Josh Lamonaca

Josh Lamonaca is a men's hairdresser and educator. In 2014 he founded Menspire with Samuel Palmer, a men's hairdressing brand with its academy in St Albans, UK, where he leads education. He has been cutting hair since he was 15 and from the start combined two crafts: he wanted to cut hair like a hairdresser and fade like a barber. He has taught since 2015, first at workshops around the UK and then abroad: he has taught in more than 30 countries, and in Brazil he presented in front of an audience of 2,000. At the Modern Barber Awards he won Best All-Round Barber (2023) and Educator of the Year (2024). In November 2025 his DNA collection won Men's Hairdresser of the Year at the British Hairdressing Awards. Since January 2026 he has been Fresha's first Head of Hair Education. He has visited Poland six times for Connected Hair and Barber Night events, and in June 2026 he closed the Main Stage of Barber Night S6 in Warsaw.

He starts with a plan: he reads the hair type and the client's style, maps out the sections and says in what order he will cut. As he works he repeats simple cues that tell you when to cut, and he often checks the balance from the centre, by eye and by hand. He combines precise sectioning with cutting by eye on drying hair.