Ciarán hopes he’s got the style to win hair title

A CORK teen will go head to head with the world’s top stylists as he prepares to represent Ireland in a prestigious hair styling championships.

Ciarán O’Sullivan from Glengarriff, a hairdresser in Wayne Lloyd Hair on Washington Street, said that up until last year he was still unsure of the career path he wanted to follow.

Now, just a year on, he is being tipped to become the next world champion in hair styling, at the All-Star Challenge 2017 in Belgium, taking place from Thursday, May 4 to Friday, May 5.

“My main goal in life would be to build up the same type of reputation as Wayne Lloyd and Aaron Healy, who have won a huge number of awards,” he said. “It’s hard to describe just how much winning this competition would mean to me.”

He explained how his passion all started. “I was learning how to cut men’s hair from YouTube tutorials in 2014, but I wasn’t always sure hairdressing was what I wanted to do.”

Ciarán initially had difficulty choosing between the two loves of his life-hairdressing and sport.

“Up until last year I wanted to be a physiotherapist. That’s what I did for my first week of work experience at school and I absolutely loved it.

“For my second week, my mum suggested I try something really different. I worked under Wayne Loyd at his hairdressers in Ballydehob for a week. Hair is something I’ve always been into so I was delighted that Wayne took me on part-time. I worked there every Saturday while studying for my Leaving Certificate. While I love hairdressing I felt it was important to get my Leaving Cert qualification.

“As far as I was concerned it was just a year and the exam is like a passport to take you wherever you want to go in life.”

The teenager, who plays football with Glengarriff, maintains that slagging on the pitch is par for the course.

“I do get a bit of slagging on the pitch but you have to be able take the banter. I’ll often jokingly remind them that I could be the one holding the razor next time they get their hair cut he joked.”

Nonetheless, his insists that even his teammates are conscientious when it comes to their hair.

“A lot of guys will wash their hair with whatever is in the shower, even if that’s soap or shower gel. However, times are changing and men are a bit fussier now. Much of the time the lads at training will come to me after forgetting their shampoo or conditioner. Because of what I do they’ll just assume that I have some in my kit bag.”

Despite such a hectic schedule Ciarán still finds time to help out his family on the farm. “If I’m out on the farm you won’t see the hair done,” he joked.

“Normally I’ll just throw on a hat.”