Jackie O. will be traveling with me on my journey through beauty school, as I sculpt, and re-sculpt, her lovely locks. So, don't worry, you also will get to know her. : ) 

During orientation, we were told our first day of class would be like Christmas morning because the school literally showers us students with boxes and boxes of appliances, tools, products, shears and equipment. But no warning could prepare my class of 22 for how exciting the day would really be. Each student received four boxes of goodies-times the 22 students in my class-oh man! The whole room was packed with boxes of products; the girls (plus one boy, Alex)  were SO excited!

My second day was so fun, too. We received three mannequin heads, along with about 20 hair pieces that snap onto the heads. It's Pivot Point's patented Snap Cap system: reusable, recyclable hair pieces for cutting, coloring, texture and styling techniques. The system saves a ton of space and cuts the waste of traditional mannequins.

Because we have such a large class, our educator Miss Marie (who oh-so-sweet and a very talented stylist) wanted us to shampoo and dry all of our hair pieces at once so we wouldn't have the whole class storming the shampoo bowls on the salon floor every time we were going to learn a hair cut. So she figured we could just knock them all out in one day. WOW. That was a lot of hair!! (Another lesson learned: mannequin hair smells reallllllly bad.)

We used Rusk's Calm: Guarana and Ginger shampoo and conditioner on all 20 heads. And that stuff smells SO GOOD! 

Once I was done shampooing and drying all my heads, I'm not gonna lie, my back hurt so badly. I'm not used to being in that hunched-over position for such a long time-I've got to toughen up!

On our third day, we jumped right into our textbooks. Pivot Point's learning materials are so detailed and clear. Beautifully illustrated diagrams, examples and step-by-steps are so much easier to learn from than big blocks of text. We discussed important elements of design by looking at fashion's form, shape, color, texture and structure.

Day four was back into our textbooks discussing facial shape and what hair cuts complement certain face shapes, all with the goal of making the face look as though it were the ideal oval-shape. We also got to look at what hair cuts DON'T work on certain facial shapes-that was hysterical. 

Then, we learned how to hold our shears properly, without moving any other finger except our thumbs. Miss Marie gave us the homework assignment of practicing how to use our shears. Ouch! I had no idea how difficult it would be to keep every finger still except your thumb.

And then, bum bum bum!, we hit day five. And day five rocked! The whole day was hands-on work. I actually got to sculpt hair! It was on a Mohawk-shaped hair piece, but that still counts! We sculpted (I was told by my instructor NOT to use the word "cut") this piece without any projection-which, again, was very difficult to learn how to do. But, thankfully, Miss Marie was there to help all of us learn how to do it correctly. It's so funny how we all kept second-guessing ourselves with whether or not we were cutting a straight line! But, we all got through it and we were SO excited to take our first snip. Then, we got to blow out and style the hair cut. Ooh, la-la! 

Stay tuned, friends, because tonight's class we're doing another cut and style, and I CAN'T WAIT!