Mike Barrett
For Christine Arnold, it’s not such a big stretch
from the runway to the hockey rink.
North of the City
July 02, 2008 09:00 AM
By: Lindsay Kyte
Kristina Arnold has purple, orange and red hair. But just for a day. Tomorrow she will sport a hockey helmet and go stick-to-stick with the guys sharing the ice.
Ms Arnold, a marketing and sales coordinator at Diamond Estates Wine and Spirits, has two loves when she snaps off her laptop at the end of the day — sports and modelling. “My parents got my brother started in sports at an early age,” Ms Arnold says. “I was like, ‘Oh my God. I would love to do that as well.’ So my dad enrolled me in a couple of sports. I actually started off playing ringette and soccer and then from there started all these other sports.”
Ms Arnold has also competed against men on the ice. “At the University of Guelph, I played on the co-ed hockey team for two years. It was basically intramurals so we weren’t representing the university. The guys treated me the same as all the other players. There were only three women on the team so it was nice that they treated me the same way.”
It is being part of a team and creating relationships with people she wouldn’t have otherwise been able to meet that motivates Ms Arnold to make sports a priority. “A lot of the friends I have today are through the sports I’ve played,” she says.
Modelling came into Ms Arnold’s life in a most unusual way when she walked into Jeff Barkley’s Aurora salon, Yellow Orange, during a Christmas shopping trip with her father. “Jeff came from the back and says, ‘Do you model?’ And I was like, ‘Nope.’ Then he asked if I was interested. I had never really thought about it. So he gave me his card and told me if it was something I was interested in to give him a call. So I thought about it, called him and we just went from there.”
Mr. Barkley and Ms Arnold started preparing right away for a competition. “We trained over a month,” Ms Arnold says. “I would go to the salon and he would practise the hairstyle on me and I would have to practise the runway walk in high heels. And we had to go for dress fittings and get the appropriate outfit that would complement the hairstyle. The reason you practise the hairstyle so much is because they only give you half an hour to create the whole look. Then you’re judged on the hairstyle, the model, the outfit and the make-up. The first competition I ever did with Jeff he actually had to dye my hair purple, orange and red. It definitely turned some heads.”
Thus far, Ms Arnold has worked with Mr. Barkley on two live competitions and four photo shoots. “I feel like the other models had a bit more experience and may have been a bit more confident, but you never know because you’re a different person when you’re at these things. I really had to try to compete with them.”
The pairing of Ms Arnold and Mr. Barkley has produced some successful results.
“Jeff and I placed first in the ABA (Allied Beauty Association) hair competition,” she says. “The category we were competing in was the Evening, Long-Hair Up-Do.”
The duo placed fifth in this year’s L’Oreal Color Trophy with an entry that was inspired by the 1940s.
Ms Arnold says there are similarities between modelling and sports: “You want to just be out there and you’re out there to win. The pressure is on to be successful and all eyes are on you so you want to do your best.”
However, Ms Arnold says modelling will only ever be a hobby for her. “Modelling is something that requires a lot of commitment. You have to be so dedicated. You have to have the right body. There is that stereotype that you have to be so thin for it and because I’m so active in sports, it’s not something I’d like to take seriously. Although doing this stuff for Jeff has been a lot of fun.”
Some of her favourite moments in playing sports have not been big wins but instead seeing the growth of a team. “For our three-on-three women’s league, I got a whole bunch of my girlfriends together who I had been playing a lot of other sports with,” Ms Arnold says. “We entered this league and the first year we … lost every single game. The second year, we came fourth. By the third year we actually won the whole division.”
Currently, Ms Arnold is playing both hockey and ball hockey in the Central York Women’s Hockey League in Aurora. She models whenever Mr. Barkley calls. “Right now, I’m at that age where I’m playing in a women’s league so you come across the odd woman who is still playing and in great shape and maybe 60 or 65. And it makes me hope when I’m that old I can still be actively playing all of these sports that I love so much.”
Both on the ice and on the runway, Kristina Arnold is ready to compete and form new friendships, be it in a hockey helmet or in the highest of high heels.