Students from a Tees Valley college have been getting into the Christmas spirit by holding a special event themed around the holiday season.

Hair and beauty students at Redcar & Cleveland College held their annual Christmas competition and competed against each other in a range of categories that highlighted the bit of the festive period that everyone most enjoys.

Level 1, 2 and 3 students studying hairdressing competed against each other to create dramatic hairstyles themed around the concepts of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Pantomime, whilst Beauty Therapy students carried out Christmas themed treatments in the college’s TS10 salon.

Hairdressing student Emma Gidney, whose team were the overall winners of the competition with their ‘Scary Santa’ theme said: “The competition has been really good fun, and has given us the opportunity to express our creativity in weird and wonderful ways.

“It’s also made me more aware of the options available to me as a hairdresser once I finish my course. I now not only think about working in a salon, but perhaps as a stylist in the theatre or television too. ”

Head of the Hair and Beauty and Holistics Division at Redcar & Cleveland College, Delia Leadbitter, said of the event: “Through the programmes that our students study at the college we aim to give them as much experience as possible of what it is like to work as a qualified professional.”

“The Hair and Beauty Competition mirrors a professional level competition in terms of the standards they have to work to and time limits they have to complete the tasks within.”

Entries for the competition included pantomime characters, elves, and fairies whose hair was expertly styled by the students under the watchful eye of the college’s staff and industry professionals who were judging the event.

Prizes were awarded to the winning students from each category, as well as an overall prize for the most dramatic style produced on the day.

Delia went on to say: “The standard produced by the students in this year’s competition was extremely high and choosing a winners for each category was a difficult job for the judging panel.”

You can view more photos from the competition here.