I Made A (Film Star!) Weave

I wrapped filming for the student film project I was working on today. Overall I was responsible for the hair, makeup and wardrobe of a cast of five characters: four of whom are members of a goth/emo rock band. For the most part, the actors were cast pretty close to part, which made my life a hell of a lot easier, since I was a one-man department responsible for the looks of 5 people. However, the lead character (a particularly emo 20-something who probably spent his entire teenage years moping around the Hot Topic at the mall while trying to get a band together), was to be played by your quintessential Abercrombie & Fitch-wearing *normal* guy. Fun!

I realized right off the bat that it was with that character that I was going to make my involvement with this project worthwhile for me. As I mentioned, I did this job pro-bono, which meant that if I wasn't getting paid monetarily, then I better damn make sure I get something beneficial out of it! (No offense, Phil, I realize you spent a shit ton of $$ on this project, and I am really grateful that you thought of me and allowed me to be a part of it!) Anyway, I immediately started thinking about how I could transform this guy into a pseudo-rockstar...

Here is what I had to work with:

note the American Eagle hoodie...

Obviously, the first thing to tackle was his hair. I could go one of two ways: cut it or add some. I decided I wanted to give him hair... Nothing says "emo/goth band" like some seriously asymmetrical hair. So, a hairpiece it was! The problem, of course, being that -- I've never done one before!

I guess that's not entirely true. I experimented with fake hair in the early '00s when dreaded hair extensions were in style in the goth-club circuit... and I've owned little (pre-made) clip-in extension pieces that I got at Ricky's, or whatever. But I'd never bought hair on a track before and made my own. Luckily, I'd had friends who'd done this before, so I knew how it worked, and I'd also asked one of my instructors to explain it to me a few weeks ago, as he wears a clip-in extension every day while he grows out a short haircut... Making clip-in extension pieces was way easier than I thought; the hard part was blending it in with his real hair. I ended up making two pieces: one for length, and one for blending/style. Added to this was some smudgy eyeliner and a few key wardrobe pieces (borrowed from another actor), and voila! An emo rocker dude was born.

The result:

his shirt (underneath the scarf and pleather jacket) reads "Fuck My Life" -- if that's not "emo", I don't know what is.

For one scene, I had to make the character look like he'd just been in a fight (with the guitarist from his band, who'd transformed into a drug-addicted zombie... yes!). Here's what I did with that:

he had fake blood dripping down the corner of his mouth that smudged off before I took this pic. 

I'll also add that this film was shot in black and white, so the difference in tone of his hair piece and his natural were not noticeable. (I checked. Many times).  Also, subtle makeup applications go a looong way on black and white film.

I'm super excited by the results, considering it was the first time I'd done this. I can't wait to see the film when it's edited and complete. It was a really fun experience, and it confirmed for me that I do indeed enjoy working on film shoots. Can't wait to get more experience like this under my belt!

Here's some more looks from the film shoot that I put together:

before and after of female drummer character. 

post-gig look

this is the token naive bass-player character.

strung out heroin-addicted soon-to-be zombie character.

NOT A Beauty School Dropout

I did it.

I graduated from the Aveda Institute. It took 9 months, and was (literally) a painfully long experience, but I did it. I couldn't be happier that I actually pushed myself through it all. Overall, I learned SO much, and I'm really glad I did it. There hasn't been a single day that I think, "gee, I really should just go back to an office job." Those days are over, and I'm not looking back. I'm thankful that this career will allow me to hold on to that resolution.

My last week of school, I had a few of my friends come in as clients, as well as a few repeat clients who requested me after earlier appointments. As a result, the last couple of days were nice and pleasant for me. Here's a couple of pics of the work I did (before and after):

single process (to match her natural) plus red peekaboo highlights

long concave cut with graduation. I had previously done her color as well.

So... now I enter the real world. First job out of the gate: I'm doing hair and makeup for my friend Phil's short film. Shooting starts on Monday, runs through Thursday. The task I'm most excited about is turning a regular guy (the main actor) into an emo/goth rocker dude. The work is pro-bono, but I think it'll be great experience and a nice credit to have under my belt, especially since I do want to eventually work on editorial and film shoots.

