A knockout blow dry

8:02am Tuesday 8th January 2008

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A BOXING club could deliver a knockout punch in the world of hairdressing.

BL Hairdressing Training, in Middlesbrough, has teamed up with the town's amateur boxing club to get more young men to take up scissors and curling tongs for a career.

The hope is that with Middlesbrough Amateur Boxing Club throwing its weight behind the move, the idea of a man working in a salon will not seem so unmacho.

Applauding the move, Chris Roberts, director of the Learning and Skills Council in the North- East, said: "As we work to improve the skills of people in the region, we need to break down the barriers to learning, including gender stereotyping.

"I think this is a great idea which shows creative thinking and I am sure it will help BL Training to achieve its target of one in ten hairdressing trainees being male."

In return, the training group will sponsor the club.

Gail Dalton, regional manager of BL Hairdressing Training said: "Our aim is for at least ten per cent of our learners to be male. We currently stand at eight per cent, so we decided we needed to get out there and engage with young men.

"We have supported a number of community events and a football team, but the boxing club is perhaps the most novel.

"The hard, tough, male dominated world of boxing is not what you would normally expect to go hand-in-glove with hairdressing, but it has certainly got us noticed and I am sure some of the young boxers would be far more open to a job in a salon in the future."

She said joining forces with the club was one of the tactics being explored by the company to attract more young men to hairdressing.

She said: "Hairdressing is seen predominantly as a girlie world; a ladies' career. But, we want to break down the barriers. When we went to see the boxing club, they were not at all dismissive, but open-minded. We want to reach organisations and groups who would not normally have thought of hairdressing as a career."

Tony Whitby, of Middlesbrough Amateur Boxing Club, said: "Before BL got involved with the club, I do not think many young lads would have thought about working in hairdressing, but as we have got to know more about the opportunities one or two have begun to show an interest."

BL Training has previously won a Learning and Skills Council equality award for recruiting young mothers back to work.

The company has more than 500 apprentices from more then 300 salons undergoing training at centres in Darlington, Durham, Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Newcastle.