We're learning by repetition here. Really, I guess that's how you learn anything, you just do it over & over & over. This is no exception. I can't think of anything I've done here only once. We have these project sheets that we have to complete to get out of the freshman classroom. It lists all the things we have to do to the instructor's satisfaction to move on. So it says things like, "Full head of finger waves (x3)" & "Roller set (x5)" & "Perm wrap (x5)." So I work away at my little station, wrapping those perm rods with my mannequin's wispy hair, timing myself to see how long it's going to take me to get her whole head done. When I finish, feeling like I just ran a marathon, & take it up to the teacher so I can get checked off for it, she usually says something like, "Looks good. Take it down. Do it again." It's not that she doesn't ever compliment us, she does, it's that each thing we do is just a necessary & necessarily ephemeral step in completing this first part of things. No matter how fabulous you might make the mannequin's hair look, we aren't going to leave it that way, maybe not even for five minutes. You've got to take it down & do it again or, if you've done that enough times, take it down & do something else. Then take that down & do it again.
Spending eight hours a day in one room with the same twenty people can begin to wear on you. There are some people I really, really like; some people who I don't feel much one way or the other about; & some people I can't stand. There are days when I think, "If I hear your voice one more time this afternoon, I'm going to stab you with this rattail comb." I've got one with a metal tail, so that means something. And then there are times when I'm laughing or talking to someone or admiring the good work they've done & I feel really happy. Fortunately, there's a pretty good balance in there. And mostly I feel pretty happy by default. And of course, there's all the inbetween time, when things are just fine & time is just passing.
A lot has happened since my last post. Of course it has, it's been a month. Bitchy Bitch get sent home twice, once for being a bitchy bitch & once for being late. We've learned how to wrap perms & do highlights & give a relaxer & color hair & use a flat iron & a marcel iron (oh, marcel iron, I thought you might be the death of me. "Click it! Click it!" they would cry at me. And I'd spin the iron & try to click the hair around the barrel, trying to make that perfect curl & not burn the ends. You can get cramps in your hands from that thing). And we did manicures & pedicures & facials & updos. That picture up top (because I can't figure out how to put images anywhere else in the text) is the updo I made up & -ahem- won second place in the updo contest with. I'll let you touch my vent brush if you ask nicely.
We start cutting hair next week. And then just a couple more weeks in the freshman room. After that, we will be unleashed on an unsuspecting public on the clinic floor.
Spending eight hours a day in one room with the same twenty people can begin to wear on you. There are some people I really, really like; some people who I don't feel much one way or the other about; & some people I can't stand. There are days when I think, "If I hear your voice one more time this afternoon, I'm going to stab you with this rattail comb." I've got one with a metal tail, so that means something. And then there are times when I'm laughing or talking to someone or admiring the good work they've done & I feel really happy. Fortunately, there's a pretty good balance in there. And mostly I feel pretty happy by default. And of course, there's all the inbetween time, when things are just fine & time is just passing.
A lot has happened since my last post. Of course it has, it's been a month. Bitchy Bitch get sent home twice, once for being a bitchy bitch & once for being late. We've learned how to wrap perms & do highlights & give a relaxer & color hair & use a flat iron & a marcel iron (oh, marcel iron, I thought you might be the death of me. "Click it! Click it!" they would cry at me. And I'd spin the iron & try to click the hair around the barrel, trying to make that perfect curl & not burn the ends. You can get cramps in your hands from that thing). And we did manicures & pedicures & facials & updos. That picture up top (because I can't figure out how to put images anywhere else in the text) is the updo I made up & -ahem- won second place in the updo contest with. I'll let you touch my vent brush if you ask nicely.
We start cutting hair next week. And then just a couple more weeks in the freshman room. After that, we will be unleashed on an unsuspecting public on the clinic floor.
