Bamford salon owner inspires college students during lockdown

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A Bamford beauty salon owner forced to shut because of coronavirus restrictions is embracing new opportunities, despite Covid-19 challenges.

Positive about the future, Lucy Atherton, owner of The Beauty Establishment, is inspiring a new generation of local beauty therapists from Hopwood Hall College, where she graduated from seven years ago. Lucy studied Beauty Therapy Level 2 and Level 3, as well as Nail Technician Level 3, during her time at Hopwood Hall College in 2011.

Lucy has filmed a motivational video to help keep students' spirits up while they are studying at home, which has been shared across the college’s social media accounts for its hair and beauty team's ‘where can your studies take you?’ campaign.

Lucy started The Beauty Establishment in Norden four years ago, before relocating her business to Bamford in June 2018.

After overcoming the initial shock of the shutdown in March, Lucy has branched out into new ways of working to keep her business going until she can reopen her salon, such as directly delivering beauty products to customers and sharing tutorials online.

The Beauty Establishment was named Greater Manchester Five Star Beauty Salon of the Year at the North West Beauty Industry Awards 2019 and in March, Lucy came second in Beautician of the Year at The English Hair and Beauty Awards.

 

 

A number of former students will appear in videos over the coming weeks with messages for current learners. Lucy was chosen because she is ‘one of the most inspirational’ former students.

Lucy said: “I loved my time at Hopwood Hall so can imagine how much the students are missing it. Hopwood Hall helped me become the therapist I am today, and I was really honoured that they asked me to do the video. You can see the passion the students have through the work they are producing at home during lockdown; they are all extremely talented."

Jacquie Brockett, Salon Instructor at Hopwood Hall College, said: “Lucy is so positive and passionate about the industry. We knew she’d be the perfect person to inspire and motivate our current students through our ‘where can your studies take you?’ campaign.

“Lucy is able to relate to what our talented learners are doing as they complete their course and qualify. It’s always great to have former students remind our current learners that the sky’s the limit.”