The next order of business will be trying to find a salon job. As I've discussed previously, I think this is an incredibly important part of trying to build who you are as a stylist. This is gonna be the tricky part. I've got some ideas of places I want to apply to, but I am trying to find a place that will have an equal emphasis on education as it does on a creative and somewhat relaxed atmosphere. Translation: I don't want to work a 9-5 (or 7-3 as I did at Louis Licari) schedule. I've come to terms with the fact that I'm just NOT a morning person, and my creative juices (as well as general productivity) just don't start flowing that early. I don't want to work nights, but I'll need to find some sort of happy medium. Also, I don't want to assist forever. I can't, in fact, financially afford to do so. This leaves corporate salons essentially out of my job search, but I don't want to sacrifice education by going to a small (no matter how hip) boutique salon, if there aren't any stylists available during the day who I can actually learn from. So... the search begins.

More Hair-inspiration

While browsing Tumblr and the like, came across some pics of cool hair I just want to save here for future reference...

....more behind the cut...

Graduation

This post isn't about hair-cutting techniques... It's to announce that I had my official "graduation ceremony" at the Hogwarts School of Hair Wizards on Tuesday of this week. I won't get into what the graduation ceremony consisted of, or how my peers and I perceived it, as this is a public forum and I should best keep negative opinions to myself... However, I am happy that this phase of my life is soon coming to a close and I can get started on the rest of my career. I know there are some aspects of cosmetology school I'll miss, but I'm really looking forward to thinking outside of a set of given parameters, if that makes any sense. My last day of school is scheduled to be December 3rd.

Anyway... my graduating class got majorly short-shafted on class-time and final projects we were promised (oh, look, I guess some of that negativity managed to creep in after all...).  The final project was supposed to consist of bringing a model in to the school, and styling them (including cut/color, style, makeup and wardrobe), then having a professional photographer take pictures of the final result for use in our portfolios. I'd already planned what my theme was going to be, picked out inspiration photos and wardrobe, and was merely waiting for the assignment date to be given so I could book a model. Alas, the project was called off, so I made a decision last night to take it into my own hands. I'm putting the specific idea I had for that project on hold for now, as it was rather ambitious, and I really need a salon environment and a professional photo setup to do it justice, but there's no reason I can't plan my own "final projects".

(one of my original inspiration photos... I'll come back to this one day!)

So, I put out a public service announcement on Facebook asking my friends if anyone wanted some funky hair for free.  My plan is now to do one "final project" per week until I'm employed again full-time. This is still quite ambitious for me, but I feel like it's something I can commit to, and it will keep me busy working on hair.  Plus it will be really useful for my portfolio. I intend to gather up some willing victims, do either cut, color or both, style them, do makeup, and then take pictures using my own digital camera. I took a portrait photography course at NYU a couple of years ago, so I think I'm up to the challenge. (Yet another skill I get to practice! Huzzah.)

I'm hoping my first project will take place sometime during Thanksgiving weekend. I have a model at the ready, and some photos for inspiration...

 (a new inspiration photo... let's see how this goes!)

I'm super psyched to see how this idea will pan out! Stay tuned...

And Then That Happened...

That artist lady who earned herself an entire blog post came back to the salon today to get her haircut redone by another student. Apparently, my instructor had only managed to texturize it on one side, and it was really lopsided, so she came in to "finish it up." The lucky student who fixed it just so happened to have the station right next to mine. Awkward.

Also, as I had another situation today with a client who suddenly realized she had to fly like a bat out of hell in the middle of her service... here's a friendly public service announcement reminder: DO NOT GO TO A SCHOOL TO GET YOUR HAIR DONE, IF YOU DO NOT HAVE TIME TO SPARE. That is all.

