Today, we pulled out our mannequins to practice our facial massage techniques. I really enjoy massage and touch in general. It isn't really for everyone, though, and I understand that. I think because of that, some of the class found this boring or awkward. That, or it was just one of those days.
At Empire, the skin care module is very short but I found myself really interested in knowing more about esthetics in general. It really is something that I've never considered. So, when I came home today I went looking for more information and did find that Empire has an esthetics branch, but not anywhere nearby. I did find that there is another school in the vicinity and I may consider going to that after my time at Empire for cosmetology. We will see. I feel like the marketability alone would make it worth it but I want to sit down and talk to my teacher about it first.
This section has me excited to see what else I may not have considered as an avenue before. Now I'm looking forward to everything even more than before. I just need to make sure that I don't let the attitudes of others sour me in any way. I feel as though staying positive is incredibly important in an environment where many of the people around you don't really know for sure if the field is really for them at all.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Sanitation
There are so many little things that we don't think about very often. Those “little things” can both help and harm us and are around us at all times. By “little things” I of course am talking about microorganisms. That is, after all, what today's class was focused on.
Microbiology is something I've always found rather interesting. However, after a few images from the book, the bulk of the class was highly disturbed and the general consensus was that they didn't much appreciate this section of the book at all. Luckily, this section was blissfully short, but it did lead directly into proper sanitation.
It was a bit unreal to realize how often salon's don' t follow proper sanitation procedures. I know that while I sat there reviewing these procedures I found myself mentally recounting times when I'd been to a salon and seen improper sanitation. I didn't know it at the time, of course, but it is a bit jarring to look back at. Going to school may very well ruin the salon-going experience for me!
Oh, and don't assume that its only low-rent salons are the guilty ones and that going to a high-rent salon will save you from poor sanitation. The price has little or nothing to do with the frequency of sanitation offenders. Some stylists are simply lazy and some managers aren't near so strict about sanitation as they should be. This does put you, the customer, at risk.
Next time you're in a salon take a look around. Were your stylists tools sitting in barbacide and rinsed off before being used on you? When you went for your pedicure, did they empty that foot bath and thoroughly rinse and spray down the tub before they started on you? Did the tools that they were using on you come out of fresh plastic wrapping?
These are only a couple of the things to look out for.
I think of of these days I should just do a salon horror stories post. I'm so glad we're learning to be better than this. You can guarantee that after getting to know all of this better I want to hold myself to a higher standard than that.
On another note entirely, the 100 Days of empire is coming up. We didn't get much in the way of information about this until today. Empire is celebrating because it has opened its 100th school.
Basically, you get to dress your mannequins, yourself and the school up in a theme. Ours appears to be Candy Land. In addition to it being a fun day, the school is also raising money for the local women's shelter in order to give back to the community. It does sound like it could be a good time.
Microbiology is something I've always found rather interesting. However, after a few images from the book, the bulk of the class was highly disturbed and the general consensus was that they didn't much appreciate this section of the book at all. Luckily, this section was blissfully short, but it did lead directly into proper sanitation.
It was a bit unreal to realize how often salon's don' t follow proper sanitation procedures. I know that while I sat there reviewing these procedures I found myself mentally recounting times when I'd been to a salon and seen improper sanitation. I didn't know it at the time, of course, but it is a bit jarring to look back at. Going to school may very well ruin the salon-going experience for me!
Oh, and don't assume that its only low-rent salons are the guilty ones and that going to a high-rent salon will save you from poor sanitation. The price has little or nothing to do with the frequency of sanitation offenders. Some stylists are simply lazy and some managers aren't near so strict about sanitation as they should be. This does put you, the customer, at risk.
Next time you're in a salon take a look around. Were your stylists tools sitting in barbacide and rinsed off before being used on you? When you went for your pedicure, did they empty that foot bath and thoroughly rinse and spray down the tub before they started on you? Did the tools that they were using on you come out of fresh plastic wrapping?
These are only a couple of the things to look out for.
I think of of these days I should just do a salon horror stories post. I'm so glad we're learning to be better than this. You can guarantee that after getting to know all of this better I want to hold myself to a higher standard than that.
On another note entirely, the 100 Days of empire is coming up. We didn't get much in the way of information about this until today. Empire is celebrating because it has opened its 100th school.
