T minus one month--ONE month-- until i finish beauty school. How did that go by so fast?
And whatever happened to that book I was going to write "Adventures in Beauty School"?? Didn't happen. But lots of wonderful things HAVE happened. And I am t-h-a-n-k-f-u-l.

I made it into Phase 2 (honors program at our school)! We have a fabulous learning leader who keeps us energized, loving hair and constantly learning. We are on the clinic floor from 11-4:30 which gives us more hands on experience. Wonderful! It's been great. I love those girls...it's like a little family. :)

I still don't have a job lined up. I want to be deliberate in choosing the right place. I am partly terrified and partly thrilled to get into the real world. We had a reverse career fair at school today and I got to meet some fabulous salon owners, which sort of eased my mind.

Fun alternatives to foiling

I've learned something new! Watercolors- a great alternative to foils...which don't always look super natural and require so much maintenance! This guest wanted to be brighter and a little lighter but didn't want to have to visit the salon that often. Since her hair is on the darker side, we decided to do watercolors using three shades of color and pulling them organically through her hair.

<-- before


after--->

Another nifty color technique I've learned recently is brushlights. It involves actually rolling the color/lightener through the hair using a round brush= SO much fun! This girl wanted to be super blonde but still have dimension...instead of spending HOURS foiling all that gorgeous hair, we quickly applied three different tones of blonde. To keep her "comfort zone" blonde we did a few foils on her part.

before brushlights ^

Some up-do's I've done lately. My dolls are good sports.

pretty people

I'm listening to the most beautiful song right now ("Are We There Yet?" by Ingrid Michealson) and I so wish I could inspire people like that. But, I guess, in a way making people feel pretty is sort of the same. I love that feeling. I know, I know..."Beauty fades in %100 of women" and "Beauty is only skin deep" and all that. But it's nice to see someone's face light up (even a little bit) or to just walk with a little more pep in their step...and maybe getting up for work isn't as hard for them the next day because their hair is looking slammin' or at least something NEW. (New is good.)

so enough dolls...here are some fabulous people that I've had the honor to work on while in school these past seven months...

Before cut.

After Cut.

Before color.

After color.

Before cut.

After cut.

Before cut.

After cut.

fun with dolls.

so i can't think of any creative to go with these pictures. for some reason I am anti "pictures only". I was going to make up this whole story...but then i was like..."Meh, it's late and i had two hot dogs for dinner."

So I've been laptop bag hunting, and I came across this treasure:
which reminded me of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's (it always comes back to Audrey, doesn't it?) which sort of reminded me of this (for the sake of bringing it back to hair)...
Copying a style from a magazine...
My own little wannabe Holly Golightly!

(PS The laptop bag can be purchased at rainebrooke.com for $99)

On Saturday my guest upped her appointment from just a mani/pedi to ...a mani/pedi, facial, lip wax, cut and color. Normally that would overwhelm me, but she was so dear. She gave me tips on how to improve and how to market myself and just generally encouraged me. She even made me cry when I was rinsing out her color! (Admittedly, it is not that hard to make me cry. But still.)
One thing she told me is not to sell myself short. In general, I don't have a lot of confidence in the hair department. After the first week of beauty school I thought, "Uh oh. I just spend a LOT of money for the WRONG thing." But that's not true. This is SO right, I can feel it in my bones! I am not a natural (I have seen some 18 year old girls fresh out of highschool whip up some hair that leaves my mouth gaping open saying "a-duuuhhhh"). But I do know how to work hard. I know how to learn. And, most importantly, I know how to love people. (I have a Great Teacher for that. :) )

Well. After that speech about how I have no talent..pictures! I thought I'd start at the very beginning... it was a dark and gloomy January...



I learned how to do a 'finger wave' (very carefully and with lots and lots of gel)


and a spiral perm( among other perms. But this one is my favorite. maybe because it requires less precision?)...

and foils! (definitely more sophisticated than the baseball cap with holes and peroxide I tried when I was 12)