K College has re-launched its hair dressing salons at the Ashford campus in Jemmett Road with a special demonstration night featuring stylists from Wella showing new cuts and colouring techniquies.

For some staff the new salon, which was formally opening on Monday, December 12, was a very welcome change. Hairdressing lecturer, Lorraine Masterson, trained at the college 20 years ago. When she came back to teach, she got a shock. ‘I came into the salon and I thought “Oh my goodness” this is the same stuff I trained on many, many moons ago! It looked very retro! It as solid and well made so I could see why it lasted but the new update feels far nicer, and it looks as good as any High Street salon now,’ she said.

Hair and Beauty Learner Manager, Janine Kennard, who welcomed guests to the re-launch event, agreed the previous salon was very dated. She said: ‘We kept waiting for someone to come in and buy it for the set of “Life on Mars”! It was avocado green and had been in use for 25 years. People who came back to update their skills and found the same equipment.

We’ve got hairdressing apprentices coming from Canterbury to learn here so we wanted to offer an updated salon. We will be moving to our new campus in Elwick Road in the next couple of years and all of this new equipment can move with us and not look out of place. It’s a great investment and shows the employers that we work with that we are up to date with what is going on in the industry.


The work to transform the salons was carried out throughout the summer by K College’s own estates team based at the Jemmett Road campus.

At the re-launch event, Level 3 hairdressing students took part in a hair dressing competition, and there were tours for visitors. An artistic team from Wella took over the refectory where they demonstrated new colouring and cutting techniques.

Janine Kennard, Learner Manager for Hair and Beauty, said: ‘This exciting event gives people in Ashford a chance to see for themselves the work being carried out by our students – these are the hair and beauty specialists who may be working in their local salons when they have qualified. It’s a tribute to the skills of our own estates team that they completed the makeover of the salon area in time for our students at the start of this term. They did a brilliant job.’

Opening times for clients are:


Hair Salon

Wed 10am – 1pm

Thurs 11am – 2pm

Friday 10am – 2pm


Beauty

Tues – appointments at 1.30pm and 3pm

Thurs – appointments at 10.30pm, 1.45pm and 3pm

Friday – appointments at 1.15pm and 2.30pm