Resolutions in Creativity

I have a month left of school. Graduation cannot come soon enough! The last phase of school has been nonstop clients, with few breaks and only one actual lesson day (in which I learned how to do the "perfect ponytail"...among other things). It's grueling and only somewhat rewarding. I don't feel 100% confident in my abilities yet, but I definitely feel a lot more comfortable putting my hands in hair...

It's been a long and strange journey... I was never quite the best beauty school candidate, because I've never been interested in things being "pretty." It was hard to get used to doing a "pretty" blowout, or a "pretty" haircut, because I've always had a more... eclectic?... view of hair. (I swore I wouldn't say "punk rock".)  Basically, I've always had multicolored hair, dark roots have never bothered me much, my own haircuts are always choppy and asymmetrical, and i like lots of texture. I also never blow-dry my own hair, I barely use product, and with all the Special Effects/Manic Panic in my hair, I'm lucky if I wash it more than once a week... It was hard to retrain my brain to think in terms of what is expected at a more corporate, mainstream salon environment.

The problem is... now that I've done that retraining, it's hard *not* to think that way. Yesterday, I had a client come in with hair that went halfway down her back with no layering, who wanted a "funky" hair style. She liked my own asymmetrical style, and wanted something chunky and highly textured. And she was willing to cut off a LOT of hair.

"I'm open," she said. "I want you to use your own creative vision. It can be sculptural, or whatever, just get crazy. I'm an artist."

My initial reaction was panic. I've been fighting off a flu for the past month; I can't take any sick days because I am determined not to postpone my graduation any further, so I've been attending school heavily medicated on TheraFlu, echinacea and whatever painkiller I can get my hands on. I'm in a fog most of the day, my muscles ache and I feel fatigued and slow. That is not the optimal state of being for someone to "be creative". And, on top of that comes the above-mentioned dilemma: I've been trained to do by-the-book, "pretty" haircuts. We rarely get to experiment, and I don't necessarily feel comfortable doing so on a real person (who I don't know) in a salon environment. It would be different if it were a friend of mine who said "go crazy" and I wasn't being graded, and if a hair is out of place it would be no big deal... But I don't know this lady, and I don't know what will happen if MY idea of "creative" is her idea of "what the fuck did you do to my hair?!"

I hate this feeling. It's crippling. I've always been trapped in this in-between world of being a generally creative person, but also being someone who's really nerdy and kind of an overachiever, who generally operates within the parameters of wherever I happen to be employed or studying. I'm frequently torn between being rebellious and artistic on the inside, and a perfectly passive service provider who just wants to please you in practice. Artist lady done freaked me the hell out with her request.

What ended up happening is I gave her an extreme concave bob, where the back started at the nape of her neck, and the front ended at about boob-length. Then I gave her round layers to eliminate a bunch of bulk and add movement. From there, the idea was to give her even more choppy-as-fuck layers and texturize the crap out of that. Of course, at that point, artist lady decides she's running really late to her next appointment (DO NOT GO TO A SCHOOL TO GET YOUR HAIR DONE IF YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO SPARE!! Just don't. Save yourself and your poor student stylist the stress.) So, I do what my conscientious student-mind tells me to do, and I call over one of my instructors to ask him to show me real quick how I can achieve the look that's in my head in 5 minutes flat. Artist lady is freaking out because she has to leave NOW and "I'm an artist, and I just can't deal with this boring housewife haircut..."

What?! Boring housewife. Ouch. I almost ran out of the salon crying right then and there. That is just about the complete opposite of who I am... I think?? My instructor was cool and did exactly what I told him I wanted to do in no time (while still trying to squeeze in some instruction to me on how to achieve it next time), but it was a total missed opportunity. Lady had no time, therefore I didn't get to experiment, and my instructor had to step in and do my dirty work. Artist lady did apologize: "I'm sorry, I was right there with you. I know what you wanted to do, and that was totally right, and if you would have had more time I'm sure we would have gotten there." Thanks.

In the end I didn't even have the chance to snap a picture, but I wouldn't feel right calling it my work anyway, since I'm not responsible for the absolute final result. BUT, I suppose it was a valuable lesson learned... I don't ever want anyone to refer to anything I do as "boring" again. I need to trust my instincts and allow my ideas to materialize. The hardest part for me to deal with is getting things "wrong", but in the end I guess it's better to make mistakes and learn from them, than be too afraid to try new and fun things that I want to do.

