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

Life sucks sometimes

It is one of those mornings. Nothing is going right.

Charles and I are in one of "those" fights.
He didnt get a paycheck on Friday, the manager said he thought they mailed it, so somewhere is a much needed paycheck floating around in at the US Postal Service. So, while trying to keep our heads above water and get Bills paid, until that check shows up I have like $40 in the bank account that is not earmarked for something. Of course this is the month that school needs $5 here and $6 there and a donation for teacher birthdays and class parties and field trips. Then I get upset for him paying $10 to the library for overdue fines and it just escalated. Honestly.

I am starting a new(and difficult) curriculum at school and am a little nervous (chemical relaxers and ethnic hair care/styling). . So for the next 3 weeks I will be pulling my own hair out while trying not to chemically burn off Destiny's(my mannquin).

Peter STILL has a nasty cough that seems to get worse, then better, then worse then better.
So I have to call his pediatrician and see if I can get in for an appointment and get an antibiotic. So if I can get an appointment today I will have to leave school early and there goes my perfect attendance record for this cycle, which actually pisses me off. A LOT.

I have a giant fist hole in my bathroom wall from SOMEONE punching it in anger (tsk tsk tsk).

So to quote one of my favorite songs from when I was a kid (Don Williams Jr.)
"Lord, I hope this day is good. I'm feeling cranky and Misunderstood
I should be thankful Lord, I know i should, but Lord I hope this day is good"

just breathe.

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).

Fall Foliage

Autumn is my second favorite season (first is spring).
I love the changing of the leaves, the brilliant golds and flaming reds, the burnished oranges all contrasting against each other in a riotous mass of color.
Our neighborhood was particularly lovely this year. I dont know if it was the drought and then the rain, or why they were just so spectacular. Here are a few of my favorites:(these have not been retouched or photoshopped in any way)



This is a view down the street from our yard (ignore the recylce bin that Charles didnt put away) That yellow tree across the street looked like a giant golden sun. It is just so beautiful.




Here is that same tree, just a different angle.
Looking out the window at it makes me happy.





this tree was 2 streets over. I actually stopped the car to get out and take a picture of it. The picture doesnt do it justice. When it is sunny outside the tree literally glows.





Here is that same tree, just closer.








Here is our own humble Japanese Maple Tree. It turns a beautiful scarlet red every autumn, but this year was so much more intense.


Of course the leaves are all disappearing now, falling off the trees to be raked up and bagged. But for 2 perfect weeks my neighborhood is the idyllic autumnal collection of color.
At least I have my pictures to remind me.

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.