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Barbering, Hair and Beauty

A beauty therapy student applies eyelash extensions to a mannequin head under a magnifying lamp in a professional training environment.

About The Barbering, Hair and Beauty Department

Whether you dream of becoming a barber, hairdresser or beauty therapist, Glasgow Kelvin College provides the skills, experience and confidence to help you succeed in the industry.

You'll learn in our professional training salons, working with industry-standard equipment and real clients while being supported by experienced lecturers who are passionate about their craft. From mastering technical skills to developing creativity, professionalism and customer care, you'll gain the practical experience employers value.

Alongside your studies, you'll have opportunities to take part in competitions, showcase your work, collaborate on creative projects and build a professional portfolio that prepares you for employment or further study.

Not sure which course is right for you?

Whether you're taking your first step into the industry or developing specialist skills, our Barbering, Hair & Beauty courses provide clear progression routes to help you achieve your career goals.

Barbering, Hair and Beauty Courses

Beauty at Kelvin

Begin your journey into the beauty industry by developing practical skills in our professional training salons.

From skincare and holistic therapies to creative treatments and client care, our Beauty students learn in a supportive environment while building the confidence and experience needed for further study or employment.

  • A beauty student holding a microphone and introducing the creative beauty class at Glasgow Kelvin College.
  • A beauty student in a black uniform sharing their journey into the beauty industry, seated in front of a green floral backdrop.

Barbering at Kelvin

Whether you're learning traditional barbering techniques or developing contemporary cutting and styling skills, our Barbering courses combine practical training with creativity and customer care.

Working in our professional training facilities, you'll build confidence while developing the technical skills needed for a successful career in the barbering industry.

  • A barbering student in a black hoodie discussing skin fades and short back and sides in a training facility.
  • Hairdressing student Marcus demonstrates how to cut and style a modern mullet on a training mannequin at Glasgow Kelvin College.

Hairdressing at Kelvin

Meet Joy as she shares how she's developing advanced cutting, colouring and styling techniques while building on her experience in Afro-Caribbean hair.

Hear how studying at Glasgow Kelvin College is helping her prepare for a successful career in hairdressing.

  • Joy, SBQ Level 3 Hairdressing student, demonstrating hair colouring techniques in a college salon using a mannequin head.

Creativity in Competition

These photographs, taken by Natalia Kazmierczak, an NQ Photography (Level 6) student, capture the creativity and technical skill of our SVQ 3 Advanced Hairdressing Techniques students during their Avant Garde assessment for the unit Develop, Enhance and Evaluate Your Creative Hairdressing Skills (J7P3 04).

Competition Results

🥇 Claire Conroy

🥈 Christopher Tierney

🥉 Chloe McInnes

Smiling person with curly hair, a small cowboy hat on top, bright makeup, and yellow and blue hair accents.
Person with dramatic upward-pointing spiked hairstyle, dark braids, bold makeup, and a serious expression.
Side view of a person with a braided and twisted hairstyle decorated with green leaves and white flowers, plus leaf face paint.
Back view of an elaborate hairstyle decorated with a cardboard house, yellow chicks, tiny nests, and pastel butterflies.
Person with an extravagant, towering hairstyle featuring bright blue and red wool, green leaves, pearls, and orange braids, wearing bold green makeup.
A student carefully applies individual eyelash extensions to a mannequin head, practicing precision techniques in a beauty therapy training session.
A close-up of a beauty therapy student applying eyelash extensions with tweezers to a mannequin head, focusing on precision techniques.
A student beauty therapist performs a back massage on a client in a relaxing, professional treatment setting with red curtains.
A beauty therapy student consults with a client in a skincare treatment room, wearing a professional uniform and holding a clipboard.
Hairstyling student carefully styling a mannequin’s hair in a salon.
Smiling client getting their hair blow-dried in a salon.
Close-up of a hairdresser preparing hair dye in a bowl.
Hairdresser weaving an elaborate braid into a mannequin's hair.
Hairstylist straightening a woven braid hairstyle on a mannequin.
A smiling student in a black cap presenting a mannequin head with a fresh haircut inside a barbering academy.
A barbering student using a spray bottle on a mannequin head while another student trims a different mannequin in the background.
A mannequin head with a beard and a partially completed haircut in a barbering academy, with a hand spraying water onto the hair.
A female barbering student in a black hoodie carefully cutting the hair on a mannequin head inside a training facility.

