Reckon you could be named hj's newcomer of the year?

Imagine standing up at the Grosvenor House Hotel and collecting a British Hairdressing Award in front of the industry’s finest. If you have the talent, vision and desire, it could happen to you. Sophia Hilton shares how she became HJ's Newcomer of the Year. "Hairdressing is in my blood. There are seven hairdressers in our family and my first salon, Hilton Hair, was my mum's salon and before that it was my nan's. We also lived above it. "When I started my career, I worked in the salon while studying at college full-time. I choose to study full-time to speed up my qualification, but in hindsight I don’t think it should be rushed and the focus should be on quality and gaining a thorough understanding over time. "I now see the NVQ as a great starting block, but it wasn’t until I joined Brooks and Brooks, my current salon, that my ‘finishing school’ training began. "My passion in hairdressing had always been for photographic work, but that isn’t always paid so it took me eight years before I could cut my clientele down to a few days a week and spend more time doing the session-type work that I loved. "I started working with a student photographer when I was 19 and think that the only way to get good at photographic hairdressing is to teach yourself. It’s not something you can learn in a class. "You research, you get styling heads, you play for hours, weeks, for months even. It has to look awful the first 10 times until it looks good. You have to keep going and going. Sometimes I take a head into the staff room and say ‘look at this disgusting thing I made’ and we laugh about it. You should never be worried about failing. There is no shame in it. I fail every day. "At Brooks and Brooks you have to prove yourself before they will put you forward for awards and shoots. I did three test shoots on my own budget before I went to my boss to ask her about moving forward. "The first time I entered Newcomer of the Year I was shortlisted for the final six. This time round I started to think about the shoot about a year before and was very proud to create the winning collection. "The night of the awards it was completely amazing. I could hardly breathe when my name was announced. My endorphins were going wild and it felt like I was about to do a bungee jump or something. "Since winning, I’ve found the title gives me credibility when I am running courses, which is great, but it certainly doesn’t make me a better hairdresser. It means I’m better at competitions and that is a completely different world.”