Anyway... because I don't feel right not posting any photos at all after all that blabber -- here a couple of pics of my trusty model, Bertha, showing off some recent examples of my cut and color experimentation. She never gets to complain about my timing or taste.

Pink Pony

Because I don't have the time or energy for a proper post (been fighting off a flu since what feels like forever ago), here is a humorous little photo of an ad I encountered on the subway. Horse of a different color, indeed!

*though I must say... I've never been able to find pink hair dye at my local Duane Reade. (And my hair *is* currently dyed pink, so I would know). Nor have I ever seen one of those poor carriage horses with pink hair... they suffer enough as it is!

Reverse Show

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of being a hair model for my friend, Dyanne Mueller's graduation show at Arrojo Studio in New York City. Her concept came about in part because of my hair, which I'd had her refresh on a few occasions. My hair at the time was a cool blond on top with jet black underneath. I had a shaved side. She lifted and toned my already level 10 blond to a silvery platinum using Wella's Silver Lady among other things, and used a black demi on my bottom layers, which intensified the bluish-silver tones of the blond with each wash. In layman's terms... she made me look like some sort of silver elven creature and it looked awesome. To go with this look, she recruited a few other hair models and gave them all two-toned hair, ranging from an extreme white-to-black reverse ombré to purple streaks in jet-black hair. Fellow Arrojo stylist Emily Ann Carroll was on hand to shear everyone's locks into an appropriate style to showcase Dyanne's color work. The show was set to an uber-spooky video featuring a song by industrial band :wumpscut:, and the models were asked to dress in our finest goth-chic attire. At the end of the show, Nick Arrojo came out to congratulate Dyanne for all of her hard work, and thank her for finally allowing her darker side to come out (little does he know...)

Take a look at some pictures from the show below!

See more pics from the (oddly seasonally appropriate) event behind the cut. All photos courtesy of Kurt Komoda.

Lunic Photoshoot

About a month ago, my friend, photographer Boris Gasin, contacted me about doing hair and makeup for a photoshoot. It was for an all-girl band called Lunic. I agreed.

I was really happy with the results, and learned a lot from the experience. Especially what to do differently in the future. However, I'm pleased with how each girl looked for the shoot, and I think that their hair and makeup reflect their sound pretty well!

Check out the photos below, and make sure to check out the band also!

Still Shearing...

Sadly, I was forced to stop updating this space after my last move. I never properly set up my computer at my old apartment, and it became too tiresome to try to update from a mobile device... so, sadly, Shear Madness went by the wayside... This doesn't mean I've lost any of my obsession for hair. And now that I've settled into a more permanent living situation, I can return to sharing that madness.

About two months ago, I was also forced to take a medical leave from my seven-month cosmetology program. It seems my body, especially my back, wasn't quite as prepared as my mind was for my big change from sitting behind a desk at the MTV offices to standing behind a chair playing with hair for eight hours a day. I developed pretty severe sciatica, and my nearly nonexistent neck and shoulder muscles essentially crapped out. This made for a very cranky hairdresser. So I took two months off from school. I started going to physical therapy 3x a week, lifting weights, eating healthier and going to a chiropractor. I'm proud to say that I've made some progress, but I definitely have a long way to go before I'll really feel strong enough to do this all with ease.

Today was my first day back behind a chair full-time. This doesn't mean I haven't been doing hair during my leave (in fact, I managed to get quite a few fun hair gigs, including a hair and makeup job for an all-girl band photoshoot that I eagerly await evidence of).  However, I must say, I am beat from my first full day of continuous hairstyling. Maintaining proper posture while you're hustling to service clients quickly is hard! My back is killing me, and I'm about to retire into my little cave of a bedroom with an icepack and some Motrin, but before I do that, I thought I'd mark the momentous return to school with a quick little update here.

