SurreyFE Hair, Beauty and Make-Up Competition 2025

On Wednesday 12 March the SurreyFE group hosted their annual Hair, Beauty and Make-up competition, Surrey’s Got Talent at East Surrey College in Redhill. Nescot's talented hair, beauty and media make-up students got the chance to demonstrate their amazing expertise among their peers and tutors in a competitive environment.

The competition saw Nescot, Brooklands Technical College, Activate Learning and East Surrey College reunite for a competitive day of events that tested students in 8 separate categories covering a wide variety of skillsets and ability.

Professionals across the hair, beauty and makeup sector joined SurreyFE for the day to assess and judge the talent in each category. The judging panel included Danielle Kichenside owner of The Lavender Spa; Helen Hall and Oliver Stephenson from City and Guilds; Kate Smith from VCTC; James Bullock, Nick Cox and Jessica Wade from Wella and Alex Hardy from Wonderful Life.

After adjudication from the industry panel, an awards ceremony welcomed the winners on stage, where they received their prize, which included products specific to their field of study. Congratulations to all the winners listed below:

Level 1 20th Century Plaits and Twists

1st Semiyah Gordon (JRC), 2nd Saydee Alford-Emery (Nescot), 3rd Billie Jo Morris (Brooklands).

Level 2 Hairdressing Blow Dry

1st Kashieyah Deabreu-Johnson (JRC), 2nd Julia Tkacz (ESC)

Level 2 Hairdressing Bridal Hair

Joint 1st Ruby Jo Slade (Brooklands) and Ji-Eun Jo (Nescot), 2nd Katie Powlson (Brooklands)

Level 2 Hair and Media/ Beauty Therapy 1980’s Makeup

1st Ruby Kelly (Nescot), 2nd Ruby Doohan (ESC), 3rd Annalise foley (Brooklands)

Level 2 Beauty Non-Gel Manicure

1st Joint Danielle Crawford (Brooklands) and Lola Davis (JRC), 2nd Neve Catton (Nescot), 3rd Bella Scarlet (Nescot)

Level 3 Beauty Body Massage

1st Reanie Jones (JRC), 2nd Leila Lester (JRC), 3rd Eve Arnold (JRC)

Level 3 Hairdressing Hair Through the Years

1st Lauren Reed (Brooklands), 2nd Beth Towsend (Brooklands), 3rd Gemma Biddle (Brooklands)

Level 3 Hair and Media Makeup: Horror

1st Tori Ratcliffe (ESC), 2nd Amy Wallace (ESC), 3rd Ebony Lewis (JRC)

The skills seen throughout Surrey’s Got Talent is a testament to the hard work that happens throughout the year across the SurreyFE colleges. Alex Chapman from Wella echoed this sentiment, saying ‘It's been so refreshing to see how seriously the group take their hair and beauty - to see the different levels of expertise and how engaged the lecturers and the judges have been. It's been amazing, the talent here is phenomenal.’

Natalie Watkins, Programme Manager at East Surrey College added ‘It was a fun filled event showcasing the hard work and efforts of our students’. Natalie went on to extend her thanks for the cross-college effort and to everyone who made the event possible with particular thanks to our industry panel, the creative students support and our prize donors Eve Taylor, Wella, Capital Hair and Beauty.

The Surrey’s Got Talent competition is a great reminder of the strength of our partnership and the how the collaborative work we do helps to set a standard for teaching across the group. Thank you to all those who made this year's event so successful.

‘SurreyFE is a collaborative initiative by four Surrey colleges Activate Learning, Brooklands Technical College, East Surrey College and Nescot (North East Surrey College of Technology), to enhance skills and training across the region.