Basically, you get to dress your mannequins, yourself and the school up in a theme. Ours appears to be Candy Land. In addition to it being a fun day, the school is also raising money for the local women's shelter in order to give back to the community. It does sound like it could be a good time.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Day 2: More Skincare
The one problem with the glorious student kit I mentioned is the weight. The kit came with two stacking bags, one a shoulder bag and the other a roller bag, and they are both completely necessary! The weight of the kit actually prevented me from bringing the whole thing with me today, because I wasn't sure if we'd have a place to store them or not. It seems that yesterday we were supposed to have gotten our lockers, but we didn't. I believe the one in charge of distributing those had some sort of emergency and was unavailable at the time. My laziness in bringing my kit was, of course, rewarded with the receipt of our lockers today instead.
The bulk of today was spent continuing further into skin care. We touched on a lot of details about skin analysis that were in the curriculum and many others that were directly from the teacher's esthetician experience. We also practiced putting our drapes on one another for practice. It was a much more active class today and time went much more quickly.
Speaking of "active" classes. The class I mentioned yesterday came up again in conversation and the bulk of our classroom erupted into discussion about the lack of professionalism. Some students were surprised that the school would so highly stress professionalism to us in orientation and then allow that kind of behavior in the building. I agree. Behavior of that sort does make it more difficult to take the cry for professionalism seriously. However, it also appears that my assumption about the school attempting to make changes is indeed true. They are, in fact, cracking down on issues like those. We are likely one of the first classes to have those points so heavily stressed to us in order to push for change.
All in all, the second day was better than the first, I really hope it continues to be so interesting.
The bulk of today was spent continuing further into skin care. We touched on a lot of details about skin analysis that were in the curriculum and many others that were directly from the teacher's esthetician experience. We also practiced putting our drapes on one another for practice. It was a much more active class today and time went much more quickly.
Speaking of "active" classes. The class I mentioned yesterday came up again in conversation and the bulk of our classroom erupted into discussion about the lack of professionalism. Some students were surprised that the school would so highly stress professionalism to us in orientation and then allow that kind of behavior in the building. I agree. Behavior of that sort does make it more difficult to take the cry for professionalism seriously. However, it also appears that my assumption about the school attempting to make changes is indeed true. They are, in fact, cracking down on issues like those. We are likely one of the first classes to have those points so heavily stressed to us in order to push for change.
All in all, the second day was better than the first, I really hope it continues to be so interesting.
Monday, August 2, 2010
First Day
Last night I didn't sleep very well. It was probably the nerves. After all, today was my first day of actual attendance at Empire.
I showered, dressed, gathered my things and, despite still being half asleep, headed off to school. It's lucky for me that I live all of about five miles from the school, because I am not much of a morning person and like to sleep as long as I can. This is especially true when I'm adjusting to a new schedule.
When I arrived and went to clock in on the hand-scanner, I found it impossible to do so without my ID number. You see, the school had provided me with a slip of paper at orientation that had my number on it and I put it in a “safe place.” I should have known better. A “safe place” seems to be a place you put something when you want to hide it from yourself. Because of this, they had me sign in on paper until they could get a printout of my number.
After waiting around for a time for the rest of my class to slowly filter in, we settled into the room and started to get to know the teacher. Now, I don't wish ill on anyone, but it was reassuring for me to know that the reason she was teaching and not out working or managing her own salon was that she had been in an accident that damaged some of the nerves in her hand. In addition to her cosmetology license she also holds an esthetician license. This is just as well considering the first “module” we're starting in is skin care.
I had figured the learning order was the same at all times, but as I was about to find out, this wasn't the case. From what I can gather, Empire's curriculum is set up in rotating modules in order to facilitate rolling start dates. If you ask me, that's fairly genius considering the length of the program.
After we went over many lists of information about the school policies, our days off, and our freshman expectations we began to receive our student kits. Getting this was a great way to break up the time spent going over so many policies. Let me just say that this kit is huge and absolutely gorgeous. I could go on and on about everything that it contains, but I feel like it requires its own post with photos to go along with it.
