Its the Final Countdown...

I have about 5 weeks left of school...let the countdown begin.

HALLELUJAH!

yowza i hurt

so today I did THREE spiral perms.
count them...ONe TWO THREE.
If i ever see a flexi-rod again I will go absolutely Christian Bale on someone.

But they turned out beautifully, and I made 20$ in tips on those three and sold $50 in retail products. I did not, however, get a lunch at all. I was rolling and perming from 10am to 430pm.
I dont think I have any hair left in my nose, as it has all burned off after inhaling fumes all day.

My first perm was a woman with WAIST LENGTH hair. And it was kind of coarse and thick.
It took me over an hour just to roll her hair. But when the rods came out she had these thick, long beautiful spiral curls in her hair. They looked fantastic.

The second perm was on an asian woman with stick straight coarse hair. She loved it. Her hair was shoulder length, so her curls were a little more bouncy since she didnt have all that long hair weighing her down.

My third perm was a girl with long, virgin hair. Never been colored or chemically altered...EVER. She was in her late 20's. How someone can go that long without messing with their hair is beyond me. I was wrecking my hair right from the crib. hers turned out perfectly. We showed her how it would look kind of piled up on her head if she wanted to wear it out for an evening, and she squealed with delight. It was nice. I love that feeling.

so as much as I hate perms, I am no longer afraid of them. I guess I always had the Ogilve Home Perm disaster (story tomorrow) in my head and have always been leery of perms. But actually they have come a long way and are really nice if done right.

yay perms!
BUT my FEET are KILLING me. My heels hurt so bad they almost sting when I sit down. I feel like a little old lady hobbling along. I need a good Epsom Salt soak. I think I may break out the foot spa tonight and have a little rest after the kids go to bed(30 minutes and counting!)

I graduated to advanced today!

Today was my LAST DAY in beginners class. I am REALLY going to miss my teacher.

I made her a little gift basket of lip balms, foot scrub, brown sugar body scrub etc. She was awesome and I really wish she were moving up with our class to keep on as our teacher.

But, Starting Monday I am an advanced student on the clinic floor. New Teacher, New Rules and clients!

I got a 100% on my final nail test (I rememberd all the "onychi" diseases correctly!)

and nailed my State Board Manicure(nailed, get it)

Then this afternoon we got to play around with our Nail kits and do some nail art.

So I glued down some thumb sized nail tips, painted them and had fun playing with the different art polishes. Yeah they arent great, but not bad for the first try. I had a lot of fun painting them.

SO now I am DONE with the hardest curriculum, and I passed with flying colors. I am really proud of myself. All those disorders and diseases just about killed my brain. But I managed to keep them all straight. So dont try and come to my chair with your ugly crusty Pig Toes (onychigryphosis) because I will KNOW what it is.

Dont think you can fool ME.  I studied all these nasty things.

Moo cards for school

I LOVE MOO!!! I want to order a set of their mini cards for when I go to the advanced floor.

That way I can upload a bunch of different designs for an assortment. Thats what I LOVE about the Moo cards. You can have up to 100 different designs for your cards, and the cost is the same as if you did one design.

It is just so hard to find cute cosmetology related cards that dont include clip art scissors or clip art long swirling hair or cartoony blowdryers etc.

so these were just a few floral ones I did(I really love flowers). I want something pretty, and the fact that they are adorably small make it even better. I figure I can hand them out to the new people who sit in my chair and hopefully they will pull out their card and request me when they re-book. That way I get more technical hours in, I get more crossed off on my checklist and more tips than anyone else.

(Obviously I blocked out the contact info on it for all you cyber stalkers out there!!)

I really like them and am hoping to have them ordered in the next few weeks before I start the floor (6 weeks!!)

5'10 blonde, part two with pictures

Here are the photos as promised of my latest creation. I have been so good the past few years about not wrecking my hair. Then I wrote a post about using my powers for good to help other hair wreckers. But once a hair wrecker, always a hair wrecker. When around chemicals our fingers twitch and we actually think it would be a good idea. It is like an alcoholic around alcohol. They KNOW it isnt a good idea, but in their mind they are thinking "What will one hurt??"
I am that way around scissors, hair color or bleach of any kind.
Now as I said, this was a spur of the moment, no game plan, just do it because I am in the mood idea. I had left over bleach from my color lab and decided instead of pouring it down the sink I would find a better home for it...on my head. I hand painted some heavy chunky streaks on my head in random places that would peek out strategically on the underside and then some on top that were meant for dramatics. And yes, I did this all by myself.
so without further ado...ignore the pasty white woman, you are just here for the hair...the results of my rash and impetuous behaviour.

