A Good, Trustworthy Place to Order Hair Shears

Hey, internet savvy hairdresser types. Sorry it’s been so quite lately… Life, you know how it is. I’m moving, most of my energy goes into work, had a number of side projects eating up my free time – Been recording the audiobook version of a friend and salon owner’s ebook, I tried making my own scissor pouch (Out of leather I cut out of an old trashed leather sofa I saw in a junkyard!), bought a ukulele… all sorts of distractions.

But I wanted to give my official bump to an online shear/accessory store I’ve dealt with a few times now. Precision Shears. Check it out if you’re in the market for shears. I really don’t know what to write about the store, I tried thinking of stuff but it sounded like the stupid customer testimonials you see on other websites. Plain and simple, every time I’ve dealt with Guy at Precision Shears I’ve been impressed, he really stands behind his store and the service he provides. And they always have the best prices on the things I want, which helps too.

And for the record, I’m definitely not being paid or bribed to promote them, I’m giving them my seal of approval because they really did impress me, and whenever anyone asks me where they should order shears from, I always recommend Precision Shears.

How good are they? Well, I ordered my Kasho shears from them, in the  States… When I live in the same city as the official Kasho importer for North America, because they have a better deal than I can get locally.

Anyways, there’s the second of my only two business endorsements. (The other being Hair Maven’s instructional DVD’s)

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Photos You Need To See

Check out these awesome photo albums. Photos taken by Hairbraineds’ own Randy Taylor.

Two photo albums, click through to view all the pics – and they’re worth checking out! Not only is Randy a pretty decent photographer, there’s tons of neat stuff to see and some tricks you might learn!

 

Click to go to the album on Hairbrained!

 

 

 

Click to go to the album on Hairbrained!

 

 

They Like Me! They Really, Really Like Me!

Hey err’body! I just wanted to share something astounding (to me at least) about my blog… I’m almost up to 10,000 all-time views!

Also, head on over and ‘like‘ me on Facebook:

Click here! Like me! C’moooonnnn! Do it!

More after the jump…

Asymmetrical

I did this on a classmate today:

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Click for Bigger

Click for Bigger

It took a long time… Because this is the first asymmetrical haircut like this I’ve ever done, and my third (I think?) ever cut with a razor.

I started cutting it one way, did the whole haircut, but it didn’t work as well as I wanted. So I redid everything and spent a lot of time going through and fixing things, balancing things, eyeballing things, etc…

But the next time I do a cut like this I’ll be able to do it in half the time! This was a huge learning experience, because I never get to do fun stuff like this. It definitely beats doing little old ladies’ uniform/graduation haircuts!

The first version of it I did, I ended up with gradation in the short side transitioning to layers on the long side. It looked funny, and I experimented with leaving a longer layer on top and undercutting the short side, but ultimately ended up taking out all the graduation and converting it to layers. (Remember kids, under 89 degrees is graduation, 90 degrees and up is layering! That’s why vertical partings remove weight so effectively, because you most often pull them out at 90 degrees!)

It was a nightmare to crosscheck, too. I must have looked at the cut from a million different angles, and eyeballed a lot of it until it felt right. It turned out great though, and I was very happy to have a classmate willing to sit through my experimenting and fiddling!

Finals = Kicked In The Teeth

I lived through my finals. Pretty intense couple days, thems were… This was the exam schedule:

Men’s Taper Cut – 30 mins

Women’s Color – 60 minutes (From application to shampooed and back at chair)

Women’s Cut – 30 minutes

Women’s Airform & Iron – 30 minutes

Perm – 90 minutes (From start to rinsed and back at chair)

Rollerset – 20 minutes

Fingerwaves (on mannequin) – 15 minutes

Combout – 15 minutes

Final written exam (200 questions) – 90 minutes

There was a lot of adrenaline pumping through everyone during the exams. It’s interesting watching how everyone copes with the pressure – a lot of people get nervous, stressed out, some people panic. I get excited and happy. I don’t understand why other people don’t get excited… I think I annoyed some people by being chipper and upbeat when everyone was all doom and gloom. Haha

In the end, I did a bit better than average, but not as good as I’d like to have done. 80% overall on my practicals (the cut, color, perm, etc were high…but I bombed the rollerset and combout.), and 82% on my written final. (Pretty good considering I didn’t study)

 

More Words

My dad sent me a random entry from the NEW Complete Book of Etiquette (1963):

What a Difference a Haircut Makes

Everyone knows how big an image shift a simple haircut can make… But nobody personifies this better than one of the coolest people ever: DOCTOR WHO!

