Onto The Lab Floor!

Tomorrow we will start taking clients.  Mostly manis, pedis, waxing and facials.  I am so looking forward to it.  We have to get 10 service points a day.  On Mondays, we practice state board drills and each section is worth a point.  I also did 40 foils of low lights on one of my babies and that counted for 4 points.  I did a deep conditioner service on my sister-in-law and styled her hair which was good for another 2 points.  Styling baby's hair gave me an additional point and put me at 11 for the day.

In order for my sister-in-law to get her points, I submitted to a pedicure and facial wax.  My sister-in-law, K, gives the best freaking foot rubs of anyone I have ever gotten a pedicure from. I was very impressed!  Preparing for the wax, caused me much distress because I found two freaking grey hairs in my brows!  WTF?  Way too early for that.

Foils

We were able to try our hand at foiling for the first time last week!  It was so much fun.  My first baby didn't turn out as spectacular as I would have liked, but she wasn't the worst in school either.  My second baby looked much better.  I have added low lights to each a couple of times since then and it has improved their overall look.

The photos above are of baby #2 after foiling highlights and then foiling low lights the next day.

K-Pak ReconstRx Vapor Iron Review

As a person of the naturally curly persuasion I have not used a straightening iron very often.  I am more of a blow dryer and big round brush kind of girl when I want to tame my girls and I will use a big barrel curling iron to cut down on frizz when necessary.  Also, being of the round faced variety, I prefer more volume than one can generally achieve with a straight iron.  That being said, I never expected to by a straight iron for my personal use - I figured I would buy a CHI Flat Iron at some point to use on clients.  After seeing the K-Pak ReconstRx Vapor Iron and talking to a stylist who uses it as her primary iron, I decided to buy it as soon as I had the money.  For those of you who don't know, the K-Pak purports to "resconstruct and protect your hair as you style".  The iron has resevoir, kind of life a clothing iron, to hold it K-Pak Vapor Fuel.  This fuel is infused with all kinds of good stuff that penetrates your hair as you use the iron.  Flat irons and other hot tools have the reputation for damaging hair.  Since February of this year I have, highlighted my hair 6 times (bad grey regrowth) and colored it twice so I have a little damage (understatement alert).  My is texturized and about 3 1/2 to 4 inches long in most places and stacked in the back so wearing it natural just is not a good option or good advertisement for a stylist to be.  I was hoping the K-Pak Vapor Iron would help counteract some of the abuse.

Since I am not too facile with using a straigth iron on myself, it took a bit longer than if I were having it done which also meant that I used more Vapor Fuel.  The literature says that someone with coarse hair should bet 2 styling sessions out of a resevior full.  I barely got one on my short hair.  I may dial the heat back next time to save the Vapor Fuel.  I had my mom do the back of my hair because I couldn't see what I was doing and didn't want to burn myself.  All of this was after I had performed the Redken Time Reset service and colored my hair with Wella's Color Touch Relights Demi Permanent color, both of which left my hair looking spectacular!  I couldn't mimic the curl I get with my curling iron normally, but I did get some sort of curl and it left my hair more voluminous than a normal straight iron would have.  It seems the Vapor Fuel is responsible for that.  According to JOICO, you can use the iron with or without the Vapor Fuel, but you cannot use anything else in it's place!  This morning when I styled my hair before church, I just brushed out last nights "do" and went back over it without the Vapor Fuel.  My hair was a bit flatter but still styled well.  I think I will need to make a trip back to CosmoProf this afternoon to get more Vapor Fuel because I don't think the bottle that came with it will last me all week.

I am going to try it out on my daughters' hair this afternoon.  One child has thick, curly hair and the other straight and baby fine.  I am hoping the Vapor Fuel will plump of the youngest's thin tresses.

Please remember, that what I write only represents my personal experience with a product or tool and in no way is a guarantee that you will have the same results, good or bad.  Sometimes the hair fairies smile on us and sometimes they laugh!

My Kitchen-tician Service

I bought the Wella Color Touch Relights in /57 red-violet brown and applied to my regrowth and worked through the rest the last 5 minutes.  I LOVE IT!!! It is vibrant and dimensional!  I decided to apply the Redken Shot Phix pH 3.5 to my hair after I shampooed the color out and then follow with Redken All Soft Heavy Cream conditioner.  I don't know if was the Shot Phix or the Heavy Cream, but my hair feels much better than before I colored it.  I just blew my hair mostly dry and am waiting for the rest to air dry so that I can try out the K-Pak ReconstRx Vapor Iron.  If the vapor iron does what it says it will do, my hair should be in much better condition in the next little bit.

Monday my new phone will be here and I will be able to post some pics to go along with the blog.  My current phone's SD car reader quit so I can't use the camera function.

Mom's Kitchen-tician Salon Service

After running errands and coming home to clean the bathroom, organizing my hair color supplies, picking up the puppy pad, sweeping the floor and starting a load of laundry, I performed the Redken Time Reset service on my mom's hair.  She said her felt better after the service versus how her hair feels when she does not condition her hair.  She blew her hair dry and we apply the Wella Color Touch Dark Blonde 6/0 to her regrowth.  Her hair is so short (not my cutting work, she still sees her old stylist) so I couldn't properly section her hair so I went around the perimeter of her hair and applied color to the regrowth and then went back in and worked in quarters as best I could.  As her hair is so short, it is hard to keep it from getting on the ends as I work through the rest of a section, but I did better this time than last.  Probably only because her hair was a tad bit longer.

