In town halls and exhibition centres across the country, competitive hairdressers are regularly going head to head in pursuit of trophies and diplomas. The most successful of these dream of being selected to represent the UK at the World Hairdressing Championships. Held every two years, the biggest and most prestigious of all hairdressing competitions attracts the best competitive cutters from 49 countries for a showdown in a frenzy of hairspray and scissors.

Competition hairdressers don’t tend to work at the famous West End salons. Many of the fancy stylists from those establishments would turn up their noses at the idea of competing. Instead, competitive cutters often come from your average local salon. But they are still a different breed from most hairdressers. Something inside drives them to seek perfection and glory on the competition floor.

In Hair Wars, documentary-maker Morgan Matthews follows two stories of competition hairdressers. One is the tale of the British hairdressing team and their quest for success at the 2006 World Hairdressing Championships in Moscow. In the run-up to the big event, Matthews follows British team manager Keith Broughton and the UK team on an international tour as rivalries and relationships unravel.

In the second story, viewers meet John Phelps, a double World Champion hairdresser whose rise and fall in the Nineties made him a legend in competition hairdressing. After experiencing World Championship glory, John’s success soon went to his head. When he smashed up a hotel room and insulted the judges at the 1996 World Championships, he was banned from international competition for five years.

Now John is trying to get back on the straight and narrow with an academy to train young people in the art of competition hairdressing. He hopes to give early school leavers the chance to shine on the competition floor. But it isn’t just the local kids who John is trying to save through hairdressing. His 15-year-old stepdaughter, Dawn, has fallen off the rails and John hopes that involving her as a model in competition hairdressing will get her back on track.

Hair Wars will air on BBC Two, later this April.