend, Terry Miles. Foil opened its doors on 2 November 2005. The rest is not history, it was a long hard walk up to now, but worthwhile in learning about owning a small business and managing it successfully.
Stoffel was accepted to join Intercoiffure Mondial South Africa, an internationally established organization promoting the standard of hair dressing worldwide. In 2011 he was elected as Fashion Director for South Africa. With this came the opportunity to present creative work on the international platform in Australia as a session stylist well as producing editorial work for local and international publications.
In 2016, Stoffel was selected to join the global creative team, Intercoiffure Mondial, to help create their 2017 – 2020 Collection at fashion shoot in Paris and present this collection on a world stage in New York in September 2016, as part of the Intercoiffure World congress.
“One of the biggest driving forces behind my creativity is my God given talent , that I want to honor and share with other people in a safe , professional and expressive environment .Foil is the gateway for all of this and then some ……..”