Curly Girl

The round brush

2012-09-11T21:43:00.001-04:00

So many times people don't realize that to get the hair they leave the salon with, it's going to require the purchase of some tools, and some practice. That's it... there's no secret to it.

My number one best friend at work is the round brush. They come in different sizes for EVERY HAIR TYPE, and can be used for blow drying stick straight hair, to making corkscrew curls, to giving the hair body, and making it wavy. And I kid you not, every single time, I hear "But I just can't do it like that at home." I'm not buying it, YES YOU CAN!

When I started hair school, I couldn't blow dry my own hair to save my life. But, I practiced, every night, night after night, until I had it down to a 10 minute science. And if you've ever seen my hair, you know this is no easy feat.

All it takes is a trip to any store that sells them, some patience, and some elbow grease. Any stylist worth anything will take the time to teach you how to dry your own hair at home, so pick up your brush, get some tips, and practice practice practice!

Volumizers

2012-09-03T23:14:00.002-04:00

I've been going to town on the volumizers at work these past few weeks while doing blow outs, and I am loving these two!

Volumizers are great for people with thin and/or fine hair. You spray it on after towel drying, directly onto the root. Since the root is where you want the majority of your volume, there's no need to spray it on the ends, so I just usually lift the hair up and spray straight on the root. After I spray I always like to rub it in just a little as well.

The first volumizer I've been using is the Davines Volu Mist. It never fails me, and gives incredibly lift to the finest hair I've worked on. It's a little pricey, but you're never using much at any given time so I think it's well worth it.

The second choice I love is the Aveda Volumizing Tonic. I think in our new love for the Davines styling products that the Aveda sometimes gets a little forgotten, but I'd just like to state here for the record, I never forget about my Volumizing Tonic! It smells amazing and I find myself grabbing for it on a daily basis.

I don't like one over the other, it's just a matter of which one is closer to me at any given time, but I love them both equally, and it's simply a matter of choice for the client. Both get my thumbs up!

September hair

2012-09-03T23:05:00.003-04:00

Flashback to October, when I got myself a nice chemical haircut, due to the fact that I got a little too excited at all the hair colors available to me at school. I ended up with inchlong bangs and hair that was breaking off everywhere, so I chopped it off.

Currently, I'm right back where I want to be to start really growing it out. It's blonde, it's healthy, and it's doing exactly what I want it to be doing, which is nice, SINCE IT ONLY TOOK ALMOST AN ENTIRE YEAR!!!!!!!

Hair of the Day

2012-08-29T20:50:00.005-04:00

I came across this photo online, and it's my sexy hair of the day. These curls are absolutely STUNNING!

I'm still on mission "grow out my hair" and can't wait for it to look like this!

Curly Girl

2012-08-29T20:43:00.001-04:00

I got to put my curly girl expertise to use today, and knocked it out of the park.

I never forget that I'm surrounded by stylists with 4 or more years of experience than me, and I tend to just trust whatever they go with, because it works.

I've been doing a lot of blow drying lately for clients, which means figuring out what products work best for the hair texture, and then explaining them to the client.

A woman came in today with curly, frizzy hair, and told me she's noticed it drying out more lately. Before I knew what was even coming out of my mouth, I was explaining to her why hair frizzes, what to do to prevent it, and exactly what I do to my own hair to keep the curls in tip top shape.

Not only did she learn from shower to blow dry how to do her hair, but I sold my first products today!

It makes me happy when I can explain something to someone and then they can take that, apply it, and enjoy the outcome. It's probably the best thing about my job!

Shower?

2012-08-28T22:28:00.002-04:00

As you may know, we moved the salon a few weeks ago, and with that, got some new toys to play with.

One of these "toys" are new shampoo bowls. Now, this might not sound like much, but let me tell you about these shampoo bowls. You get to lay down in them. And relax. Maybe even nap. These shampoo bowls will blow your mind... get it?

