Hair Stylist by Julie Dascoli book excerpt

Hair Stylist

My name is Lisa, and I am a hair stylist and hairdresser.

In year ten, I did work experience like a lot of students do. Work experience gives a student an opportunity to sample a chosen job for a short amount of time without commitment from the student or the employer.

I enjoyed my work experience so much, and was elated when the Salon offered me an apprenticeship. I couldn’t wait to start. I began working with the manager and two other qualified Hairdressers. It was great to have three people to learn from, as everyone has their own way of doing things.

After a three-month probation period, my employer enrolled me in TAFE which I attended one day per week. At TAFE I studied for a Certificate III in Hairdressing which included subjects like science and business.

In the salon I started off doing tasks like sweeping the floors, cleaning the benches and changing the sterilisers. Next I learned how to wash people’s hair and answer the phone. I learned how to talk to the clients by observing the other staff and imitating them.

I worked really hard, and was very quickly encouraged to start working on client’s hair. I started with blow-waves, setting in rollers and simple haircuts.

TAFE was also going really well and I was able to, with a lot of hard work, finish the three-year course in just eighteen months. This is called a self-paced course. The duration of the apprenticeship was still four years, but I no longer had to go to TAFE and was only working in the salon.

I now started to develop my own clientele. In addition to working in the salon, my employer sent me to extra training courses whenever they were available.

In my final year I was nominated for the Apprentice of the Year award. I did not win but I was proud to be nominated.

This was the time I decided to advance myself. When I saw an advertisement for a qualified hairdresser in a prominent city salon I applied and got the job. This was an amazing experience. At this salon we did the hair of many famous celebrities for many events such as the Logies and the Brownlow medal ceremony.

I enjoyed working there so much and learnt a lot, but eventually it became too difficult to travel to the city. With the traffic, the cost of parking and the very long hours beginning to take their toll, it was back to the suburbs for me.

My next job was with a manager that was not very nice to work for. After great working experiences in the past this made me very unhappy. My choices were to put up with it, find another job or buy a salon of my own and work for myself.

Read the rest of Lisa's story here.

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Learn more about the Real People, Real Careers series here.