Judges From Around the World that Support Nailympia Competitions
5 Nailympia Judge
Hazel Dixon
United Kingdom
Academy & Distribution| Online training| Salon
Area of judging expertise: Enhancements, Nail Art, Extreme Nails and Fantasy, Mixed media & Boxed art
Years as a judge: 13
Number of Nailympia events judged: 5
Nailympia events judged: London, Online
Are you an educator?: Yes
Industry accolades: Winner - Nail Professional of the Year 2016, multiple Scratch Stars wins including Mixed Media Artist, Nail Stylist & front cover of the year. Nailympia 2016: 1st place in Mixed Media, Winner of Winners Art, UK Top Tech & Individual Highest Scorer. 2017: Scratch Stars finalist, 1st place in Nailpro USA & multiple Scratch Stars wins. 2018: Scratch Stars winner in Mixed Media, Nail Stylist & Nail Team of the Year, entered Hall of Fame & Akzentz Global Competitor of the Year. 2019: Nailympia Estonia & Orlando wins, multiple Scratch Stars wins. 2020-2021: Scratch Stars finalist, Nailympia judge, London & Southeast winner - Nail Salon of the Year, Nail Team of the Year winner for 3 consecutive years, Hall of Fame member. 2022: Scratch front cover, PB London judge, awards for Nail Art School of the Year, Best Nail Art School UK & Ultimate Nail Team at Scratch Stars, Nail Art Educator of the year. Orlando 2024 multiple winner & Business Mentor of the Year finalist
Favourite nail brands: HD Professional Nail Systems®️ & Akzentz®️
Industry figures you admire: Denise Wright - without having met her I wouldn't be the tech & educator I am today. Georgie Smedley - for showing me everything she knew early on in my career & showing me so much support when others didn't. Marian Newman - I love & admire her honesty & her knowledge is outstanding, she is always there whenever you need anything. Gina Silvestro - her support & belief in me when I didn't see it. All of these people are phenomenal & have truly helped shape me into the educator & judge I am today.
Career biography: I've been a nail artist for over 18 years & have extensive experience in all aspects of nail treatments but my great passion is nail art. I have over 100 competition awards & accolades to date. I have an independent training academy & achieved my PTTLS Lvl4 Teaching Qualification, Lvl 3 NVQ Nail Treatments in Acrylic & Gel, EzFlow & CN master Artist, Akzentz Educator & I'm a brand consultant. I am also the Official UK Akzentz professional gels distributor, I write all my own course material to ensure the high standards I want for students are met. My team of educators has won the prestigious award of Ultimate Nail Team, the only team in the UK to have achieved this after winning 3 consecutive years in a row. Not only this, but I'm extremely proud to be one of the few Industry professionals to have been awarded The Services to the Industry accolade alongside many Nailympia wins such as Nail Art winner of Winners. Teaching techs & competitors is extremely rewarding.
Personal biography: Ill be honest, nails is my life as it's a passion not just a career. Much of my downtime is often spent with fellow techs, educators & industry pros. I do love to party as everyone knows - work hard, play hard :) - I love spending time with my 'kids' who are not so little now, but everything I do is for them, to show them that you can do anything you want to if you put the work in.
Why you believe in nail competitions?: Entering nail competitions is a great way to push yourself & your skills to the next level. The key thing to remember is that it’s not always about winning but also about what you’ve gained from entering the competition.
Like myself, many nail technicians start out alone – either mobile, working from home or renting a space. After your initial training, it can be difficult to know where you need to improve skills-wise because you usually don’t have someone to ask for advice.
I started entering competitions to get feedback from judges to help improve my salon work. One of the main incentives for me was to get my timings down because I wasn’t making much profit from my clients as I was taking far too long.
Competitions are a fantastic way to meet like-minded people & I have made some of my bestest friends by meeting them at comps.
Advice to competitors: When entering your first competition, pick a category that’s within your comfort zone & set yourself a goal of how many times per week you’re going to practise. This is something you ordinarily wouldn’t do if you weren’t entering, so it pushes you to focus on your weaker areas, which will also help improve your salon work.
Take on board constructive criticism – after each competition you will get a score sheet that tells you what your scores are for each area, as well as the name of the judge. The judges are always available for feedback & this is where competing is an invaluable tool. Speak to the judge or comp director & ask for their advice on how you can improve because that’s what they’re there for. Any judge will be able to show you where you lost marks & what to do to improve. Take on board what they say as judges are usually previous competition winners & have the knowledge to guide you to creating better nails.
Nail work
