Written Test Ovah!

I don't know if I passed or not. I'll find out tonight. Why is it that everything you know immediately flies out of your head when you're taking a test?! Seriously! I couldn't even remember the color wheel. I had to come back to it.

Did you know there are 19 steps to doing a perm? 19!!!!!! And I had to list them all in order! I think I got that right.

I have blisters on my toes from the floor test (yeah, I was dumb and wore heels). I lanced the liquid last night and took the skin off one of the toes...BIG mistake. I'm hobbling all over the house sans shoes. Imagine what it'll be like with shoes tonight.

Floor Test Ovah!

I finished my floor test tonight. I'm pretty sure I passed. Thank goodness! I'm sure I'll find out tomorrow. I also get to make up my written test tomorrow. Can you see me jumping for joy?

I asked my sister to come and be my female model. We had to do 16 foils, 8 weave and 8 slice foils (trust me, I know most of this is greek to you). Then we had to pull those out and resection the hair and do color applications. I figured my sister would be an okay model because her hair was about to her chest. Wrongo, people! It probably hits her bra-strap! And it's THICK! I think I ended up putting 1/3 of a gallon of conditioner on her hair for the color applications. My sister made the hilarious comment that we should have weighed her before doing the color applications and after!

After getting through the color applications, I was to rinse her hair and roll 6 perm rods. I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and still didn't get all the conditioner out of her hair! I rolled the rods (which were a pain because she has layered and thinned hair), did the pretend application, took them out and finally washed her. We were judged on the head massage. She said I did a good job and I have some fierce competition as her stylist does a fabu job with the head massage. We rinsed, conditioned and then I had to dry her hair.

I finally got it dry, then completed my barrel rolls and spiral rolls (or whatever they're called on the side) and was given permission to use the smoothing iron on her hair. By that time I was soaked in sweat (seriously, I was) and even with half-assing the job, she loved it. Or at least she said she loved it.

So...the floor test is over. I'm happy, shaking from the cold because I stripped off all my clothes and am sitting in damp underwear writing this, and my feet hurt.

Day over! Whew!

Totally un-hair related...

My nephew is famous! Well, at least in the Austin area. Well, one of my nephews.

My youngest nephew (so far) was born with some prett significant health problems and my brother and sister-in-law have ended up spending the better part of a year in a childrens hospital. They've staid at the Ronald McDonald House (Bless whoever came up with that idea!) during the time and tried to manage my older nephew (the now famous one).

The older nephew, Conner, is hell on wheels. He is always on the go, so excited to do everything, see everything, has a memory like nobody I've ever seen and everybody at the hospital absolutely loves him. His enthusiasm is infectious and you can't help but smile when you're around him.

During Halloween (poor family has spent pretty much every holiday at the hospital this year), he was Superman and was flying around the hospital ward, cracking everybody up. He was so cute, someone at the Ronald McDonald House took a picture of him.

Well, every year, the Ronald McDonald House has a ball for fundraising and my brother's family was kind of chosen to attend and be in the video promoting the fundraising. Rather than explain it, I'll just link you so you can read the story. This brought tears to my eyes. The whole blog is quite inspirational, so if you decide to, please feel free to read the whole thing. I think you'll get an idea what an amazing family I come from, even though I complain sometimes about them. This is my closest brother (In age and emotional attachment), so it's especially poignant for me how well they land on their feet with no family around. Thank goodness for family friends they've made down where they life (2 hours away), church members and the fabulous hospital staff.

The staff at the hospital has been wonderful and have really gone the extra mile for my family. So, as they say in their post...whenever you're at McDonald's and see the little change slot for the RMHC, chuck your change in there...it really makes a difference in many people's life's but especially my families life. I did stay there when I went down there to help and the rooms are amazing. Just like a home away from home. And there are numerous was to contribute if you're inspired to do so!

Sick...Sick...SICK!!!!!

Yes, that's right. I have been sick...all week! Well, truth be told, I've been sick for longer, but it finally came to a head when I figured out what was wrong with me. I have a freakish body and no doctor can ever find out what's wrong when I tell them my symptoms. So I've taken to searching the internet and going back to the doctor and asking them if this is the problem.

Warning...this will contain a rant. I have been sick for the better part of a year with one thing or another. I have fibromyalgia, which is enough of a challenge to get up and do stuff every day when your body hurts all the time. Then I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, so my reproductive system is all out of whack and I periodically have ruptured cysts, always on the left lower quadrant, so they think it's appendicitis. I've been in the emergency room 6 times this year. Twice with abdominal pain, which turned out to be a hernia from chucking so hard. It took them 6 weeks to find it. Then because I had been on serious pain medication for that long, when the surgery happened and I didn't hurt anymore, I went through withdrawals and was let go from my job because I was missing too much work and didn't have any leave. I can't blame them. There were only two of us in the department and my coworker needed help. Then this hellish economy happened.

No problem, right? Just collect unemployment. Great. No job offers. I have a sick nephew who was in the hospital for months. My mom and I went down to Texas for a few weeks to help them. Then my Grandma decided she didn't want to live anymore and I drove up to go help out up there. The night before, I developed a really uncomfortable pain in my lower back. My dad was driving with me, luckily because it turned out to be a kidney stone. Ended up in the Emergency Room with the pain from the stone. They originally told me it couldn't be a stone because of the location of the pain. Many useless painkillers later, a CT scan and an x-ray revealed...ta-dah! A kidney stone. So they sent me home with more painkillers and other things to help me pass the stone.

Then...between myself and my doctor (thank goodness she listens to me when I bring something up!) determined that the prednisone I take in pulses to keep my finger eczema under control was sending my body into an adrenal fatigue, which caused another bout of sickness and pain. So I hopped on the bandwagon full of nutritional supplements to help the adrenal glands recover.

Now...I have a bacterial infection, pain in my lower abdomen (which luckily she didn't send me for ultrasounds or anything because I've had 7...count them...7 CT scans THIS YEAR! And I don't have insurance right now due to my jobless state) because she was pretty sure it was a cyst on my ovary. Fabulous. I was sent home with painkillers (thankfully not heavy narcotic ones, but I'm about to hop on board if it doesn't go away soon!), and birth control. Then when the pain didn't subside and I noticed other symptoms I won't mention because they're gross...I figured out it's a bacterial infection. Great, she called me in a prescription. My fingers broke out and I ended up getting a staph infection because of the open sores on my fingers.

Seriously...will I ever be well again?! Because I've had about enough!

Anyway. That's why there have been no posts this week about school, because I haven't been! But I have my floor test on Monday. Wish me luck!

At least life isn't as bad as my poor brother and sister-in-law down in Texas dealing with their poor son, who has been in the hospital for probably 3/4 of his life and he's a year old. Prospects aren't good, so if you could send some thoughts and prayers out to them, that would be great!

BTW...don't you just LOVE it when hormones rage out of control?! That is probably the source of this whole post. Because goodness knows...I'm usually not this negative and/or boohooey! Forgive the moment and your regularly scheduled post will resume on Monday!

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?