Since is my last week of school, I thought I would write about what I have learned in cosmetology school over the past year. It is really hard to believe that it has been a year. It is weird thinking of the person I was a year ago and the person that I am today. Not just my skill level as a stylist, but personally as well. Getting married and finishing school and moving away from the towns and coast I grew up on, I guess I am just being a little nostalgic. Whatever it is, I am filled with gratitude for everything I have been taught at my two Aveda Institutes, by my teachers and peers and from life experiences over the past year. I think it will be good for me two write all these thoughts out, and I am going to try to not tear up as I write this.
So first I am going to write about the technical things I have learned about the beauty industry.
1: DON’T FIGHT WITH YOUR HAIR
I spent most of my teen years trying to have different edgy haircuts that did not work well with my hair texture. I flat ironed my hair every day. I used some heat heat heat on my hair and did some damage making the process of trying to make my hair do what I wanted even more difficult. Learning this lesson was a biggie for me. Right after I started school I bleached my hair and SEVERELY damaged it (it felt like limp spaghetti). Luckily I didn’t lose any hair and it didn’t fall out of my head. But, yet again I was hurting my naturally beautiful hair because I was trying to make it do something completely UN-natural. So I am not saying don’t color your hair, I am just saying try and enhance what you have. Get haircuts that work with the hair texture you have. These will be the most flattering for your face as well. Get color that enhances your natural color and makes it really beautiful and stand out. DON’T bleach your hair for 10 hours straight because you just have to be platinum. 😛
2:WORK TOWARDS A ROUTINE THAT WORKS FOR YOU
Trust your stylist to show you the best way to style your hair. Of course there are scumbag stylist that just wanna make a quick buck on product sales, but most of us are genuinely trying to help you make your hair look and feel how you want on a daily basis. A reoccurring theme among my clients happens when I am shampooing them or right after a blow-dry. “I wish I could have this every day! Can’t you come to my house and do this in the mornings?” Now I am aware most of them are joking, but the thing clients seem to not understand is you can have a VERY similar experience at home. Our bodies are triggered by scents. You can carry lots of memories in your sniffer. Smells make you remember. Soooo at home in the shower as you are scrubbing you hair if you are smelling that wonderful smell you were smelling as I was shampooing you (with something I recommended to help you with whatever hair issue was ailing you) your brain will take you back to the relaxing experience you had in the chair, enhancing your at home experience. — using the products on your hair I recommenced and letting me show you how to blow dry and style your hair every day enhances your experience at home. The smell can take you back to the salon and you can walk out of the bathroom feeling like you did (or at least close to) when you left my chair. Honestly, I would never tell someone use something if it wasn’t going to work for you. SOME stylists are scumbags looking for product commission, but hey those people are in every business don’t judge us all by the scumsters.
3: BANGS
When in doubt less is more. After finishing my hours at my first aveda institute in North Carolina I went out for a pedicure with two of my favorite instructors. While having a relaxing foot rub we began to talk about the oops and uh-ohs of hair school. They told me a story about the bangs one of my fellow students cut that were so far up the forehead they were barley bangs and the face framing another student cut that included most of the woman’s hair being cut to the short face frame length. Fringes, bangs, side sweep whatever – they seem so delicate and impossible when you start cutting hair. Making an uh-oh in the back of someone’s hair, that can be worked with, covered up, or fixed. Bangs….not so much. To all cosmo students: When you start working on clients, have an instructor cut all the fringes, face frames and everything delicate, and WATCH THEM. Pay attention its how you learn. Then start cutting them yourself. And like I said LESS IS MORE. Give yourself some wiggle room. You, your instructor, and your guest will GREATLY appreciate it ;]
Ok so top three hair things I have learned over the past year.
1. Emotionally I feel as though I have greatly matured over the past year. I have been through a lot of ups and downs. I started my year of school with the end of a messy and destructive relationship and starting school was my new beginning . Unfortunately I found that there are a lot of people out there who are selfish and only care about themselves. There have been a few teachers ( who I believe know who they are) who I would really like to thank for saving me. (And now is when I tear up) I truly believe I wouldn’t have emotionally made it through without you. No one in my class in NC liked me. The drama and the things said and done were out of line but I made it through. And it was the wonderful teachers that really helped me do this. Many days I didn’t think I could make it through another day in that place. Only a couple know this but I was severely depressed and some days I just wanted to die or disappear and didn’t think I could keep going. To the teachers that showed me I could keep going and could keep doing this thing you will never know the impact you have made on me. We may keep in touch or may not, but sincerely I want to thank you for helping me start my journey and making it through. You have been a blessing to me more than you know.
2. To everyone at Cinta Aveda I must say you completely changed my outlook on this industry. You truly showed me what this industry is supposed to be. I enjoyed going to school here. You made it a peaceful learning environment that really helped prepare me for life after school. You made me see that not everyone sucks. All of the staff is caring and loving and so so so helpful to students. Even just little things you all do, that you may not even think about, make such a difference to me coming from a place that I felt as though no one cared. Thank you for opening my eyes and giving me hope in people and this wonderful industry. I am so blessed to have finished my education in such a wonderful school.
3. Overall, Keeping myself guarded, but letting people in when I need help. Perseverance. Never ever give up. Never let anyone stand in the way of accomplishing your dreams. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Karma is real and will come back around to you. When someone is unkind or hurtful, don’t return it. Always act in a way to be able to walk away when all is said and done with your head held high and proud of the person that you are.
So I learned a lot about hair and much more about becoming a better person and what a reward it is to serve others.
Thank you to everyone, my family, my fiance, my friends and teachers. You have helped me grow in enormous ways and I can not wait to start my journey in the “real world”
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