The good news is Charles said he liked it. Although I feel like I can not shock him any more with my hair-antics, so I dont know if he is being sincere or if he is trying to spare my feelings, as he has done countless times before.(He knows on which side his bread is buttered)

Am I still on the wagon?? Or did I fall off the wagon with that? You be the judge...and be brutally honest.

Attack of the 5'10" blonde

I had some left over bleach(oops, I mean "lightener) after my color lab this afternoon at school. I didnt want to waste it.
so I did what any great hairwrecker would do... I put it on my own head.
Did it work? Did it wreck? Am I officially fallen off the wagon or have I proven that I can make rash decision with my hair and now have them work since I have the proper edu-ma-cation about it??

Pictures tomorrow...

Local Hair Show

On February 23rd I am competing in the local Empire hair show in Womens trend cut and color.

It is just for our school and If I win I will be able to compete in that category for our school at the National hair show.

I picked This cut as my inspiration:

So I brought home my mannequin tonight to practice.  I have the cut down, but had no product to put in the hair to make it piecy as shown in the picture...plus I only have a small set of lowlights in, and not the highlights as shown.  I only had my scissors and razor and hair dryer at my disposal. No product, or iron or flat iron. Plus I am not a skilled photographer, so you cant really see the whole effect.  the cut ius the same, obviously the styling isnt quite there, due to lack to gel, pomade, wax etc.

You can see the side view here, the shorter crop on the sides and back, and then the longer bang.

This is the front view.I made it a little longer so I could keep practicing and eventually cut it shorter and shorter  each time until it was the right length, and I had the cut down in 45 minutes.

I will post more pictures after I take it back to school and work some proper product into it and get my marcel iron to give some of the pieces a little more Oomph

My twin is skinny

so now that i have finished hair cutting and have moved onto color, I decided it was time

to update "the look". after all, no one wants their hair cut by a woman with a two toned afro.

So my teacher asked if anyone wanted to be used as a demo for color. I jumped up out of my chair, moving faster than I have moved in the past 6 years. I brandished my scissors and threatened an "I will cut you" to anyone who tried to move in on my turf. everyone agreed that I was the best candidate for corrective color. As Snake from the Simpsons would say "Haw Haw".

We neutralized the red in my hair from the pool and the sun, and colored it a level 5 to my natural mocha color.

Of course there was still alot of red, as my hair does tend to pull red tones, but it is all an even tone and color.It is a nice dark cinnamon color. I am really happy with how it turned out.

Then I had my teacher go through and cut to her hearts content. I showed her a picture of what I would like. She cut off about 8 inches and stacked it. Then she went through with her thinning shears and thinned, and thinned and thinned and thinned and thinned some more(I have a lot of hair).

So it is SHORT and stacked in the back and gets longer in the front. The longest piece curls arounhd my ear on the one side and the other side is even longer and kind of goes down to my chin. Sort of an Asymmetrical effect.

I LOVE it. It takes me like 5 minutes to flat iron and I am on my way. It dries so fast and it is shiny and smooth and awesome. Tomorrow we start on highlighting and lowlighting, so I will be adding some streaks to the mix.Maybe a few copper chunks in the front to jazz it up a bit.

but here is a visual of my hair.

Finn told me "mom, your hair kind of looks like Courtneys moms...except you're fat and she's skinny. I bet she doesnt eat junk food."

Thanks, Finn.

I got yer mullet right here...

Yes, they still teach the dreaded Mullet.

Or in CLiC, it is called "The Renegade"

Whatever.A new name does not hide the fact that it still looks awful.

We are using our "Kyle" mannequin, who looks like a homeless person. He has long hair and a long beard. Since we have to get 5 haircuts out of Kyle, we can only cut off like 1-2 inches per haircut.

