The Clinic Floor

I have been so unbelievably busy with the holidays and decorating and such I haven't written in a while.

I have been on the clinic floor for a little over a month and it's been challenging and fun and scary and a whole bunch of other things. Most of my customers have been people that I don't know which is great because that prepares me for the real salon. I have done cuts and color and blowdrys and relaxers and some of everything else. I am officially broken in.

Tuesday thru Friday I do hair in the mornings and go to class in the afternoons. On Saturday I do hair all day.

I never realized how challenging being a hairdresser is but that is not going to stop me from being a great one!!

Semiperm, demiperm, permanent color...OH MY!!

This week we are learning about semipermant color, demi permanent color, permanent color, color enhancement and color correction. I will never see color in the same light. The most important thing I can say is, please stop using home kits and let a professional do your color. I see why so many people walk around with a bunch of crazy colors and mistakes on their head.

It's better to go get a professional to do your color for around $65 than to get a home kit that may cost around $10 bucks and you screw it up. Then you have to go to the salon to get your corrective color done and that can run upwards of $300 or more!

Not saying that people at home can't do their own color because there are a lot of kitchen ticians out there that are wizes at this. If you don't have a clue go to the shop so that red hair that you thought you could get will wind up being bright orange!!

The count down begins

Everyting is moving so fast. It seems like yesterday that I started school. Now, we are getting ready to seriously start coloring and cutting hair. We will spend another week in color and then go into 2 weeks of cutting. After we do that, it is time to move to the clinic floor. Wow! I can start taking appointments then. Hopefully this will make the time go faster because. The CORE or foundation part of the program is grueling!! I am ready for some fun.

A lot of the FP's are worried about getting appointments and they don't know what to do. I think the school will only schedule you the things you are capable of doing. When we get out there we will be able to do highlites, virgin, color applications, relaxers, perms, basic cuts and color and finishing. You know things of the nature. It is sort of a learn as you go process. They are not going to give us corrective color or complicated cuts just yet. We have just a little while before we learn advanced cut and color. I can't wait for that.

One thing I love about PM-the School is the fact that everyday we are in some sort of class. We don't go out on the floor and then stay there until we graduate. We have classes in the morn and go on the floor in the afternoon. This keeps our techniques fresh and constantly keeps us prepared for the State Board.

Color

Our instructor is a color specialist so he was very happy to finally reach the topic of color. The way he broke down the basics was on point. I understood everything completely. I cannot wait until we start coloring hair. It seems so exciting. After what I learned today I could probably offer some good advice on color. I may even become an expert once I enter the field. This is so very exciting. We do color all next week.

I must tell you. To all you kitchen ticians out there. Please go to the professionals and have your color properly done. It is so much more to it than finding the color you want on the box and applying it. It's simple but complex thing to deal with and if any one thing is off your color will be off too. Think on it!

Those Damn Acrylic Nails

I hate them. They are hard to do and we ran out of supplies. I jacked up one of my classmates when I did her nail. It was just one though. She got it off but it took thirty minutes to do it!

Why oh why do I have to learn something that is completely irrelevant to what I want to do. I am terrible at it and if it weren't for having to do a nail on the state board test I wouldn't worry about it. Now I have to get good at something I will never do again once I get licensed. This crap is taking away from my precious "hair time"

Vent over!

Week Number 4

Why oh why do we have to go through this grueling week of facials, pedicures and manicures. I just want to do hair. I could care less if I ever did any of these ever again!! I know, I know. It is required curriculum and I need it for the state board. Blah, blah, blah. I truly believe that people who have no intention on doing this types of things shouldn't waste their time learning them. Those are hours that could be devoted to cutting and coloring and learning other hairstyling techniques. Rant over!

School is going really well. We are getting ready to start coloring next week. I hope that doesn't change. I am really excited. I really want to learn color. It is so exciting!

So far we have done braiding, parting, finger waves, pin curls, roller sets, perms, manicures, pedicures, facials, smoothing with a flatiron, using the electric marcel and product knowledge. I think that is everything. Forgive me if I left anything out!

Tomorrow it pajama pampering day. We will give each other facial, manis and pedis and we get to wear our pajamas and slippers to school. One of the Future Professionals who is also a make-up artist is going to come and do a demonstration on applying makeup for us. Oooooooo.

We have a test every Saturday on Theory and Procedure. So far so good. I am maintaning an A average.

Well, I bid you good night. I will write again before the week is over!

Learning about hair

I am going to tell you. I go to cosmetology school thinking you know this that and the other about hair. I have been a kitchen-tician most of my life and I knew a pretty good amount about hair. I could hold my own. I even did hair for a little extra cash a while back and that was cool.

Come to find out, I don't know jack about hair. I just think I did. Not only does school teach you the proper techniques and an efficient way to do those techniques, it tells you why!! Why does the hair do this when I rollerset, relaxer, perm, wash, condition and so on and so forth. It is so much chemistry involved in doing hair that sometimes I think I am in chemistry class.

Part of being trained as a cosmetologist is learning about the structure of hair and what the chemicals and products do to it and why. This makes you rethink my whole hair regimen. Am I using the correct shampoos and conditioners? Is blowdrying really as bad as everyone says? etc.

The first week we learned about the structure of the hair and it's physical and chemical make up. We also learned how to finger wave, do some funky old school braiding technique called the cobra, we learned how to properly do french and dutch braids too. We learned how to properly part hair and how to properly roller set(wrap) hair. We learned how to properly hold our scissors for cutting hair and different positions to be able to cut at different angles.

The second week we focused on hair perms and towards the end of the week we learned the proper technique for applying relaxers(virgin and retouches).

There is also a proper technique for flat ironing(smoothing) hair. That one got me because I just thought that you part the hair and take the iron from the scalp to the ends of the hair with just a little pressure. In smoothing the hair should be parted at an angle and smoothed at an angle. You know why? The head is round and the angular parts accommidate the roundness of the hair. When you get close to the scalp it prevents the scalp from being burnt by the iron. That was an aha moment for me because I could never get through a flat iron without a burn or two!!

I will take the time to describe these techniques in a latter post. There is so much to learn!

Finally Starting School

For the past 12 years I have wanted to go to cosmetology school. I put my dreams on hold so I could raise my 2 kids and feel comfortable letting go of them(in a sense).

I visited several schools but decided to go to Paul Mitchell-The School in Atlanta. The school is owned by world reknowned hairstylist Scott Cole, which makes it great because when it's time for me to seek employment I will have the Paul Mitchell name and Scott Coles name on my application. I chose PM because I felt like home when I did my interview and tour. They really make sure you learn above and beyond what is need to pass the State Board. When I leave PM I am going to be a bad ass hair stylists fo sho!