Paris - The European Championships

After the World Championships in Rotterdam, it was back to the drawing board to create a 'new design' for the UK team, this was in Christofer Mann's and Colin Lewis' hands, our manager and trainer. I remember being in a training session in Birmingham and watching Chris' hands work almost like a conductor with a Baton, Liz Shipton and I looked at each other and mouthed the words "what's he doing?".....Chris said will someone pass me an A4 piece of paper and a stapler please, this was the start of the creation. Up until now the hairpieces in the Gala section of the competition was placed within the hair at the crown of the hair, but now, this new shape was to sit in the central nape, and almost plaiting and twisting towards the front. We still only had 35 mins to convert the model's hair from the previous day style to the glamorous evening style. This was hairdressing at the very best that you can imagine, hairpieces had to be unique, individual and match the models hair so it's continuity was almost un-noticed.

The pieces were hand made with a monofilament base, we then stripped the base to a single layer of monofilament, then trimmed the base to the exact requirements that the competition rules requested. Each piece of hair was then colour matched, lightened and shaded with tint. We then razor cut the piece to reduce the density to a workable piece of art, after moulding our piece on a cork board, we then pinned it in to shape and sprayed Elnett on to the piece and as it dried I lightly stroked my fingers over the piece to smooth down any stray hairs. This process was repeated several times until my mastepiece was to my satisfaction. I then stuck minute diamontes to the edge of the piece and followed the pieces' movement with jewels. The piece was then placed to a poly head and placed in to a hat box for transportation.



We were all happy with this new design and after our training session, we went to our homes all over the country to create our masterpiece. Liz Shipton & Tino lived in Wales, Chris was in Scotland, Julio, Mark and I was from Yorkshire, so as you can imagine from the areas we all travelled, we were a dedicated team. We travelled to Paris, yet no matter how hard we practised, the Ladies' team never picked up a medal, where as the men's team, were still finding Gold.

Mark Hill was the most artistic in the Gala Style in our team, but even Mark was left disappointed. We all went back to our Hotel exhausted, gradually all hitting the pillow, except this particular evening Mark 'hyperMark' Hill, asked if someone would go for a stroll, go on then I said as Mark and I were good friends and Paula was exhausted...just a bit of fresh air he said, infront of us seemed a very small Arc de Triomph, 4 miles later we reached the Arc and just as he was about to walk back, he shouted 'come on Ang', this won't take that long, I stood until I got a taxi of which he joined me.....boy did I sleep well that night, the night the Arc got bigger and bigger.

The next day we all met up for lunch before a quick trip up the tower, Everyone was ordering their meal safely until Bob said "I am having the Beef Tartare".......little did he imagine what was coming to the table, the Raw Beef and Raw uncooked egg was presented to him by the waiter of which Bob yells out "Is the cooker broke?.....has the chef walked out?.....we were all in fits of laughter as he thought he was ordering steak with Tartare Sauce, I'll never forget the laughter from everyone that lunch time in Paris.

The World Championships

I had attended the German World Hair Championships in 1988, and one of the requirements to be included in the team was by gaining points from International competitions. We trained every two weeks in different locations in the UK, but mainly in London. Our trainer was Colin Lewis who held the title of World Champion, so we were very fortunate that Colin shared his skills with the squad. Our manager was Christopher Mann of Salisbury, he, also a very gifted talented man that came up with the ideas and between him and Colin, we executed the design theme for that season.
We all aimed to reproduce the team style with our own version of this style. All the costs were met by ourselves, such as travelling to London and competing in Europe, but once chosen for the World Cup Team, these expenses were met by the Official body of The Fellowship of Hair Artists and the National Hairdressers' Federation. Once we had our style, we all went home and started to make our hairpieces, Mark Hill was by far the best at making these pieces, but the competition was not all about one section, it was a combination of points achieved by winning different points in each section.

Sometimes I would be lied awake in bed at 3am and get some inspiration, so I would get up and dress my piece and often edge it with individual diamontes, each jewel had to be stuck on with glue, evenly spaced to perfection and follow the shape of the piece, to be stylistic, artful and show your artistic side..... the piece had to follow the shape and style of the hair.......It had to be perfect, with not one hair out of place, we would carry these in a hat box and often on to the aeroplane and placed on our laps, as they could not be knocked and mis-handled(I will upload photos soon.)This skill factor brought out the artistic side of the team.

The team all got on well, but Tino Constantinou always kept his style close to his heart, often changing it at last minute, but he was previously in the Men's Team and his work often lacked the softness of most of the ladies team, but he was a winner, his brother Simon Constantinou was competing in the mens team at the same time, and Michael competed in the Junior Team, what a proud moment that must have been for their families.

