Primary

Look what I made!  I’m so very proud of this.  I’d been inspired by my dad and his long hippie braids and tie dyed apparel for a while now.  I wanted to create it on hair.  I’d been inspired to attempt a tie dyed effect on hair for months…and after coloring many hair pieces in my basement sink, finally I have an image of my favorite!  I titled it Primary.

Huge thanks to my salon, Lovely, and to our photographer Alessandra Zorro, for their support and creative encouragement.  It means the world to me to be able to collaborate with inspiring and talented individuals.

Again, it’s strange to share my work and put it out there for the world to see….but any comments, constructive critique, and feedback is always appreciated.  I’m still quite a beginner at all this artsy fartsy photography.  Thank you!!

 

 

Masters of the Craft

There’s something-a-brewing!!

I have to admit…this education opportunity kind of just fell into my lap.  It’s funny how sometimes when you’re ready for a door to open, it just opens.  Like, no questions….just opens right up.

I have to give a little credit to my bootcamp situation.  Without it, I wouldn’t have opened myself up and put myself out there.  I wouldn’t have signed up for facebook again and reconnected with many supportive people.  I wouldn’t have seen the link for this class….a class that is right up the alley I’m striving to open myself up to: the world of photography, fashion, and oddball design.  It’s almost as if that path was not meant to work out….like it was leading me to this path.  Strange how things really do have a way of working out.

A few months ago I tried to spark some creative photoshoot work at my salon.  It’s been working out pretty well, especially since we’re all so very new to it.  I feel like we are just as talented and artsy fartsy as the rest of them.  I still crave more knowledge of the whole process.  Then this class pops up on my facebook feed.

At first, I was skeptical.  Most links from facebook aren’t reliable.  The more I investigated, the more I was intrigued.  See, I’m so new to all this high fashion, New York, editorial type of work that I didn’t even know who this Sam McKnight was.  Thanks to Google, I learned that this is no man who would be up to a scam.  This man is legit.  This man creates runway looks for Balmain and for Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel!  This man styles spreads in magazines like Vogue, W, and Allure!  This guy is the real deal.

I was inspired.

There was an application process and I’m proud to say my 4 favorite images from the past 4 months earned me a spot in the class.  It starts next week and to be quite honest, I don’t really know what to expect.  I think it might work out to my benefit how out of the loop I am…then I can really just focus on making really cool work and learning and not getting caught up in who these people are and how much pull they have in the world of high fashion.

Because….I’m not very high fashion…but I’m not low fashion either.  Ha.

 

PB

 

Have you seen this smug guy?

He thinks he’s something special.

I’d eat his face and lick his hair off…but not his eyebrows.  I don’t know what those are made out of.

re-inspiration

 

 

There has been a freshness and newness that has taken over my hairdresser brain.  While merely months ago, I felt like this was the end, like it was time to quit and move on to something different…today I find my thoughts moving from idea to creative idea.  Ahhh!!  New-ness!  I feel like a beginner again, only a beginner with confidence and the desire to know more…to know all.  The possibilities really are endless.

A state of mania.

I worry that this inspiration and thirst to create will end as quickly as it has arrived…and so I must work tirelessly on keeping the ideas alive and in motion.  I must work on allowing one idea to feed into the next idea and to never let that fire die down.  I’ve got projects going on in the basement and sink and sketchbook.  I’ve got hair on the brain.  I’ve got art on the brain.

I am going to dive deep into this industry that I’ve been sort of hiding in for about 10 years.  I’ve never really wanted to put myself out there as a hairdresser before.  I’ve always secretly thought it was this fleeting thing…this day job…even though I do enjoy it immensely.  I want to take chances and enter contests and create wild images.  I want to lift up my salon.  I want to collaborate with other artists and push the boundaries of what beauty is…of what art could be.

Has it really taken 10 years for these two parallel careers to collide?  Have I really separated them that much in my head, knowing full well that they are supposed to work together?  It’s strange….

Let’s do this.

Confessions

A client confessed a secret to me the other day.  It was a secret she had never admitted to anyone, ever, in her life.  Brace yourselves.

She had, in fact, cheated during a high school pep rally while trying to hit a pinata with a bat.  You see, she could see through the blindfold.  Instead of smashing the pinata with her secret sight, she hit one of her teachers, on purpose, in the stomach!

Talk about a gut buster!

She said she didn’t hit her hard enough to really hurt her, but enough for it to be really funny.  She never even told any of her friends from high school that she did it…probably for fear of having rumors spread and getting in trouble.  And she held that secret up inside her for maybe 15-20 years just to tell me.

I feel quite privileged to accept that information.  It must be how a taxi driver sometimes feels.

It also reminded me of my husband finally admitting to me that he cheated on a male/female smell test in high school.  They were testing to see which sex had the keener sense of smell.  My husband admitted to me that he, too, could see through the blindfold.  He completely ruined all that data!!  He really had no reason to even admit it to me…because what the hell do I care?

It’s as if these secrets and lies just work themselves out sometimes.

 

On the meaning of things…

Fortunes are funny.

One day the smallest things mean everything…and another day the big things seem quite small and insignificant.  There are days when I look around at all the things I have and I ask myself what do they even matter?  What does the couch matter??  What is important?  Is it the organization of the shoes by the door? Is it the thoughts that I think?  In the end, you can’t take anything with you, but you can leave things behind.  How should they be left?

Can people feel thoughts?  Can you feel my imagination?

It’s amazing how something as small as a little piece of paper inside of a stale fortune cookie can make you think about life….even if it is sort of a cliche quote.

Hair is art. Art is hair.

 

I’m an artist.  I’m a hairdresser.  I’m proud of it.

After himming and hawing back and forth for my so-far 10 year career, I can say confidently that artist and hairdresser are one and the same.