And, because you can't maintain a hair blog without pictures of HAIR, here are some photos from a favorite of my more recent haircuts, performed on my friend Devlin a few days ago...

She had a grown-out pixie cut that was starting to look rather mullety (...sorry Dev!) in the back.

I gave her an assymetrical bob with short round layers in the back that would highlight her curls and frame her face.

What do we think?

Little Suzy Curly-Q

Bertha B. got a perm today. I still reek of rotten eggs. The smell reminded me of going to the hair salon with my mother when I was little. Her salon was this snazzy place on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens with a purple neon sign that read Papillon. I used to love looking at all the hairstyles in the oversized hardcover haircut catalogs. By the time I was in middle school, I had all those hair catalogs memorized, but I still liked flipping through them. I can still almost picture all the feathery, Farrah Fawcett layers and short and curly backcombed 'dos.

Anyway... so, I gave Bertha a perm today. Bertha B. is my most-trusted, daily client. She's also made of plastic, so I don't have to fret about poking her in the face, slicing her with shears, or dripping a chemical in her eye. Plus her scalp comes off and I can give her a brand new head of hair if I accidentally give her a bad perm or dye job. Most convenient.

My thoughts on perms: Part of me can't comprehend why anyone would want to put their hair (and scalp) through that much chemical torture. (...says she whose hair is about to break off from years of bleaching...) Apart from the fact that you have to keep an eye on the stuff and check it every 2 minutes because if, heaven forfend, you over-process the hair, it WILL turn into cotton candy and melt right in your fingers -- it also really freaking stinks! And that smell lingers on your clothes and your hair for days! (Sorry Bertha, that is the price you pay for vanity!) I mean, yeah, okay, I get that perms were big in the 80s, and some people just have no other way to get a curl to stick in their hair, but it boggles my mind just a little bit that there aren't any more effective alternatives. I have no idea why chemically changing the texture of someone's hair seems like a big deal to me, but I don't bat an eye at chemically changing the color (no matter how frequently). It's not like the actual hair can feel any of it... it's just dead protein.

The actual process wasn't so bad, though of course it took me all day. I was feeling particularly the anti-beauty student beauty student today (more on that later), so I was happy to retreat into my own little world and just roll hair into rods for four hours. And it is kinda rewarding to see those curlicues emerge as you rinse that foul-smelling potion off. I am, however, secretly hoping that I never have to do another perm again for the duration of my career.

So here's Bertha, pre-perm. (just ignore the awful highlights right on her hairline... I was totally going for that 90s skunk look, ok?!)

And Bertha, post-perm. (I *might* have been channeling Jennifer Grey's look in Dirty Dancing. Nobody puts Baby in the corner.)

K, that's it for now, as I've been severely sleep-deprived and don't have the mental energy to discuss hair any longer (for fear my *brain* will turn to cotton candy and melt between my ears). I've been working on a couple of posts that will come up as soon as I regain some of that, notably on why I suck at being in beauty school and also pics of my first few real-life hair models... So exciting!

Salon & Stylist Compatibility

Last night after a friend's birthday party (which involved pizza, donuts, beer and bowling at a place in Brooklyn called The Gutter... a classy affair indeed!), our group of friends ended up continuing the drunken merrymaking at a bar in Williamsburg. As the guys (all musicians) gathered 'round to discuss this guitar riff and that chord progression, the girls (myself included) sat at the bar discussing -- what else? -- hair.

After complimenting each other on all our respective dye jobs and how we had achieved them (brown & blue, hot pink, warm brown and my own black and white), we got into a discussion about the actual salon experience. Hot Pink declared she hated going to salons. She said it was always awkward, so she preferred just doing her hair herself. Brown & Blue was quick to agree. She goes to one particular salon because it's cheap, but overall doesn't necessarily enjoy the experience. "Having someone touch my head is a really intimate thing... I hate having someone random touching me. It's weird."

