Oh, the horror!

Last night, as you know, was mini-scalp massage, shampoo, condition and blow-dry. Anticipating this activity, I did not wash my hair, just sprayed with FOTE (Fruit of the Eart Aloe Vera Gel), JMO (John Masters Organics) Orange and Silk Protein Gel mixed with hot water. I was trying to impart some moisture before it was lost. A losing battle, I now know!

We received our kits and book bags last night. We weren't anticipating receiving them until the end of next week because they were ordered late. So we went through the kits, made sure we had everything we needed. This includes a detangling comb, metal rat tail comb, regular rat tail comb, regular combs, taper comb, 6 round brushes (3 thermal and 3 boar bristle), one paddle brush, one scalp brush (but it's so hard, I would be terrified of using it on a scalp for fear of removing all the scalp while brushing), one denman looking brush and one regular brush. It also came with a mirror, clips, hair dryer with nozzel concentrator (what the heazy with not getting a diffuser, huh?!), 3/4" curling iron, flat iron, clipper set, mannequin scissors, regular haircutting shears, thinning shears and thinning blade, haircutting cape, chemical cape and an apron. Phew! You get all that?! Wait, there's more! I got two mannequin heads with a tripod stand. Yes, it is my pleasure to tote these around during my time at school.

Ladies. Have you ever gone into a hairstylist for a color, cut, DT, anything and mentioned to them that your hair is super-damaged? Trust me now when I say we've seen worse. The mannequin heads are nasty. Not only do they look drag-esque, but the hair has been super-processed to make it clean. It's grossness. On the upside? We get to decorate them however we want! Helloooooooo Sharpie collection! I'm thinking maybe drag queen. I wonder if I could pull off putting convincing freckles on them? Hmmmm...

Anyhoo...back on track. After ensuring that all our stuff was in our kits, they took them back. Took them BACK! They say to ensure that we don't lose anything, but I have my suspicions. We did get to keep our mannequin tripod and the heads. And our bookbag. We'll get our kit back in bits and pieces.

Then we moved on to the mini scalp massage, shampoo, condition and blow dry. I must admit this was scary to me. As I said, most of these girls seem to have straight hair. What are they going to do with me? We got our demonstrations, then we set to work. I was the first "guest." My partner grabbed a bit of scalp treatment (they were out of the usual tea tree oil) and did a fantastic job on the massage. Next was the shampoo. I had broached the subject with my instructor about me being sensitive to sulfates and silicones, but I'll get to that in another post as it's loooonnnngggg. She washed me, then applied conditioner, then rinsed...all with cool water as the hot water supply had been depleted by students on the floor. Great for the hair cuticle. NOT great for the guest!

We walked back to the classroom where she began to dry my hair. I think this girl has some experience in drying hair because I was quite impressed with her technique. However. The dryers they gave us get really hot and she was using a round boar bristle brush with a metal barrel. She was so intent on getting the hair taught and straightened well, which I appreciate. But the end result is that I think I might have a few heat blisters on my head. She didn't aim the airflow down the hairshaft. Just aimed it through the hair and into the metal barrel of the brush. She made a comment or two about how hot the barrel got. You would think she would have translated that to how hot the dryer might be on my hair/scalp! I bit the bullet and didn't say anything like, "Son of a biscuit woman, you trying to fry eggs on my scalp?! That dryer is hot!" Or, "That is going to leave a bald spot from the 2nd degree burns I just received there." Okay, it really wasn't that bad and I'm too lazy to really come up with something pithy. Maybe later.

It took her all of my allotted time and hers to get my hair dried to her satisfaction, but the end result was actually pretty fabulous. The more time goes by, the more people are enamored of my hair. Last night it was the depth of color and how shiny it was. Even without heat protectant products in it. Yes, my hair will scream for the next little while. After class tonight, I think I'll slather on a DT, just to placate the hair gods. I mean, I need my hair to look really good at my Grandmother's memorial service...

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, but this is all I could get. Hope it shows up! And here are the results:
Apologies for the mega-flash. You can see how well she did.
The color doesn't show up so well...

The back. Again, the color doesn't show up too well.
I think this one makes it looke like the ends are black. I assure you, they are not!

Maybe this one is the one where the ends look black...again, they're not.
I like this because it shows the depth of the color.

Here's your cheeser smile for the camera. At the beginning of the night, my face wasn't so shiny and the freckles were hidden better.

Stay tuned for tales of the sulfate and silicone free search...