Life As An Assistant- The Journey Through School

And we are back... Oh the joys of searching for the perfect beauty school. When I started my journey to hunt for "the best" school I had no idea where to start. I started speaking with every hairstylist I could about which school was better, who would get me to pass the dreaded state board exam and who would make me the next Orlando Pita (For those of you who don't know he is one of the top 3 best hairstylists ever! He does Madonna...) I got various responses. Oh you MUST go to Vidal Sasson or Paul Mitchell is the best! i looked into those schools and they were right. They were amazing. I walked into them going "I have to be here". That was until I heard the passing rate for state board at both schools not to mention the amount of money that both charged with no financial aid. Third best it was going to have to be!  So the next bet was community college. I checked out a few of them. One more "ghetto" then the next so I asked around and was told SMC (Santa Monica Community College) was the way to go. I enrolled, with the help of a past student, and was ready to start my journey. My first day of class began 4/20/2008. (Yes the one day of the year that most students ditch school I was beginning my journey)

As I nervously waited outside the department on my very first day (with my mom. Yes my mother walked me to my first day of school like I was in kindergarten at the ripe age of 25. Cue laughter now!) I met my first 2 friends at that very moment who would later bring me lots of laughter, at them and with them, followed by drama and more drama. (I will not be sharing names for privacy).

At cosmetology school I learned very quickly that a school full of women and gay men means a shit ton of DRAMA! So much so the police were not only enforced to stand in our department every afternoon but they were soon enforced to be in one of my classes every Friday all day! My time at SMC became more and more like a Jerry Springer show and less and less like a class room environment. We had schizophrenics, just plain crazies, fist fights, cat fights, chairs thrown, girls peeing themselves in class (yes they were adults and yes it happened on more then once occasion) "straight" men hooking up with gay men, announcements asking students to "please stop smoking marijuana and coming to class drunk", girls stealing color and supplies from the color room only to resell them at school and so, so, so much more! By the time I was nearing my 1600 hour mark I had teachers asking me how to formulate color. All in all I would say my school was pretty fascinating. I learned more about myself in that year and a half then I have in 5 years. I not only learned about state board wet sets, blow drys, color formulation but I learned about sanity, patience and what I do and do not what in a friend.

I was able to survive SMC and receive my state board license about a week later. That was one of the best days in my entire life. It was also one of the scariest days of my entire life. State board was an experience all on its on. For those of you who don't know much about the subject its intense. I had to be in Glendale by 6:30 am with my model (I brought my mom...thanks mom. You get free hair for life!!!) We arrived groggy and early (for those of you who know me you know I was EARLY!) with coffee in hand. My mom was yelled at by staff before the exam got started for asking a simple question (not the nicest staff) and thank god we did not get that woman as my instructor. I had to complete the practical and written exam and then wait over an hour to get my results at 3pm. I PASSED! WHOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO! I could finally breathe!

Now that I have passed state board, survived beauty school and kept a portion of sanity the next step in my journey was to find a job. But that's a whole other story... Until next time.... Feel free to comment on the bottom and to follow me on my new twitter @cosmoenthusiast