Greater Lowell Tech Hosts Professional Development Workshop on Textured Hair Care

TYNGSBOROUGH – Superintendent Jill Davis is pleased to share that Greater Lowell Technical High School hosted a professional development training on textured hair offered by the Office for College, Career and Technical Education in collaboration with Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators.

The full-day, “hands-on” training was developed to support revisions made last fall to the Chapter 74 Cosmetology Vocational Technical Education (CVTE) Frameworks that focused on standards and objectives to create a deeper learning of textured hair skills.

Deborah Lagasse, a retired Greater Lowell Tech teacher from Tyngsborough, led the state-training team, which included eight Massachusetts Cosmetology Framework Subject Matter Experts who received training specific to textured hair leading to become state-certified trainers:

• Melissa Andrade and Courtney Pestana, Cape Cod Regional Technical High School
• Tammy Hoyle and Kimberly Parnell, Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School
• Jennifer Gilman, Smith Vocational Agricultural High School
• Janice LaVoie, Blue Hills Regional Technical School
• Rhonda Moran, Lower Pioneer Valley Career and Tech Center
• LaTrelle Pinkney, Chase-Madison Park Vocational Tech High School

Twenty-five cosmetology instructors from vocational technical high schools across the state attended the training, including Greater Lowell Tech instructors Emely Ciocca, Michelle Mills, Michelle Norton, and Connie Vergados. They received expert instruction on how to care for and style textured hair, including but not limited to coiled, curly, straight, and wavy.

All participants learned techniques specific to serving clients with textured hair and received supporting materials; lesson plans, rubrics, safety tests, handouts, activities, and videos, to assist with embedding the Framework revisions into their curriculum and with instructing their students to build skill proficiency with textured hair.

State Rep. Rady Mom of Lowell, a Greater Lowell Tech alumni, visited the training to show support to MAVA and DESE for ensuring that students are trained to work with all hair types. The training also supports the Crown Bill recently passed by the House of Representatives, to ban discrimination based on natural hairstyles.

Instructor Ciocca recently practiced some of the skills that she learned with her students in her shop. The students had fun learning about coil curls on textured hair and were able to practice this technique on one of their peers.   

“This training is important so that our instructors will be able to educate our future cosmetologists on how to care for specific hair types,” Superintendent Davis said. “That proficiency will lead to greater opportunity for our students, and greater success after graduation.”