ENNIS hair stylist Bridget Haren proved that she’s a cut above the rest by coming home from the World Hairdressing Championships in Malaysia with the gold medal in the ‘progressive cut and colour’ section of the competition.
But there was no resting on her laurels for the owner of Altamoda Hair on Woodquay in Ennis. When she returned from Kuala Lumpur, it was straight back to work.
Bridget Haren’s award-winning hair style. Photograph by Louise Brooks Photography
“I arrived back in Ireland on Tuesday night and I worked 12 hours on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” Bridget said.
Her world championship-winning progressive cut and colour was fashioned on a mannequin and following days of preparation, she had 30 minutes to complete the cut.
“I rehearsed what I was going to do in five easy steps for myself, so when I went on to the floor, I just had to keep my head and make sure that I didn’t make any mistakes. It was only 30 minutes but it was fierce pressure,” she said.
“When I came off the floor and looked around, I knew that I had done the best job that I could possibly do. Even when I came off the floor, I felt good. We pre-colour the hair and spent about four days doing that first, spent one day prepping our live models, one day prepping our mannequin head, practiced once more in Malaysia and then finished our mannequin head. The colour is not like you would do on a client, it’s progressive work.
“When I came off the floor, I took pictures of everybody else’s work. The only ones that I could see that were really, really, really good were Taiwan and France and I said when the awards were on, if they say Taiwan and France, I have it. When I heard Taiwan and then France I turned around to the lads and said I have it. Taiwan were third and fourth and France were second,” the new world champion said
Bridget was also a key member of the Irish team in the Organisation Mondiale Coiffuer-organised Malaysia tournament, whose four members all secured top five places in the Full Fashion individual competition, which was won by Wayne Lloyd from Cork.
“We’ve been in training since last year and a half. Last year, we went to Frankfurt and I was fourth in the Full Fashion. We’ll be in Paris in September for the European Championships and then we’re going to South Korea next March as a team, so we’re looking to get a massive trophy there,” Bridget said.
By Ron Kirwan
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.