Life as an assistant - Funny Faces

As I have been job hunting I was trying to recap some of the stories that had made me laugh while working in the salon.

There was one day that I was assisting and an older handicapped woman came in to get her hair done with her husband. She had been coming to my boss for a long time but I had just started with this stylist so I had no idea what to expect. (I had just started working for the salon a couple of months before) This client wasn't the nicest woman on the planet so I had a feeling this was going to be a very long few hours. As she sat down in the shampoo bowl I asked her if she was comfortable and if the water temp was ok and she abruptly replied "it's fine". Because of the handicap and her "hefty" presence the water from the bowl ended up mostly on her back and less in the drain. She got up slowly and I asked her to follow me to the changing room so I could get her a dry robe. She understandably was not nice about this situation. I wouldn't be too pleased if my back got soaked by some new assistant. (Of course I felt awful and blamed myself).

Now I want you all to take a minute to remember that no one had warned me in any way about this couple or what I was about to be put through. The assistants normally warned each other and protected each other but I think because I was still new I was going through an initiation phase that left me standing alone.

So this woman gave me a hard time all the way back to the chair and pretty much told me I was the only person EVER to have gotten her wet which of course made me feel even worse! (I came to find out later that day that the wife actually gets soaked every single time she comes in. She was just that unhappy that she took it out on me.)

The client then asked if I could get her husband a diet coke. She said no ice and just the can. So I brought her husband the drink and he then got upset that there was no ice and no glass. The 2 of them then began to fight and tried to blame the entire diet coke problem on me. AWESOME!

As the womans service came to an end it was time to grab the husband and wash his hair. (He didn't have much) I figured if I gave him the best shampoo of his life it would make up for everything. So I got him in the chair and felt pretty confident I could change this day around. I had a cheesy smile on my face, made sure he was comfortable (he had the same uncomfortable look on his face all the time) and was ready to go. I start shampooing him, looked down and he is making these ridiculously silly faces and looked like he was in horrible pain. (Picture below is to give an idea of the face but not the actual client:

I ignored it for a moment and was in a very, very confused state. Do I say something? I am barely touching him so could I be hurting him? So about 2 minutes later I got up the courage to ask..."Sir is everything all right?"

"No! I don't like to be touched" was his response.

So now I am standing behind a shampoo bowl, hands full of suds, his hair is full of suds, and a very unhappy man. Did anyone feel like letting me know he didn't like to be touched? Why would you ever get a shampoo if you don't like to be touched?????? I am also now praying the owner of the salon doesn't walk by because if he sees this guys face I will get fired for abuse. So I stood there for a minute with a confused look on my face trying to figure out the best next move. I had to endure this "funny face" for another 3 very long minutes while I rinsed out all of the shampoo and nicely turned to him and say: "so I am guessing you'd like to skip the head massage?". Lets just say he skipped the massage and I never saw him get shampooed there again.

So for all of you men and women out there who don't like being touched...just shampoo yourself at home. Assistants feel just as uncomfortable when you make those silly faces as you do.

Until next time...

Life as an assistant - photoshoots, PSA's, Oh My

Well hello everyone!

Over the past couple of weeks since the film finished I have been working on a few things to keep me busy until I find a job. I worked on an amazing PSA directed by Ron Howard for the Boys and Girls Club. What a fun yet chaotic experience. I also had the pleasure of doing a few photo shoots. The first was for a top secret new CW show (which sadly I can't give too much info on yet) and the second was an amazing shoot to build my portfolio.

The PSA was quite an experience. I had a 7 am call in the middle of Glendale with a cast that was unreal. I showed up and was shuttled to the location and was left standing in the middle of this parking lot by myself with my kit. As ready as I was it was a bit of an overwhelming experience. I stood there with hundreds of people running around me with ear pieces, walkie talkies and cell phones all looking like their heads had been cut off. No one would stop to direct me to the beauty trailer so I just started walking around. There were about 30 trailers so it was not an easy journey. Once I finally found it and met the rest of the beauty team I placed my stuff down and went straight to crafty for coffee. As I went back to the trailer the young kids (prob ages 10-15) started coming in to get their hair done before the celebrities arrived. They were all adorable and talking about how excited they were to see Ron Howard in person. They weren't excited about the major A-Listers coming but Ron Howard was the one to see. As we got their hair and make up done and went to set the big guns started to arrive. I watched Denzel Washington, John Paul (of Paul Mitchell), J Lo, Cuba Gooding JR, Ne-Yo, Shaq, Magic, Shawn White, Sugar Ray Lennard, Ashanti and so many others start to roll on to set. Most of the pictures were posted to my twitter account as an exclusive so if you would like to see them you'll have to add me @cosmoenthusiast.

The photo shoot I did for the top secret show was lucky enough to come my way form my cousin Jenny (THANK YOU AGAIN!!!) who hired me to do hair for 8 different people. The hair I did will be seen in motion and still posters. I will keep you all posted on that when more can be revealed.

The most exciting for me was the photo shoot I did just a few days ago! I got together a group of 3 other girls. One was a photographer/makeup artist who also needs to build her books like I do and the other 2 amazing young women were friends of mine I brought in to model! We shot all over my area in Hollywood and did 3 hair changes. The shoot went better then expected. We shared a lot of laughs and had some pretty awesome pictures. I have included some of the "behind the scenes" photos that I personally took. The finished shots will be available soon (as well as the rest of the "behind the scenes shots posted currently) on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/srstyles