Young cutting edge hairdressing Apprentice, Poppy Evans, has won the Junior Stylist of the Year Award at this year’s Welsh Hair and Beauty Awards.
Poppy Evans, 20, from Cardiff, beat hundreds of other young applicants by blowing away judges with her wide ranging portfolio that showed off her hairdressing talent and skills including styling, cutting, balayage and hair up.
The Welsh Hair and Beauty Awards is a prestigious event in the industry’s calendar, celebrating Welsh talent, style and skill.
Commenting on the awards, Poppy said: “Winning the Junior Stylist of the Year Award was absolutely amazing and it is such a great achievement for me. I want to thank all of my clients for their support, my colleagues at New Dimensions and Helen Twamley who is my assessor at ACT Training.”
Poppy completed her Hairdressing Apprenticeship Level 3 last month with ACT Training, Wales’ leading training provider, and is now employed full-time at New Dimensions salon in Cardiff.
She is a talented Apprentice and is really passionate about her career. Poppy said: “I have always had an interest in hair. I love being creative, meeting clients and making them feel really happy and providing a high class service.”
Having left school with excellent GSCEs Poppy started college studying Law, Welsh and English. However, her heart was not into academic study. A year later she decided to swap the books for a pair of scissors and has not looked back.
She said: “I urge all school leavers this summer to think about what you really want to do with your life. You should follow what you really want to do. Speaking from personal experience, it is too easy to follow the crowd and go to college, but at the end of the day you need to do what makes you happy.”
Andrew Cooksley, Managing Director at ACT said: “It’s a delight to hear great success stories like that of Poppy’s, who has chosen the Apprenticeship route and has turned her strongest skill to making rewarding and fulfilling career.”
“With A-level result just being announced and GCSE results just around the corner, thousands of young people are weighing up the pros and cons of continuing with education or finding employment. With Apprenticeships, there is no reason why they cannot do both.”