LIFE is now a snip for top Leigh student Joanne Smith who has won the finals of a national hairdressing competition.

The win means a 'perm'-anent position for Joanne, aged 20, of Redwaters, Leigh, who works at Kevin Colby Associates in Leigh, and who was one of 12,000 students entered in the Junior UK Hairdressing Student of the Year competition. It also means £10,000 worth of public relations work with a top agency, a £2,000 photoshot and a mass of hairdressing equipment of her own.

She now hopes to go on to teach hairdressing sometime in the future though she is happy to stay with Kevin Colby Associates for the immediate future.

A jubilant Joanne, who had to face tough questioning from a panel of experts in London, said: "I still can't believe I have won. I am still on cloud nine and it hasn't really sunk in yet and my mum and dad are absolutely delighted for me. I know everyone where I work are also thrilled that I have won. "Everyone at the salon in Leigh has been just great and I'd like to thank them."

Joanne, a former Bedford High School pupil who has 10 "O" levels, went to Kevin Colby Associates four years ago on work experience. They were so impressed with her that they offered her a job.

Since then, Joanne has trained at the Worthington Hair College in Wigan and was entered in the competition by her tutor. Next news story

Back to the news index

Back to the Leigh Journal home page

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.