THEY are the keeper of women’s secrets and the people who make them feel glamorous, so we sent HAYLEY MILLS to try her hand as an apprentice hairdresser. THE thought of my impending work experience at Salon 68 in Pontypool filled me with dread.

I had visions of being let loose with a pair of scissors and accidentally chopping someone’s ear off – but luckily for me, owner Vivien Lewis had more sense than to let me handle any sharp instruments.

Like any trainee hairdresser, I started from the bottom and with a brush in hand, I was entrusted to sweep the floor.

Hair really does get everywhere, and I was more than happy to do this task for the rest of the day than having an experienced hairdresser assess how bad I am at styling hair.

Later in the day, I got my chance to prove that I had what it takes to be a hairdresser.

But with my previous hairstyling experience only going as far as doing my own locks, I quickly learned that styling someone else’s was a far trickier businesses.

First came the task of washing my client’s hair.

My willing participant was 19-year-old Danielle Nash, who works as a junior stylist at the salon.

Washing her hair was a task I could cope with, and two shampoos and a condition later, I set to work towel-drying and blow-drying her hair.

Now came the trickier part.

Danielle explained that she wanted an up-do that she could wear out for drinks in the evening, but with a ‘funky’ twist.

Not too difficult, I thought – without a clue of how to interpret that instruction.

I was taught by Vivien to ruffle hair spray through the hair to add volume using my fingers and then I was entrusted to curl the hair using hair straighteners, which is a lot harder than it looks.

Vivien explained that I should pull the section of the hair through the straighteners like you would with ribbon and scissors, before giving a quick curl with my fingers.

Looking very awkward, as I’m left handed, which I find always makes everything ten times harder, I managed to do a layer. However, I was a lot slower than Vivien, who whizzed through her layer before I could even finish one curl.

Then there was more hairspray, and using my hands, I pulled all of the hair to one side of Danielle’s head to create an off-side look, and using grips, building up the hair in stages, I held the hair in place.

I realised that hairdressing involves a lot of imagination as at this stage I could not understand how this grippedup mess would turn into a pretty bun, but Vivien reassured me that the style was on track.

Speaking to Vivien, she told me that she has worked in hairdressing for 25 years and went into partnership with Jackie Bancroft and Viki Love to run the salon in Pontypool, which has been open for four years.

She said: “People tell you a lot of stories when they come to have their hair done, but it’s almost like a rule of hairdressing that these stories never go any further than these four walls. It’s all completely confidential.”

She explained that the most extreme event was having the wife and mistress of the same man having their hair cut at the same time.

Vivien showed me how to use the metal tail comb and my fingers to tidy the hair up further, and then used more hairspray.

Then came the fiddly bit: using the dangling hair, I was to position it over the grips, and using yet more grips to hold in the bun, position the hair so that there was not a grip in sight.

Struggling to even get the grip open because of my finger nails, putting them into Danielle’s hair amid the other grips was hard.

I had visions of accidentally digging one straight into her head.

But luckily, if Danielle could read my thoughts from my worried expression, she didn’t seem to panic that I would hurt her.

Vivien had to assist me in fixing the final grips, as my gently placed ones kept sliding out, and then using a comb, I positioned the hair to make it neat.

I then showed Danielle the back of her head in true hairdresser style using a handheld mirror and asked if there were any alterations she would like, before I held it in place with wax and more hairspray.

After a little bit more work, Danielle was shown the final creation of a scruffy bun on the side, which she said she was very pleased with.

This type of creation would usually take a hairdresser about 45 minutes, but for me it had taken about an hour and 15 minutes.

Vivien said I had done a good job, as usually this type of style is best done on hair that’s a day dirty.

But I could not have got the finished look without Vivien’s help.

Vivien laughed when I asked her if she had ever had any hairdressing disasters over her career. She said that other than once nicking a man’s ear with scissors, there had been nothing too extreme.

Then she remembered an incident in which a hairdryer caught fire while she was using it. She threw it to the floor and turned it off, so luckily, no one was injured.

The owners of Salon 68 regularly attend shows to get inspiration and Vivien said that she gets really excited when someone comes in and asks for something completely different.

She said: “A recent one was a girl came in with long blonde hair and asked me to shave one half off and put a leopard print effect in. I asked her if she was sure and when she said ‘yes,’ then the excitement set in.”

She said that over the years, girls especially are becoming more experimental and she has created Mohawks, shaved stars patterns into hair and zebra print – and that’s not including the wacky colour dye that some people request.

I enjoyed my stint as a hairdresser, and got to understand the thrill of seeing my finished creation.

Maybe one day I will return and get to have a go at cutting – but until then, it’s probably best I stick to styling my own hair.