Students and staff have been making their vote count by helping to pick Lowestoft College’s entries for a national hairdressing competition.

The hairdressing team asked students and staff to get involved and help shortlist the College’s entries for the Wella Professionals Xposure competition reducing the number from 10 to five; the maximum number allowed per college. The ten Level 3 hairdressing students all had to cut and colour a model’s hair and organise a photo-shoot. The pictures of the finished styles were displayed, in the foyer, for people to vote on. As well as thinking about the hairstyles, the students had to consider make-up and clothing to help complete the overall look.

Kelly Bullard and Claire Cliff, both from Lowestoft, and Verity Wilson and Pippa Sturman from Beccles were shortlisted to represent the College and will now go head to head with other students from the Eastern region. The four used the latest themes and trends as a starting point and looked at ways to make their styles progressive and forward thinking. Kelly used vibrant golds and oranges to create a look which draws on multi-cultural influences from Latin America, while Verity, who has two looks going through to the competition, set out to create glamorous and dramatic styles with rich reds and browns. Pippa created a classic look with a contemporary edge using innovative colours to enhance the design. Claire used 50s pin-up glamour with a rich edge.

Hairdressing Lecturer Jo Brooks said: “We had over 300 votes in just a few days. The student and staff vote counted for 50per cent of the final decision, with the other 50 per cent coming from the hairdressing lecturers and stylists from local salons. We used this approach because both groups of people look for very different things – the stylists and lecturers take into account the technical skills involved, while the students and staff look at things from a more commercial view and base their decision on the looks they like.”

The four have sent off their entries which include pictures of the styles they created and now have to wait to find out whether they will be chosen as one of 80 students to go through to the Regional Heats in April. The heats will take place at one of four locations in England and Scotland and, at this stage, competitors will have one hour to style their models hair for a staged catwalk show.

Pictures show:
Lowestoft College’s entries for the Wella Professionals Xposure student competition.