Last week, hair and beauty students at Pembrokeshire College experienced hair and beauty masterclasses with international barbering educator Darryn Pitman and professional make-up artist Jennifer Lenard.

Having established hugely successful careers in their respective industries, Darryn and Jennifer were invited into the college to inspire students to think outside the box when it comes to the career opportunities available to them.

In the morning, beauty students attended a masterclass with Jennifer where they used Weetabix to create realistic looking wounds, burns, bruises and scars, whilst Jennifer shared her tricks of the trade and her tips for gaining work in the TV and film industry.

Meanwhile, hair students were treated to a barbering masterclass by Darryn - an internationally regarded award-winning educator who has delivered barbering training to over 50 countries worldwide.

In the afternoon, Pembrokeshire College students were joined by pupils from Ysgol Dewi Sant as Darryn and Jennifer joined forces on the Merlin Theatre stage to deliver further masterclasses in airbrushing and barbering. While Jennifer transformed a college student into a traditional Japanese Geisha, showman Darryn used his trademark scissor slinging skills to create a high fashion look on his male model.

As they worked on their models, Jennifer shared with students how, by taking every opportunity that came along, she had not only been commissioned for film and TV work (Jennifer’s credits include Dalziel and Pascoe, The Office, Doctor Who, Pride and Prejudice and Star Trek), but has also worked for the NHS producing real-life prosthetics used by surgeons for training.

Darryn’s advice to students was to gain a solid foundation in the basics of hairdressing and barbering then to experiment and create their own signature styles to keep clients coming back. He emphasised the importance of building relationships, confidence and expressing their own personalities through their work.

Level 3 apprentice, Aisha Jennings attended the masterclasses and commented: “I am feeling inspired to be a colour technician and to really work hard on my barbering now!”

This event was supported by Welsh Government as part of the Youth Entrepreneurship Strategy (YES) to encourage young people to be more entrepreneurial and help those interested in starting a business take their ideas forward. The Big Ideas Wales is part funded by European Regional Development Fund as part of the Welsh Government’s Business Wales service.