Upstyles & Color Weeks

Sorry that I didn't update on Saturday like I should have; I was lazy. No excuses.

So last time, we finished off with roller curls. We let our curlers dry over night like they did the old fashioned way, and then at the second half of Saturday, we removed them.

It kind of looked like Annie.
Or maybe some sort of Shirley Temple thing.

Without adding any other products to the hair, we combed it (not brushed, mind you) and teased the doll heads to see how well our curls turned out.

Not too sure if I'm liking that one.
MY GOD HOW WILL THAT EVER COME OUT?

I got sick of it after a few minutes and decided to tease it a little more, because in that first photo, the hair didn't seem to have too much volume to it. And then THIS monster came of it after using a paddle brush.

Do not come to me if you want regular curls.
You're leaving with 60s looking hair.
Big, sexy 60s hair.

All in all, I really enjoyed that style much better. It was very fun to do! A few classmates also took a picture of it. It was kind of a fun shining moment

Time for lessons with our Marcel curling irons came, and it was quite...different. The Marcel looks like this:



It's...quite different. I know I repeated myself, but it takes some getting used to. The iron doesn't have any springs in the shell's handle, so we have to maneuver it by using our fingers, and with one hand. Why? If you look at the photo, the iron doesn't have a fancy plastic tip at the end! So we can't touch it, period. Onoes! But how do we use it with just one hand? How does that work?

Well guys, here's the cool part: The handle friggin' spins. LIFE SO MUCH EASIER NOW.

Practice with the iron was interesting and a good expirience that I'm excited to do with things like bridal hairstyles. We tested some of these curls on our doll heads, learning to part the hair properly, too.

And then my instructor suddenly decided to have a friendly competition with Core 21. (Core 22 is my class.) Time to introduce some barrel and spiral curls into an upstyle!

We had about 45 minutes to come up with something. I struggled with curling a little bit, so I only was able to get about half of the head done. When curling time was up, I tried hard to think of something new and exciting that I can make with half of a curled head.

But I'm not as new and exciting as I would love to be. But the idea did hit me.


Belle.

Yes, yes, I know. HOW CREATIVE. But you know, it was a fun experience. Who knows, maybe I'll have to make a Belle hairstyle at the Boutique when I get there. I doubt it, but maybe it'll help out. In the end, I did a Belle upstyle without any references, so I got where the bun settles at wrong. But all in all, I think it turned out pretty great!

Front View
Back View

My hairstyle didn't even place in the contest. But you know, that's okay. I had fun!

And that concludes Saturday! NOW FOR TODAY, TUESDAY. I MEAN WEDNESDAY BECAUSE IT'S PAST MIDNIGHT RIGHT NOW.

We had our weekly student body powwow in the bigger classroom today for the first half of the day, (Not sure if you're interested, but the first half lasts from 9AM-12PM.) The Core classes had their first guest speakers! First it was a woman named Kristi who works as a sales rep for BSG, Beauty Supply Group. She told us about what she does for a living, which is going to certain salons and selling products for the salons to sell to customers. It was her first public appearance, and she did a lovely job informing us on what else we can do besides be regular hairstylists.

And then we had Doug. Doug's the son of the owner of our school, and not only that! Paul Mitchell RENO was actually this dude's idea. This is Doug. Google didn't have a more recent photo, but this is him.



And not only is he the son of the owner, is an owner and is a dude that does hair, he's Paul Mitchell's representative for the men's hair productline that just debuted, Mitch. He actually goes to the other PM schools nationwide to inform other students about this stuff!



Listening to Doug was a neat first guest artist. He informed us on what the products do, what they feel like, and he even let us mess around with it on some of his doll heads he had brought. He was a cool guy to listen to and was very entertaining in the comedy department. Pretty dang down-to-earth!

The second half of the day, we started Color Weeks. It's two weeks during our Core classes that do nothing but focus on hair dyes and how to mix them properly, learn their pH, the color theory, how to apply it, and how to market it like a pro. Most of today and tomorrow is/was going to be note taking, so I suppose I'll just make a post whenever I have something to blab about!

More on Color Weeks soon to come. <3

Curls, Curls, Curls

I don't think pincurls are really my forte.

Finger waves were continued today! Sadly I wasn't able to finish both sides, but we got enough practice and hopefully we'll do some more at some point. They're super difficult, but I find it really fun to do!

WHY MUST PINCURLS BE THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE TODAY

The rest of the afternoon was focused on sectioning off the hair in just the right places for roller curls. It took several hours, but I finally got them done!

