CREDIT: ANDREW VIDLER
Fanshawe alumnus Dustin Schumann proudly displays his awards at Suki Salon, where he works.

Fanshawe College has always been a hotbed for talent and award winners from filmmaking, to music production, to athletics. Now the school can add a nationally renowned hairstylist to its roster.

Dustin Schumann, a graduate of Hair Stylist apprenticeship program at Fanshawe’s Woodstock campus, recently walked away as the Best Newcomer at the 21st annual Canadian Hairdresser Mirror Awards this past April.

“It feels amazing because it’s so hard to reach this point and so it’s really exciting to see how hard work pays off,” Schumann said about the win. “Because of this win it’s going to push me more and more to succeed to challenge myself creatively.”

Schumann says another Ontarian inspires his influences, work and style.

“I really look up to Rossa Jurenas from Schwarzoft,” he said. “She owns her own salon in Tillsonburg … I even acknowledged her in my speech at the Mirror Awards. She was present and so it was very exciting.”

Jurenas later went on to win Best Editorial Stylist of the Year at the same awards this year.

London itself produced three winners for this year’s Mirror Awards – including Schumann – and while these are competitions to be won, he says it’s still about working together in the profession.

“I’m a big team player and to me, we are team Ontario, and team Ontario [is] pumping out talent,” Schumann said. “Especially London … shooting out awesome hairstylists … it’s a big honour to be added to that list.”

Schumann adds that when he spoke with CBC, the interviewer was surprised London was home to so much talent.

“We’ve been pumping out talent for decades” he said. “It’s just nice that there [are] enough of us to be recognized as a whole, as a city. It’s exciting [to] finally bring business to London.”

In addition to his Best Newcomer win, the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities sponsored Schumann to compete in the Technological Skills Competition where he finished with a bronze medal.

He also earned his Bronze Level Master Judge certification, which allows him to begin judging Allied Beauty Association (ABA) competitions, and while he admits this is just the beginning as a competitive career, the key to staying happy and employed in hairdressing is to keep learning.

“Be sponge [and] absorb, absorb, absorb,” he said. “Instead of talking over the people teaching you; stop and listen. You have to learn to listen and take that constructive criticism.”

“A lot of people walk out of the industry because they’re taking it too personally. It’s constructive criticism; it’s to help them grow.”

Suki Salon on 141 King St. is Schumann’s other home, and his most recent awards sit behind reception. The win was a memorable moment not only for him but for his employer Suki as well – a Platinum Level Judge for the ABA himself.

“He’s awesome about all that stuff, anytime we get an award, any news clippings, he says to bring them in and he’ll put them up, he’s very proud of us,” Suki said.

And Schumann should be proud of himself. The young hairstylist worked for Universal Records weeks out of finishing his program, before even graduating.

“Through networking I was able to land a gig with Universal Records and I did hair for the six dancers that were dancing in a music video [for] Andee called ‘Never Gone,’” he said. “It was huge because it’s totally different from a photo shoot.”

This extremely talented Londoner will only get better at his trade with time.