A PRUDHOE business which runs hair and beauty sessions for children is expanding into adult courses.

Mini Me Hair and Beauty Academy, run by Trudy Johnston, runs holiday and after-school sessions covering basic hair and beauty care, based at the Manors housing and community project and Adderlane Academy in Prudhoe.

Now, following a £10,000 grant from Karbon Homes, which runs the Manors, Trudy is planning to expand the service to offer adult courses. The grants are given to support community initiatives focusing on health and wellbeing.

Last Thursday, an enrolment event was held at the Manors where youngsters who attend the courses could show those interested in signing up some skills such as facial massages and hair styling.

Trudy has 36 years of experience in the hair and beauty industry and 17 years of experience in education, having previously been head of hairdressing at Newcastle College until two years ago – which is when Mini Me started. She said the idea for adult courses came about due to the success of the children’s courses, and interest from adults.

“The idea for this is to encourage people to go back into education and build their confidence and employability skills,” she explained.

“It’s not just hair and beauty, it’s things like customer service and everything that helps with employability.”

The £10,000 grant from Karbon Homes will cover an 18-month period and as well as running courses at the Manors, Trudy will also run them from the premises of No.28 in Hexham.

Mary Ormston, community connector for Karbon Homes helped Trudy with the process to secure the funding.

She said: “Because this is a course with real qualifications and it’s new and different – we haven’t funded anything like this before. Trudy is so enthusiastic about it and you can tell she really cares about the community.”