There was a time that I thought one was better than the other….or that one meant something different.  I thought that one was ok to do for a while.  Maybe it’s because I learned more about ‘art’ and ‘artists’ first or maybe because of the stereotypes that sometimes ring true.  Artists are deep, pensive, and thought provoking, right?  Hairstylists are blonde, dramatic, and self-absorbed, right??  Are these true anymore?  Absolutely not.

I’ve never really talked about my job on my blog…or rather, my career.  I suppose I’ve only written about art and ideas and inspiration for creative projects.  I never quite wanted to overlap what I do with who I am.  See…the funny thing about being a hair dresser, beautician, hair designer, cosmetologist, barber, service provider, wonder woman…is that, for me, it is more artistic and creative than sitting alone with a painting…THAT is what makes it so difficult and painful at times.  It is a constant collaboration with the public and it is intense and extremely gratifying.

I take care of people while I’m on the clock.  I am a care-taker.  It doesn’t end when I clock out, however.

With the evolution of my place in this industry, I want to strive for more artistic insanity.  I want to make beautiful, terrible, simple, extravagant, frightening images.  I want people to say ‘what the fuck?‘ or ‘that’s pretty funny.’  I’m at a point in my career where I’m ready for change and challenge.

I thought I needed to completely change careers.  Certain events have proven that it isn’t time for that to happen.  I think what I really want is to explore all the education that I can and absorb the amazingness of this industry.  I’m at a place where I can do that.  I work for a wonderfully supportive salon.

I can put bread on a girl’s head and it’s hairdressing and it’s art.   Boom, mothafuckas.

Do you have to let it linger?

It’s not often that I can, in good conscience, make a football joke…BUT…I feel like Tom Brady’s balls….uh…footballs.  Deflated.

My super cool bootcamp in New York City was canceled a few weeks ago.  The founder is simply too successful in her newest company and doesn’t have the time to devote to the camp currently.  I’ve been trying to be optimistic about it and trying my best not to get too salty about it.  But I have to admit….I’m salty.  I think my lingering saltiness is because the annoying tidbits are still not tied up.  I can’t quite wash my hands clean of this bad vibe until everything is resolved.

The main thing up in the air is money.

Ugh, the root of all evil.  I shut down my fundraising page only to have the site send me all the money instead of refund back to individual donors.  Not a huge deal.  I’ve been waiting on this money for 3 weeks.  I know it’s not lost and I know it’s all going to be just fine…but I want it to be over.  I want to either find another class to take or to give all the money back.  That’s it.  It’s like laying on a bed with an annoying pea under the mattress that only I can feel.  Wait, does that make me a princess?

I suppose it’s a sign from the great beyond that now is not the time.  Maybe now is not the time for me to meet inspiring people and learn about entrepreneurship.  Maybe I’m not meant to do this.  Maybe I’m meant to do what I’m currently doing.  Maybe I should stop changing my mind everyday?!?  I just don’t know.  My gut says otherwise.

Maybe…I should write silly little blogs everyday.

Help me Do Cool Sh*t!

So I read a book in March.

Yep.

That’s how the story begins….or rather, I searched amazon for a book under the category Starting a Business for Dummies.

I’ve gone back and forth in my head for years and years about being a creative business owner.  But what kind?  But would I be good at it?  But I don’t know anything about businessy stuff!  Do people even buy art anymore? But would anyone even want what I want to offer?  Is this stupid?  Am I crazy? 

Yes.  Crazy.

The book that caught  my eye while scrolling down the results….in big bold letters DO COOL SH*T.  Huh, that sounds like what I want to do.  Let’s investigate further.

I read the rest of the title.  Do Cool Sh*t: Quit your Day Job, Start your Own Business, and Live Happily Ever After by Miki Agrawal. 

Why, that sounds interesting and right to the point…all the while thinking (oh my goodness, I would vomit if I quit my job and there’s no way I can truly be a business owner and have any sort of happy freedom).

At any rate, I ordered the book, read it in two days, became slightly obsessed with it, read everything on their website, and learned about a Do Cool Sh*t Bootcamp in New York where they teach tangible business skills to the flighty minds of the creative dreamer!  Wow!  I scribbled all my ideas down, tried to organize them and rewrite them to sound enticing…and I applied.  I applied thinking about the other thousands of people that have read the book and were applying…and I just kept it in the back of my mind.  I also put the dates of the bootcamp in my calendar to keep the positive vibes open.

And I was accepted!  What????

 

That video took me over 4 hours to make….yeah.  But you can help send me to learn all this cool shit!  Follow this link to my crowdfunding site!!

Thank you followers!  You’re spectacular!

 

 

Shunshine on my shouldersh…..

Yes, I meant to write shunshine.

If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time….you must know that I am always striving to find a balance between living a creative life, being responsible for my family, and trying to find the humor in things.

Shortly after my wonderful visit to San Diego, I admittedly fell into a loathsome darkness….where I felt like everything I was doing with my life was going in the wrong direction (which it wasn’t) and that I had to disappear to feel better (which I didn’t).  I was just going through the motions.  It was one of my worst winter seasons thus far…which leads me to:

Feeling Good!!!

Shortly after I started my tried and true vitamin and healthy eating routine, the darkness lifted (which I knew it would) and my thoughts became clearer and brighter and funnier and way more optimistic and creative!  For the curious ones out there, I take a B complex, Vitamin D, a Probiotic, and an Omega 3.  I would say within 2 days I felt better and within a week I felt like I was back to my old self.

Of course the light and sunshine and warmer weather help it all out.

I have found that some people chalk the sadness and guilt to being a creative person….that’s just they way of a creative mind…I’m not so sure.

My mind is more clear and fast when I’m not feeling blue….more like a light, sky blue and less like an angry, drab gray-blue.