been a while

I'm sorry it's been a while, a lot is going on.

Right now i'm in advanced!!  This week i'm on the floor, doing customers/ tech sheets (mannequin work) Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Tuesday and Thursday i'm in the glass room.  Next week it'll switch.

Today, something happened to my glasses at school.  One minute they were on my station, the next, they were no where to be found.  They're not at home, they're not in my car, they're not in my stuff.  So i don't know where they are.  I have an eye exam on Saturday at 2, and then i get to wait for a week or two till they come in.

Anyway.  Yesterday in class, we learned to corn rows and box braiding and then do them with extensions.  I didn't have my phone with me, so i didn't get pictures of my corn rows with extensions, but here are my box braids with them.

Today, for my Tech Sheet, I had to do a braid design.  These are what I ended up doing.  I was supposed to just do corn row design, but i kept my box braids in.

with the box braids pulled behind her...

box braids hanging down

her right side

her left side

the back, i know i didn't blend the sides well.

the top

Corn Rows

Today, not much happened, I got my corn rows done.  I also got my first 100!

You can't see it in the picture, but they're pretty tight.  It took me a while to do it though.  I can't braid like most people, It doesn't make sense to me.  But that's why It takes me a bit longer, I had to teach myself my own personal style.  The good thing though is that the way I taught myself to braid, it makes the braids pretty tight. :)

Back view

Side view

Front view

top view

Cosmetology School Prices

Hair Costs

• Shampoo and Style....................................$8
• Scalp massage
• roller set OR blow-dry
• Shampoo and Hair Cut.............................$5
• Scalp massage 
• shampoo
• Shampoo, Hair Cut and Style...................$8
• Scalp Massage
• Roller Set or Blow dry
• Special Occasion Styling...........................$20
• Scalp Massage
• Shampoo
• Roller set
• Blow dry
• Shampoo/Wrap/Style..............................$12
• Flat Iron, Stove, or Marcel
• Hair Press with Style.................................$20
• Scalp Massage
• Shampoo
• Iron
• Blow dry
• Addition/Extensions.................................$4/track
• scalp massage
• shampoo
• style
• Braids and Locks.......................................$18
• Scalp Massage
• Shampoo
• Style

COLOR!

• Permanent Hair color.................................$20
• Shampoo
• Roller Set or Blow dry
• Semi/Demi Haircolor..................................$17
• shampoo
• Roller set or Blow dry
• Color Rinse...................................................$3
• ADD ON
• De-Colorizing/Lightening...........................$35
• Shampoo
• Roller set or Blow dry
• Full Head Highlights.....................................$37
• Shampoo
• Roller Set or Blow dry
• 7 Foils.............................................................$12
• Shampoo
• Roller set or Blow dry
• Highlight per Foil...........................................$2/each
• ADD ON
• Toner..............................................................$6
• ADD ON

Color logic

Science

• Protons
• Positively charged particles found in the nucleus.
• Neutrons
•  Neutral particles found in the nucleus
• Electrons
• Negatively charged particles found in the nucleus around the nucleus and are involved in chemical reactions.

Anatomy:

• The cuticle is the outermost layer of the hair shaft and is made like armor.
• The cortex is the second or middle layer of the hair shaft.  The largest layer and holds the melanin.
• the module is the 3rd layer and is hallow.  Not everyone has a module.  For example, I don't, because I have very fine hair.

visual aids

Hair and Nails are made of Keratin

The shaft is above the skins surface

The follicle is a sac beneath the skins surface, that contains the root of the hair.

The pupil is a small cone-shaped artery at the base of the dermis where the hair and melanin are formed.  The papilla nourishes the root.

Pigments:

Eumelanin- black pigments

Pheumelanin- red and yellow pigments

Mixed Melanin- has Eumelanin and Pheumelanin

Black hair- High concentration of Eumelanin

Brown hair- mixed melanin or low Eumelanin

Red hair- Pheumelanin

Blonde hair- Very low concentration of Eumelanin

White hair- contains NO melanin at all.

Grey hair- is a mix of white hair and melanin containing hair.

Hair types:

Coarse hair:  large diameter, thick, and resistant to coloring

Medium hair: The average thickness and the baseline for processing time and color accuracy. 

Fine hair: (My hair) small and thin.  Quick reaction to coloring.

Color leveling system:

Dark -> light

1-> 10

blue black -> blonde

Color systems!

Non oxidative hair color- direct/semi permanent color

-> 4-6 weeks

->not mixed with peroxide

Advantages:

-> No running

-> No peroxide

Disadvantages:
->Inconsistent color fade
->may not color grey/white.