The new shampoo bowls are also the kind where WE get to stand behind the client, not next to them. Now, I know it doesn't sound like much, but we as hairstylists are highly trained shampoo ninjas, knowing how to tilt and lift your head just so, so that it keeps the water on your hair, and not on your neighbor. These new shampoo bowls made me slightly nervous the first few days, because my entire body angle was now different, and I had to hold the nozzle in a new way, the client's head in a new way, all the while trying to not hose anybody down. As the days passed it got easier and easier, and by day four, that shampoo bowl was once again my bitch. I should have known it was only a matter of time.

I like to think that I'm a pretty focused individual when I'm doing my job. I keep time in my head, know who is getting shampooed at what time, and what's going on their head. When toning someone, I never lose myself in the conversation, and know exactly what's going on at all times. So... I'm just going to blame this completely on someone else.

I'm not sure if someone lifted their head at the same moment I tilted the nozzle, or what, but that water went EVERYWHERE, and I will never again question the fact that we have some great water pressure in that new place. Lucky for me, the chair directly next to me was empty, and the client two chairs over only got what I like to call a "light mist" on her face.

End scene.

Light, Camera, Action

2012-08-28T21:48:00.003-04:00

In the past few weeks, I've learned one of the most important aspects of my job: I am an actress.

In theory, hairdressers are free therapists. Well, or the price of a haircut. While we work people unload upon us all the dramas on their lives. Cheating husbands, nights out on the town, insane children, and the list goes on and on and on.

We come out from the back room with a smile on our face, no matter how sick or tired or sad we are feeling that day.

As a person who wears their emotions on their sleeves and all over her face, this lesson is perhaps the hardest I have learned in this job yet.

The lesson learned here? We are performers paid well to do the job of making other people feel special, good about themselves, and happy. A salon is a place to relax, enjoy yourself, and leave feeling pampered and pretty. We are there to make them laugh, lend a kind ear, and a cheerful smile.

Chicago

2012-08-25T07:27:00.000-04:00

Today I'm headed up to the Windy City for the weekend!

While I'm there I'm hoping to check out some salons, which is something I always just like to do when I'm someplace new. I like to see what other people's working environments are like, what products they have, what lines they carry, and I even like to watch the stylists work for a few minutes.

Pictures and a full report up on Monday!

Enjoy the weekend!

Facebook!

2012-08-23T22:27:00.002-04:00

Well everyone, I've decided to link Curly Girl up to Facebook!

I'm super excited, and getting some help, but I'm hoping to utilize the Facebook portion as a way to do giveaways and start work on my portfolio.

Don't forget to "like" on FB @ http://www.facebook.com/raetzer#!/RaetzerCurls

Happy Thursday!

Love

2012-08-21T12:56:00.002-04:00

Before I started doing hair, I had lived an entire life. I went to college, moved to the other side of the world, lost myself, found myself, and picked up the best canine companion ever somewhere along the way.

A few years ago I found myself sitting at a desk at a job that I hated, completely miserable with my life and what I had become, and I made a list of things that I wanted in a job.
    1. I wanted a job that I was excited to go to each day, where I enjoyed the people I worked with and what I did.
    2. I wanted a job that made me feel good about myself, where I could be happy and proud of what I did.
    3. I wanted to make other people feel good about themselves, and to do something with my hands to bring joy to others.

I knew the first time I picked up my cheap plastic school shears that I had fallen in love with this profession. The moment I put my hands in someone's hair, I know that they're trusting me to make them feel and look beautiful, and the fact that I can do this brings me an untold amount of joy. To get to be creative every day, and to do something different every day, and to interact with so many people on so many different levels, this is what I wanted in a job. There is always something to learn, a better way to do something, and a different way to get to the end result.

Every morning when I walk into my work, and the sun is coming through the windows at just the right angle, I sit in the silence and just feel lucky. I am lucky to have found a place that I love and where I belong, doing what makes me happy. I can ask for no more than that.

The hardest part

2012-08-20T16:38:00.003-04:00

There comes a time in every woman's life where she breaks up with a man and decides that she's going to cut all of her hair off. We've seen it in movies, and for most of us, experienced it first hand. This blogger has also done it, once, years ago, and learned her lesson to never do it again.

Why do women do this?

