Haircutting

The past 2 weeks have been haircutting week. My poor instructor kept on having to remind my fellow classmates that we're learning to cut hair, not do haircuts. We're just getting the basics down. Let me just state that these really are not pleasing to the eye. But they have been fun as we've been able to whack off all our nasty mannequin hair.

Yesterday, we did mens cuts on one of our mannequin heads. They showed us how to to a scissor-over-comb cut and a clipper-over-comb cut. They do not allow us to use clipper guards while we are in school. That's cool. I liked my clipper-over-comb experience more, though. Just so you guys are aware...evidently steps are becoming a big thing in mens haircuts again. The guys are all over using what is called a tattoo clipper, basically a set of clippers with only 3-4 cutting teeth in them to give you steps or designs in your head a la Vanilla Ice. Fantastic.

Next week is our written test. Exactly one week from today. I just about had a heart attack when she told us that today. Next week, we also have makeup week where we get our makeup kits. I'm very excited for that! Then Mar 9th, we have our floor test where we go over all the theory we've done. Like color applications with conditioner, rolling 9 perm rods., washing, conditioning and styling the hair. I have asked my sister to be my model, but I'm slightly afraid because she has super-thick, coarse hair. Note to self: remind sister she'd be my model and that it's next Monday.

On a completely related and yet unrelated subject, my hands are in total revolt. My eczema has become full-fledged nightmare mode right now. I look like a leper and some of my fingertips keep on splitting and bleeding. Great for me to do a haircut, right? Nobody will notice some blood in their hair, right?

War Wounds

I would have taken a picture, but I figured it would be nicer not to.

I've managed to make it through 7 weeks without any major battle wounds from class. I've made it through allergic reactions to the silicones in the conditioners (imagine that my eczema flare-ups were caused by silicones...huh), breaking a foot (not school related), perms, curling iron usage, hair dryer instruction and more without a mishap. Last night, that streak ended.

Like I posted last week, we started to learn how to do haircuts this week. Notice I said how to do a haircut, not doing haircuts? The haircut basics are ugly in real life. Monday was a review and going over how to hold our scissors. We were warned over and over that these blades are sharp. Still, people were a little blase about it. I was cautious because me and sharp objects don't get along. I know...smart profession to pick up. I have previous war wounds from every time my parents purchased a new knife. All on the same finger. Stitches were involved.

I made it through night one without any mishaps. Night two, I was sick, so I didn't make it in. Last night was night three of cutting. I made it almost the whole night, too! Right close to the end, I was going to make a cut when my thumb slipped out of the grip. I went to grab it sloppily and accidentally dragged the blade across my index finger. It scared me, so I immediately pulled the blade away. I thought it was just a scratch and it wasn't really bleeding, so I went back to cutting. We were warned. I played with the cut for a bit and it still wasn't bleeding (the blades cut so clean and so deep, you don't feel it and it doesn't start bleeding right away). Then I looked down and it was starting to bleed some more. I put a band-aid on it and finished up the cutting for the night. I went home and was prepared to take the band-aid off and go to bed. It's still bleeding. I took a look at the cut and realized it was pretty deep. Like deep enough I should have probably had stitches. It's still bleeding this morning.

So...yes...the blades are sharp. An accidental "scrape" gives me a slice that should've probably had stitches. I now have a healthier regard for my scissors. And another war wound adds to the character of the much maligned finger. Heaven forbid I ever get arrested and fingerprinted...That finger has some seriously unique patterns thanks to knives and now scissors.

Confession Time

Yes, it's time for me to confess. At the beginning of this blog, I touted that I only wash my hair every two weeks and don't use products containing silicones. That is no longer true. Blame it on my access to too many products that I just have to try! Some are working, some are bombing, as per usual, I guess.

But I am still using henna to color my hair. It'd been approximately 7-8 weeks since I colored, so it was desperately needed! I don't think it would normally take me so long (yes long. I usually have to touch-up the root about every 2-3 weeks because the regrowth is so ugly), except I hate the smell of the stinking (pun intended) product! I had been toying with stripping it from my hair lately, but decided it wasn't worth the damage and resultant color fixing needed to make it look okay again. Plus, I think a time or two, I used henna that contained metallic dyes, so I don't know if that would lift with the stripper or not. And everybody in class is totally jealous of my hair color. Not that I understand it, but if they love it, then maybe I should love it for a little longer...at least until the metallic dye has been cut off of my hair. That should be...oh...6-12 months, I think. Can that be considered a little longer?