Despite how tedious the introductory lectures were, I can't say I expected to move right into skin care today, but we did. I think this sets the pace and manages to waste no time at all. I'm wasn't really certain if I should be happy, or intimidated by that speed, but it did make me realize that missing one day would be missing a lot of material indeed. In fact, we got so far into the structure of the skin that we even went over to join another class to do a hands-on activity. This was an eye opening experience.
For the bulk of the day up to that point, I had been in a room with quiet attentive adults. What I walked into was a classroom with what I would call unruly children. They were mostly younger, they were rowdy, and they were loud. It was difficult to believe that they were in an adult education situation. If I had joined and ended up in a class like that I would have marched right back over to the office and asked if my class could be changed, or if I could push back my start date. There would be no way that I would pay almost 20,000 be in a classroom like that one.
It looks like this particular school is in the process of going through a lot of positive changes due to its new head of education and they are cracking down on behavior like that. Our teacher was equally taken aback and reinforced to us that, unfortunately, it takes all kinds and that we can only really focus on our own behavior. However, it doesn't look particularly good for the school after all of the emphasis on professionalism, and that is a shame.
I really did enjoy my first day, though and I can't wait to show everyone my kit.
I showered, dressed, gathered my things and, despite still being half asleep, headed off to school. It's lucky for me that I live all of about five miles from the school, because I am not much of a morning person and like to sleep as long as I can. This is especially true when I'm adjusting to a new schedule.
When I arrived and went to clock in on the hand-scanner, I found it impossible to do so without my ID number. You see, the school had provided me with a slip of paper at orientation that had my number on it and I put it in a “safe place.” I should have known better. A “safe place” seems to be a place you put something when you want to hide it from yourself. Because of this, they had me sign in on paper until they could get a printout of my number.
After waiting around for a time for the rest of my class to slowly filter in, we settled into the room and started to get to know the teacher. Now, I don't wish ill on anyone, but it was reassuring for me to know that the reason she was teaching and not out working or managing her own salon was that she had been in an accident that damaged some of the nerves in her hand. In addition to her cosmetology license she also holds an esthetician license. This is just as well considering the first “module” we're starting in is skin care.
I had figured the learning order was the same at all times, but as I was about to find out, this wasn't the case. From what I can gather, Empire's curriculum is set up in rotating modules in order to facilitate rolling start dates. If you ask me, that's fairly genius considering the length of the program.
After we went over many lists of information about the school policies, our days off, and our freshman expectations we began to receive our student kits. Getting this was a great way to break up the time spent going over so many policies. Let me just say that this kit is huge and absolutely gorgeous. I could go on and on about everything that it contains, but I feel like it requires its own post with photos to go along with it.
Despite how tedious the introductory lectures were, I can't say I expected to move right into skin care today, but we did. I think this sets the pace and manages to waste no time at all. I'm wasn't really certain if I should be happy, or intimidated by that speed, but it did make me realize that missing one day would be missing a lot of material indeed. In fact, we got so far into the structure of the skin that we even went over to join another class to do a hands-on activity. This was an eye opening experience.
For the bulk of the day up to that point, I had been in a room with quiet attentive adults. What I walked into was a classroom with what I would call unruly children. They were mostly younger, they were rowdy, and they were loud. It was difficult to believe that they were in an adult education situation. If I had joined and ended up in a class like that I would have marched right back over to the office and asked if my class could be changed, or if I could push back my start date. There would be no way that I would pay almost 20,000 be in a classroom like that one.
It looks like this particular school is in the process of going through a lot of positive changes due to its new head of education and they are cracking down on behavior like that. Our teacher was equally taken aback and reinforced to us that, unfortunately, it takes all kinds and that we can only really focus on our own behavior. However, it doesn't look particularly good for the school after all of the emphasis on professionalism, and that is a shame.
I really did enjoy my first day, though and I can't wait to show everyone my kit.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
NJ and Lilith
Just a short and somewhat personal entry today.
Shortly after the beginning of the month, my mother contacted me to let me know that there was a Lilith Fair tour again this year. It has been about years since this celebration of women in music came around. This made me very, very excited, happy, and nostalgic to say the least.
All concerts aside, this made for a set plan to visit my family at the end of the month. At this point I didn't know that I was about to jump into going to school, much less that my start date would be August 2nd. This knowledge made this visit all the more important.