Oxidative color/perm color-
->permanent change
->peroxide
->cleanse with acid shampoo after, to keep the color.


Demi-
->perm or long lasting/semi perm color
->no amonia
->can not lift/ lighten color
-> fades in 6-8 weeks depending on hair
....with my hair, it's been longer than that.



A Lesson in Numbers...


letter=base color
number=level (light(est at 10) - Dark(est at 1))

A-Ash Shades
G-Gold shades
B-Beige shades
R-Red shades
OR- Orange shades
REMEMBER!  It's not always the easy, common sense things like R is Red.  Keep that in mind.  These are just an example.

number N + letter L = shades S

level 7+red base color= 7R


7 Steps of Hair Coloring-

1. Consultation 
1. hair condition
2. type of hair
3. active in sports
4. chemical services
5. like/dislike about their hair
6. needs/wants
2. Preform patch test (24-48 hours before)
3. strand test
1. back of the head is the most resistant.
2. you need to do the strand test in the back of the head, where it won't be noticed.
4. plan for color saturation
1. Deposit>lifting= 1>10
2. Lifting>deposit= 10>1
5. Complete client record/profile card of the color service

Double Processing-

Double Processing is pre-lightening hair for new color.

->This is very hard on hair, and it can fall out in your hands, if you're not careful.

PH:

->hair and skin is 4.5-5.5

->1-acid

->14- alkaline

Lightener: 10-20 volume

FACT-  Artificial color never lifts  artificial color.  BUT  Artificial color removes artificial color from skin.

Volume-

Volume is added to color to help it develop in the hair.

10 volume- Depositing and filling pigment

20 volume- Ideal for colors and bleaching (lifting)

30 volume- Best when used with peroxide

40 volume- higher degree of lightening (trying to go dark brown, to as light as possible)

HOME WORK FOR HAIR COLOR!

Look for the face color for hair coloring suggestions.

-> If they have pink skin go for something with cooler shades.

Formula:  Desired level x 2 minus natural color level= Level of hair color

->2D-N=L

->Clients natural color is level 5

desired color is level 7

7x2=14-5=9

Use a level 9 color.  You can move up/down one level depending on pigment, porosity, and the undertones.

->Natural level is 4, Desired level is 8

8x2=16-4=12

->Remember:  The pigment density and porosity of the hair will determine how much time the discoloration process will take.

SCIENCE CLASS!! :D

Colorful Drama :D

Tuesday, I did my mom's hair, manicure and pedicure.  I don't have pictures of anything but the manicure.

Today I'm going to write about color.  But first, some old-fashioned cosmetology school drama!! :D

I did a few corn-rolls, and found out I wasn't going to graduate on time.  Not because of anything I could do.  I'm not going to graduate, because they only have 20 stations.  There are about to be 60-ish advanced students; 30 on the floor at a time, that includes my class, which is a little less than 15 now.  There haven't been very many days that I've seen everyone in here, even counting the people on the floor.

People are graduating, slowly.  But to graduate on time, you need to do three services everyday.  That's impossible.  I'm going to try and assist people, you get counted for that, but it's ridiculous that we have to resort to that.  I'm pretty sure that the clients don't appreciate being crowded.  Also, in about 3 weeks, we'll have the next class in 360, a new 20 students, making us at capacity.  Eventually, we'll have almost everyone in advanced, and fighting to get clients.

Sean and I are probably moving in July.  So about that time, I'll be going to a cosmetology school in Columbia to get my last few clients and hours.

Anyway, Congrats on graduating to the schooling section :D

Colorful Knowledge

Light is a form of energy.  Photos go to our eyes at, 186,000 miles per second.

The visible color spectrum

• Red
• Orange
• Yellow
• Green
• Blue
• Indigo
• Violet

Primary colors-

• Red 
• Yellow
• Blue

Secondary colors-

• Orange
• Violet
• Green

Tertiary colors- 

• Red-Orange
• yellow-orange
• yellow-green
• blue-green
• blue-violet
• red-violet

Complementary colors-

• Blue and orange
• red and green
• yellow and violet.

Primary + Primary= Secondary

Secondary + neighboring primary color= Tertiary color.

for those of you who are more... visual learners :)

Indecisive

Friday was HELL.  Melissa was on my ass all day.  All I was doing was looking at the color, trying to be prepared for when Daniel got there.  She tried to ban me from the Dispensary, and I told her that I would do what I needed to do.  She came back at me with "you little bitch".  But she had an attitude with me since September, when our school started.  But Friday's attitude lasted ALL day long.


