SJCC team places in every category in the Santa Cruz Hair Show Student Competition

Five teams from San Jose City College traveled to the Santa Cruz Hair Show Student Competition on Oct. 4 and returned home with multiple first place awards.

Seventeen other community college teams from all over the Bay Area entered the competition, seeking to dethrone SJCC from first place in the overall look category.

Teams were judged on five categories; hair, nails, makeup, model and overall look.

The SJCC cosmetology students shone once again in the team category placing first, for the second year in a row, and third in the overall look.

The members of the first place team are Nereyda Castro, Maria Mendoza, Alyssa Krauter and Autumn Tyrrell.

“(Placing) is important for us because we could see what we really are capable of,” Mendoza, 19, said.

Mendoza said competing and placing were also important for the program because it reflected well on the school and the education cosmetology students obtain.

There were several individual awards within the first place group.

Tyrrell was awarded first place as a hair technician and Mendoza won second place as a makeup technician.

The team that placed third in the overall category included Ruby Banaga, Sarah Millsap, Stephanie Ott and David Nulasco.

The individual awards for the team included Nulasco receiving second place as a hair technician, Ott receiving second place as a nail technician and Millsap placing third as a model.

Each team had four members; three technicians and a model, and the teams were given one hour, and 30 minutes to work on the model.

“Competition is good in general because it allows them (students) to be very open with their creativity,” SJCC student Del Rosario said.

Other notable awards included Irma Cazares’, 21, second place finish as a nail technician.

Cazares said she was a late addition to her team. She was invited to join the team less than a week before the competition. She wanted to work on hair but that spot was taken, so her teammates convinced her to do nails.

Cazares said she was happy with the result. She felt it served as proof for her and her family that she does well in school and that she takes advantage of everything her family has done for her.

Del Rosario said the biggest challenge the students faced in the two-week preparation for the competition and during the competition was working all at the same time on the model.

“The significance of our students participating is the fact that they get recognition, not just within San Jose City College but as far as Northern California,” Del Rosario said. “Out of the five groups that entered, four groups took a place, and we won all across for every category that they had an award for.”