"They" say that the reason behind this is an act of rebellion. Most men like long hair, so when a relationship ends, women see the chopping off of their hair sort of like a "HA!" to their past partner. The woman is rebelling by ridding herself of something that her partner loved about her.

I think it can go either way. A haircut can be a refreshing way to start over, and try something new. However, in my experience, to hack off all of one's hair to an inch in length should sometimes take some thought and consideration, and I highly advise every woman out there to put at least a few weeks worth of thought into any new hairstyle.

I have learned that maybe drastic change is sometimes not the best thing for the moment. If you're going through some changes, it's best to keep some stability and comforts around. All I know is that this girl is holding on to her hair, curls, color, length, and all!

Happy Monday! More posts to follow...

Moved!

2012-08-20T16:22:00.001-04:00

And we're back!

After a hectic few weeks of planning, preparation, and then actually doing it, I'm happy to announce that the salon has moved, and opened at its new location.

Last week was our first week open in the new space, and I think everyone is loving it, myself included. The space is bright, happy, open, and filled with good energy. I'm excited that I have a job that I love to look forward to every day.

Balayage

2012-06-01T23:33:00.001-04:00

Let's take a moment to discuss balayage.

Balayage is basically a fancy way of saying "hand painted highlights". You forego the weaving and the foils, and instead free hand with a brush. The result? Sunkissed, natural, and what all the "in the know" ladies are going for these days.

Take a look and decide for yourselves...

Update

2012-06-01T23:26:00.000-04:00

Hey all!

It's been a few months (or so) since I've posted anything, and I think I'm finally ready to start blogging again. I lost the motivation for awhile to write a single word, and only in the past few weeks have been telling myself that I really should get back to it.

In the months I've been gone I've been insanely busy, mostly working. I feel that I've finally gotten a handle on work, juggling it with a social life (sadly missing while I was in school!), and learning as much as I can all the while trying to do hair in my free time. Now it's time to start writing once more!

I am absolutely in love with my job, and with the salon, as well as the women I work with. When it all comes together it works so well, with everyone working together as a team, and I wouldn't want to work anywhere else.

On the education front I'm also learning an insane amount. Every Monday I have class, and every Monday I get frustrated when I can't master something right away, yet a few days or weeks later something always clicks and I think to myself "oh hey, that worked just like she said it would". I'm beginning to realize that having a good education base set up in your salon is an extremely important tool, and should be utilized to the utmost.

I've gotten to use a lot more of products also, so it's broadened my base of knowledge past what I learned in school and searched out on my own. Hopefully some of the items can be posted on Curly Girl soon!

More great things to come!

"Weight" loss

2012-04-11T22:29:00.000-04:00

Last week at work I lost some weight. In my hair.

When you take weight out of your hair (or texturizing as it's called), you can change the entire appearance of a haircut without ever really cutting anything off.

Back in October I had gotten a haircut, a stacked bob that was longer in the front and shorter in the back. It's since grown, and grown, and grown, and I had some poof when the stack was growing out. So, instead of getting a haircut, a girl at work simply went in and took the weight out of that part of my hair.

My hair instantly felt lighter and different, but she hadn't cut anything off the length!

Instead of the stack, I now have a layered haircut that's simply growing out, with no bulge of poof in the back that was there before.

Time for numbers!

2012-04-11T22:24:00.003-04:00

Today I spent a lot of time on the computer at work, and was looking up hair "stuff". I type in "hair statistics" and came up with this interesting information. Millions of women can't be wrong, can they?

50% of women over the age of 25 color their hair
80% of chemical work being done in salons involves covering gray and changing your hair color

Personally, I've been coloring my hair since I was about 18, and I honestly couldn't tell you what it would look like if I let it grow without coloring it. Sort of a dark blond I would guess...

$2 billion each year on shampoo
$1.4 billion on conditioner
$700 million on hairspray
$150 million on men's products

Note that this doesn't even include trips to the salon for cut and color!!!

There are literally thousands of hair products out there for you to try, and the numbers prove that people are trying them! I have so much fun every day playing with products myself, and finding ones I love, and ones I don't love so much.

Have fun with it!!!

