BRAIDED BELLES the team
NICOLA DOWNEY
Nicola Downey is a professional hair and make-up artist with 25 years of experience within television, theatre, bridal and education. She regularly works at the Royal Opera House and Glyndebourne Opera alongside her successful wedding hair and make-up business.
Dance was her first passion however and she spent most of her childhood in buns and plaits! She was lucky enough to go to Elmhurst Ballet School until a knee injury stopped her training.
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She started Braided Belles nearly ten years ago after a fellow school mum asked for help plaiting her daughter's hair and she soon realised that there was a real demand for hair braiding lessons.
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As a mum to three boys, she loves any opportunity to style girls hair and really enjoys being able to help mums and dads in particular, create fantastic hair styles for inside and outside school and to give them lots of confidence whilst doing it.
KATIE JEFFERY
Katie has been working as a professional hair and make-up artist for over 7 years. She is the creator and owner of Sweetpea Hair & Make Up, based in Tunbridge Wells, specialising in Bridal, Photographic, Special Occasions and Face Painting.
Katie has worked with Nicola on many weddings and will be teaching some of the Tunbridge Wells Braided Belles workshops.
She is a mum to two girls and loves creating different hairstyles for them. She really enjoys teaching other parents how to plait and braid and to make it fun.