Student Star: Empire Student Wins National Competition with Original Men’s Style
It’s not everyday you check your Instagram account and see your name on a commercial brand’s newsfeed, crowning you the winner of a national competition.
But that’s exactly what happened to Matthew Taylor, a senior level student at Empire Beauty School in Augusta, Georgia. Just weeks before, Matthew had entered the SportClips ‘The Look’ competition with a cut he thought was pretty good, but not necessarily win worthy.
“My educator told me about the contest, and I don’t really enter things like this, but when I saw it was a live model, I thought it might be fun to go for it.”
With the help of the Augusta staff, Matthew invited a friend into school as a model and got to work on what he thought was going to be a pompadour cut.
“As I was going, his hair was working against the style. It wasn’t looking right, so I altered the look to go with his part and it turned out great.”
For Matthew, cutting hair is a hobby turned profession. The 26-year-old is a culinary school graduate who was working as a general manager of a local restaurant when he was offered a partnership in a local barbershop. “I jumped at the chance, since I spent most of my teenage years experimenting with haircuts on my friends. We were all into punk rock music, so I had a lot of creativity to work with.”
Now, just 3 months from graduating, he is the winner of SportClips national “The Look” student competition.
“I was doing a pedicure on a client in the student salon when I found out I won. I jumped up from polishing her toes and walked right over to my educator. She started shouting on the floor!”
“The Look” is an annual competition pitting licensed cosmetologists against each other in a battle to create the best men’s look.
This is the first ever student edition of the competition, with 3 winners (along with their educator) winning a trip to SportClips’ National Huddle Conference in Las Vegas, NV in May 2015.
The competition featured “Men’s Grooming” and the looks of today’s modern man. Students were tasked to select a male model and create an original style. The cute had to take place in school with an educator signing off on the entry form to verify the student completed the haircut.
Matthew says he is looking forward to seeing Las Vegas, and taking advantage of the free advanced education and networking the SportClips conference will have to offer.
As for the competition, he is still surprised he won, but now is encouraging fellow students to take a chance and enter more contests.
“I would encourage students to not be an introvert. Listen to the advice of your educators. You have to put yourself out there to succeed.”