CHINA: Chinese hairdressing school takes a bootcamp approach to grooming future hairstylists

Record ID: 346309

  • Title: CHINA: Chinese hairdressing school takes a bootcamp approach to grooming future hairstylists
  • Date: 9th June 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 20-YEAR-OLD HAIRDRESSING STUDENT, YING HUILING, SAYING: "After I finished school, I became a hairdresser. I feel that a person should have a profession in this world. So if I work in the factory, it is not possible for me to have a profession. By working in hairdressing, I have the chance to develop my skills because it is a profession. By being in the factory, I am just a worker. There is a difference between being a worker and being a professional."
  • Embargoed: 24th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Fashion,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAAUY12DMEA63Z94XU0ZNHQNQ0E
  • Story Text: It's not just a simple wash, cut and blow -- a Chinese hairdressing school employs a bootcamp approach to train its students for a career in hairstyling.
    It is eight in the morning in China's financial capital Shanghai. At a downtown park, new recruits, some sporting coloured hair and others fashionable sneakers are marching in tandem at the command of their drill trainer.
    This is no ordinary bootcamp. The recruits are all hairdressing students at one of China's largest hairdressing training school, Fu Kang (pron: foo-kang) Beauty and Hairdressing School.
    Their approach to hairdressing starts simple, with discipline being a key aspect to mastering the skills needed to be a hairdresser. As such, more than a thousand students in their two Shanghai campuses go through a strict regimented training schedule everyday. This involves drills in the early morning, theory lessons before lunch and practical lessons in the afternoon.
    They pack in the drills and lessons during a six-day week, with hours similar to those of working in a hairdressing salon.
    With their T-shirts soaked with sweat after a morning run, these male trainees slug it out during the drill session as a lost of concentration would mean automatic push-up punishments. The female students have it much easier with simple hand and leg exercises inside the school compound.
    As the lessons proceed after the morning drills, there is no let up in the training approach. Students gather around a hairdressing teacher as she explains the basics of cutting, perming and dyeing hair. There again, push-ups are the means of punishment should one fail to answer a question correctly or finish up an exercise in the given time.
    For the more than twenty hairdressing teachers at the school, they feel the approach is a good and practical way to instill discipline in their students before they start work at a salon.
    "In a hairdressing salon, they are very strict on its management, on the image an employee portrays to his or her superiors and the teamwork shown between different employees. As to what we have said before, the punishments we deal out, or other aspects of the training, we do not force it upon our students, they do it in a happy manner. Even if they do the punishments, it is done voluntarily and in good spirits. All this is done to complement our teaching and it is not the main aspect of our training," said Zhou Yaxin (pron: chou-yar-sin), who specialises in teaching the basic hairdressing course.
    Ranging from basic courses of hairstyling to courses on salon and business management, the school has on offer a wide variety of courses for those who want to improve themselves in the hairdressing industry. The school also offers courses on beauty and make-up.
    With a tough, no-nonsense approach, Fu Kang is well-known in the hairdressing industry and are able to give out their own certification to students who have completed the courses at their school. They now have six training schools in major cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.
    Hairdressing is seen by many of these students to be a good occupation to go into with their lack of educational qualifications. The majority of the students training here are those who only have secondary school education.
    24-year-old Zhang Chunhua (pron: chang-choon-hwa) used to work as a factory worker in China's southern Guangdong province. But now, with his hopes pinned on a career in hairdressing, he said he is not afraid of the tough nature of the course.
    "Of course, it is tiring. But I feel it is all worth it. I came here to learn and I am willing to learn many things. No matter whether I am learning how to cut hair or any other thing, such as when we have to do drills everyday or whatever the teachers explain to us in detail, I feel I should learn all these in a serious manner. After all, I have spent money on this course and I am not here for a holiday," he said while taking a break during the basic hairdressing course.
    It takes about two years for one to master the various skills needed to be a qualified hairdresser. Here at the school, the students pay approximately 1000 yuan (130 US dollars) a month for a simple two-month course on basic hairdressing. After that, they proceed on a work stint at a hair salon for three months before coming back to learn more intermediate and advanced skills.
    For 20-year-old Ying Huiling (pron: ying-hwee-ling), the choice of a hairdressing career was one that was easy to make.
    "After I finished school, I became a hairdresser. I feel that a person should have a profession in this world. So if I work in the factory, it is not possible for me to have a profession. By working in hairdressing, I have the chance to develop my skills because it is a profession. By being in the factory, I am just a worker. There is a difference between being a worker and being a professional," she said.
    At Fu Kang, they pride themselves on their unique system of training that has won praise from the local hairdressing industry. Many of the students were sent here for training by their hair salons in hope of bettering the skills of their hairstylists.
    With more than 6000 students across the school's nation-wide campuses every month, Fu Kang plans to open two more schools in the next few years with hopes that their training method would bring up the standard of the hairdressing industry in China. With the luxury market rocketing in China, a chosen few of these students fight their ways to the top and dear hairstyle salons, increasingly a must for the fast emerging Chinese upper class.
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