Student Video Transcripts

Amy: NQ Creative Beauty (Level 5)

Amy: Hi I'm Amy and I'm going to show you a day in the life of a beauty therapist at Glasgow Kelvin College. 

Morning Gillian.

In the lift up to the second floor where we do all our beauty treatments.

In S11 this is where the classes do eyebrows and some eyelash treatments. This is where the creative class is.

This is the salon. I'm going to take you in and I'm going to show you the holistic side of beauty.

This is where we do facials, massage, waxing and an open salon.

Hi Lisa.

Grace, what treatment are you giving out?

Grace: I'm doing a set of classic lashes.

Amy: Joanne, what's the treatment you're giving out today?

Joanne:  A set of party lashes using the party lashes set.

Amy: Over here we have Shannon and Anne-Marie giving out basic facials to our lovely clients.

So this is what you can come and get as a treatment at Glasgow Kelvin College.

I'm going to show you where we do nails.

Hi girls, how are we getting along? Well as you can see the girls are set up to do a gel polish manicure.

So this is the new creative beauty class and right now they're doing a demonstration at tinting and mapping brows.

Let's go and have a look.

Lecturer: We're going to take this spatula. Where do we start? The corner of the nose. We're going to start on the outer corner of the nose.

Joanne: NQ Creative Beauty (Level 5)

Hi there, I'm Joanne Blaney. I'm on the Level 5 beauty course.

I never thought I would get into the beauty industry as I've always worked retail. 

We're just learning about the different beauty treatments, different classes we've been going to.

I've been actually really enjoying it. I would say my favourite class is the lashes. We've done the cluster lashes, we've learned about the semi-permanent lashes and the brows. We're doing waxing, tweezing, Brow tinting, lash tinting, then you've got your makeup as well.

The nails class as well. Manicures, we're learning about the gel polishes, which is really, really good, really interesting, bringing clients in as well.

Personally speaking, I think it's brought my confidence out more, to speak to people more, get to know people more, and learn about the different beauty treatments as well.

Marcus: Barbering

I'm Marcus, this is the 18 week barbering course.

I'm doing a modern mullet, so I've tapered in the sides and now I'm joining the back into the sides.

Now that I've connected the sides, I'm now going to connect the top, so I'm pulling a section, I'm pulling it down and then I'm matching it into the side.

Now that I've cut the hair, I'm just going to use some product in it before I blow dry it.

I'm just doing the finishing touches on this mullet. So it's just a slick back at the top, taper at the side, and it's just flowing into the back.

Marcus & Sharon: Certificate in Barbering

Marcus: Hi, I'm Marcus. I'm doing the 18-week fast track course. We've learned all different types of haircut. We've started doing long hair and then moved into shorter hair. Now we're learning how to fade.

Just give it your all. The written bit's definitely the more harder than the practical, but just study lots, work hard and go smash it. 

Sharon: My name's Sharon Murphy. I'm doing the Made Barbering course and I've went from being able to just do a buzz cut to being able to do like skin fades, short backs and sides and stuff like that.

Anybody that's thinking about doing it, I would say do it, take the leap. It's a challenge but it's worth it.

Unnamed: The course is very creative and I've always kind of leaned that way as a person. So actually being able to be creative every day and create new cuts and textures and ideas that people want is actually really important. I've learned what it's like to actually see the structure of hair on the head and how to cut that into sections.

My advice for anyone who wants to do the course is go for it. If you feel you have any passion or you just enjoy styling your hair or you're just a creative person, go for it because what you learn will blow you away. It's so interesting.

Joy: SVQ 3 Advanced Hairdressing Techniques

Hi guys, my name is Joy Balogun. I'm doing hairdressing SVQ3.

I'm actually doing highlight just now. I've learned a lot of things on this course. Highlights, highlights and lowlights, different types of cutting.

I'm looking forward to go straight to work and learn more skills.

Before this course I was actually working in Afro-Caribbean hairdressing, so I've learned different kinds of Afro-Caribbean hair, you know, braiding, twisting.

When I have my own salon, I don't just want to focus on African-Caribbean hair, so I want to do all type of hair. 

You can come down to the college and then book in whatever you want to do, haircut, color, anything at all. To book, call it the number of the screen.

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