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Terri-Lynn has worked as a Hairstylist at Valentino's hairstyling salon in Whitby for five years. She is now a Senior Colour Technician and does mainly hair colouring in the salon. She specializes in creative hair colour. Attracted to this trade because she could demonstrate her creativity and work in close contact with people, Terri did most of her apprenticeship training at the Career School of Hairstyling in Oshawa and at Durham College. (There are two avenues of apprenticeship training in the Hairstylist trade: one is graduation from a Private Hairstyling School followed by 2,000 hours in a salon; the other is 3,020 hours in a salon.) After graduating from Career School of Hairstyling, Terri took a break from the trade for 10 years. She continued to work in customer service jobs that served her well when she returned to achieve her certification as a Hairstylist at Valentino's. Valentino's offers a flexible workday. Staff can work from 9:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. 12:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., 1:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., or part-time. Each day is different for Terri, depending on the needs of the clients who are booked to her. She works in a busy, friendly team environment, where time flies and she has lots of fun. Although she did haircuts and perms while in school, and assistant jobs like shampooing and floor sweeping when she started at Valentino's, her focus and work ethics catapulted her to where she now strictly works with colour. She always wears gloves because bleach and chemicals are some of the hazards of her job. She also wears closed shoes in case of falling items like bottles or hot irons. Valentino's provides in-salon staff training on Mondays and Wednesdays. Terri also travels frequently across North America to attend educational courses funded by Valentino's. She visits salons that employ top colourists, like L'Oreal Professional, Vidal Sassoon, and Toni & Guy. What Terri enjoys most on the job is creative colouring. This involves placing the foils in the hair in unusual ways. Appreciation from the clients is also extremely rewarding. Her joy comes from seeing the reaction on a satisfied client's face - especially when they are in unhappy situations and want a new hair colour to give them a lift. A particularly proud moment for Terri was when a client told her "I want to cry, I'm so happy." Her greatest challenges on the job are: creating the perfect colour and formulas in mixes; correcting colour that has been wrongly applied; and reading between the lines when a client is trying to explain what he or she wants done. (For example, a client shows her copper but doesn't want red.) During her training in school, her challenge was doing finger waves. It made her want to "throw the mannequin's head across the classroom!" (Finger waves involve the art of shaping and directing the hair into alternate parallel waves and designs using the fingers, comb, waving lotion and hair pins.) Terri's income depends on the number of clients she serves and the amount of retail she brings into the salon. She has doubled her earnings since starting work at Valentino's. A colour technician can earn up to $25.00 per hour. Terri believes that the most critical skills for success in her trade lie in customer service. Almost anyone can be trained in the technicalities of the job but not everyone can consistently relate to different kinds of personalities with different needs, and make them all feel so good that they will want to return to that salon, or to that Hairstylist. Her advice to anyone who may be interested in pursuing a career in this trade varies according to their situation. Students in high school should enquire about participating in the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program where they can try out the trade while they work toward their Ontario Secondary School Diploma. Individuals living at home who don't have an urgent need for money might consider beginning their apprenticeship at a Private Hairstyling School where they will be exposed to comprehensive training. (To be eligible to write the Certificate of Qualification examination for provincial certification as a Hairstylist, they will still have to do 2,000 hours of on-the-job training with an employer.) Those living away from home should find a good salon to apprentice in. Terri insists on the importance of beginning a Hairstylist career in a good salon or hairstyling school in order to become shaped by correct training and work ethics right from the start. For example, Valentino's has won a top award for apprentice training, and some of the models the salon's staff has worked on have gone on to become professional models or to work for magazines. She also stresses the value of finding out as much as possible about the prospective employer and the staff turnover rate in that salon. Anyone who feels that he/she is not getting appropriate training in an apprenticeship position should contact the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities' Training Consultant who can discuss the situation with the employer. Anyone seeking to change employers should try to secure the new one before leaving the current job. It is usually easier to find another position while you are still employed. Terri believes that there will be an increasing need for her profession, especially as people's lives become busier. Also, this is a trade that adults can enter at almost any age. Certified Hairstylists have a wide scope of options, like: opening their own salon; doing freelance work; doing platform work - demonstrating their techniques on a stage; renting a chair in a salon and bringing in their own clients; doing models' hair for magazines; or working as an educator for hair-products companies. Terri's eleven-year-old daughter, Tristan, has some thoughts of hairstyling. She is already practicing on her mannequin head. Terri's husband, Dwight, is 'over the moon' about his wife's success in this trade. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
®1999 DURHAM REGION LOCAL TRAINING BOARD | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
