MARCIA JOHNSON
Hairdressing

Some people call her the headgear queen - because since she finished studying hairdressing at the College of North West London, Marcia Johnson has continued to win prize after prize.

The champion hairdresser scooped two more awards when she took inspiration from top fashion designers for her summer 2008 Avant-Garde catwalk collection – and the regulars at Afro Hair & Beauty, the country’s leading show for Afro-Caribbean hair at Alexandra Palace, think she’s great.

This year she gained prizes in two categories – Stopwatch Stylist of the Year and Avant-Garde Stylist of the Year. Audiences loved the weirdly shaped multi-coloured Westwood hairpiece, the huge white Chanel hat with rainbow top layer and the Galliano creation with a long tail that swept the stage.

Marcia, who runs her own salon Rougz Hair & Beauty in the Finchley Road, West Hampstead, has been winning a variety of awards for six years during and after her training at the College of North West London’s hair salon in Wembley Park.

Yet it so nearly did not happen. Before she qualified, she had two false starts - she enrolled twice in the 1990s and for personal reasons had to drop out.

But with steely determination and the support of her College tutors, she finally became a top achiever. Says mother of two Marcia: “The College helped me turn my dreams into reality. It gave me the confidence, the experience and the vision to move forward with my dream, which was to open my own salon.”