As some of you know, and many of you do not know, I am coming to the end of my time as a cosmetology school student. I am graduating this coming Tuesday, August 3rd, and I have to say the thought is so, so sweet, I cannot wait to be done. My beauty school experience has been surprisingly influential and dare-I-say-it, life-changing. Those of you who know me personally would probably never have guessed in a million years I would end up in beauty school and not some university. I surprised even myself when I made the life-altering decision to go to beauty school.
It was funny seeing everyone's reaction when I told them I was dropping out of college, with my 4.0, and heading off to Marinello's. The majority of my family reacted the same; hesitating smiles that looked more like sneers and the same phrase, "but you're going to stay in school right?" It was slightly discouraging, seeing their less-than-pleased reactions. I mean, I was scared too! This was a complete one-eighty from my life-long plan to head off to some university and major in English Literature. Until this point I had always relied on my education, my photographic memory, and my GPA to get me through life. Deciding to veer away from the practicality of college and jump into the unknown, perhaps idealistic world, of creativity and art in the form of makeup and hair was quite the leap. But I am so proud of myself for making that venture!
What fun is practicality anyway? College degrees lead you to desk jobs at newspaper and magazine companies. That could be fun I guess, but my love for literature was the creation of it. I wanted to create stories; beautiful stories about dynamic individuals with dreams and ambitions and backgrounds. I realized the inspiration needed for my stories didn't lie on a desk, it resided in the people around me. I took up cosmetology because doing makeup and hair is something I love. It's fun for me. It's like playtime. And while I enhance the natural beauty of a client in my chair I am also encouraging the internal beauty within that unique person by giving them confidence in the way they look. And you can't imagine the stories you hear from those people in that chair. You hear the scandal, of course, but also the drive, the history, the fears, and the longings of these people. Everything that makes us the beautiful characters we are in this one huge story we all interact in.
As soon as I began school a year ago I knew I was in a place with more inspiration than I would ever need. Let me tell you something, the "beauty school" stereotype is kinda true; you meet some very interesting people in beauty school. I am not going to lie, I judged a lot of these girls when I walked through the doors of my school. I thought here I am, oh so smart, miss 4.0, and I am surrounded with all these girls who are, let's just say, much, much more wild then I have ever been.I was thrown into a place full of people I had never really been around and where I was immediately labeled the "good virgin girl." Just to brief you, we had: girls from jail, girls who loved sex more than any man (and talked openly about it), girls with babies, girls without a high school diploma (**gasp**); but you know what I learned? These girls who I used to think were scandalous and taboo turned out to be the most interesting, smart, and driven girls I have ever met. These girls have taught me more about life than anyone in my AP classes ever did.
Never did I go into beauty school either and think I would leave with a best friend who is pretty much the polar opposite of me. I like to think of us as ying and yang, black and white, good and evil. She was everything I was never looking for in a friend and yet I ended up finding everything I was ever looking for in a friend. Does that make sense? Her honesty is something I just can't get over. Its kind of like sour candy, you don't really know why you like it because it's kind of shocking and it hurts a little, but after a while you realize how good it is. If you judge this girl too quickly you will truly miss out on meeting one of the most loyal and caring girls you could ever find. And that, I think is the most worthy thing I have ever learned.
Not only did I learn the art of hairstyling and the reward it brings when you make somebody feel good about themselves, but I learned what it means to have a story. We each have our own individual, unique, beautiful stories and if you can just take a moment to hear one another you can truly find the inspiration to do whatever it may be with your own life. For me it will be to capture stories and to help anyone who sits in my styling chair to feel confident to continue writing their own stories.
Help!Hehe. Hey guys! First of all I would really like to thank everybody who has been reading and following my blog. Seeing that little view counter go up everyday makes me so excited! I love seeing that people are reading my writing, even if it's nothing more serious than talking about makeup or products to make your hair grow, lol.
I especially want to thank my youtube channel subscribers who have followed me over to my little blog to take a look, it means so much to me :)
Now, all that being said, I need your guys help, well, at least someone's help. The generic template of my blog has got.to.go! I am taking my blogging very seriously and I want a personalized blog design that shows it! Now, I have done some research on how to personalize your blog but it is getting me nowhere. The fact that I cannot find the photoshop program that I used to use for graphics editing anywhere doesn't hep me either.
If anyone knows any pointers to help me customize my blog design I would so appreciate the advice or recommendations, or whatever!
Thanks everyone and be looking out for some newer and more interesting blog posts coming tomorrow! Hearts!
I get asked a lot what tips I can give to girls to help them grow their hair longer. Most girls have a very difficult time keeping their hair healthy enough to prevent breakage and allow their hair to become longer. There is no secret product that will suddenly make your hair growth spurt 4 inches but you will notice and feel like your hair growth is increasing by keeping your hair healthy and preventing the length of your hair from breaking off.
Most of the products we use in our hair are scientifically manufactured so that the molecules in that product are small enough to fit into our hair's cuticle and hydrate the hair shaft from the inside out. The problem with these products is that they contain many chemical ingredients that are counter-productive to our hair's health. This is why many women choose to go organic with their hair-care, as I do.
This being said, not all organic or "food" based hair products are beneficial to your hair in terms of repair. Olive oil for example is a wonderful treatment for the hair if you are looking for increased softness and shine but olive oil will not do much as far as repairing the hair. This is because the molecules in olive oil are too large to fit into the hair's cuticle which means that the benefits of olive oil simply coat the hair's surface, giving it smoothness and luminosity but it does not restore or condition the hair.
Coconut oil on the other hand is the only organic oil whose molecules are small enough to fit into the tiny holes in the hairs cuticle. This allows the moisturizing nutrients from the coconut oil to penetrate the hair and restore the hair from the inside out. In this sense, coconut oil actually works to repair your hair and actually make it healthier. Coconut oil will not make split ends magically disappear, you have to cut those off, but it will help to restore dry, brittle hair.
I have found that coconut oil is indeed the magic ingredient to healthy hair. :)