I've been blessed to have a supportive and loving family all of my life and living far away has been difficult at times. To get to see them before I took on a new course in life was very important to me. The visit made me feel more grounded and attending a concert that my mother and I were regulars at 10 years ago held a lot of meaning to me, now, as an adult.
If you have a supportive family, do what you can to involve them in the steps you are taking to better yourself and give yourself direction. Their support can help you feel more prepared to face the challenges ahead.
Also, I returned home with a new pet, that's a cute fact, but is really neither here nor there. :)
Shortly after the beginning of the month, my mother contacted me to let me know that there was a Lilith Fair tour again this year. It has been about years since this celebration of women in music came around. This made me very, very excited, happy, and nostalgic to say the least.
All concerts aside, this made for a set plan to visit my family at the end of the month. At this point I didn't know that I was about to jump into going to school, much less that my start date would be August 2nd. This knowledge made this visit all the more important.
I've been blessed to have a supportive and loving family all of my life and living far away has been difficult at times. To get to see them before I took on a new course in life was very important to me. The visit made me feel more grounded and attending a concert that my mother and I were regulars at 10 years ago held a lot of meaning to me, now, as an adult.
If you have a supportive family, do what you can to involve them in the steps you are taking to better yourself and give yourself direction. Their support can help you feel more prepared to face the challenges ahead.
Also, I returned home with a new pet, that's a cute fact, but is really neither here nor there. :)
Thursday, July 29, 2010
On Rearranging Your Life
I'm not the neatest person in the world and I never have been. I'm not a complete slob or anything but I'm certainly no Suzy Homemaker. So when it came time to prepare for school I found myself with a daunting task. I wanted to make sure that once my day was monopolized by school, the apartment wouldn't get completely out of control.
I began by rearranging my work room and making sure that I had enough desk space to work at if I had to do any work at home. I also wanted to make certain that I made the most of the floorspace so that chores like sweeping and vacuuming were simple. I sorted through all of my cosmetics and hair products and did away with any that were old, bent, or ugly.
My next step was to go through all of my clothing and get rid of anything that I didn't wear for one reason or another. For some people this isn't imperative, but I've noticed that the clothes I don't wear just end up cycled back into the laundry and rewashed which is a colossal waste of time.
This post is really just to encourage people to be prepared to have a large chunk of time missing from their day. If you don't prepare and you can't depend on anyone else to do chores for you, everything can get away from you very quickly. When that happens to me, I know that I get incredibly overwhelmed and then nothing gets done because I don't know where to begin.
All in all, not a very special update, but it is what I'm spending the remainder of my time doing this week. At least until I head up to NJ to visit my family.
(Next: NJ and Lilith)
I began by rearranging my work room and making sure that I had enough desk space to work at if I had to do any work at home. I also wanted to make certain that I made the most of the floorspace so that chores like sweeping and vacuuming were simple. I sorted through all of my cosmetics and hair products and did away with any that were old, bent, or ugly.
My next step was to go through all of my clothing and get rid of anything that I didn't wear for one reason or another. For some people this isn't imperative, but I've noticed that the clothes I don't wear just end up cycled back into the laundry and rewashed which is a colossal waste of time.
This post is really just to encourage people to be prepared to have a large chunk of time missing from their day. If you don't prepare and you can't depend on anyone else to do chores for you, everything can get away from you very quickly. When that happens to me, I know that I get incredibly overwhelmed and then nothing gets done because I don't know where to begin.
All in all, not a very special update, but it is what I'm spending the remainder of my time doing this week. At least until I head up to NJ to visit my family.
(Next: NJ and Lilith)
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
On Financial Aid & Scholarships
The fact that empire is one of the few schools that accept financial aid is one of the major items that the school has in its favor. None of this would be possible for me if not for that fact. It takes some know how to figure out if you can really afford to attend school, and what concessions you have to make to do so.
At Empire, applying for financial aid was extremely basic. I went home, I filled out the FAFSA (Free Application for Student Aid) at www.fafsa.ed.gov and the school did the rest. About a week later I was called back to the school to look over my EFC (Expected Family Contribution) and my Financial Aid Package.
