Karlee Richards steals the show at JAFA

Josef’s Annual Fashion Awards, better know as “JAFA” celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Each year students of Josef’s School of Hair Design deliver hair, makeup and costumes you’ve never seen before.

The big show for the students is not only entertaining, but it’s also a competition.

This year’s top standout is Karlee Richards of Fargo.

She’ll train at the Aveda institute in Minneapolis and gets a free trip to Las Vegas for the world release of new hair products from TIGI.

Mikaela Hutson, the art director at Josef’s West explains, “It is like the super bowl of hair in Fargo.  There’s a lot of preparation that goes on.  The students put in a good month, month and a half.”

“Some of them, they were up all night”, adds Alisha Schaeffer, an instructor at Josef’s West, “then they go to school, and we open up the school at 4:30, 5:00(am) and they’re there already, doing makeup, doing hair.”

More than 250 models took the stage, most of them volunteers or friends of the designers.