Ashford College - Hairdressing students brush off competition at KFE4Skills23

Following on from their amazing work at our in college Christmas Contest, our Hairdressing students went to Folkestone College on Friday 27th January to participate in the KFE4Skills23 Heat. This was a contest between Ashford and other colleges from across the EKC Group (Canterbury, Dover Tech, Folkestone and Sheppey), with the best in each category going on to the KFE4Skills23 Finals in March. This contest would allow our students to expand on their skills they have learnt from college and work placements in a range of categories.

We were joined by professionals from the Hair Industry, who have been working with colleges across the group to offer placements and give talks to our students. They would be looking at various criteria across all the challenges, such as how well the brief was met, use of hairstyling equipment and products. On the day there were 4 categories in total, and each college could only enter 2 students per category.

The first challenge was a 1st Year Blow Dry contest. In this, students had to create a look by wetting and styling the hair and finish off with a blow dry to turn their models' hair into a fabulous look. We took the top two spots in this challenge, with Maisie Fletcher coming 2nd, and Jasmine Espley taking 1st Place with her curled look!

Ashford student Jasmine taking part in the Blow Dry contest, resulting in her winning look (Left of 2nd image)

Happening at the same time on the other side of the salon, was a Cut and Style contest. Students would be judged on the quality of the haircutting, as well as how the finished piece looked in the style that our students had chose. Coming in 1st place in this contest was Ashford's Cheryl Hayden, who transformed her model's look into a simple yet elegant style.

Cheryl's winning Cut and Style Look on her model

After these two groups had finished, it was now time for the final two groups of the day to create their looks. In a time of just over an hour, students had to create either a look based on the category of "Eras" or "Avant-Garde/Fantasy". These looks were being primarily judged on the hair and quality of the style, but could also be supported by costume and clothing to present the final look and ideas. For the Eras category, we had some strong competition, with other colleges' students creating looks such as 1920's showgirls. Our student Alanna Harrison came 2nd, and was just beaten by another one of our students Jasmin Tiley-Smith who came in 1st place!

Alanna creating her 2nd place look for the Eras category

With the final judging of the day being in the Avant-Garde/Fantasy category, there were some really impressive looks across the whole EKC Group colleges, ranging from fairies to mythical creatures. Hot on our trail was Sheppey College, with 2 of their students coming 3rd and 2nd in this category, but we got the top spot! Kacey Moore from our Level 3 group came in 1st Place with her look.

Kacey creating her winning look for the Avant Garde/Fantasy category

The certificates and winners were announced in the hall by Folkestone College's Principal Donna Smith. We can't wait to see our students in the final KFE4Skills23 contest in March, in which they will go up against other students from MidKent College and North Kent College!