The big one!

The National Finals!  Yes, as we won the regional competition we qualified for the finals of the AHT competitions.  We travelled up to a very windy Blackpool last weekend with our mountains of kit packed on the bus and our hopes very high!

The team competition wasn't scheduled until around 2pm so we had quite a while to wait around with the nerves building and building throughout the morning.  The buzz in the Winter Gardens Ballroom was electric with many students producing some outstanding work.  I really think employers should come to these competitions as they could pick from the most talented make up artists and hairdressers the country has to offer!

Anyway, that aside...the time finally came for us to go on stage.  We dragged our kit to the table and waited nervously for everyone to take their places.  I think there were about 22 teams in all so there was a lot of competition.

We get started.  The table is tiny and there is not enough space for us to work.  We were bumping into each other and the team behind us seemed to take up more & more room as they went along! 
I stuck the prosthetic on my model first as it took the most time out of everything to do.  We got it stuck on, blended the edges and I took a sigh of relief it hadn't fallen apart or melted!
From there is was hair and make up time.  We had an hour and a quarter to complete everything and my model and I had around 15 minutes to spare at the end.  I went to the other side of the table and helped with the veins on Princess Fiona's head so they looked extra gory!

In the meantime we had attracted a huge crowd next to our table who kept asking us to stop so they could take photographs!  One of the officials came over eventually and asked people to move away.  I was secretly hoping that all this interest was a good sign..!

Once we had finished, the judges came around to score the hair and make up then it was time for the performance.  The team were fantastic on stage, executing the Thriller dance to a t!  It was just up to the scores now, there was nothing more we could do.

Of course as we were the last to go on, our scores were the last to be read out!  We waited and waited and finally it was our turn......!   We got 3rd!  3rd out of the country - not a bad score!
Anyway, that wasn't the end of it, the next day some of us met up again as we had the BYFA Julius Caesar premiere to attend and our lecturer gave us some fantastic news.  The judges had got the score wrong and we actually came 2nd!  Wow, all that hard work and hours of practise had finally paid off.  I can definitely say I am proud of that one.

Team Thriller

My wolf