Birch and Lace salon offering training for future hair stylists

Three Birch and Lace hair stylist academy program graduates stand side by side holding their certificates in front of them. All three are looking at the camera and smiling. — The Birch and Lace team recently celebrated the first batch of graduating students from its hair stylist academy program. **Photo by Katie Langmuir photography**

As Okanagan College closes up its Revelstoke location local Birch and Lace Hair Company is working to fill the job training gap with hair styling and aesthetics instruction.

The hair stylist academy program trains students through 1,800 apprentice hours and a combination of hands-on instruction, self-directed online learning and shadowing stylists at the Birch and Lace salon at 215 MacKenzie Ave.

Stylists from Revelstoke and the surrounding area often travel to Vancouver or even Alberta for standardized programs, but Sara Sansom, Birch and Lace founder and creative director is determined to keep education accessible.

The academy is still in its early years, but Sansom and her team have already seen a range of demographics interested in the program and learning about the hairstyling and aesthetics industry. At a program information session June 22, Revelstoke Secondary School students sat alongside locals, and staying in Revelstoke instead of moving to larger urban centres was one of the program’s key draws.

“I’ve always been big on education. The team loves learning, and we love teaching,” Sansom told the Mountaineer.

WorkBC projects over 50 per cent of future job openings in the hairstylist and barber industry will come from replacing retiring staff members. Revelstoke has nearly a dozen different salons and barbershops students could work at once finished the program.

Throughout the program students will learn about career paths, styling different hair textures, consultation practices and more. Guest stylists will also show techniques outside of Birch and Lace’s scope such as men’s styling.

The program runs for roughly nine to 12 months, depending on enrollment numbers and students are registered with Skilled Trades BC as a hairstylist apprentice. Hours are logged with the registry throughout the program and students are then supported in challenging the Level 1 standardized level exam.

The Birch and Lace academy program is not currently registered with the provincial private training institutions regulatory unit, but Sansom’s sponsorship with Skilled Trades BC allows the red seal certified stylist to run the apprenticeship-focused program.

Sansom encourages those interested in the program to test things out a bit as well before submitting an interest form. Potential applicants can stop by Birch and Lace or contact Sansom at [email protected] with further questions.

“If someone wants to come in and shadow, they’re welcome to. I think that’s a lost art, you don’t see that happen often anymore,” she said.

You can submit an application of interest for the Birch and Lace Hair Company hair stylist academy program at birchandlacesalon.com/join-our-team-birches and will receive more information.