An ode to the girls working their asses off in beauty school so we can all look good
Because where would we be without blowouts?
Every girl loves beauty. You don’t have to be a ‘girly girl’ to enjoy getting your hair, makeup and nails done. For most of us, the process of beautifying seems pretty simple — blow dry and style your hair. All you need is a hairdryer and a flatiron or curling iron, right?
Wrong. Sure, you can get pretty good at the basics, but it’s nearly impossible to create that same salon lushness and smoothness that every girl covets. In order to obtain a license to do this along with nails and makeup, you must attend beauty school.
My friend Shaine is currently three months into beauty school at Hair Expressions, a Paul Mitchell Partner School in Rockville, Maryland and she gave me the low-down on how all works.
They attend classes 24/7
“Right now I go to school Monday – Friday 9:15am – 4:15pm but starting next week I’ll be going to school Tuesday – Friday 9:15am – 4:15pm and Saturday 9am – 5pm,” says Shaine.
Their daily routines are insane
“My daily routine is getting up and doing my makeup and hair (you have to have hair and makeup done before arriving at school),” she explains.
“In class we have theory from 9:30-10:30 which is book work. We learn the history of cosmetology back to the Egyptians, Chinese, Romans, Greeks, Victorians and the Renaissance, and also about how to act professionally and avoid diseases from not cleaning tools. Then we usually do work on our dolls or real people for the rest of the day with a break for lunch at 12.”
The are constantly assessed
“We take tests every Friday morning that pertain to the theory and we have tests on our dolls every 6 weeks or so.”
They always have to look professional
“Dress code is all black and no jeans, you can’t have your armpits or midriff showing. No sweatshirts or sweatpants. You have to look professional and you can’t have jingly jewelry. You can’t wear ripped clothes either.”
It can be fun, but it’s also very hard
“The most fun thing for me is color and nothings really hard but there’s a lot of steps you have to remember and some of the hair drying methods are trick,” Shaine said.
She then proceeded to do my hair, starting with a consultation during which she asked me questions about my hair, product use and any hair issues. I told her that my hair is dry, so she used a product to hydrate it.
Then she asked me what kind of style I wanted, to which I responded curls.
It turned out beautifully and her teacher praised her — as she should, because these curls look damn good.