That season I competed in Germany, Italy, France, Luxembourg, Holland and Belgium, collecting medals en-route. But now it is 1990 and it is the turn of Rotterdam to host the championships. The UK Ladies' Team had not won the title of World Champions, but the Men's Team had and we felt reminded of this all the time and the men this year were gaining wins everywhere, John Phelps was flying high as was Simon Constantinou........

As this was my first World Championships, I was entered into the Reserve Team Competition, jheld on the same day, this was to gain experience and support the three competitors who were representing United Kingdom....Mark Hill, Liz Shipton and Simon Constantinou, where nas Christine, Fay and myself was in the reserves. There was 50 in the reserve competition and I finished 7th in the championship.....I was so pleased to be in the top ten!

One of the difficulties in maintaining continuity with the models syle and hair, was hoping your model would be able to get time off work or college for practise, days off for competing and mostly, letting you do what you want to their hair with colour and cut, this was not easy, I was very fortunate as Marcia was my business partner so I could practise after work and Dionne was always willing to work with Marcia and I. Often we would get to the competitions and one of the team would have a new model, but we all did our best to include her in our fun time as well as serious training.

I had the Salon to run as well as compete and Katy was only six, so my friend Sharon would often step in and help as well as my husband, who took time off to look after the children whilst I travelled competing. But it was tiring, the next year was the European Chapionships in Paris, so I was really looking forward to competing there.......Ooh La La!!!!

Competing for Titles

As soon as I returned from Verona, I upped my game and moved onwards and upwards in the competition scene, I was already area champion in Yorkshire but needed to make an impression for the team selectors to notice me and pick me for the team.

My first major title was the Lancashire Ladies' Championship held in Blackburn. I had made my hairpiece, with the help of Glen Jackson of York, who was my mentor, my idol, no words could explain what Glen could do with hair or hairpieces. I entered three sections of the competition that day, The Day Style, Cut and Blow Dry and the conversion from Day Style to Evening Style, using your own personally made hairpiece to dress and convert the style. The Day style was a 7 min style....wow, this was international level, I really had to up my game, but I finished it, with great pride, Emma looked fantastic and sold the style to the judges 100%, she was tall, elegant and confident.

My next style was the Cut and Blow Dry, my model was Debbie, this was my forte, I was known nationally for my cutting skills, so I had to produce a style 'outside the box'. I had been working with a fashion icon stylist...William McKenzie, he influenced me and steered me in the right direction. We went for a 'square' shape of haircut using blue black colouring, the model wore a mint green satin dress and looked amazing. I finished on time and had moments to look at my competitors, Mark Hill, Adrian Fuller, Tino Constantinou and many others. The Evening style was the ultimate, most precise in styling......but I did it, this was my first outing in such a prestigious competition, my models looked amazing, the styling was the best I could do so I waited in anticipation for the results.

Adrian Fuller picked up a third and second. Points are awarded for different positions, Tino picked up points and positions but so did I and Mark Hill....who would win? All of us picked up trophy's but the overall Lancashire Championship was awarded to.........Angela Stripe....Me!!!! This was my first major win, but not without scars as Adrian Fuller of Leeds decided to report his win to the Yorkshire Post and implied and claimed he'd won the overall title.

Can you imagine how I felt?... living just 11 miles north of Leeds and all my customers reading that he had won and yet the Trophy was standing in my Salon in front of me!! I could not let this rest, so I contacted the Yorkshire Post, who then checked out the results with Christine Brett, the organiser and confirmed that I had the title, so they printed a disclaimer....but who ever remembers the disclaimers?, the Hairdressers Journal then contacted me over this and published the true story of the lady who won the title fairly and showed up Adrian who had once held a World Cup Medal, why do this?.......it was not your title Adrian, it was mine!!

Blackpool annual championships was the place to be noticed, so I competed and did very well, picking up two wins, a second and two thirds, so now I started preparing for the British Championships at the G-Mex in Manchester, which involved five competitions, then all marks are collated to produce the British Champion. We stayed at the Brittania Hotel in Manchester which was were most of the British Team was staying, I was noticed by the officials and kept all the models in the night prior as it was important for them to look good, even though it was a party atmosphere in the bar, as the group 'Bros', was also staying there and was in the bar, sat next to our table. They were number one in the charts at that time, so the hotel was guarded by 'men in black'.