Although I completely rocked the Mullet(excuse me, "the RENEGADE") I am still a little embarassed that I know how to do it. Will people actually come in and request it? Will someone sit down in my chair and say "I wanna look like Achy Breaky heart". I doubt it, yet they still teach it. I guess we are in North Carolina, I may need to keep this one handy at the back of my mind to pull up in case of a mullet emergency.

However, since we could only take off an inch or so the overall look was a longer, fuller mullet.

Kyle has naturally bouncy and feathery hair, so in the end he ended up looking like Andy Gibb.

Now not everyones looked like Andy.
Some looked like Kenny Rogers. Some looked like Alabama, circa 1983.
One cut hers a little short and Kyle was rockin the 1982 Steve Perry of Journey cut. It brought a tear to my eye. I walked by and started singing "Don't Stop Believin'.." It was hot.


On a completely unrelated side note. I am totally ready to throw the Wii out the window.
It has become the latest obsession in our house. Man, Woman and CHild alike. It is horrible.
Wii, you are from the Devil.

A hairwrecker no longer

One of the great things about cosmetology school is the ability to recognize when i am about to forge a hair disaster upon my person.

Now that the haircutting curriculum is 3 days from its finale and I have learned all the proper techniques and angles and have the proper scissors. No more orange handled kitchen fiskars, no more cutting willy nilly and using my own "Sarah techniques". I can give a good and proper haircut...real partings, real angles, real knowna nd proven CLiC techniques. No more backroom mediocre hairdressing. This is the real deal. Christmas eve I gave Charles and the boys haircuts. They turned out very professional if I do say so myself (And i DO say so myself)

starting monday we are on color. thats semi permanent, permanent, frosting, highlights etc.

No more crappy dye from the Rite Aid, no more "do it yourself highlights" that leave large blobs at the roots. No more pink hair, orange hair, etc. No more "what have I done!!" moments. i am forever finished with frenetic phone calls to Lindsey saying "Lindsey, help I did something bad"

I have a special license that allows me to go to the stylist only stores and get the REAL stuff.

I can call upon my mad styling skills to keep me from ruining my hair from this moment henceforth. (or at least in 4 weeks henceforth when color is done with)

This fact alone is worth the $18,000 tuition.

I will use this power only for good. I will use this power to help heal other hairwreckers. I will use this power to help restore the hair of current hairwreckers.

This I do solemnly swear.

Hair Pressing destiny

The other day we worked on Hair Pressing.


It is a technique that many african american women used to use on their hair to straighten it without the use of chemicals or permanent relaxers. Most women just use a flat iron now, but some of the old school ladies refuse to have it done by flat iron.

Pressing combs are special heavy combs made out of metal that you put on the stove or in a special heating stove. You then have to comb through the hair slowly and firmly both on the top and on the underside. It is kind of a long process, because the amounts of hair you take are small to make sure it gets as flat, sleek and smooth as possible.

Well, we pulled out Destiny, our african american doll, and plugged in all the stoves and started heating up the pressing combs. Unfortunately for us the class who had learned this technique previous to ours failed to properly clean the combs. The room filled with smoke from the oil sheen and other oil based products left in the combs.

Of course we test the combs on a paper strip first to make sure they are not too hot before putting them on the mannequin hair. And you have to coat the hair with a thermal protectant, like Oil Sheen. So the hot combs, the oils sheen and human hair...

Our classroom was BILLOWING smoke out the door. You could smell burning hair and we set the fire alarm off. Every time someone would pass by they would wrinkle up their nose and say something like "Whew, you guys must be burning hair in here". It was horrible. The teacher dragged in 3 different fans to blow it out and to keep it away from the fire alarm(again)

And the Oil sheen was just as bad. It is oil in aerosol form, kind of like cooking spray, but finer and mistier. So when you spray it, it swirls through the air and lingers like a gentle fog on a drizzly morning in San Francisco. so between the Oil Sheen fog, the burning hair and the smoking combs , by the afternoon I was DONE. It took everything out of me.

