Thanks guys, you're right.
I work in a Salon now full time as a junior. We've so rammed out busy 24-7 i never learn bugger all, never have chance to even stand and watch for 2 mins cos i'm constantly shampooing all day everyday. Plus some of the stylists are crap in my opinion. There's 2 that are brilliant hairdressers, the rest are so....how can i say it "trained 20 years ago, still cut and style like 20 years ago" lol
When i signed up at college, they basically told me how they can work wonders and **** cucumbers....after i'd done the course i'd be confident to do this that and the other...which is a load of crap. I'm not confident at all, i'm bricking it, constantly. They basically fed me a lot of crap and encouraged me to trot on mobile after i'd finished (cos that's what i told them i'd like to do)...yeah, as if i can go bloody mobile. I can't even do a one length without my hands shaking >.< We never do real people's hair until the actual assessment day, we use block heads (which are awful to be honest) i spend an hour unknotting the rat's nest you get on those fake hair heads).
I've looked at level 3 modules and can't really see anything in there (aside from colour correction, which i know how to do ...one of the only things the salon as taught me!) and the advanced cutting module, which would help with confidence. Oh i dunno, i'm really passionate about it and wanna be a good hairdresser, not one of these stylists who spend half their day blagging and bull****ting through each cut they and style they do (and yep we have one who is self employed at the salon who is very much like that). I wish i'd gone to an academy now to learn, but it was soooo expensive.
Speaking of dolls heads, you guys know where i can get anymore from on the cheap side, just for cutting? I've been buying them and it's costing a fortune for them all.
Thanks for the support. I'm sure i will look back on this one day and laugh, but right now i feel pretty low and unsure.
Kams xx
Kams, i totally understand you! It's like i've written this post! I know exactly what you're saying and what it means to give yourself a hard time and be dissapointed at the thought that you could have done it better, or it could have been better but you can't do it!
What i've realised is that...the more you do, the easier and less stressful it gets!
When i cut hair it makes me so nervous and even if they all know i'm training and they accept the fact that they have to spend hours while waiting for me to finish and there's a high risk of leaving with an ear off or with some gaps in their hair, i can't bear the idea that I can give them a bad haircut!
However, I've recently tried to convince myself that...I will give bad haircuts, I will do mistakes and I will have people complaining. It's unavoidable while you're training. So the only way to get over it is to be ready for when the day comes. ( dreading the first client to complain!).
I have days when I come home and I feel down and think 'what if I will never master hairdressing and be a rubbish one of the rest of my life??'. But then I look back and I realise how much I learn everyday...so it's impossible that everything will not add up in the end.
Don't give up....it's normal to be nervous, scared of your client, scared of not doing mistakes, not cutting them, not soaking them, scared of the conversations you have to make with them, of the fact that you won't see the sparkle in their eyes when they stand up and look at themselves in the mirror. But as well as widening your hairdressing skills, you have to work at self-development. And confidence.
And the great secret in hairdressing is to show that you know what you're doing. Or at least- PRETEND! And compliment your client...make them your friends first, they will be less likely to be nasty with you, look for that common ground.
About the dolly heads...they're a nightmare! BUT if you can do things on them, you can do them on the clients as well. It's often more difficult to do setting or foils on manechine heads.
What I hate is when hairdressers think they are bloomin awesome at their work, when in fact they're rubbish! I think it's better to doubt yourself, to try to improve, to care, rather than to think you know everything and you can do anybody! But....learn how to keep it inside, to deal with it in your own privacy and to disimulate in front of your client. At the end of the day, they come to have a proffesional advice, not to see somebody going with shaking hands close to their ears!
)