I was never backward at coming forward so I started chatting to them and I had three lovely models which made a big difference!!....I wonder if they rememberd that day as we do now. All my models were blonde so they decided to put shades on, plenty of lippy and left the hotel via the front door...all the fans were screaming and thought the girls were Bros' girlfriends, so they were asked what they liked to eat, etc and the girls went along with it and never let it be known they weren't!!!......we did enjoy the fun.

Models and myself to bed, we arose early and practised all the styles, I had Marcia as my model as well as Dionne and Emma, three great models, which makes all the difference. I was nervous, but Marcia, my business partner knew how to handle me. The cut and blow dry was 45 mins long, but as there was 35 competing it seemed to put extra pressure on me. I had everything under control,, my timing was to the minute, the colour was good and I was very confident as I felt this was my strongest of all skills. .... Scissors down, model positioned and now it was time for the jury to take to the floor as I watched from the wings. Everyone kept coming up to me to congratulate me on my execution of the style, but I needed William Mckenzie, Christine Brett, Leonore Wilding, Myles Sumner and Linda Windle to also like it. They all seemed very interested in it, looking very closely at the finish, as this was so important. Not a hair out of place, not a hair on her garment and the make up also to be perfect. They were looking for thye style thgat had all these qualities as well as standing out from the crowd. This is the case in all the judging of every hairdressing competition. Judging over, I had to wait until early evening and now prepare for the next part of the championship.

This was The Day Style, that had to be finished from start to finish in 10 minuets (7 mins internationally) After completion, the same model had to have a hairpiece added, which was pre-made. This was Mark Hill's area of excellence, he seemed to win every time he competed, and even though my model was beautiful I could not beat him in this area....and I didn't this day, he won the day style and evening style, but I won the Cut and Blow Style, so I was over the moon!, I came 3rd in the evening style and Liz Shipton came second and yes...Mark Hill won it and Tino Constantino won the overall title , but I came third and received my bronze medal.........and an invitation to joing the World Cup Team!.....Woah!!!!

Verona changed everything

I was the President of the York Branch of the National Hairdressers' Federation and also their delegate for the Yorkshire Area, which meant going to meetings, educational seminars and conference. The Yorkshire Area hosted the conference in 1986, which occurred every 12 years. I loved organising, so this was a team challenge to show the rest of the UK, what we could do in Harrogate. We provided trips, an 'evening at home' and the Ball. The World Cup team were our guests for the Ball and gave us a demonstration of their skills - This blew my mind as Glen and Julio, who were in the Ladies' team gave a demonstration of skills that I can only describe as 'mind-blowing', what Glen can do with hair and hairpieces can only be described as 'World Class' - he showed the guests skills to be very proud of. At World Class competitions, you have only 7 minutes to dress your 'Day Style' from start to finish and then to present your model for judging. I wanted to learn how to do this, I had competed at Men's area level and I won the North East of England championship as well as Lancashire champion, but I wanted the Ladies skills. At the end of the Demonstrations Trevor Mitchell (who was team manager) announced that all would be welcome to support the team as in September the World Championships was to be held in Verona, Italy.

At our next hairdressing NHF meeting, we put forward the idea of a trip to Verona, to support Glen and Julio as they were from York and active branch members. As usual it was left to me to organise. We had 20 people who showed interest, Christine & Leonore from Lancashire, Joyce Parker and Laurence Bell from Huddersfied plus many more. We stayed in Bardolino at Lake Garda and took the coach to the Competitions in Verona. Wow, Wow, Wow what I saw in the Ladies' Competitions regarding skills, was just unbelievable, hairpieces that were made so that you could not see the start or finish, jewelled pieces, timing, dresses to die for - it was so exciting. The team that really stood out, was the Italian Team, I managed to watch their work from the barrier, which was about 5 feet away, so I did not move until it was finished, Annette and I was speechless with what we saw. The photo below is from the winning team produced by the Italian Team - Wow!!

The men's skills were just as good, but their work was quite solid and boxy, which was traditional competition work, we had a good team and John Wyndham and Trevor Mitchell led the men to medals, which the ladies' team never received any. Simon Constantinou and John Phelps were the real stars of the mens team, John was the most artistic and always produced work 'outside the box', he was the risk-taker, he decided to produce finger waves up the front of his style, this was a first as normal styling was so solid, John won the artisitc medal for this style and celebrated in the way John always did and maybe does now. ....... Sadly I have just heard from my good friend John Wyndham that John Phelps passed away in February 2008...RIP John, I am sure you have them dancing in the aisles 'up there'....

I spoke to Annette (my room mate, friend and confidant) that night and said 'I want to learn world-class styling' and I will be at the next World Championship in four years time, not watching, but as a competitor, that's my goal.........and do you know what? - I was!