A former Chesterfield student, Serena, is now a senior hairdressing stylist specialising in textured hair. In February, she will be doing a short course at the college called CADITH (confidence and diversity in textured hair), teaching people how to work with different types of hair, in particular, textured and afro hair. This will be a commercial course run by the college and aimed at stylists wanting to develop their skills or students wanting a more rounded knowledge base on the different types of hair they will encounter on a daily basis.
The aim of the course is for stylists to feel confident gaining clients with all different hair textures. They will know how to approach the client’s hair, make them feel confident (as well as themselves) and know how to approach colouring and cutting with different hair types.
Serena talks about her career so far and why she decided to start teaching others in the industry about diversity in the hair industry.
“There’s not just one texture of hair, there are loads of hair types and people need to upskill. I’m one of a few hairstylists that cut all hair types, but it isn’t the norm.
This course is something that salon owners, hairstylists and students can do to gain an extra skillset.”
We asked Serena how she started her career journey and how she ended up as a senior hairstylist at a successful salon in Sheffield.
“I started off studying makeup at Sheffield college and doing my NVQ Level 1 in hair. I became a fully-fledged makeup artist and moved to London, working with the BAME beauty community. I worked for beauty and hair magazines, as a beauty editor and I did some editorial work whilst in London.
I fell pregnant, so moved back up to Sheffield and started working in my sister’s salon. I found my passion for hair. This was before I decided to go to Chesterfield College, I had experience with hair, but I needed a qualification to back it up.
Chesterfield was a really good college, really encouraging and as I was already doing hair, I had a bit more confidence in myself. I had already won an award before starting my course, I was The Northern Stylist of the Year. I just needed the qualification on paper to progress my career.”
Serena went straight into working in salons before deciding to open her own salon in 2010.
“That was the first salon in Yorkshire that was an all hair types salon. I enjoyed doing hair and found myself managing and not having time to style much hair, which wasn’t for me, so I gave it up and went to Conrad Blandford’s in Sheffield.
It’s an amazing salon, a lot of specialists work there, I’m the textured specialist. I am also an educator for Avlon for textured hair. I have won another two hair awards since too, so I’m in The Northern Stylist of the Year Hall of Fame.
I do lots of training with the apprentices and help stylists if they need it. The apprentices need to know the diversity and how to shampoo and prepare different hair types.”
We asked Serena about the commercial hair course that is starting in February and what the stylists, salon owners and students will learn if they decide to apply, she said:
“This course is for people to upskill and for me to share my knowledge. It will be experimental, people will try different techniques and if it doesn’t work, I will show them how it could work and/or how to fix it. I want them to have a play and feel comfortable asking questions.
My main focus for the course is textured hair, type 3+ hair and It is also going to involve a bit of black hair history. Within that realm, anybody with type 4 hair, will have had a negative experience with their hair. E.g. isn’t your hair frizzy, isn’t it thick etc. I want to delve into this with them, the psychology of the client.
A bit of history and psychology will help them understand clients, it gives them a ‘why’ and insight into why people might feel judged. Particularly with the younger generation, I like to work with them on wearing their own hair with confidence.”
We will be sharing an ‘Apply Now’ link directly to the course soon. Please keep an eye on this page for further updates.
