I"m doing really well in hair school. I'm able to breathe again, at least knowing that after this year I'll emerge with a trade, a way to make money that won't take up all of my time and will give me a creative outlet.
The biggest surprise is how much I enjoy it, even the boring parts.
Today we learned a basic perm wrap. It didn't matter to me that nobody gets perms anymore and this is a tedious and unpopular service we need to learn about to become fully trained cosmetologists.
What mattered to me was the soothing geometry of the sectioning of hair, the precision that each section is ribboned and wrapped around each rod, the end result that comes with doing each step perfectly. What matters to me that handling hair in any manner, whether putting it on rods for a perm or cutting it or blowing it dry in most flattering way, all leads to my better understanding of hair and the fine dexterity of my fingers.
I want to perfect this art. Not just the art of perming, but the art of hair in general. How it falls naturally, how it reacts to chemical manipulations, how it changes with a cut or a slice or an angle or layer, how all these things tie in to making someone feel good about how they look.
In my waking hours I think about hair constantly. I look critically at every haircut I encounter (how did they do that? have I learned that technique yet? probably not. )
I'm starting to believe that this might have been one of my callings all along. It's too soothing, it's to easy, it's too natural not to be. I regret that snobbery prevented me from going to hair school ten years ago.
Just so you know, though, there are a lot of bad hairstylists out there. Judging from the people in my school who manage to graduate, many hairstylists have learned the fine art of fudging. They are good at a few things and not so good at others. The stereotype is that the people who become hairdressers are deficient in a few braincells. I'm sorry to say that it's true in some, of not most, cases. The majority of my classmates are morons.
I am good at the important things, like the actual cut, but not so good at pin curls. My blow-dry skills are mediocre but will come with practice. M y thermal curls still kinda suck but I've been improving. All of this is practice, practice, practice. I have come into school knowing that while I may having a talent for spacial reasoning I still have much to learn and much practicing to do. While I can visualize the lines to of a haircut much better than my classmates they are still better at formal hairdos than I am.
So, if you come to me for an updo, expect to be disappointed. But come to be for a cut, and I'll dazzle you. I swear.