We had all straightened our Destiny dolls, all burned ourselves on a comb and I know for sure we had burned our mannequin heads at least once. The girl next to me, Cammy, said "Ma'am I am truly sorry about that ear. May I recommend a good plastic surgeon?"
But I got a 96%, which is better than I thought I would do in this curriculum. By biggest fear is melting or burning hair. But I find myself growing more confident working with african american hair. Now that I understand the structure of the hair and the differences between caucasuian hair and african american hair I am not as timid.

today we are finishing up our finger waves (which by the way I threw my wave comb across the room I was so frustrated) and next week it is onto ethnic chemical relaxers and perms.

on Base Curls and a Marcel iron

SO we have been learning about the different types of curls and the volume they create in the hair. Depending on what angle you start the curl at, and where it ends up on your base determines how high you can get your hair.

Yesterday we broke out Destiny, our African American doll, and went to work.

We used our Marcel iron, the professional curling iron and learned how to twirl and click, twirl and click. The marcel irons do not have a spring loaded clamp like regular curling irons. You have to use the lever with your pinky to get it to open just a touch. You have to continually twirl and click to get it to the base until your curl is set. It isnt an excessively easy technique and takes quite a bit of practice.

I used muscles in my arms that I never knew existed. My forearm was on fire yesterday, all the way up to my shoulder and behind my ear. Just on my right arm , shoulder and ear. my left side was fine. I am positive it was from my marcel iron and learning to use it. My teacher did say that when she first started her arm was killing her and didnt think she would get it right. But it just takes practice. So I suppose I had better break out the Advil and heating pad, put on my big girl panties and deal with it. She actually suggested we pull out our marcel every night and practice twirling it to build up our forearm. (I am quite positive my right arm will resemble popeye within the next 6 months)

THEN we are starting on the finger waves. These are the WORST . You actually create those ridges and valleys with your fingers, a comb and lots of hair product. It is the one thing that most stylists hate doing. My teacher said she fully expects to see combs flying, dolls getting beaten up and bad words to be expounded.

This is going to be my hardest curriculum. I am used to caucasian hair, and have never worked with ethnic hair. It is so different and requires so much extra and different care and styling than i am used to.

But I have a good attitude and know I can do it. I just need to pay extra close attention so i dont melt hair, burn anything off with too much chemical and make sure I dont forget the extra steps requires in the relaxers or perms on the ethnic hair.

pictures from the week

Just a few pictures from my week.

I caught finn putting stickers on his face:

Here is the Gang from our Willie Wonka Movie Theme at School:

Here is my final exam up-do. It was a "make your own" using at least 2 techniques we learned in Long Hair design. i did pretty well and the teacher said it was creative. i used a french roll(vertical twist) with loops and hand formed curls. I did a braid on one side as well and some two strand cross overs.

Thats about all. Hopefully I will have more to post next week.

Big Willies Chocolate Shop and House of Weave

Today is the last day of up-do's and long hair design.
We are taking our final written test, doing the fan twist up-do for a grade and
demonstrating our own personal design for a grade.
I was up until almost midnight last night with my beading group and practicing for today.
I totally didnt get enough sleep.

Yesterday was Movie theme day at school. each class got a movie and we had to dress up and do hair and make up and do a skit.
Our class got Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the old version)
. We did " Big Willz and da chocolate shop"(the ghetto version of W W)
it was hilarious. We used 50 cent "Candy shop" and 69 boys "Tootsie Roll"
we got lots of laughs and I took lots of pictures. The Oompa Loompa and Willie (Big Willz) were the best hair and make up and clothing. It was hilarious. But we were Ghetto.
The golden tickets were bought on the black market, from a guy in a trenchcoat, Big Willz had a strong pimp hand and came out to a shake your booty song.
Curnel(the one guy in our class) was Mike TV. We had him dressed up in this little black leather vest with roses and fringe, a cowboy hat and we bought a plastic gun with holster from the dollar store. He went up to "Big Will" and pulled out his gun, cocked it gangsta style and said "Break Yourself fool!" (pronounced Break Yo-self, foo).Our teacher laughed so hard she was crying. Curnel is NOT gangster in any way. When he was first practicing he was like the white preppy "whats-up" budwiser commercial. "What is up? How are YOOOUUU doing". we had to ghetto-fy him. We have been laughing for 3 days straight while practicing.