David Tennant - Before

DOCTOR WHO!

This was really just an excuse to post pictures of David Tennant. I’m not gay, but I would totally pretend for David. /swoon

Vidal Sassoon is Old

Vidal Sassoon on the old TV show What’s My Line:

It’s crazy to think he’s that old. Whatever people say about him, whether they like him or hate him, everyone has to admit he helped change hair styling into what it is today. Pretty impressive guy… And pretty suave, too.

I really want to see the documentary about him, but I don’t think I can afford to buy the dvd

Poor Samuel, the Pivot Point Mannequin

Well we took Sam down to a flat top (EW!) and a fade (DOUBLE EW!) in class… Poor Sam, he’s so ugly now.

I was surprised that the other girls in the class had a very hard time doing the flat top, because to me it seems like the easiest (although ugliest) thing you could do to hair. They also had a hard time trimming his beard into a style. I think maybe it’s just a guy thing – I’ve have more clipper experience. The girls in class kick my ass at girl hair styling, with curlers and whatnot, because they’ve had more experience with those things. (Or at least, that’s what I tell myself…)

Hey look, it's K-Fed!

Check out the big disc of hair just behind Sam’s apex – they went crazy putting hair in that one spot, and then put thin hair all over the rest of him. lol

I really like cutting men’s hair. It’s too bad most men don’t want to go to a male stylist. But oh well, in the town I live in all I’d be able to do anyway is an endless series of faux hawks.

They love the faux hawks here. It’s like the official town haircut.

Being a Hair Stylist

The skills and techniques of cutting and styling hair are starting to make sense to me now. But more and more, people are drilling into my head that skill and technique aren’t what make a successful hair stylist successful.

They say it’s not even the most significant contributor to success. School, and the people in the industry who are vocal about it, all say the same things in different ways. It’s about your presence, it’s about how people feel when they’re around you, and it’s about selling yourself and selling services and products to clients. The selling is given more weight than what you’re selling in a lot of places.

The textbooks in school are fond of the “80/20 Rule” – meaning 80% of your success is people skills, 20% is technical skill.

Well hey, it’s not what I expected, but it’s not necessarily bad news. This is an industry of individuality, and if you look at the way the platform artists and mega-stylists dress and behave – I can do that! It’ll take some work (a lot of work), but I know I can do it. So first things first, I need to do everything differently. I have to approach things from a different angle. (While of course still learning the plane-Jane way of doing it in school to appease the teachers and government exam I’ll end up taking)

Successful hair stylists all have an air of mysticism. They have a “Wow” effect in what they do – and I know it’s intentional, because they want you to think you’re doing magic. They spend a lot of time becoming “Hair Shaman”, with they’re mystical and unusual tools and techniques, everything must be not only functional but further the “show” of their craft.

I don’t want to be as flamboyant as platform artists, because I’m not on a platform. I don’t want people to think I’m showboating. I want people to think “Ooh, what’s this new thing he’s doing? I’ve never seen anyone do that!”.

As an aside: Another thing the hair “mystics” do (but in this case I don’t like it) is rename everything constantly. I feel that they’re patronizing their clientele when they do that. Every big stylist has a different name for their shampoo sinks, retail, coloring, lightening, techniques etc. etc.

It’s friggin lightening hair. You’re not “illuminating” hair. It’s. Bleach. For @%@%’s sake guys, we know you’re using a razor when you’re using a razor, we know you’re shampooing when you’re shampooing, stop inventing fluffy abstract names for the exact same service!

That part of the stylist mysticism I don’t think I’ll mesh with very well… But hey, maybe I can be like the Penn & Teller of hair styling, calling the bullshit for what it is. But anyway.

Here’s a great example of hair mysticism:

I want to bring some of that mysticism into my everyday work, but at the same time make it honest, real individuality and not intentional “Look at what an avant’ artist I am” showboating. I bet a few years down the road I will be well on my way.