Showdown at the OK Corral

Last night in class, we had...hmmmm...shall we say...a confrontation?

Lately, one of my classmates seems to have missed a lot of class. We're assured it's not so, so I have to trust that they know better than I. Some of the other classmates have expressed frustration about some people getting away with not being here more than others.

We received a talking to earlier in the week about worrying about our own selves and that some people have extenuating circumstances in which exceptions are made.

Guess that talk didn't take. There was a confrontation between a classmate "missing class" and another classmate. They had a heated discussion, which our instructor heard the end of and she lost it. We all got a very scary, very unnerving talking to. I could feel an anxiety attack creeping up on me and was freaking out because I didn't have any pills with me. Good thing it went away...sort of.

I couldn't help but think that it was like returning to high school. Our median age is roughly 25. The "missing classmate" in question is 18, the "complaining (The classmate wasn't the only one murmuring about it, they were just the only one who had their confidant go to the girl and tell them what they said) classmate" is married with 3 children. I would guess their age to be somewhere near 40.

Yes, people are going to be frustrated. Yes, it's not going to seem fair. Is it really worth it to talk smack (I had actually listened to another classmate mention their frustration over it, but they voiced their opinion that it was between the "missing classmate" and the school, I agreed and that was the end of it)? I mean, it's not like I have a whole lot of room to talk, since I've missed 3 days myself. And I tell you what...there are days when I don't feel good and I don't want to go to class. I know I could get it worked out with the school. But I've seen how hard it is to catch up, so I at least make an attempt to get to school. So far, I've been able to stick it through the night.

I don't know how this will end up, but it was definitely a tense night inside the classroom. Outside, a few of us were able to kind of talk about it and resolve it in our own ways and the instructor was able to laugh about it later. I think the scariest part was seeing our poor instructor trying to calm herself down. Names were named, which I don't exactly agree with, but then again, I don't need to.

Note to self: Keep head down and do your work. Don't piss off the instructor. And keep your thoughts to yourself.

I'm so excited...And I just can't hide it!

Next week, people. Next week. We begin cutting weeks (there are 2 weeks of it). I am sooooo excited to cut my nasty, scraggly haired mannequin!

Today we reviewed chemical relaxer procedures, then went over blow drying. You would think that drying a head of hair would be easy. Noooooo. There is a specific technique our school uses. Yeah, it gets the hair really smooth (well, as smooth as a nasty mannequin head can get), but it is a pain in the butt. So, this is day 2 of blow-drying. Yesterday we learned how to blow dry with a paddle brush, a denman (they call it some funky number but it's essentially a denman brush), or a regular plastic brush. Today, we did round brushing. Holy pains, people! No wonder so many stylists dry the clients hair and straighten it! Round brushing is my new hate project, I'm telling you!

After we got our mannequins dry, we went on break to let the smoke/haze clear from the room. Then we got started on the smoothing iron (read: flat iron). This was actually fun. Yeah, they have a special technique. Yeah, it gives really great smooth hair. Yeah, I'm intrigued. Not enough to do it to myself much. I did get asked today whether or not I've ever used a flat iron. And a surprised reaction when I said I only started going curly a year ago. I am intimately familiar with smoothing/flat irons! Mine is currently gathering dust.


Then we moved on to curling irons. This is what mine looks like. This might be my new hate passion. We have to be able to do barrel rolls and side rolls for our state board or something. Let me tell you that I think I might be without skin by the time I master this curling iron!

The barrel rolls I can't even explain because it's so complicated. It's times like this when I wish I had 4 hands. You have to spin the curling iron while clamping and unclamping the clampie thingie (I know, technical) and wrap the hair around it until eventually the end of the hair is caught in the clampie thingie, then hold it for a bit, then clamp and unclamp the clampie thingie until it's no longer got hair inside the clampie thingie and pull the barrel out. Got all that? Good, at least none of us do!

And that, my dear people, was the end of the night. After dealing with scraggly, nasty hair and trying to style it with a blow dryer, smoothing iron and curling iron, I'm read to whack this nasty things hair off! Do you think they designed it that way? By the time you can actually cut it, you're so sick of the gross hair that you're doing cartwheels and spirit fingers just to have the chance to have scissors around it?