But the Oompa Loompa was Crazy awesome. She had this white overall dress that she wore with white leggings and brown leg warmers. I made pompoms for her shoes. We braided her hair on the underside and had it all sticking out in ponytails and knots and spray painted them with green hairspray. We used a really dark orange foundation on her skin and I did her eyebrows with a silver eye pencil and used a silvery gray eye powder. Her eye make-up was green. It was really awesome. She looked just like a little Oompa Loompa (it helps she is only 4'10" tall)

Mimi was Violet (the gum chewer). Her hair was braided in corn-rows up the sides and on top had a mohawk of weave etc. She wore a blue shirt, blue leggings with blue booty shorts, and blue sparkly shoes. We did her make-up in blue.

Kisha was Charlie and wore a newsboy cap and scarf, and Bianca, who was Verucca, wore lots of bling and pink and a coat with a fur collar. we looked so good and got a lot of laughs.

I will post pictures later. I forgot my camera in my locker at school.

so ya had a bad day

whew, yesterday was ROUGH.

We did up-do's ALL DAY LONG.

4 strand braids, rolls, twists, figure 8's, 5 strand braids, off the scalp braids, on the scalp braids, chignons and french rolls.

My hell will be 10 brides all coming in on the same day wanting their "wedding hair" done.

But here is my french twist that I practiced at home. I am demonstrating it today in class for a grade, and it will look much better after I get some pomade and sculpting wax on it with some hairspray to control all the flyaways and to get it slick and chic.

voila, the french twist (the vertical roll).

The Basic Bow

Today we started Long Hair Design in school.

We started with the 5 basic techniques: the coils, single strand coiled braid, the loop, double strand twist and three strand braid. (all seen on the mannequin here. The coils are on top, the loops are on the right, the bun is next to them, the 2 stranded twist is center and the braid is the farthest left)

We then learned the Basic Bow. we will be graded on it tomorrow. Today was a practice run through and practice grading. tomorrow is the big day. I got a 90% today, because i got 5 points taken off for each bobby pin showing. So tomorrow I will make sure they are hidden and score a 100 on this bad boy.

Here is mine

You can see why it is called a bow. You make the hair look like a ribbon bow.

Here is a side view of the Bow.

Yet another view of the basic bow. I personally think it looks like a butt...with a bobby pin.

Ta-da! The basic bow.

Aced the curriculum

I am feeling very proud of myself.(pat pat pat)

For the past two weeks I have been studying and memorizing and analyzing etc. I know the difference between a macule and a chloasma. I know what a Bulla is. I know what a keratoma is. I know about 42 other various skin lesions and disorders, such as Vitiligo(and I am pretty sure Michael Jackson does NOT have it).

I know the various layers of the epidermis and the dermis and what each one does, is responsible for and contains. I put up with the younger girls laughing every time the Stratum Corneum was referred to as "The Horny Layer".

I learned how to wax facial hair. I learned how to tweeze properly. I learned how to give a totally amazing facial and how to apply make-up beautifully.

I took 2 written tests, gave 3 facials, waxed eyebrows and applied make-up. I went on a field trip to South park Mall(the Hoity Toit) and went to Dillards and Belks to the make-up counter where they were having make-up extravaganza days and giving free make overs and demonstrations and lessons. We then got to tour the Carmen!Carmen! salon and day spa and meet Carmen himself. He is a brilliant hair stylist(a bit of a diva) and I really enjoyed listening to him and he gave us lots of great advice and words of wisdom.

So with my attendance at 100%, my written tests at 100% and my facials at 98 and 99% and my make up at 98% and my waxing at 98%, I averaged a 99% for the skin and make up curriculum.

A disclaimer for the 98%...My teacher does not believe in giving 100% on practicals. She says there is always room for improvement, no matter how long you have been in the industry. So if you didnt sweep up and out enough on one pass through, or did the petrissage for 10 seconds too long, she would dock a point etc. so my 98 and 99% were for little things like my wubbie under my materials was crooked (wubbies are the paper towel type things they use in salons), or my toner cotton ball wasnt thrown away the second it came off her face.

So to keep up with my skills, I will also be offering facials and waxing out of my home to practice, the cost would be to cover the materials. So waxing eyebrows would be $3 and a classic european facial with massage and mask would be $10. (massage of the face and neck, not the body) If anyone is interested just let me know.

tomorrow we start on long hair design!

