Sixteen heads are better eight. Le Mars Beauty College students show off their award-winning hairstyles on top of the heads of mannequins. Seated: (l-r) Traci Roskan placed first in Sioux City; Paige Graves took home first in Sioux Falls; Lacey Curry got a second place finish in Sioux City; while Lindsay Olson was honored with third place in Sioux City. Also participating in the competition sponsored by Peel's Salon Service were: (standing) Tanisha Girard, Natalie Burkins, Amanda DeJong, and Estela Cancino-Magana. [Click to enlarge]

For Le Mars Beauty College students, fixing hair is as easy as 1 - 2 - 3. Perhaps that's why three of the school's aspiring hair stylists took first, second and third places finishes at a hair styling competition recently held in Sioux City.

"Our students competed with 30 other girls from three different schools," smiles the beauty college's Sheila Anderson. "So, to have have of our girls place so highly was simply extraordinary."

The competition, sponsored by Sioux City's Peel's Salon Service, required Anderson's students to demonstrate their formal hair styling acumen on mannequin heads.

"It was a lot of fun," enthuses first place finisher Traci Roskam. "I can't wait to do it again."

Joining Roskam in the beauty college's tonsorial trifecta were fellow students Lacey Curry (second place) and Lindsey Olson (third place).

Paige Graves is a newcomer, not only to the competition but to hairdressing in general. She's only been at the Le Mars Beauty College for the last seven months but she, too, took home first place honors. Only her Peel-sponsored event was held in Sioux Falls.

"This gives us a terrific opportunity to learn," Graves says. "Formal hairdos will never go out of style."

"Paige has been with us for such a short amount of time," Anderson mentions, "but she did such a beautiful job."

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"All of our girls did a beautiful job," she allows. "I'm very proud."