Dove

2012-04-04T13:50:00.000-04:00

I'm out of my current shampoo, and I'm still waiting on my shampoo to arrive at the salon this week, so I had to run out this week and buy a travel size shampoo to get me through the week. I came home with the dove Moisturizing Shampoo, in size tiny.

I've got to hand it to Dove, they have revamped in the past few years and I am liking what I've used of the brand in the past year. The shampoos leave hair soft and tangle free, and there's no feeling of gunk or buildup, and also no dry and stripped feeling to my hair.

On a budget and in a bind, I think Dove is a great go to!

Curly Curls

2012-04-02T22:00:00.000-04:00

It's gotten warm as of late, and combined with the humidity and my laziness, I have neglected my hair in leaps and bounds, and this is the result.

I've noticed that since I started using Aveda products on my hair, it's less frizzy and more bouncy, and just has an overall softer feel to it, which I'm really enjoying.

The daily go to for this hairstyle is simply letting it air dry, and then pinning the sides back. The first few days it bothered me, and I felt like I wasn't leaving the house "done", but I've really just been lazy lately, and have no motivation to even plug in my blow dryer.

I think another factor in my curlyhead is the fact that half the women I work with have curly hair, and they just embrace it. Whatever the natural hair type is of the stylists, they let it go, and I think I've found a new appreciation for my hair. I like the whole though of "rock what you've got" and the ladies at the salon certainly do, and I'm loving it!

Man time!

2012-04-02T21:44:00.000-04:00

Every Monday at the salon that I work at there are classes that the assistants are required to attend. The theme lately is for each stylist to pick something she would like to teach, and we take it from there.

Today we worked on men's cuts. I was stoked for this because quite honestly, I suck at cutting men's hair. It's the one thing they don't really teach you in hair school, and other than a "these are the clippers, you hold them like this" we never delved into men's hair cuts.

Another thing: you would think cutting a man's hair would be easy, right? WRONG. The shorter the cut, the easier to mess up, and I have made more than one mistake when cutting a male hair. The only two men I have experience in cutting are my brother, who has thick curly hair that hides mistakes well, and my boyfriend, who has stick straight hair, and every single snip is completely noticeable.

So today in class I wrangled my little brother up as my model, and FINALLY learned how to give a proper hair cut to a man. I was excited to finally have to know how to put it together, and the result? The best hair cut of my brother's life!

April hair length

2012-04-02T21:38:00.001-04:00

And another month has passed, I can't believe it's going so quickly! It's time again to post hair growth photos.

This month I've felt like my hair isn't growing. I know it's growing, because I can tell the difference on a regular basis, but I feel like the difference isn't translating into the photographs. The past few months it's looked completely the same to me.

Since the big chop I've only had one "dusting" about a month ago, and aside from regular maintenance on my bangs, I haven't taken the shears to it. I'm so anxious for it to grow out, and it's once again at my shoulders (when I cheat and straighten it)

Enjoy!

What to expect at the Ohio State Board Cos Exam

2012-03-26T22:36:00.002-04:00

First things first, I GOT MY COSMETOLOGY LICENSE LAST WEEK!!! I am super excited, happy, and relieved that I passed my first time in. The entire day was extremely stressful and I was high strung and wound up. I figured everyone else would also be feeling like this, so I thought I'd put together some tips and info for those heading to state board...

1. I got to the testing center around 7:30 in the morning, and wasn't the first. The parking lot filled up pretty quickly, and by 8 the waiting room was filled.

2. Be sure to have your photo, testing paper, and driver's license on hand.

3. Around 8 a.m. they start by lining everyone up and checking them in. They assign you to a room and give you a number. You'll either start by doing all of your hair practicals, or by doing your manicure, facial, and written test. I was in the group that did my mani and facial and written. I got about a 2 hour lunch break and came back at noon to do my hair practicals.

4. The written (on the computer) portion of the exam consists of 110 questions, which is randomly generated and can throw pretty much anything at you, so be prepared. You are able to, on the computer, go back and forth between questions, bookmark them, and move through the exam at your own pace. You're given 1 hour and 30 minutes for this portion of the test.