SHHHH! I'm sleeping

Being in cosmetology school has been REALLY tiring.
I dont mean a "I need a nap" type tiring. I mean "tiring" as in Pregnancy tiring.
You cant hold your eyes open or your head up. You are just so exhausted that moving is an almost impossible chore.
And no it is impossible that i am pregnant. I am just really exhausted from school.
I come home and am just wiped out. I practically fell asleep with my face in the chicken the other night at the dinner table. I feel like I am in 11th grade varsity track all over again.



The first few days I seemed to be OK, but then we starting getting hands on with the
waxing and the facials and the make-up. Always touching people, always having your hands on their face or head etc is exhausting.

I was talking to Lindsey(massage therapist extrordinaire) and told her of my dilemma.
She said that people are natural energy vampires. You are putting yourself into them with your energy and they just drain it from you. She gets it too when she is massaging people.



Last night I went to bed at 745. I fell asleep before my kids.



So SHHHHH, I'm sleeping.

week wrap up

So I had a great week this week.

I firmly established myself at the head of my class in vocab and terminology.
yesterday I scored a 98% on my waxing final where I had to wax a pair of eyebrows.
I waxed Bianca's eyebrows to pefection but lost 2 points when I accidentally put the used muslin strip on the table first instead of throwing it directly into my soiled implements bag.
But I found I have a natural flair and ability to rip peoples eyebrows off and make them look good. Plus I learned the proper way to tweeze eyebrows. Did you know you are supposed to pull the skin taut and then pull in the opposite direction of hair growth?? It made it so mcu better and comfortable. learn something new every day.

But Poor Bianca. She has fairly sensitive skin, and though I used the cream wax for sensitive skin her eyebrows still got puffy and red. Even the cooling gel with aloe didnt help. She ended up putting seabreeze on it and tha helped quite a bit. So hint...buy some seabreeze if you have sensitive skin and pluck your eyebrows...

Mimi did my eyebrows and they turned out quite nice as well.

Today is my first written test. I expect a 100%.
We are also moving onto the anatomy and muscles of the face and starting skin analysis and facials. I cant wait to have one done on me. I LOVE facials.

Today is Halloween, so the boys got to wear their Transformer costumes to school (minus the masks). That was the fastest they have gotten dressed all year.
So tonight we are taking them to my mom and dad's house to go tricker treating. They have THE BEST NEIGHBORHOOD to go T-o-T'g in. I expect to come home with a haul.

on another positive note being in school has really helped with my diet.
I eat breakfast, I dont snack in between meals and I bring my lunch. I dont have money with me so I cant use the vending machines, and then after school I go home and it is dinner time. and By the time I get home I am so worn out and tired that I dont really feel hungry so I just eat a tiny portion. I lost 7 pounds this week not even trying! YAHOO!!

So have a great weekend all.

They call me MISS Computer

so I have a new nickname.
"Computer".

Nothing cute like Muffy or Buffy or Bambi or Peaches (now isnt that a lineup from Old School Fantastic Sams? Remember back in the 80's and you would go to Fantastic Sams and get your hair cut and the names above their station would be Foxy, Muffy, Bambi, Peaches, Pumpkin etc? For some reason i remembered that. Sorry for the tangent and here i am back to reality.)
Just plain old Computer.

The past 3 days we have done nothing but theory and book learning. We have been learning all the layers of the skin, the various forms of bacteria, and a zillion different types of skin lesions, diseases and disorders. We played a game in class where we grouped up in teams and she would ask us the name of a disease and we had to describe it, or she would give us the definition and we would have to come up with the name of it. Our team had 3 people on it. We beat the other teams 12 to 6.
When the teacher said something like "Whew, your team is really remembering. Good for you!".
One girl from the other team said "Their team! I think you mean Sarah. She's the one with all the answers!".

The teacher asked if I had an easy time remembering words and had a really easy time memorizing things and I said yes. She kind of made a joke like my brain was like Google and I was a computer.
It stuck.

So throughout the rest of the day when something would be asked everyone would look at me like I knew the answer and would say "Ask computer! She will know it".
so I have established myself firmly at the head of the class in theory. We will see how well I do in practice. Now I have to keep up with it and retain my place on the queen of vocabulary throne.

No my name aint baby, it's computer. Miss Computer if you're nasty...