Brown & Blue also brought up the point that it is equally weird when you are sitting in a salon and have nothing to say. Because, of course, you're "supposed to" chat (and gossip) with your stylist, right? But we've all been in this situation: you're sitting in a stylist's chair, nothing to say, the stylist working quietly away on a part of your person, and this pregnant silence hovering in the air between you. Awkward!!

This led me to think about the kind of people who make good, approachable stylists. Being a "good stylist" is a lot about skill and technique... but it's every bit as much (if not more) about personality.

photo: Glamour Garage, Brooklyn

As an admittedly recovering hair slut, my salon experiences (as a client) have run the gamut. When going to a friend, the banter and "gossip" is nonstop -- it's a time to catch up on your own lives and discuss absolutely everyone we know in common. But what about when it's a new stylist you're going to? A complete stranger?

My instructor at the Hogwarts Academy for Hair Wizardry has told my class that, as stylists, we are all actors. Something about this bothers me. I do agree that once you are behind the chair, you have to be "on." Bad day? Too freakin' bad! Your clients are your #1 priority now; making them look AND feel good. They don't give a crap about your problems, but they sure as hell expect you to care about theirs. But, my problem with referring to us as "actors" is that it implies that we *don't* in fact care about their issues. We're just pretending, so we can make a better tip... I don't know, but something about that makes the whole thing seem a little cheap. Yes, we're part of the service industry, but I'd hope our relationship with our clients isn't purely based on lip service and a bottle of bleach. If I have to see you (and listen to you!) every 4-6 weeks, I'd want it to be a genuinely enjoyable experience every time.

This train of thought reinforces my belief that finding the right salon (read: clients) is the most essential part of being successful in this business. If money is your top motivator, then by all means, work at a fine corporate salon where you can do top-notch work and simply humor your clients for a couple of hours. But if you're looking to develop a clientele who feel an actual connection to you, then it's important to approach those clients like you would your friends. Work for a salon that speaks to your aesthetic and your lifestyle. The kinds of clients you're likely to encounter there will probably feel more at ease around you if they believe that there is some sort of common ground right off the bat. (Hopefully that'll take care of the pregnant silence!) You're also more likely to understand the vision your clients are looking to achieve if you have similar tastes. And, if all else fails, perhaps you can make some new friends?

Of course, it's easy to wax poetic about all this when you've only got a little over a month of hair school under your belt and the task of finding employment at a compatible salon that will also somehow pay your bills is lurking in the seemingly distant future of six whole months from now... But I take pride in thinking that I feed off of other people's energy routinely and to great effect, and I really enjoy meeting new people and finding out the things that make them unique. No matter where I end up, even if entirely different from what my naive ideals have conjured, I expect that those traits will serve me well.

That's A Horse Of A Different Color!

Ever since I was little, I've had this strange obsession with all things candy-colored. Maybe it's because I was born into the ferociously day-glo, hyper-vivid world of the 80s. I loved the tricolored deliciousness of cotton candy, bright pink and primary colored gum balls, Skittles, M&Ms, Froot Loops, (my favorite) Lucky Charms, My Little Pony, Rainbow Brite... just any number of colorful delights! Jem was probably my first role model, and there was enough fun and colorful hair and makeup between her Holograms and her nemeses, the Misfits, to satisfy any 80s child's need for some exaggerated New Wave aesthetics. One of my favorite movies when I was growing up was 'The Wizard of Oz'. When Dorothy lands in Oz, and the drab black and white landscape suddenly transforms into a technicolored dreamland, I think I was just as awed as she was. Every single time. And no part of the film best captured that excitement as my favorite inhabitant of the Emerald City: the Horse of a Different Color.

Its coat changed through every color of the visible light spectrum with each step it took. From red to violet to blue to green to yellow... right before your very eyes!! Horses sure as hell can't do that shit in Kansas! Or in New York City, for that matter. Magical! Oh, to have hair that could do the very same...!

It's no wonder, then, that first chance I got to experiment with candy-colored hair, I ran with it. It's been red, orange, yellow, blue, turquoise, purple, pink, and a few colors in between. One time (after a dye job gone astray), I had turquoise roots with purple ends. That was probably the first and only time that I've had more than one bright color in my hair.

