The Run-Up to College

Hey,

So I've been in the salon for about 3 weeks now.

Last Thursday a college advisor came to the salon to sign me into the course. We had to fill out some paperwork and had a breif chat about health and safety, fire procedure etc. etc. basically as a formality to ensure I was safe at work. As I'm over the age of 18 I think a lot of that stuff doesn't actually apply to me, but it's something they had to do with regards to their paperwork. They asked me what I was being paid, if I knew where the protective equipment was and where the toilet was (ha! Imagine if I didn't by now...). It was all very simple and we finished the session in about half an hour.

One of the girls who's been working there longer than me has a hair show today. Her model was absolutely hopeless (she didn't turn up to a training session twice in a row) so I've been elected as her model. It's a little inconvenient as I'm going to lose about 6-7 hours of my day off doing this show, but it does also mean I can learn a little from watching the work going on around me. I may even end up posting a picture of what I end up looking like after it's done.


Last Monday we had our first training session. I was given my first block (training head) and I was taught a little bit of blow drying. Unfortunately a good hour or so of my training time was taken up by a practise run for this hair show (which did annoy me cause I was really enjoying myself) but I definitely still picked up a lot of information from the training time I did have.

Curly Blow Dry in Salon

I already knew the basics of blow drying the hair in a downwards direction to smooth the cuticle; it's something I've known for a long time as I picked it up when I was quite young from an article on the internet. I didn't find it too hard, and as I managed to blow dry the whole head to a satisfactory standard (for a first go at least) Daniel decided to teach me a slightly more complex technique. He showed me how to blow dry hair curly, which was so cool! Essentially, you're just using the round brush as a roller, and using the heat from the dryer to set the hair in the shape of the brush. It turned out so well, and when I went home I wet my whole block again and practised the curly technique all over the head. I think practising like this really helped with my technique; after all, practise makes perfect!

Curly Blow Dry at Home

It's not as smooth looking as I think it needs to be, but it shows I have the basics of the technique down and I need to now focus on making sure I can keep the hair as smooth as possible. I've also bought some sectioning clips which will really help me as I was pinning the curls up with bobby pins, and also clipping back my sections with them (they really weren't ideal for the job)

Next training session will be cutting, which I'm so excited for! I bought my first pair of scissors, and they seem to be pretty good. I got them off Amazon for a discounted price, and the reviews are good. I'll make sure to OK them with the stylists before recommending them on here.

That's all for now! Thanks for reading,

Alice

Just Over a Week In

Hey!

So I've completed just over a week at the hairdressers now, and I know it's early days but I gotta say I really am enjoying myself.

Everyone is so friendly, I feel like I've joined such a welcoming and genuinely lovely team. I'm finding my feet well and am definitely feeling myself become more and more comfortable being there; which is good as sometimes that transition from being scared and new to feeling like the workplace is normal can be a long process.

I've done a fair bit of shampooing now and I feel like I'm really getting to grips with it. I have a good routine now and I've had a considerable amount of good reviews and compliments which is really reassuring! I shampooed a woman who - by the sounds of it at least - is quite fussy the other day, and she was nothing but lovely about it and even went so far as to say I was brilliant (!).

Something I didn't anticipate was that I would get some tips. I don't know why I didn't realise it before, but it's definitely a perk to the job; particularly considering apprentice wage is rather dismal. So far I have £8 in tips, which I'm proud of considering I've done 7 days of work, and for most of that time I've been a near total beginner to shampooing.

Next monday the 18th we have some training, which I'm looking forward to. There's one other beginner to me, and there's 2 apprentice who have been there much longer than me. So the 2 older apprentices will be learning some cutting techniques, while me and my beginner buddy will be learning to blow dry. This is really exciting to me as I wasn't expecting to be learning anything like this until I start college - which won't be till September!

I'm planning on trying to nail blow drying as soon as I can. Like, as in, before I start college. If I can get my blow drying technique down to a point by the time I start officially doing my NVQ I believe I'll be in with a good head start. The quicker I can finish this apprenticeship and qualify, the better to me. I'm 20 years old and I wanna be properly working as soon as I can. I'm not expecting any miracles of course; I know it'll take at least about 18 months, but if I can get it done in that time I'll be more than pleased.

At the moment I'm definitely looking at doing some extensions courses at some point. I don't know if it'll be worth doing it before I qualify or not yet, but I know for sure I want to do weaves as a part of my career. It's something that interests me and I believe I could be good at it. Particularly if I start doing them early on in my career.

Anyways that's it for now,

 - Alice