Front View
Side View

Tomorrow, we're focusing on some more curls for just a bit, and when the doll heads dry, we're going to brush them out just to see how it turned out and if we did it right.

KNOTS

Who knew a braiding lesson would take three hours? I sure didn't.
A good half of the day was on nothing but braiding. It felt a little awkward that I was one of the only girls in the room, if not *the* only girl that just knew that standard braid.

But, things were eventually learned and I feel accomplished. We covered:

Fishtail Braid
Standard 3-Strand Braid
Invisible Braid (AKA French Braid)
Underbraid
Cornrows
4-Strand Braid
5-Strand Braid as Bonus Round

We also focused on French Twists, but sadly I don't have a picture of my finished one. Mainly because I was on the verge of tears on that thing. It was such a mess and it was so hard to do.

After the French Twist Fiasco, it was time for a challenge. A lot of people were having issues, but for some reason I was able to have a lot of fun with this. It was odd that I could get this down, but not the French Twist.

Students all over the school were saying that the infamous Finger Wave was going to make us all cry. I'm a total sucker for fashion of the 1920s up to the 50s; so being in love with such a style made me excited to do such a thing.

It's not done yet, but it will be tomorrow.

Wash Wash Here, Wash Wash There

So today we got a full taste of how these core classes are going to be. Some days we're going to combine with the other core class to make a long lesson be easier on both of the instructors - Most of the morning was note taking on a thing called Forward Focus, a thing about another thing and the thing system that's made to focus more on the positives about the day so we don't end up being complete grumps all the time. We're still human and some bad days will still occur, but I find it to be a system to be rather helpful when it comes to a day looking a little grim. I kind of like to associate it with a quote from Disney; "Keep Moving Forward."

After handwritten notes, it was time for handout notes. This time they were about parts of the hair, types of hair, and even the anatomy of the skull. Turns out we need to know the anatomy that way we can determine how to give a proper haircut depending on a customer's bone structure!

Those took a while to do as well, and then it was time for our first hands on learning: Washing hair! Yay!

Before going into the Wash House (an enclosed area with washing sinks and calm music), we were taught how to properly drape people. There's the single drape, with just one towel, and the double, with two. The double is more used for hair dyes and other chemicals and a single is used for shampooing and haircuts. After a demonstration, it was time for a race game to see who's class could drape the fastest. We won :3

Finally at the Wash House, I used a double during my turn to wash hair, though, because I felt it would be more comfortable for my classmate (I even asked, it's okay to do that.). Those porcelian sinks can sure hurt the side of one's head without any comfort whatsoever to cushion it! It turned out washing hair was really fun to do and I got it done properly, as well as letting my partner do mine, too.

Then it was time for learning proper blow drying and styling practice with some of our new brushes. Said classmate and I decided that it would be fun to try and straighten each other's hair as well, so we tried it out. It was a lot of fun to do!

Tomorrow we're doing braiding :)

Finally There

So today was my first day at Paul Mitchell! I was so excited that I needed sleep aids last night so I could at least fall asleep.

Of course today's weather had to be absolutely ridiculous. Snow and a horrid windchill with a dash of fog. Nevada, make up your mind!

I got there 45 minutes before school even started and those 45 minutes went by painfully slow.

It was this empty for at least a good 30 of that 45.
Oh lookie here, what was on my chair?
And on my desk! BOOKSTUFF!

It was nice to meet some of my classmates one by one, though! I think I'm the youngest one in the room by around a good 2 to 4 years...

For the first hour, the entire student body was in the room. PM calls it a Powwow and it occurs every Tuesday morning to discuss how our past week went and what victories we achieved. It was incredibly inspiring to focus on the positives from everyday.

After that it was more of any other old first day of school: Sign here, you're agreeing to this, time for the Name Game, etc. Most of us just kept eyeing the cardboard boxes on one side of the room because we just wanted our kits already and wanted to explore! Our patience started to run thin during lunch; WE WANT THE KITS.

As the day went by, we went over cirriculum, again, like any other first day of school. But then we found out something cool: The hands on stuff starts right away! The first half of the day, we're in class for our core courses, and the rest of the day is a pattern of hands on with manniquin heads and some other splashes of core classes.

I expected to type out this huge story as to how my day went, but other than being a fun first day of a new adventure, it was very full of paper and cardboard, not much else. Maybe I'll type a little entry with every new lesson! Tomorrow's a first lesson on the basics: Shampoo.

I think this was a good choice of a school. Thank you so much, Regretsy, for bringing me here! It's a dream that's now reality. <3