GOING against the general trend proved a winning move for young stylist, Sam Langford from Ciente hair salon in Berkhamsted.

Sam, 19, was the winner of the Brit Pop category at this year’s Central Joshua Galvin Photographic Hairdressing Awards and puts her success down to her decision to move away from the current trend of big hair.

She said: “When you think of pop music at the moment, many female artists have long hair with lots of volume and I wanted to move away from that and do something that was totally different,”

Blonde was the chosen colour because it is very on-trend and the cut was asymmetric with a smooth finish. Lots of layers ensured there was plenty of volume to bring the style to life and the finished result clearly impressed the judges.

Almost 600 people entered the competition this year from salons across Essex, London and Hertfordshire with 35 finalists getting the chance to recreate their look for a finals show held at the Wella World Studio in London.

As an overall winner, Sam received two trophies, professional scissors, thinning scissors, £100 worth of Wella vouchers and mounted pictures showing the look she created.