Shrewsbury stylist ready to KO competition at hair event

Terri Pritchard, 21, who works at both the Shrewsbury Darwin Centre’s K2 Salon as well as the company’s second outlet in Newtown, is into the regional final of the Wella Trend Vision Awards.

And the former Shrewsbury Priory School pupil is now practicing hard ahead of the glittering regional final at Manchester’s Hilton Hotel on Wednesday, May 16.

Terri, who started her hairdressing career as a 16-year-old Saturday girl at Pride Hill’s Cameo Salon which was also owned by K2, says she is delighted to have made the final.

She said: “It’s amazing, I found the qualifying heat nerve-wracking but good fun. I had to style my model’s hair for a photo-shoot and then send the pictures in.

“Only 20 stylists make the finals so to be chosen as a finalist is an honour in itself. On the day I will have to do my model’s hair before presenting the style to the judges and talk about what I have done.”

And this isn’t the first competition Terri has entered after she was short-listed for Young Hair Dresser of the Year at Birmingham’s NEC Arena last year.

She said: “It was an amazing experience. I want to work hard and win a few competitions before perhaps having my own salon in the future.

“However, that’s a long time off. At the present time I really enjoy working for Phillip Minton at K2. We have such fantastic regular clients at both the Newtown and Darwin Centre salons.

“My customers are more like friends than clients, you really get to know people well and what they like. To be honest I am at home styling both men’s and women’s hair and enjoy the variety.”

Christened Hayley, she took the stylist name Terri when she started work to avoid confusion with the salon’s customers.
She said: “When I first came to K2 there was already a Hayley working as a stylist so to avoid confusion I took the name Terri. I call it my stylist name but I suppose I prefer Hayley.

“The problem is many of my regular clients got used to me as Terri so I suppose I am stuck with the name now!”

And as this is the sixth consecutive year the salon has reached the Wella Trend Vision Award regional finals and K2 owner Phillip Minton, who learned his craft in London’s Bond Street in the Swinging Sixties and last year celebrated 40 years in business, says he is thrilled.

He said: “It’s a brilliant achievement and one Hayley richly deserves. She has worked incredibly hard to reach the level she has since joining us as a 16-year-old Saturday girl.

“She has always wanted to learn and work hard at her craft and she is certainly incredibly popular with our regular customers.”

Kevin Lockwood, Manager of the Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside Centres, said: “The K2 salon is always busy and always buzzing and still as cutting edge as it was back in the day.

“It’s also been a fantastic learning ground for young stylists and is an important part of the varied offer we have here in the Darwin Centre.”