The Wella Color Touch color and developer have a VERY pleasing smell.  It if probably the least odiferous color product I have ever used.  Mom's hair turned out the perfect shade and we are very pleased.  After I shampooed the color and before I conditioned, I sealed her hair with the Redken 3.5 pH Shot Phase.  Hoping it would neutralize the hair's pH.  I conditioned with the Redken All Soft Heavy Cream.  That stuff rocks!

Saturday To Do List

Go to State or Cosmo to buy gloves.  Thinking State b/c I haven't been there in a while and maybe they will have some good bargains on their clearance shelf.

Do the Redken Time Reset Salon Service on my mom's hair before I do a color re-touch.  Read the instructions and it says to perform after the color service for best results, but I am planning to do it pre and post as I want to even out he porosity so the color will grab evenly.  I am trying the Wella Color Touch Relights, "A multidimensional demi-permanent color".  Mom's regrowth is less than a 1/2 inch, but her hair is so thin and short it really stands out.  I am using the demi color every other color service to spare her hair the harsh treatment of a permanent service, yet satisfy her desire not to have gray shining through.

I am also going to run the Wella Color Touch Relights /57 red-violet brown through my hair as well.  I colored my hair a dark red (ION 4IR and ION 5N) a couple of weeks ago.  I have about 1/3 of an inch regrowth of SILVER and the color has faded quite a bit because it was applied over badly damaged blonde highlights.  I am hoping the Wella Color Touch Relights Demi will be gentler on my hair, pump the red back up, provide shine and if not cover the grey hopefully it will knock down the contrast a bit.  I am thinking I will use the Redken Time Reset process on my hair as well.

After this I will play with my new K-Pak ReconstRx Vapor Iron!!!!

I am hoping to handle some household chores like sweeping, mopping, clean my room and go through some old clothes to see what I will realistically still wear.

Ciao!

Joico Vapor Iron

I bought it today after work!  Too tired to play with it tonight.  I will watch the DVD tomorrow and then try it out.  CosmoPro had the Pink one on sale for $99!!!!!

Financial Aid Check

If I can work it out so that I can leave long enough tomorrow I am going to run down to school to get my student loan check.  I am going to pay up my car payment and insurance a couple of months in advance and get some my credit cards paid back down.  I am seriously thinking of splurging and buying a JOICO ReconstRx Vapor Iron because I have damaged my hair a bit in the last few months.  I don't normally straighten my hair and am not crazy about the sleek straight look for my less than sleek, round face; but, my hair needs all the help in can get.  If the Joico Vapor Iron works as well as they hype claims, it would be a big help for my stressed tresses.  I really want the pink one to support breast cancer awareness and because it is pretty.  I haven't been in CosmoProf or State Beauty Supply in a few weeks and as of my last visit neither had it in the Pink promo version.  I am going to around tomorrow and see if they have it and how much it costs right now.

http://www.joico.com/mediaroom/press/id/137

204 hours and 8 minutes

As of clocking out this afternoon I have 204 hours and 8 minutes of my 1500 hour journey completed!!!!  We had our test on Chapter 3 Anatomy and Physiology today (we are using Pivot Point International's curriculum) and I aced it with a 100.  The drawing of the cell we did last week was counted as a bonus of 5 pts. so I ended up with a 105 on one of the hardest test we will take. Very happy!

We practiced facials today and then played around with my Luminess Airbrush System.  I bought the Luminess back in August from HSN and played with once after watching PART of the instruction video.  I was kind of disappointed in it, but now I know I didn't follow instructions well.  After watching the video at school yesterday and learning the proper technique, I think the machine is pretty cool.  I would like to run some of the M.A.C. silicone based airbrush make up through it to see how it compares.  Luminess' make up is water based and feels a little odd on the face.  My sister-in-law and I tried the Temptu at Sephora and LOVED it, but were concerned because of the way it was set up we would be limited and could only use Temptu's proprietary make up.  That would be fine if it was for personal use, but if we are going to invest that kind of money in a tool it needs to be able to make us some money at some point.  The Luminess is an "open" system so you can use any product that can be "dropped" into the cup on top of the airbrush gun.  In theory you could paint T-Shirts with it and if the whole beauty school thing doesn't work out momma may have to do that ;-)

One of my "freshman" classmates, JS,  is very interested in make up artistry so she painted two of our classmates faces as Gene Simmons and Star Child of K.I.S.S.  She also did beautiful flower at the corner of another classmate's eye.

We are out of school tomorrow, so I am back working for my old employer's for the day.

xoxoxo,

Confident One

How School is Different Than I Expected

There is a lot of sitting around doing nothing in the afternoon because we are slaves to the clock.  The state board will only let you get 8 hours and 5 minutes a day unless it is because a service went over at the end of the day.  They don't want us making a habit of this, so we don't take clients after 3:00 p.m.  4:00 p.m. is the start of clean up and we leave at 5:00 p.m.  Our cleaning duties take anywhere from 2 to 15 minutes and add another 5 minutes to tidy your station and roll about you can see that leaves extra time.  So we sit.  I am not good at doing nothing - my mom might disagree with that statement - but really just sitting and doing nothing at all drives me bonkers!

I expected to have learned more by now.  In theory, I could be out on the floor because it only takes 5 weeks to accumulate the required 150 hours of training before you can be turned loose on the lab floor.  Super scary for the unsuspecting public!  I feel we have barely scratched the surface of things we need to know.  I realize the lab floor (practice salon) is still a learning environment, but I also feel it is an opportunity to practice what you know and learn to improve upon your foundation. 

Running out of time this morning!

To be continued . . .

xoxoxo,

Confident One