I won an award!

I still can’t actually believe I am writing this, but I won an award! On the 17th March 2019, the English Hair and Beauty Awards selected me as their winner in the category of “Creative Nail Technician of the year”

A lot have people have asked me about the awards, and what I did to win so I thought I would share it here where it can be enjoyed for many years to come!

It all started back in October/November 2018 when I noticed some colleagues asking friends and clients to vote for them in the English Hair and Beauty Awards. I had never heard of these, but I was intrigued . So while I was voting for my favorite tech, I had a little nosy around the EHABA website.

The awards aspire to recognize and celebrate those in the hair and beauty industry who make us look and feel our best and often go above and beyond to do so.

The English Hair & Beauty Awards have been running successfully for the past five years and have continued to grow and have become the industry’s leading awards ceremony.

It turns out, the first round of the awards is completely up to the public! All I had to do was get enough votes to see me through the first round.

So Just like my colleagues I did a post on my social media, asking for votes to get me through the first round.

click here to see the original post in which I asked for votes. I also posted a flyer in the salon, though many people took no notice of it.

Time went on and when the nominees for my region were announced I checked the list. . Heart racing… I wasn’t on it. But my friend Annie was, so I was pleased for her. I forgot about it and went on with my life . A couple months later, near the end of February, I got a phone call at work. I was painting a clients nails at the time . It was Cynthia Chen from the English Hair and Beauty Awards!

She told me that I was nominated for Creative Nail Technician of the Year, and would be sending me an email to outline what happens next.

I was left shaking like a leaf, heart racing a mile a minute and halfway through applying a gel polish. In fact, I was recording a video for my YouTube channel at the time, but that video never aired due to my shaking. I looked like a leaf in the wind.

I couldn’t believe I had been shortlisted in a category that I wasn’t even aware of. Which is probably why I didn’t see my name on the list originally! I only checked “nail tech of the year” category, because that’s what I asked everyone to vote for me as.

Anyways, I finished work and drove home, crying with happiness the whole way. I saw my husband on the road and stopped him to tell him the good news, then proceeded to call everyone I know to tell them! Those who care anyways lol

So what I had to do next was send in some supporting evidence, for the judges to make their final decision. I had to write a company biography

, send some pictures of my work, and some customer/client reviews.

The public got me this far, now it was up to my skill to get me the judges vote.

There were quite a few people who wanted to come to the award ceremony with me, so I reserved a table for us all and began searching for the perfect dress. The dress code was Maximum Glam of course!

I saw a beautiful red dress on the boo hoo website, but thought I’d check my closet before buying one. Funnily enough, when I checked my closet, that very dress I saw on www.boohoo.co.uk was in there. I tried it on, it fit….

Where did this dress come from? I have no Idea, I didn’t buy it. And if I did, I don’t remember! I picked out some jewelry from my collection, some black shoes that I’ve had for 10 years or more and I was ready!

The ceremony was at the Holiday inn, Maidenhead. So I got a room. Not to sleep in, it was only about an hour away. But I wanted to get ready with everyone and have a few pre-drinks. We had a nice relaxed time getting ready, then we went down to the bar until it was time to register. I had seen a red carpet in front of some doors when we entered, fancy.

When I registered I met Cynthia Chen, she had called me originally to tell me the good news, and she remembered me! That had to be a good sign right!?

The hall was decorated and looked lovely, but not as glamorous as the photo I had seen of a previous venue. Never the less, we sat down and they started listing the winners for each category. There was at least a dozen categories before mine, which was as suspenseful as you can imagine. Once they got to my category, they called my name as a nominee and my table went a bit crazy, all shouting and woo hoo-ing and clapping. Even if I didn’t win, we would have definitely won “loudest table” (sadly, that was not a category.)

So what they do, when they’re announcing the winners; is call out all the nominees, then they announce the runner up, and then the winner. They called out the runner up, and it wasn’t me. There was a moment in which I realized I might not win anything at all now. I was on the edge of my seat, and then she said…

“I’m thrilled to announce the winner of Creative Nail Technician of the year is”…….. And then she hesitated….. She hesitated so long I thought the world had actually stopped. Then… She said my name!

Courtney Crosbie!! I jumped out of my seat screaming, mouth gaping open in disbelief! Not a very flattering look, I don’t know why I did it. I guess it is what one does when they are genuinely in shock! I walked up to the stage, mouth still gaping open and said thank you to all my amazing clients who let me be creative, and thank you to Gail, the owner of the salon I work at, for taking a chance on me.

I got this beautiful glass award, though it doesn’t have my name engraved on it (I might do that at a later date) and I had lots of photos taken with the photographer.

At this point, we had already eaten the meals we paid for, we got the award that we went for and we all had a long drive home and work the next day, so I looked at my friends and said, well….. Shall we go then? 😂

And so we did. we snuck right out and drove back home. The adrenaline wore off after about an hour or so and I was well and truly tired. The coming weeks at work were incredible, all of our clients were congratulating me and coming in with gifts, everyone was so happy! Still to this day I can’t believe it, and I’m super honored to be awarded the title of Creative Nail Technician of the YEAR!

Thank you to everyone who voted for me online, I wouldn’t have even been shortlisted without you. Thank you to my amazing clients, I’ve got to be the luckiest nail tech in the entire world. Thank you to Gail at Tan-Tastic in Calne for giving me the opportunity to show that you don’t have to go to fancy schools to work in a salon. Last but certainly not least, thank you to everyone who supported me by coming to the award ceremony! Bel, Gemma, Toni, Rhiannon, Megan, Sharon and Gail. You are the best friends a girl could ask for 🙂

I will be hoping for a win next year as well, even though I’ll be in the middle of moving house.

So for anyone who thinks they don’t have a chance at winning something like this, should go for it. You just never know!

Love Courtney