Students' hair creativity is a big hit at home
Posted: 22 April 2020
Online learning is proving to be a big hit with students from West Nottinghamshire College, who are getting creative with their practical work and sharing it with fellow students and tutors. And their families are often seen getting in on the action too.
Level 2 Hairdressing student Amy Cross hasn’t let her skills fade just because access to salons is prohibited and with her daughter Cora as a model, she’s created a beautiful curled hair look.
Hairdressing tutor Suzanne Szepeta challenged her class to create a set hair look using innovative ways, when traditional heated styling tools such as heated rollers and hood dryers aren’t available. They were asked to put together a look using what they could find around the home and post their results to classmates on the Microsoft Teams application, which they’re connecting with for online lessons.
Suzanne was very impressed with Amy’s creation which saw her using socks! Suzanne said: “Amy produced a really beautiful curled long-hair look on her daughter using just socks. The hair was wound around the sock in sections and tied to ensure the hair didn’t unroll and was then left to dry naturally. This technique is something that was used many years ago but usually with old rags.
“The rest of the class were able to comment on the result online and collaborate together. My students were quick to find innovate ways of creating this look including using toilet roll cardboard, even empty drinks cans."
The students are developing their practical skills in ways that they perhaps never considered before and they are also challenging themselves to think creatively when faced with challenges and using problem solving skills.
Amy said: “The online tutoring has been really good and I’ve found the tutors very engaging and informative. The work they’ve set has helped maintain my knowledge and also allowed me to think outside the box.
“I originally wanted to use old pieces of fabric as that is something my mum used to do to my hair when I was younger but I couldn’t find enough rags to do it, so the sock idea came to me as I thought it would be the same kind of technique and I had a lot of old socks.
“I used around twenty socks and I left Cora’s hair to dry naturally which took around 5 to 6 hours. It was a little fiddly but was quite simple to do once I’d got the hang of it. I found the technique a lot like using bendy hair rollers.
“It took a lot longer to dry then expected mainly because the socks get damp from the wet hair so it would probably work better being done before bed and left to dry overnight.”