Just so you know, I haven't explained this before.  In every salon, or cosmetology school, there is a Dispensary.  Usually, in the schools at least, there is a student or two, keeping the laundry going (since our school doesn't have enough towels, I bring my own).  Also, other students aren't really supposed to be in there unless they're mixing color or something.  I think looking at the color, counts, but Melissa just needs to get laid or something.  The person in the Dispensary gets everything you need, besides color.  I would have trusted the person in the Dispensary, if it wasn't Melissa.


Enough drama, sorry.  The Dispensary is a decently tough task.  You have to make sure people sign out the hair sprays and stuff, and keep things running smoothly.  Also making sure the sink is clean of debris.  It isn't that hard of a job, but it does keep you moving.


Back to what happened on Friday.  I did my corn rows all day, until I started getting stuff together to do Daniel's hair, by the time i got all that situated, It was noon, and TIME FOR LUNCH!  Which was awesome, because Sean was home :)


Brandon helped me out a lot with doing Daniel's hair.  Going from what his hair was, to the Brad Pitt look, isn't easy.  It's very time consuming.  Janice "helped" too.  Mainly because she didn't want to do her mannequin anymore, and it was Friday lol.  She did a bit on his hair, got the products for us, and swept, which helped a TON.  She's a really sweet girl, and shy.  But I'm slowly getting her to talk and stuff.  I was supposed to add her on Facebook, I just couldn't find her.


Daniel got a HUGE kick out of Brandon.  He's a character, flaming homosexual, who hit's on EVERYONE.  lol only in a joking way, if you try anything with him, he'd confidently show you his diamond rock on his finger.  He is taken, and loves it.  He also has an adorable adoptive daughter.  She's his bf's biological daughter, but she might as well be blood with Brandon too.


Daniel ended up staying the night.  We had chicken quesidillas, chips and salsa, shock top (a citrus beer, that you put oranges into.  A lot like blue moon), and Daniel made some awesome home-made hot chocolate.  He would have made brownies but we didn't have eggs, and never remembered to go to the store to get some.  Even with out them it was awesome.

Before

Basis picture

After- Front

After- Side

After- Back

 Daniel's' hair:


We used a level 4 clipper guard on the bottom, a level 6 going up to the occipital bone and a bit above, and a 90 degree cut on top.  Then, we pulled his hair through a cap and bleached a few strands all around, to give him highlights.  We washed, and styled his hair.  We touched up the back and a guy in class did his beard.  I didn't take a picture of that, because It wasn't my work.  Though you can kind of see it in the side picture.


Thankfully, the highlights turned out pretty natural, looking.  It only took 10-15 minutes instead of half an hour.  He wanted two lines of color going from his temple and following his head to his back hair line.  We didn't have the color he wanted, and only in permanent.   (You shouldn't bleach the hair and then put permanent color over.  This is called double processing and the hair could fall out in your hands, when you wash it.  360 students are preferred not to do this, as it takes a good eye, skill, and lots of experience to make sure you do it correctly.)  Daniel could have chosen a Demi or Semi color, but the colors usually fade, and not always evenly.  I have Demi in my hair, red.  My natural color is blonde, and recently my ends are blonde and my hair is more brown than red.


Daniel didn't like the styling gel we used at the school, so I gave him some styling stuff I had.  It isn't as greasy or stiff.  He isn't a big hair gel type, but hopefully this kind will go well with him.  Besides the gel though, he loves his hair.  I'm very happy it turned out well.


Timing.  Daniel got to the school about 1:15.  By 1:30 we were hard at work, and he was done by 4:15.

Staying home.

Ok.  So today I stayed home from school, my head is still bothering me and they wouldn't let me do anything while I'm on my medication.


We went shopping, because we had almost no food left in the house. And then went to the school.  Sean couldn't get his hair done on a different day, so it was now or.. idk when.


When I got there I got all kinds of crap about not staying at school, and not being able to cut hair on my medication.  I told them that I felt horrible and I wasn't on my meds.  I hadn't taken them all day, so that I could cut his hair.


Everything after that went fine.  His hair turned out really well and everyone loves it.  I was about to leave, and Julie calls me over and gives me shit about leaving.  And how I've been at school a long time to just be doing a hair cut.  But the entire time I was there, I was doing hair.  When I just walked away instead of taking her shit, she was like "Bye!" In a really sarcastic tone.  And then her and the other girls laughed.  


I don't know what her problem is.  Every time someone talks shit about her I stand up for her.  I'm the one who checks on her when something happens.  I have never done anything to her but be nice.  I don't see why people hate me, when I don't do anything.


It's really bothering me.


Anyway, here are the pictures of Sean.  I do Daniel's hair tomorrow at 1-ish.  I hope I can get it all done in time.


