More about me

I've been asked to tell the people at Matrix Spread the Love 2013 a little more about myself so here goes. I was born in Phoenix, Ariz. at the county hospital. I was my mother's third child and second son (out of four children). Growing up I always knew there was more for me and I knew I wanted to do something significant with my life.
There is so much to say, but I'll try to describe my life as Cliff's Notes. In grade school I focused mostly on academics, but my high school was a magnet school and provided so many more opportunities. I started by taking aerospace, but my sophomore year I decided to take advantage of the the performing arts magnet program. As a result of this program, I participated in our annual musicals, I performed in an amateur group called The Amigos, won a City of Phoenix Scholarship, became the school drum major, traveled to Germany and New Zealand (with the Phoenix Youth Orchestra) and won a music scholarship to Arizona State University playing bassoon.
College was even better, I was in one of the university orchestras, two wind ensembles, played the saxaphone at two bowl games (one of which was the Rose Bowl, yes, I marched in the Tournament of Roses Parade) and a period music ensemble. I also joined a fraternity and came out to my family. The latter of which became a strain on my relationship with my parents for a few years.
At this point I should mention that my mother's career choice played a big part in a my life. My mother attained her cosmetology license when I was about ten years old and from that point on, I was always fascinated by the industry. Thing was, I didn't want to do what parents did, at the time I wanted to get as far from what they did as I could. Around the time I was in high school, my mom was told she could no longer work as a cosmetologist because she developed bursitis and carpal tunnel syndrome. This did not hamper my fascination with the industry, however.
After college (which I didn't finish, yet) I worked in banking, then at brokerage house, followed by a media company, which brings me to now being in cosmetology school. Somewhere along the way I became depressed and had anxiety disorder (which sometimes rears its ugly head). I didn't want to take medication so I learned to manage it by watching what I eat and drinking chamomile tea to keep me calm and would say that I am much better at handling this challenge life has thrown at me.

Here is the deeply honest part of my blog. If you've read previous posts of mine, you'd see that I was convicted of a DUI about three years ago. This was the best thing that could have happened to me. Although that sounds like a horrible thing to say, I did come to have compassion for homeless people, specifically youth, as a result of my 15 days in tent city at the county jail. I decided I was going to turn bad into good. I reconnected with my faith and found a church that accepts me the way I am and began taking seminary courses. Although I finished the coursework for a degree, I didn't really pursue my diploma until a few months after one of the deans of the school passed away. I now have the piece of paper that means so much to employers and have already taken classes that count towards my masters degree. I also joined an organization called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to help me raise money for homeless youth-related causes, but the organization was very hierarchal and about a year and a half later I found it wasn't the best fit for me.
I managed to do all of this without having a car for a year and being on house arrest (I was able to leave home for work and volunteer-related work). I also re-connected with my musical roots and joined the the choir at my parents' church. When I found the choir leader didn't exactly have a soft spot for gays, I found the church I mentioned earlier where I began taking seminary courses and joined their Praise & Worship Team (which is their version of the music for Sunday services). Since joining my current church, Casa de Cristo Church and Apostolic Center, I was a project manager for our Fall Festival (our Halloween Event) and began teaching youth. I even preached the main Sunday Service, twice. This however, was put on hold when I went back to school for cosmetology.
So how did I end up at Penrose Academy? Well, I was just laid off from my job of 5-6 years at a small media company where we were doing something very different. I met the owners of that company when I played rugby on a local club in Phoenix, Ariz. As I mentioned previously, I had developed anxiety and depression and was having panic attacks and missing a lot of work. This led to me losing my job at the brokerage company where I was working. My new bosses didn't have an issue with this.
At the media company, I hung on as long as I could because I really wanted to see it through. After a couple of years, I knew I needed to move on but I really didn't know how or what I would do. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciated the opportunities I had at this job. I was able to interview celebrities for the magazine (like Andy Cohen and RuPaul), I had my own segment on their radio show and I had the opportunity to travel for marketing as a representative of the company. The job came to an end almost exactly a year ago when the company laid-off four of ten employees. I had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew it was an opportunity to start all over again and become the person I always knew I could be.
I looked at temp jobs until I could make some money, but that went nowhere. One day, my niece decided she wasn't going to stay at her cosmetology school any longer. The school wasn't teaching her much and she had enough. I told her I would help her find a better school.
Since my mother went to a Pivot Point school and was able to do things that others who worked with her couldn't, I thought that might be the best option for my niece. The only school that I was referred to through the Pivot Point International website was Kohler Academy (which is now Penrose Academy). I asked around and decided to look at two other schools with her, as well. She also had one in mind and I went with her to find out about that school. When the person in admissions told her that some people stay behind the chair and some go to the corporate side, a light bulb went on.
Why did I never think about that (the corporate side of the industry)? The beauty industry is wide and varied and there are so many opportunities I had never considered. I knew what I would do next. I contacted Kohler Academy and told them I was interested. I also went with my niece to look at two other schools, but in my mind I had already decided on Kohler. They didn't take everyone and anyone, they had a higher standard and higher expectations of their students and if I was going to go back to school, not only was I going to do it right, I was going to the best school I could find.
I was accepted and was told the admissions person liked that fact that I was humble and so interested in learning. I also found out a few students were Spread the Love finalists. When they told me what it was, I KNEW I would apply for 2013.
This brings me to where I am. People tell my I am a much happier person and see a complete change in me. I still get stressed out when I come to a new situation, but as Jill Kohler says, "Get comfortable being uncomfortable." She also says "Be a better version of yourself." Both of these phrases have inspired me through the last year and have encouraged me to start doing interviews in July of this year. Even though I've had anxiety through those experiences, I'm glad I've started. The more I do something, the less scary it becomes.
I really hope this has helped give you a better idea of who I am and why I be great for the 2013 Spread the Love Tour. Great things happen to people every day, I don't see a reason why I shouldn't be one of them.
Thank you for your time and consideration.

Move in the right direction

I have no idea how The Gossip's new album passed me by when it came out earlier this year. If you didn't already know, The Gossip is one of my favorite bands and previously Pop Goes the World was my favorite song of theirs. Today they were on my mind and I looked 'em up to find out if they had any new music and I came across a song so great I almost wanted to change the name of my blog. I've decided this is my new them song and may just end up perfoming this song at school or church or anywhere.

This song gives me confidence and makes me feel better about where I am going in life. Considering tomorrow is industry day at school, this is what I'm using to get my right. I really hope it does the same for you because the joy I get from it has to be shared. The song is called Move in the Right Direction.

I have GREAT news!

Haircut or a Trim?

You've heard the phrase before, you may have even said yourself. "Oh, I just need a trim." I'm thinking it should be simple enough, until upon further questioning I find that its going to be a more involved and/or time consuming than I expected. I've noticed that some salons have different prices for a haircut or a trim and others only have a haircut price (for this reason, I'm assuming). Being that I'm a guy and my hair is fairly short, I alway ask for a haircut since the stylist is basically going to have to do the haircut all over again, but I've seen people with short hair say they "just need a trim." So here's the point, I would like to put a question out there to all of you: "What, in your mind, is the difference between a haircut and a trim?" This would help me understand the mind of the client since I was under the impression that a trim is what Pivot Point calls "Solid Form" and Vidal Sassoon calls "Single Length." I look forward to your opinions, impressions and so forth and to further clarify my point I'll show you want I believe can be "trimmed" and what would be a full-on haircut. First, the trim:

Second, the full-on haircut:

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.