A rainbow Mohawk and a stylish Wolverine have helped a local woman style her way into this year’s Skills Canada national competition. Chelsy Dicristafaro of St.
A rainbow Mohawk and a stylish Wolverine have helped a local woman style her way into this year’s Skills Canada national competition.
Chelsy Dicristafaro of St. Albert Catholic High took gold in the senior hairstyling contest earlier this month during the 2013 Alberta Provincial Skills competition in Edmonton. Her cohorts Sarah Allen and Alyssa Ricioppo took bronze in the intermediate hairstyling and job skills contests, respectively.
The win means that Dicristafaro will join Team Alberta this June to show off her skills at the Skills Canada National Competition next month in Vancouver.
Dicristafaro said it took hundreds of hours of practice to get to where she is today. “I didn’t want to go to my (other) classes. I wanted to be in here, I wanted to be practising and perfecting it.”
The Skills competitions are regional, provincial, national and international contests meant to inspire students to seek a career in the trades industry, said Skills Canada Alberta spokesperson Shawna Bourke. About 700 high school and post-secondary students from across Alberta took part in this year’s provincials from May 14 and 15 at the Edmonton Expo centre. Some 10,000 guests watched the performance, which was thought to be an attendance record.
Competitors had two days in which to complete a number of projects related to one of 43 different fields, including baking and TV/video production. Most know of the projects beforehand so they can practise, Bourke said, but there are always a few surprise elements saved for the contest itself.
Dicristafaro found that the hair on her styling mannequin was too light, for example, and that the extensions she had to put on it were too short and bleached almost white. It was a high-stress situation, as hundreds would walk by watching her every move. “I tried to block all that out.”
Dicristafaro said she had to use real-hair mannequins to devise four hairstyles in the time limit. The first was a stylish women’s cut-and-colour job that she later had to convert to an updo for eveningwear. The others were a rainbow-coloured men’s progressive (which looks like a floppy Mohawk) and a men’s bombage. “It’s kind of like Wolverine’s style,” she said of the latter, referring to the Marvel Comics superhero.
Each of these styles took hours to complete, she continued. “You really have to go by feel and texture,” she said, and know how to fix errant clips and dye hairs.
Ricioppo said she had to demonstrate and explain how to do a five-single-strand-loop hairstyle (a complex updo for women) as part of her contest (which required entrants to perform and explain a particular job skill).
All around her were students working on everything from cars to robots to cuisine. “There were so many different talented kids working on so many different things,” she said. The culinary contest was right next to hers, so she could smell the delicious foods the whole time. “I got pretty hungry.”
This was the first time any of these students had taken part in Skills, said St. Albert Catholic cosmetology teacher Assunta Runco, and they trained for months to get ready for it. Dicristafaro alone probably put in about 100 hours of practice.
Each has grown substantially from the experience, Runco said. “Sarah is someone who’s really come out of her shell,” she said, and has a natural talent for hairstyling. Ricioppo showed great dedication, while Dicristafaro had total focus while at work. “She really put her heart into this.”
Dicristafaro said she’s learned a lot about herself from this experience. “I learned that I’m passionate about this. I found a reason to come to school.” She’s now training with the provincial hairstyling judges in preparation for nationals, and said she hopes to eventually open her own hair salon.
Nationals run June 5 to 8 in Vancouver, B.C.
