Going back to the roots: Hairstyling now a Red Seal certifiable trade in B.C.

British Columbia is joining other Canadian provinces in offering the Red Seal program to hairstylists.

The program is recognized as the interprovincial standard of excellence in skilled trades and offers standardized training, including an assessment and exam.

The hairdressing profession was deregulated in B.C. in 2003, leaving the hairdressing industry without standardized licensing and regulation.

“Which means anybody at that time could pick up a pair of scissors and start cutting hair,” said Carolyn Roy, owner of the Okanagan Cosmetology Institute in Penticton.

Roy is one of the industry leaders fighting for a higher standard of training in the province.

“There was no licensing, no regulating, no nothing, which was not good for our industry,” she said.

“Somebody sitting in the chair paying hundreds of dollars for a set of foils had no idea that the products that were being used on them were inferior and that the person doing the service hadn’t been trained properly, so we were seeing a lot of poor quality work come out of this province for a long time,” Roy said.

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The Penticton-based school recently received its fully designated status through the Industry Training Authority to offer the 11-month Red Seal program.

“We became the first private school to do the rigorous paperwork to prove that we could follow that curriculum, provide that type of education that can only be given by Red Seal stylists, and give them this internationally recognized curriculum,” she said.

Stacey Rexin, the school’s director of education, points out hairdressing schools are not mandated to offer the Red Seal program, as it is voluntary.

“The problem is there are so many people out there who do not have the certification who have been working in the industry for years and years. So that’s part of the fight, trying to get everybody on board with this,” she said.

Twenty-nine-year-old Corina Froese of Saskatchewan just started the program in Penticton.

Froese said she decided to leave a gruelling career as a paramedic, and then a police officer, to pursue cosmetology.

“After eight years of just seeing non-stop sadness and despair, I wanted to move into something that would make me feel more satisfied at the end of the day,” she said.

Froese is in favour of obtaining a higher level of training.

“It allows me to be mobile through the country versus where you’re just kind of stuck in one province,” she said.

Roy is imploring other private hairstyling educational institutions to offer the program.

“What’s happened is they’ve seen this small little school in Penticton do it, now we’ve got the larger schools jumping on board,” she said.