Why we loved our hairdressing apprenticeship

Understanding what motivates an apprentice is the start to a fruitful relationship for both trainee and salon owner.  HJ Spoke to three former hairdressing apprentices to find out what made their training a success. Misha McLean is an assistant at Rainbow Room International in Uddingston, and is HJ’s current Junior of the Year. She was attracted to hairdressing because she wanted a career that was creative and involved dealing with people. While many hairdressers claim to have had a bad experience at school over their career choice, Misha’s school definitely did more than most to promote hairdressing as a career. “We had a salon in the school where basic training in hairdressing was offered as a subject, which was a great beginning for my career. In general, Misha believes schools could do more. “I feel sometimes emphasis is on exam results – all about percentages and grades on a page -  but they should focus more on what individuals are interested in and give more encouragement and help to explore options for careers in creative industries.” Misha completed her apprenticeship at the Rainbow Room International Academy and the Uddingston salon, qualifying in March this year. She believes the best element of her training was the hands-on experience in the salon. “On the job training with real experiences and real clients, give a sense of responsibility. I love being surrounded by talented, successful people who are passionate about what they do – they are inspiring, and they make me want to achieve similar success. I like being exposed to inner workings of the hairdressing industry and getting involved with photoshoots, hair shows, and seminars. It is always a great feeling knowing that by doing job well you can make someone feel good about themselves.” Even with the highest calibre of training there were still elements that Misha found challenging. “Overcoming frustration when I didn’t get things perfect at the first attempt was my biggest challenge. I needed to learn that it's ok to make. I started off as quiet person and feel that this apprenticeship has helped my confidence grow, and have grown in all areas of my life, not just my career.” Mike Mahoney completed his apprenticeship with HOB Salons in July 2016. “I always knew I wanted to work creatively with my hands,” says Mike of why hairdressing attracted him as a career. His training was carried out at the HOB Academy in Camden Town, London and says he really benefited from training within a salon environment.  “The opportunity to be a HOB Academy assistant while doing my apprenticeship really inspired me to keep learning,” he says. On how he made the most of his apprenticeship, Mike says: “I never said no to any opportunity, and I was very lucky to have lots presented to me throughout my apprenticeship which opened many doors for me. In my role as Academy assistant I was worked directly with our creative director, Akin Konizi day-to-day and also on all seminars, shows and photoshoots. This gave me the opportunity to express my creative side even more and has given me something to aspire too. I was also a finalist at the British Hairdressing Business Awards’ 2016 in the Junior of the Year category.” Mike also has the following advice for salon owners and manager wanting to motivate their apprentices: “Always make sure your apprentices feel valued; open as many doors for them as possible. It’s not easy being an apprentice and that is why it’s important that there are goals set to work towards so they can see a finish line.” Susan Anderson trained at the Charlie Taylor Training Academy in Perth, qualifying in June last year. Susan made the move into hairdressing relatively late, having worked for a high street bank for 11 years, despite having a degree in jewellery design. With two young daughters making a career change was going to be difficult, but after being made redundant, Susan made the decision to enrol in a hairdressing college course. When Charlie Taylor came to speak at the college, Susan chatted with her and ended up enrolling in a summer school at the Charlie Taylor Academy. She enjoyed the experience so much she gave up the college course, eventually joining the team at Charlie Taylor’s St Andrews salon as an apprentice. She now works full time at the group’s Dundee salon. “Moving into salon-based education gave me on-the-job training and the opportunity to fast track. I had the opportunity to learn on the salon floor, watching the stylists at work. Whenever Charlie was in the salon and she had some downtime, she would coach me and the other apprentices, so I always made sure I had two models in any time she was there. It was a real privilege to have that level of coaching at that stage of my training.” In order to get the most out of her apprenticeship Susan became expert at recruiting models willing to let her cut their hair. “Ensuring this steady stream of models was definitely the most challenging part of training, but the more models you work on, the quicker you learn.” Susan offer this advice to salon owners: “If a salon owner is serious about keeping staff he or she must invest in keeping them motivated through training courses, in-salon seminars, evening demonstrations and excursions to events like Salon International, where we get a glimpse of the industry in all its glory.”