Procrastination

Things at school have been pretty boring. We're launching on our fundraising season, so Thursday night...all night...we sat first in the pow-wow room and watched a video about the charities we would be supporting this year. Then we went out to the front desk and participated in a conference call that we really couldn't hear because the phone wouldn't turn up very loud. Raging fun. I am excited for the fundraising because they're having some fun stuff like a car wash, a 5k (sooooo not participating, but I'll cheer), a fashion show, Princess Days, Casual for a Cause (we can pay between $2-$3 a day to dress in jeans), and much more I can't remember. It'll certainly be fun to do these activities and be able to earn hours, too.

The other activities we've been doing have been perms. Perms, perms and more perms. They are a major pain in my patoot. Major! Makes me glad I'm a natural curly and I don't have to worry about getting perms anymore like when I was little. And it's even more frustrating because it takes me so long to do the activity! I'm sooooooo glad we're done with them...until they're on my activity sheet to complete, that is. Sure, I'll practice at home, since I went and bought all the stuff to practice with, but I really loath it.

Now we're on to more fun stuff, like learning how to use our styling equipment. Tonight I think we're working with our hair dryers, smoothing iron and curling irons. Much more fun to my way of thinking, right?

So, now that we've covered what I'm learning...in comes the reason for my title. I am a huge procrastinator and have been majorly procrastinating touching up my henna. I've got roots that are about 1/2" long and it looks awful! I really need to touch up the roots, then do an all-over refresh because the ends are getting a might orange for my liking. Where I used to be able to go 3 months without getting my chemical color redone and the roots didn't show that bad, I have to touch up my henna every 2 weeks or so. It's been 6-7 weeks. So maybe I have 1" of regrowth. I've been toying with getting a vegetable stripper to pull all the henna out of my hair, but I'm so afraid of the damage that would do, that I just can't bring myself to do it. Then I have to maintain a chemical color and even though it would technically be cheap because I can have it done at school, it's still a hassle to do.

What are your thoughts? Opinions? Should I keep the henna and just deal with the high maintenance upkeep or go back to chemical coloring?

Good Gravy, Miss Maisy!

The new haircut with the new "scary" gel was a big hit in class. I had 2 people tell me they don't wear their hair curly because they can't get it to look as good as mine. BTW, I got 2nd day hair today out of the "scary" gel. I sprayed it with some sea-salt spray to refresh some flattened curls since I had been laying in bed most of the day (woke up with bad vertigo) and pulled it half-up with a flexi-8.

So...I had a convo with the 2 people and offered to bring samples of some of my stuff for them to try and see if they like it when they wear it curly. I keep referring them to nc.com, but they haven't made it there, yet.

I had a bad run-in with some semi-permanent color in trying to keep my root from showing so badly. There is a girl in school who has blue highlights. In order to keep it from fading, she adds the semi-permanent hair color to her conditioner. I asked my instructor if I could do the same to keep the demarcation line from showing so much and she said yes. Well, I went, I purchased and it got all over my hands and a few drops on my legs because I had to snip off the end and it was pressurized from being transported somewhere with a lower elevation. I now have a pink finger. And pink splotches on my left leg.

Haircut

I ended up restyling my hair before class with some of the products I had purchased that day, one of them being a frightening acrylic gel that requires shampoo to remove. In the instructions are the words "No second chances."

But it ended up looking fabulous, so I took pictures after class was over, so I give you before and after haircut pictures:

Before:

























After:

Ever have one of these days?!

Ever had one of these days?! I am soooooooooooo there right now! Got my hair cut yesterday, had a crappy hair day all through class because I didn't get to diffuse it before class started. Then today, I was volunteering for my church from 8:00 AM 'til 12:00 PM, then had a job interview at 1:00 PM. My hair looked like crap from the get-go, then I had the privilege (Well, I always have the privilege, but today it bugged me) of putting on a hair net. Way to flatten already flat curls! So I left a little early, came home and tried to fix it. I sprayed it with a mixture of aloe vera gel, water and LA Looks Sports Gel mixed with some Jessicurl Confident Coils. No, I'm not linking any of them. Google if you want to find them. The curls came back, better than I ever hoped for, but there was no volume on top. NONE!

Then I came up with the bril idea to use spray wax to create some volume. And to add insult to injury, I used duckbill clips parallel to my nose to try and creat volume. Now I just have a wild and frizzy mess I had to tame a bit with a pair of bobby pins on one side. So for now, the only new haircut pics you get are of me chucking my mannequin pinhead!

But the upside is that I like the cut. It's funky, but fun.

Perming...

Tonight, we learned how to wrap a perm. My mannequin head is a pinhead. That's all I have to say. Oh, and we're doing perms the rest of this week.