The young, 19 years old A. Karan is burning the midnight oil, untiringly practicing his skill for over 16 hours every day. He starts at 9 amand practices haircuts and hair styles through the day till 7 pm. He takes a break for a couple of hours and whips out his scissors, combs and hairdryer and starts snipping, styling, setting hair way past midnight. His trainers jokingly say that he must be practicing styles even in his dreams. For Karan hairdressing is a passion and it is only apt that he is representing India in hairdressing at the World Skills Competition to be held in Abu Dhabi in October 2017.

Karan’s talent has been honed at his Alma matter – Blossom Kochhar College of Creative Arts & Design (BKCCAD) in New Delhi, founded by the legendary Aromatherapist Dr. Blossom Kochhar, Chairperson, Blossom Kochhar Group of Companies four decades ago. Through this academy Dr. Kochhar introduced scientific education in Hair in India and the place has given the industry some of the best hair designers the country has got today. BKCCAD has multiple international affiliations, state of art infrastructure, interactive classrooms and provide opportunities for plenty of hands on experience for the students. International Trainers keep visiting the academy and with all the opportunities they provide to the student, BKCCAD is a place where “Winners are Born”.

Samantha Kochhar, who is also the World Deputy Chief Expert for Hair and India’s Chief Expert for Hair, is gearing up Karan for this competition on behalf of Beauty and Wellness Sector Skill Council (BWSSC) & National Skill Development Council (NSDC). Speaking on Karan’s training she said, “Karan, through his sheer hard work, talent and his rigorous training session with world-class international trainers and the of best trainers in India, he is evolving not only as better artist but a better professional every passing day. The thorough training sessions have taught him patience, helped him gain more focus and channelize his thoughts into creating unique styles.”

The exceptional training sessions provided at BKCCAD, along with his talent, creativity, hard work combined with zeal to excel proved to be Karan’s winning formula when he bagged the first place in hairdressing skill at India Skills championship. Now he is India’s hairdressing candidate for World Skills and Karan does not take the responsibility lightly. Hairdressing is his burning passion and this fuels his intensity and determination to win.

Samantha Kochhar had left no stone unturned to get the Indian winner the best of training. Karan has been trained by World Class Trainers like Joakim Roos- one of the best competition trainers in the world, Carvi Lai – a well known International Hair Stylist, Chang-Chun Wu –one of the best in the world hair dressing industry from China, Emma Ekman – an ace trainer from Sweden. Industry stalwarts like Asha Hariharan, Seema Jerajani, Itty Agarwal, Uday Takke, Milind Bhatia have also trained him. Blossom Kochhar College of Creative Arts and Design (BKCCAD),his Alma Mater has taken on the onus of hiring him and paying him a full time salary to learn, practise and hone his skills ever since his won in the regional rounds of India Skill competition.

It has been a challenging journey since for Karan who has a humble financial and social background. His father is a chauffeur and mother is a housewife. The young boy had to hone more than just his technical skills for the competition.  Mind trainers have worked with him to help him overcome the self-inflicted stigma of his humble background and to gain social confidence, his teachers in BKCCAD have helped in his grooming and he had to work specially hard to overcome communication barriers.

Speaking on the occasion Karan says, “I wanted to do something different rather than follow a conventional career of becoming a doctor or engineer. Thus I put my heart and soul into honing my technical skills and soft skills, to be at my best while representing India at World Skills International in Abu Dhabi. It is now my dream to win accolades for my country at the World Skills Internationals. My journey would not have been possible without my mentors at BKCCAD and my family.”

Karan’s strength lies in creating new looks and styles, so whenever he learns something new it is important for him to merge it with his creativity and curate something new and distinct.  “It has been a pleasure to supervise the gradual professional enhancement of Karan over the months. He believes name and fame will follow if you stay true to your skill. He loves and cherishes hairdressing. I wish him all the best for the World Skills International to be held in Abu Dhabi in October this year,” Samantha Kochhar says.