So I'm now starting my followup posts. The one that should go before this is technically about going to the salon, but I am holding off for two reasons: 1) I need to find my camera, a good hair day, and a buddy good with a camera so I can send Aunt Sheryl some "after" pictures and then crop them (privacy-wise) so I can post them here and include them in the post; 2) I really don't feel like it right now.
"...at my highschool, they have some really cool Hairstyling and Aesthetics classes. I just finished the entry level one about a month ago and next year I'm taking level two..." -Introduction
Last school year was my first year not homesquirreling full time. I take about 3/4 of my courses at my school and 1/4 with my mama squirrel. The most fun course I took last year was drama. The second most fun course I took was "Hairstyling & Aesthetics". Our school is very lucky in not only having the course available, but having two pro teachers and a very large salon. Of course, the salon is about the same size as any you'd step into to get something done, but we lack a waiting room so we get double the chairs. There are 18 stations, two back rooms, multiple dryers (the kind you sit under). I'm not bragging here, honest, I'm just trying to give you an idea of the size. They're able to fit that many stations in the room by the stations basically being counters rather than individual. There's more elbow room in a real salon.
We started the course with Bacteriology. This included risks (lice, dermatitis), bacteria, cleaning, safety (not just chemical...also in here was electrical safety), etc. After bacteriology we did units which a written portion and a practical portion. For example: for roller sets, we had our "wet hairstyling unit" which consisted of sheets and questions on terminology, techniques, required tools and more; and had to complete a number of roller sets and have the last one marked. I'm including that example because while my friends not in the course understood how my Ms. H could teach us a manicure, and we could be marked on how well we did the manicure, they never understood how we could have tests and a written exam.
After Bacteriology, we had some units on tools and things like that, and then we got into the bulk of the course: braiding, wet hairstyling, thermal styling, blowdrying and manicures. This took us most of the course and was the most fun part.
The guidance office unfortunately renamed "Health and Personal Services," "Hairstyling & Aesthetics". HPS includes H&A, but they aren't the same course. HPS includes several things, H&A is just the main focus. Because they were renamed like this it means that technically you don't have to take the so-called "Beginner" course first, you can jump right into "Intermediate", because it isn't the same course. But most people don't know that and farther on in school they decide they'd like to take H&A; Guidance says, "Oh, you should take this one from the earlier grade," and they end up taking one identical to the intermediate but with colouring, cutting and waxing removed; childcare, elder care, and another HPS topic (different every year, our class's was Dental Hygiene) added. Oh well. If they hadn't done that I suppose I wouldn't have been able to take it as early as I did because someone my age in the intermediate class would have been ridiculous. I was the youngest in my class because of advanced placing due to a number of reasons which are very confusing, one of them being I started school a year early. It was fun anyway, even with all the stuff tacked onto the end of the course.
This is coming close to the end of my ramble on this course but one thing more I wanted to mention is that the more advanced courses offer apprenticeship involvement which is very cool. Instead of going directly to a beauty school you can take instruction at school for free and be placed at a salon for your practical hours. This is something I'm genuinely considering for a career path and having the option at my fingertips while I'm still in school in enthralling!
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