A life-time of devotion to her career has seen Wanganui hair stylist Robyn Collins recognised with a national hairdressing award.
Mrs Collins - who runs her own hairdressing training business, works as a stylist at Protege, and is a hairdressing tutor at UCOL - received the Trainer of the YearAward at the Hairdressing Industry Training Organisation awards in Wellington. She also was runner-up in the Tutor of the Year Award.
Mrs Collins won the award for her work with her hairdressing training company, Indetech. She travels throughout the North Island, visiting salons and training hairdressers in specific skills.
She also trained the national hairdressing champion for the World Skills Competition. Kate Woodcock, from Palmerston North, will go to Germany later this year to represent New Zealand on the world stage.
Mrs Collins was born, raised and trained in Wanganui, and has been in the hairdressing industry for more than three decades.
She regularly represents Protege at regional and national hairdressing competitions, where she often competes against current or former students. Competing is an important part of keeping up with industry trends, she said.
"It's important that you stay current, especially when you are tutoring and training students."
Her specialty is styling and cutting, and salons will request she trains their hairdressers in specific areas around styling or cutting.