On Sean I used a level 8 Clipper-guard, Scissors, and straight clipper to get the straight lines and stray hairs.

Sean before

Sean after -front

Sean after-side

Sean after-back

So far...

Services so far:

step-father side

step-father front

step-father back

grandmother's manicure

Teachers

Let's cover the teachers, and who's done what, who does what.


The 3 classes in one, we had Ms. Alphabet, let's change her name to Ms. Atlas.  It's not much better, but a bit better.  There was also Mrs. Polka-dot, and Mr. Levi.


At the time: Ms. Delores was teaching 360.  
Mr. Sugar was on the salon floor.
Ms. Cameron was teaching advanced.
Mrs. Jackson was what I guess you could call a vice-principal.
Mr. Menton was the "principal.
Mr. Levi taught the small class of pre-salon.
Mrs. Polka-dot and Ms. Atlas taught the classroom with 2 pre-salon classes in it.


After a few weeks, a month or two, perhaps.  Mrs. Polk-dot went to the Advanced classroom.
Ms. Cameron and Mr. Levi went to the large pre-salon classroom, where I was.
Ms. Atlas went to the small classroom.


No one told us about the change, before hand, so it was a bit of a shock when we came to school on Monday and there was chaos.


Now, Ms. Burtly, who taught night classes before, is teaching 360.  It's great, she's an awesome lady and a great teacher.


Ms. Delores teaches advanced, and Mrs. Polka-dot teaches night-school.  She's the one who wanted the change, Mrs. Polka-dot, I mean.  She has 3 little girls and a husband, and wanted to spend more time with them.  I can understand that.


Lord knows what else is going to change, by the time we get to advanced. lol  The teachers seem to change places like they're doing the cake-walk.

Change of Topic

My main point on here is to talk about Cosmetology school.  But I've been there for 5 months.  It's hard to narrow it down to certain things.  I'll probably go into detail about each section they taught us, what was hard, and what wasn't.


But I'm also going to talk about class, and what's going on now.


So far in my 360 class, I've done my grandmother's Perm, manicure, hair cut, and pedicure.  The hardest things about doing my grandmothers 4 services were remembering the steps to a pedicure, and cutting curly hair.  I swear, I thought I was going to cut my fingers off. It was my first time cutting real curly hair.


Note: The one thing I can tell you about class, is take VERY GOOD NOTES.  You'll need note cards once you get to the floor.  


Note: Doing the things you learn in class, on real hair, is nothing like doing them on the mannequins.


I've also done my step-fathers hair.  A guy named Joseph helped me out with the clipper cut and blending.  They don't teach you most of that in class.  We hardly talked about clipper-cutting at all.


Tomorrow I cut Sean's hair.  He is going from the shaggy look, to the largest clipper cut, a number 8, I think.  I don't know how it'll look, but since he's my Fiance, I'll still love him.  :D


That adds up to 5 services.


I would have done his hair today, at 1:45.  But yesterday, after doing my step father's hair, I hit my head really hard on the salon station.  I blacked out.  I was decently ok, besides kind of dizzy, and a headache.  I took the ice they gave me, and went home.  Today, I went to school and it started getting really bad. My friend in class, Melissa, took me to the hospital.  They did a Cat scan, that thing's pretty fun.  Turns out I don't have a concussion, but they did give me some friggin AWESOME headache medicine.  They also wrote me out for today and tomorrow.  I'm still going in to do Sean's hair.  It's buggin' him pretty badly, and I can't do it on Friday.


It'll give me 6 services.


Note:  In Cosmetology school, to do color on someone, you need to bring them in 2 days before and do a patch test.  You mix some blonde-color (we call it a level 7-10) and put it behind their ear.  It's for insurance purposes, to make sure they won't react to the coloring while it's on their head.  I'll get into this more later, when I get into the color section.

The Drama... OH, the Drama....

So... In cosmetology school, you don't get very many straight guys, but there are a few.  If there weren't any, I'm afraid we'd kill each other.


In my school, there are about 5 straight guys, not counting Mr. Levi, who's married with kids.  But he's a teacher, he doesn't count :D


The rest of the hundred or more students in my school are made up of gay guys and females.  Needless to say, there is WAY too much estrogen in Cosmetology schools.  Though the new kids make the most drama.  We get a new class, every 6 weeks, because every 6 weeks there's a new class moving into 360.  Needless to say, it's the calmest before the storm.  By that I mean it takes 3-5 weeks to get the new kids accustomed and broken down.  


