▲ Yang Chul-ki

Hairdresser was not an option to be a future profession for young Yang. She grew up and worked as a public servant like many normal people take their courses. Yet her talent in making up her friends’ hair when in middle and high school years was well recognized and praised by the people around her. 

One day in a flick of moment, she remembered the time how fun and excited it was. Charged with bullet-full of forgotten fun, she took a course at an academy in Seomyeon, Busan. She obtained a hairdresser certificate after a certain amount of time and opened her own salon <Yurim Pro Hair> which has lasted for the last 40 years. 

“I would never forget how my heart was pumping when my first customer opened the door, stepped into and sat down the chair. As the number of my customers increased month by month, I felt a surge of need for better skills both in technique and customer engagement. So I attended various training and workshop to improve my business skill while I carried on my job.”  

Her effort was well paid by her regulars who recognized her dexterity and conversation skill and they willingly have made a journey whenever Yang moved her salon to another area. 

Her passion in hairdressing was great that she took a doctoral course in beauty art while running her business at the same time in order to secure her theoretical base of the field. She did not put the qualification into a corner of closet after obtaining a degree but made the most of it by teaching future hairdressers from basic knowledge on cut, style and hair art to helping them participate in competition. Some of her pupils won prizes at a number of competitions which proved her teaching skill and method. 

She also made most of her doctoral knowledge by inventing a hairpiece that can help style the current short-cut trend. She obtained a patent for the hairpiece and published a related paper as a thesis. In recognition of her contribution to the development of hair industry in Korea, she received the industrial prize in the skilled person category as one of the five winners at the 2018 Vocational Ability Month ceremony held at Intercontinental Hotel Seoul last September; she was the first to win the prize as hairdresser. 

“Through the years, I realized that my biggest rival has been no one but myself. It was for me to stand up again when fell down, to roll up my sleeve when things went not as expected and to push forward whether it rained or snowed. This consciousness always has kept me alive and pushed up my hair styling to a level of art as showed a number of times at various exhibitions.”

If Yang is a woman of talent in hair styling, she is a person with generous heart: she has engaged in volunteer services at welfare center in Mangmi-dong and other sanatoriums for many years. She also is a member of Yukyounghoe and of Bubsarang Committee as well as a permanent member of the Korea Industrial Site Professors Faculty. 

When asked about future plan, she said “I will give more of my energy to foster talented young hairdressers who will lead the Korea’s hair industry in the future. I also want to meet more people at exhibitions where my works play a part.”