Makeup School: Day 25-26 - Hairstyling (cont...)

Not that the Academy of Makeup (AOM) is trying to give us hair qualifications, but some smart alec obviously went to the Government with the suggestion that makeup artists should have hair cutting skills for the sake of maintaining makeup continuity. So we had to learn basic sectioning, trimming, blow drying, curling and setting skills.

I was quite disappointed with the lack of official instructions on how to do updos, which was what I was really looking forward to. It felt like the classes were too focused on cutting and blow drying, with the purpose of just getting this component out of the way.

But enough whinging; here's the basics of what we'll be assessed for hair in 1.5 hours, with a view to recreate Victoria's Secret volumous, big head of curls:

1. Dampen hair with spray bottle. Not too much spray as dripping wet is too hard to work with. Detangle with a wide toothed comb.
2. Part hair in quarters: down middle of head and then across from top of head to back of ears. Section off with clips.
3. From the back of the head, section off starting from bottom. Run a section of hair through two fingers and trim as necessary.
4. Continue the process by working up the head and using previous trim line as a guide.
5. Repeat for side of head, grabbing a bit of hair from the back as guide. Trimming should take 15 minutes for the whole head.
6. Resection from back of head and blow dry each bit with a barrel brush, lifing roots up for volume. Ends should be curled under.
7. Work from bottom back of head upwards, then from bottom of each side upwards. Should finish blow drying on the centre part (personally, I hate centre parting, but it's easier to do this for the assessment). Blow wave should take 30 minutes, tops.
8. Place hot rollers horizontally in a column, from forehead down to nape of neck, then horizontally across side of head, brickwork style. Spray each section of hair to be rolled with a light mist of hair spray before wrapping around rollers. I do not have that much hot rollers, so will only be doing it for half of the head and will be curlling bottom half of head with tongs and/or GHD.
9. Spray each section with hairspray after curling.
10. By the time the bottom half of the head is curled, the hot rollers should be cool enough to remove. If not, and time is ticking, then I'll blast it with my hair dryer set on cold air.
11. Curls should be lightly shaken out and roots backcombed to blend roller section marks.
12. Finish with defining mousse or shine spray. Hairspray to set.

From all this, I'm discovering hair trim and blow drying is not my thing. All those days of just letting my hair grow out and air dry is probably doing me no benefits here. But I've found that despite being a total klutz, I've improved immensely with my hair skills in the last few lessons and might even have a chance of finishing within the one and a half hours.

Hair styling on the other hand, is way more fun! Despite not being taught set styles, we were allowed to let loose our creativity on our uncomplaining mannequin heads to create a number of up-dos.

xxEva