Chloe Boyd, 21 and from Weoley Castle is coming to the end of her Level 3 in hairdressing and is planning on studying barbering next to expand her knowledge.
Since the age of 10, Chloe has dreamt of becoming a hairdresser, with a plan B of considering to becoming a teacher, should she not enjoy studying hairdressing. Hairdressing is clearly a subject she is loving, as she started at Level 1 back when she was 18 and hasn’t looked back since.
With the last academic year being mostly taught remotely due to lockdown restrictions, Chloe practiced techniques on her family. Her household is large with 9 family members covering 3 generations.
The Boyd family certainly were not ones to suffer from the closure of hairdressers. Nan got a wash and blow dry every week; Mum got her hair highlighted every six weeks; Dad got a trim every couple of months. Chloe’s two younger brothers pestered for a barber’s cut, however due to lack of experience with barbering, she was reluctant to give it a go initially. After some persistent nagging by the boys, Chloe decided it was worth having a go and found she enjoyed it and practiced fading and other basic techniques. She is looking forward to learning the more technical and creative barbering skills during the next academic year.
The college has not only continued to teach online, but also provided additional opportunities for students to learn. For hairdressing, this has meant online courses with milk_shake, a salon professional hair care brand who have offered extra tuition about colouring techniques, how to promote yourself as a business, how to get the best photos of work and more product knowledge.
For an upcoming exam, Chloe needed to make something creative out of hair at home. She decided to make a horn and once it was made, she left it ready for the next day, only to find it had disappeared. After hunting high and low for quite some time all over the house, she eventually found it chewed to pieces amongst her dog Mara’s other toys. So, her dog really did eat her homework.
Pardip Khalsa, one of Chloe’s hairdressing tutors said, “Chloe shows a great deal of promise as a hairdresser and is one of our most dedicated students, especially under the difficult conditions of working from home.”
Chloe’s dream once she has finished studying is to work in a salon for a few years to gain more experience and will then consider going self-employed to work as a mobile hairdresser and do hair for weddings.
To follow Chloe’s work on Instagram @_chlorosanne
There are around 157,000 people employed as hairdressers and barbers. Hair and barbering salons are evolving, now offering additional treatments such as threading and shaving, as well as the usual traditional services. Become part of this glamorous industry by getting hands-on, on one of our courses. For a list of our courses, visit https://www.sccb.ac.uk/courses/hairdressing