(I'll be posting pics of my own hair's colorful past soon...but, in the meantime...)

While compiling photos for a portfolio assignment in school, a classmate mentioned some "rainbow-colored highlights" she'd come across online. I didn't see the photo, but I was so excited by the idea, that I immediately went home to look up rainbow-colored highlights of my own.

These are some of my favorite finds:

And my absolute personal favorite:

That last pic is of Victoria MacKenzie-Childs, a NY-based artist and jewelry designer (and inspiration for my colorful aging self of the future). Here is a link to a recent video interview about her polychromatic tresses. [via AdvancedStyle]

All this eye (hair?) candy is making me want to run for the Special Effects and Manic Panic aisle at my local Ricky's... Alas, I have to keep these black and white locks for a while longer, as I am going to be participating in a stylist friend's hair show... but more on that later, too!

Hair Today...

Here goes nothing... Career change number 57. Seemingly, anyway. I think we're really only up to number 3 or 4. But the truth is, this is the first time anything actually feels right. So, I'm looking forward to documenting the journey...

I just completed my first month at Aveda Institute in New York City. Previously, I had worked at MTV Networks for 3.5 years, before getting laid off in October when my channel was transferred to Miami. During the last year and a half at MTV, I had decided I disliked new media (I was a web producer), and disliked working for MTV even more; so, needless to say, the rest of my time there was hardly fulfilling. I had also decided that my ultimate career should not involve being chained to a desk, and I yearned to interact with people and "make a difference." So I invested a ton of money in three semesters of grad school at St. John's University, thinking I'd get an M.A. in Adolescent Education and be a high school English teacher. How naive of me. There is no way in hell I was cut out for that. Not because I don't genuinely appreciate the profession (I do! I have nothing but the utmost respect for teachers), but because I was so disillusioned by the current political climate and how it affects the new beaurocratic format of education. Plus, who was I kidding thinking I'd be able to wake up at 5:30am every day, work for 12 hours, grade papers, interact with kids who frankly don't give a crap about their future, have no social life, all for the vague promise of two months of summer vacation? So, by the time that third semester ended in December, I quit, much to the disappointment of my mother and some of my more ardent supporters. With the start of 2011, I knew I had to make a change, and after a couple of weeks of soul-searching, I came upon this realization: I have to stop kidding myself altogether. You live only once, right, and all cliches aside, it was time to do something that makes ME happy.

Hair has been a very important part of my entire life. Whatever, you can call me superficial, but it's been an integral part of my self-expression since I was a little girl. I remember this book my mom had when I was young, that contained all these braid tutorials. I tried them out on myself and my thirty-four Barbie dolls, and anyone else whose hair I could get my grubby hands on. I colored my hair for the first time when I was thirteen or so (with Jell-o, henna, and even CREPE PAPER! though box dye did follow soon after). Since then, my hair has been every color of the rainbow (except for green, for some reason... though it has been turqouise, does that count?). As far as styles, I've had long hair, short hair, layers, a bob, an undercut, braids galore, have experimented with a healthy number of vintage 'dos, and am currently rocking a platinum and black Annabella Lwin (or Alice Dellal, if you prefer)-inspired shaved side. I guess I could describe my current aesthetic as kind of a refined, retro-loving, punk noir. Whatever that means.

The point is, it's about time that I came to the conclusion that you can actually embrace things that you enjoy and try to make a living out of them. I had tried in vain to find something creative I could do for YEARS, experimenting with fashion design, graphic design, writing, and other forms of art. In the perfect world, I would have musical talent and be able to draw something more than the occasional odd stick figure. The truth is, I'm not very good at any of that, no matter how much I wish I was. But, hair... I can DO hair. I'm not an expert (YET!), but, by golly, I like it. It's fun. And since starting school at Aveda and having to get used to a 9-5 schedule for the first time since, well, ever... there hasn't been a single day in which I think I've made the wrong decision. Funny how something can be right in front of your nose and you just don't see it, but once you do, everything in your life just becomes so damn easy.