Competitors keen to pass on expertise

Beauty therapy

Shen Wenqing, who likes to try out different hairstyles, currently sports dyed yellow locks with pink highlights.

"As a stylist, you need to be good at handling different hairstyles and do your best to make a style perfect," she said.

At the recent WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition in Helsinki, Finland, Shen won a silver medal for hairdressing.

Born in Xuancheng, Anhui province, in 1999, she attended a vocational college in 2014 in Gongshu district, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, to learn beauty therapy. Soon after enrolling, Shen changed her major to hairdressing, aiming to compete on the world stage, as her college had better teaching resources for hairdressing than others.

In September last year, Shen began intensive training in a number of cities as a national candidate for this year's competition. She usually rose at 7 am and ran for 2 kilometers as part of her physical training. During the day, she took module courses in skills training, while at night she practiced her drawing and English.

"Drawing helps us become sensitive to colors, which is essential for styling hair. We also need to practice English to communicate with models," Shen said.

In Helsinki, Shen and 19 other candidates from different countries and regions competed in seven sections for four days, including men's haircutting, coloring and styling, cutting mustaches and styling them, cutting women's hair, coloring it and styling.

In the competition, Shen was required to replicate hairstyles in photographs within a given time. Before each section, she had only 15 minutes to prepare her work.

After she graduated in 2017, Shen taught hairstyling at Hangzhou Qinggong Technician College, as she wanted to give something back to society and her college.

Now, graduates from vocational schools have different options for employment, Shen said. Her college has joined many different types of enterprises and overseas institutions in providing internships and further studies opportunities for students.

During her spare time, Shen joins her coach, Ji Zhenglong, in charity activities and she also cuts hair for free at local communities and parks in Hangzhou.

"I feel good to see the elderly satisfied with their new hairstyles, and I think that being valuable to society is more important than mastering a skill," she said.