My class was really bad.  It took us, 12 weeks to be ok with each other and we're still bickering a bit.  But that's to be expected, every once in a while.  But the bickering is nothing compared to what used to go down.  The students we just got in are pretty bad, they are like us, but quiet, and no one likes them.  For some reason they think they're better than everyone else.  They'll be taken care of eventually.


My first week?  I moved someone's lunch, so I could get to my snack.  (We get a "break" of 5 minutes or less, that they call a "stretcher" twice a day.  It's usually around 10:30 and 2:30.  Lunch is usually at 12 or 12:30.  School is from 9-4:30.)  She had put her lunch on top of my stuff, and I forgot to move it back.  She accused me, in front of the class, about stealing/eating her lunch.  I didn't put up with it and talked to the teacher about it.  Well, me and her are actually pretty good now.  It was just a lot of stress, being in the classroom.  And new students cause a fair bit of chaos.  The tension was high.


Think you don't find racism, sexism, etc. in cosmetology school?  Think again.  People are talked about because of their race, because of their sexual orientation, anything to gossip about.


We had one girl name Goldie, that threatened to bring a gun to school and shoot us.  They didn't do much but send her home that day, and move her to the class beside us.  We started making a fuss about it.  Most of us actually LEFT the school.  That caught the "Principals" attention and talked to us about it.  The girl ended up being dropped.


Being out of the classroom is amazing though.  It helps you not have as much drama.  You're not stuck in a small, closed in place, with a huge class.  


My class started off with a class of 30-ish, like most classes do.  By the time we got to 360, there were only 15 of us.  People thin out pretty fast.  They either can't pay for the school, or miss too many hours.


Recently, they've been dropping people right and left, for various reasons.  It's pretty bad, I've noticed the school looking almost vacant.


The new class we just got?  There's a girl we all call Elvis.  She has the HUGE hair flip that Elvis had.  Hence her name.  She's beginning to be just like Goldie.  She threatened a girl named Julie, because of her sexual orientation.  Julie, may be gay, but we all love her, she cracks us up and keeps things light.  She threatened to KILL her, after Julie blew up at her for what she said, and her friend Amanda joined in too.  I don't know how that ended, the only thing I know is that Julie was sent home early.


Rumors fly around schools like wild fire, especially small ones, like mine.  It's like it feeds us, or something.

First of all...

Ok.  In this post, I will not mention real names, or the real name of my school.  I don't want to be sued.  So I will make up names, might be fun.  You won't care anyway, you don't know these people.  


I go to a Beauty School in Charlotte, North Carolina.  It's a small school, and eco-friendly, most the schools around here, are.  If you ever have any questions, just comment, and I'll get back to you.


The first thing we did in school, was learn hair cutting.  That was a complete mess.  3 weeks, two on women and 1 on mens.  We started off in the large advanced classroom.  There were 3 classes in one classroom, we had 3 teachers in there too.  But it was still pretty crazy.  The other classrooms were taken up by some type of meeting or something, that lasted the entire time.  Each teacher had their own style, and told us different things.  Of course, they also had 3 groups of students, each at a different level, to focus on.  So we didn't get too much attention.


Everything calmed down a lot when we got to our own class rooms. Two groups went to the larger, pre-salon classroom.  Taught by Ms. alphabet and Ms. Polka-Dot.  The other class, which was more advanced, but still pre-salon, went to the smaller classroom taught by Mr. Levi.


I have no idea where the advanced class was, when we were in their classroom, but they moved in whenever we left. There's also a class called 360.  After a few months in pre-salon, you move to 360 for 3 weeks.  Where you review everything you learned, and do 15 free services.  Then move to advanced.


Just so we're clear, this is what happens in each class.


Pre-salon:  Learning on Mannequins, taking a LOT of notes, and taking a LOT of tests.  I've been in school since Sept. 13th, 2010, and I moved to my first week of 360 on the 24th of January, 2011.  You can do the math, yourself.  This is my second week, and I've only done 6 services.  Hopefully I'll get enough done to graduate.  In order to GO to 360, you have to pass the 360 test.  It isn't that hard, but you have to get an 80 to pass.


360: You're here for 3 weeks.  Our first week we did all the review.  Leaving us Mannequin work and services for the last 2 weeks.  I don't know what the teacher for 360, does for the other 3 weeks, before the next class comes in, but I think that's irrelevant.  You used to have 15 clients.  But now we only have to do 15 services, I don't know what happened.  I guess they took pity on us.


Advanced: In advanced you do two things.  Salon floor and class work.  If you're in class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, on this week, then next week you'll only be there Tuesday and Thursday.  The great thing about advanced is you pretty much run the school, and can take lunch whenever you want.