Last Thursday at Penrose Academy

Here is my first videoblog. I had to be at school at 8am, which meant I had to be up at 6am. You can probably tell how tired I am in this video because this was around 9pm when I got home from school.

Lunch with Yolly ten Koppel

I'm going to go ahead and tell you how to pronounce her name before I get into today's post: Yo-lee Ten Kah-pull. "Who is Yolly ten Koppel?," you may ask. Yolly is Pivot Point International's Creative and Technical Director (according to pivotpoint.com). She came all the way from the Netherlands to visit us at Penrose Academy before going on to NAHA in Las Vegas. While she was visiting, we had to opportunity to watch a presentation by Yolly on trends in fashion and finding inspiration that we can translate into hairstyles. One thing she mentioned was creating textiles from previously-used materials, otherwise known as trash, like old magazines and newspapers. Another trend is environmental awareness and incorporating that into design. She also discussed the “faux real” trend and how bloggers are leading the way in helping spread trends much faster than they spread in the past. After the presentation, Yolly followed up with a demo. In her demo, she spoke about new techniques and one lucky student was treated to a haircut. The haircut was done completely with a razor and Yolly even address the issue of making sure you have enough hair to cover the nape area between the hairline and the ear. Good stuff, for sure. After the haircut, Yolly followed up, but demonstrating a technique for forming hair by backcombing and flatironing the hair. At the end of assembly, all of us students were dismissed for lunch, but members of Penrose Academy Student Council (which includes me) and Jill Kohler joined Yolly for lunch where we were able to take some photos and ask questions. Some of the questions included how Yolly approaches product sales and how she became a trendsetter internationally. I later ran into Yolly as she was preparing to leave and thanked her for an opportunity I may not have until after some years in the industry. Now, I can't finish my blog without mentioning the fact that she is FIERCE. She wore some really cool, studded knee-high white boots and wore a white coat and had some orange hair. Far be it from me to compare myself to Yolly, but she did kind of remind me of myself when I was younger. I always wanted to wear clothes that would make me stand out and sometimes I was made fun of for it. I remember once instance in high school when a friend of mine told me I wore the most bizarre shoes. My mom worked long hours at the salon to support us, and my stepfather worked long hours outdoors. She didn't always have the time to take us shopping so around the time of junior high, myself and my older brother would get a budget with which to do our shopping. It was usually kind of a tight budget. My brother would buy the first thing he found, but I would stretch that money as far as I could and get the most for my money. Sometimes, the best deal was clothes that some people would thing were strange, but this worked out in my favor because they were usually the ones that were on clearance. Seeing Yolly showed me that people who want to stand out and aren't afraid to do so may be the people who are making decisions about what everyone else wears by setting the trends. I still like wearing the most bizarre shoes.

A closed mouth collects no foot

That is a saying I once read in a fortune cookie and I can't tell you how many times I have been a victim of my own mouth. Most recently, a client who sees me on a weekly basis mentioned an article she read. Now before I go on, I want to say that this particular client of mine seems to be very interested in my opinion on things (DANGER! DANGER!) and many times tells me about her experiences with some very colorful people she happens to come across. Anyway, she tells me that she read an article saying that over 50% of Americans now have tattoos. Well, this is when the mistake occurred. I opened my mouth and ended up hurting the feeling of people at school who I very much appreciate knowing. Mind you, I have nothing against tattoos, I even think some are really cool. They're just not for me. I said something about how ever time I've considered getting a tattoo, I think about how its going to look when I'm 80. Considering how much trends change and much a person can grow within the course of a year and that tattoo that once had so much meaning, may have become not only an eyesore, but a painful reminder of things that have since passed. That would have been bad enough, but I had to go on. And on. And on. And on. Well, I ended up upsetting someone who I have the pleasure of knowing as a result of my cosmetology education. I've even gone so far as to say that I would love to work whereever this particular person is working when we graduate. I spent the next four days going over and over in my head what I said and I how I went way too far and should have just responded to my client by saying, "that doesn't surprise me." I SHOULD have changed the subject and not ran my mouth like a train with no brakes. But I didn't. What I did do was quickly apologize once I knew I'd upset this particular person. Rather than walk around with my tail between my legs for the next five months, I've realized that this is part of my human experience. I may be in my mid-30's, but that doesn't mean I don't still have a lot of growing to do. I know that even though something isn't for me, it doesn't mean I can't respect the same thing about someone else. I also learned that in our industry, sometimes its best to not have a opinion that you are willing to share with your client. Even if they agree with you, the person in the next chair may not, or even the person styling said person's hair.