The Odd Things You Do at Beauty School

My day changes drastically from 4PM to 5PM.

I go from:

• Rubbing 9 hours of computer fatigue out of my eyes to... bumping into the back of a mohawk while standing in line to clock-in at school.
• Hearing “We're gonna need legal to look at this one more time” to... “Did you see Jersey Shore last night?? Oh no she didn’t!”
• Conference calls to.. finger painting.

There are a few beauty school activities that I am a little cynical about. I have a mental list that I affectionately refer to as my “For the love of all things decent and holy, why do we have to do this at beauty school?” list. My top two activities on the list are playing hide and seek (yes, we actually did this one night at school) and musical chairs. I have to remind this hardened cerebrum of mine that beauty school culture embraces fun, creativity, and breaking out of the norm - - after all, these were part of the reasons that I was so drawn to the beauty industry to begin with. Still, there are times when I just want to stand up and say, "Playing musical chairs does not support my personal goals and it's not going to make you a better hair dresser either!" Instead, I collect myself and try to avoid being called out for an unconscious eye roll.

When Miss. Kellie said that we would be finger painting for color theory this week, I was a little skeptical.

Why finger painting? Well, in some cases makeup artists may have a limited number of colors available to them. Exceptional makeup artists have to understand how to blend colors and mix textures to achieve a desired look. Color theory seems simple when you read about it in the Milady’s textbook, but using it in real life is a little more challenging.

Our task seemed pretty basic. We were given three finger paints in primary colors – red, blue, and yellow. Using only these colors, we were asked to create secondary and tertiary colors that matched specific objects (for example, creating a brown that matched the exact color of a Whoppers candy). When one of us achieved a desired shade, we all rejoiced. I’m sure some of our successes were just dumb luck, but others times you could actually see the “artist’s eye” at work. 

Before I knew it, this silly-activity-cynic was finger painting…. and loving every minute of it.

Perhaps there is something to these crazy beauty school activities after all (and now I can paint myself in camouflage for the next round of hide and seek).  

Gettin' Beauty Schooled,
Rita