5. After both sections of your exams are over, you then sit in the lobby to wait for your test results, which are handed out in envelopes. Should you pass, you then can wait for your license that same day. All in all my day there lasted from 7:30 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon. I came home exhausted and covered in gunk.

HELPFUL TIPS

1. When bringing barbacide, buy a bottle at Sally's. It MUST have all information on it. You can't just write barbacide on a bottle and take it in, you will have points deducted.

2. Instead of loads of towels, just bring 4-5 towels and instead, bring an entire roll of paper towels. You will be wiping down counters all day long and paper towels are neater and cleaner.

3. Trash bags. Bring THREE. You will use one for the mani/facial portion and two for the hair portion of your practicals.

4. Try to remember a shower cap for when you are finished with your mannequin head at the end of the day. She will be a hot mess and this will avoid getting cholesterol all over your bag.... not that I would know from personal experience.

5. You are allowed in your cabinet at any time during your practicals, so as soon as you're finished you can set up for the next one, which I found helpful. The order the practicals went in:

Thermal
Haircut
Perm
Color retouch
Highlight
Relaxer retouch
Virgin relaxer

6. During the beginning of my set up time for the mannequin, I just immediatley draped her with a towel/cape/towel combo, so that I wouldn't have to redrape her with this when it came time for the chemical potion of the practicals.

I hope people find this helpful, as I sure wish someone would have written something like this for me before I went!!

State Board Exam

2012-03-20T16:36:00.000-04:00

The dreaded day is finally here... tomorrow. Yes, it's state board exam time. All the work I put in a school and all the studying I've been doing in the past month comes to a head tomorrow in a what I've heard is a grueling 8 hour exam.

Bags are packed (I only packed and repacked it about 8 times) and hopefully I will knock it out of the park tomorrow and finally be a licensed cosmetologist!

Wish me luck!

Summer hair

2012-03-20T16:34:00.000-04:00

In Ohio the past week we've had some insanely hot weather! That means, for a curly girl, that I put away my blow dryer and call it a day, and usually spend most of my days with my hair looking like this...

Pinned up, out of the way, and running crazy. Enjoying this gorgeous weather!!

My dream hair

2012-03-18T21:14:00.000-04:00

I know the saying is "you always want what you can't have" and when it comes to hair, this is so very true for me!

I'm currently presiding over a shoulder length mop of reddish blondish curls, and with this weekend's "heat wave" (it hit 82 in March, which in Cincinnati is almost unheard of) I'm waging a war against frizz and fuzz.

I've never been a girl to be able to shower and then let my hair air dry with no problems. There has to be at least a little bit of product in it, even if I want to wear it curly.

So, without further delay, I thought I would write todays post about my dream hair. Like half the women on the planet now, I'm addicted to Pinterest, and I spend hours looking at images. In those hours I have found hair that makes my jaw drop, and green with envy, and so I thought I'd share a few of them here. Basically I want mermaid hair...

As for me, realistically I know that another woman's hair will never be my own, and so my own goal is to grow my hair out as long as it will go, and keep my bangs. Simple enough.

And the dream gallery...

Bootcamp

2012-03-12T22:15:00.002-04:00

I participated in my first Bootcamp at work today. It's something the owner does every once in awhile to better train and educate hairstylists. They can either come from the salon, or other salons, and we all gathered today (about 5 of us) for 10 hours of cutting and fun... and also pizza.

I think the most glaringly obvious thing that I learned today was that I learned absolutely nothing at school. With all the time I sat around at school doing nothing, there were countless variations of cutting I could have been taught, and I wasn't! However, that was remedied today, and I find myself with a whole renewed energy and passion for what I do, and I can't wait to try out the new techniques that I learned.

We worked on everything from one length cuts, to layers, to bobs, to texturizing, and everything in between. My favorite of the day had to have been the shattered bob, and watching my boss cut a pair of bangs onto a mannquin. My jaw literally dropped, and now I want those bangs...

At about hour 8 my brain shut off completely and I hit a wall, and literally couldn't retain any new information, and had worn a groove into my finger from holding my comb so tight. I left absolutely exhausted but so excited about the things I had learned!