Fans of vintage styling are in for a treat at the iMuseum on Thursday 6 April as students from the University College Isle of Man’s Hair and Beauty Department recreate hairstyles from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The event this year has taken a ballroom beauty theme, focusing on the glamourous old time dance competitions held at the Villa Marina and Palace Ballroom.
As part of their course training this year students have been using photographs from Manx National Heritage’s archive collections to research the stylish beauty of the Island’s dance hall days.
They will be putting their skills into practice during the event, with students styling models using a variety of complicated hair techniques. Visitors are invited to come along and watch the students style their models and chat to them about how they achieve the vintage look.
This will be the sixth year that students from the University College Isle of Man will be recreating vintage hair and fashion with Manx National Heritage.
Katie King, Community Learning Officer for Manx National Heritage said:
“The theme of old time glamour has been selected to celebrate our ‘This Is Summer’ project focusing on highlights from the Manx Press Pictures archive held in our collections. From the thousands of Manx Press Pictures photographic negatives, one thousand have been selected and digitised for the years 1956 – 1979. They give a ‘snap shot’ of events which took place from May to September. The hair and beauty students have been using these images as inspiration for the vintage hair styling challenge. The students have particularly enjoyed focusing on the dance hall images, as well as the bathing beauty competitions and the top female stars who visited the Island during the summer season.”
Lindsey Jackson, Hair and Beauty Assistant Programme Manager for the University College Man commented, “Our students have really enjoyed the challenge of re-creating the styles from the archive collection, but we have been using modern techniques and equipment. We are all really looking forward to the event!”
Visitors are invited to the iMuseum from 10am – 12noon on Thursday 6 April to watch the live styling event. Admission is free, but donations are welcome.