When the school packages you, they approve you for the maximum amount of government aid, including loans, that you are eligible for. When they do this, it does mean that you are likely to get a disbursement after you start school. This is when the school cuts you a check for any money you have left in your student account after your tuition is paid. Because Empire is an accelerated program, you receive one dispersement at the freshman level and one dispersement at the senior level.
In my case, my EFC was 0 and my disbursements will be in the thousands a piece. Unfortunately, that overage is from the loans and will have to be paid back. In the mean time, it is a great way to meet my bills and living expenses while attending school and possibly repay some of my loan interest ahead of time. I'd go into the nuts and bolts of how this works but I'd rather not bore you. Most of this is very thoroughly covered on the fafsa website.
In my case, about $9,000 of my expenses are fully covered by government grants. This is nice and all, but I was looking for ways to add to the free money that I wouldn’t have to pay back. I think we can all agree that, that's the idea way to go to school; cheaply. To this end I looked into third party grants and scholarships. To my surprise there was quite a number of them available.
The one I happened to locate first was known as the ACE Grant. This is a grant that the AACS (American Association of Cosmetology Schools) provides to accredited schools for students enrolling who demonstrate financial need. This is also a grant that is available to Empire students. However, when I inquired about it at the school, I found that very little was known about it. At this point I took it upon myself to research and locate the paperwork required to apply for the grant (which can be found here). What I found out was that in order to obtain this grant the application required the following:
1. Speak with a working professional and have them interview you.
2. Fill out the application form in full
3. Demonstrate financial need
4. Bring these to your career planning adviser.
What I didn't manage to find out was that an essay was required and that when they said “newly enrolled” they meant that in the sense that the student applying for the grant had to do so on the day that they signed their enrollment paperwork or they were ineligible. Because the staff at Empire were not particularly familiar with this grant, despite it being in their handbook, I missed out. On the plus side I only missed out on $250. Money is money, but in the scheme of tuition, it's piss in the ocean.
For a different school or different location the amount of money provided could be different as well. The AACS provides money to various schools to fund the ACE grant depending on several statistics about the school. The school then distributes that money based on need between 5 students. Just make sure that you ask about it before you enroll if you're interested.
Most of the other available scholarships can be located through the AACS website at http://www.beautyschools.org/index.cfm
The bulk of them are for students who are presently attending school and are halfway through their studies.
You can bet I'll be applying for them.
Next: (On Rearranging Your Life)
At Empire, applying for financial aid was extremely basic. I went home, I filled out the FAFSA (Free Application for Student Aid) at www.fafsa.ed.gov and the school did the rest. About a week later I was called back to the school to look over my EFC (Expected Family Contribution) and my Financial Aid Package.
When the school packages you, they approve you for the maximum amount of government aid, including loans, that you are eligible for. When they do this, it does mean that you are likely to get a disbursement after you start school. This is when the school cuts you a check for any money you have left in your student account after your tuition is paid. Because Empire is an accelerated program, you receive one dispersement at the freshman level and one dispersement at the senior level.
In my case, my EFC was 0 and my disbursements will be in the thousands a piece. Unfortunately, that overage is from the loans and will have to be paid back. In the mean time, it is a great way to meet my bills and living expenses while attending school and possibly repay some of my loan interest ahead of time. I'd go into the nuts and bolts of how this works but I'd rather not bore you. Most of this is very thoroughly covered on the fafsa website.
In my case, about $9,000 of my expenses are fully covered by government grants. This is nice and all, but I was looking for ways to add to the free money that I wouldn’t have to pay back. I think we can all agree that, that's the idea way to go to school; cheaply. To this end I looked into third party grants and scholarships. To my surprise there was quite a number of them available.
The one I happened to locate first was known as the ACE Grant. This is a grant that the AACS (American Association of Cosmetology Schools) provides to accredited schools for students enrolling who demonstrate financial need. This is also a grant that is available to Empire students. However, when I inquired about it at the school, I found that very little was known about it. At this point I took it upon myself to research and locate the paperwork required to apply for the grant (which can be found here). What I found out was that in order to obtain this grant the application required the following:
1. Speak with a working professional and have them interview you.
2. Fill out the application form in full
3. Demonstrate financial need
4. Bring these to your career planning adviser.
What I didn't manage to find out was that an essay was required and that when they said “newly enrolled” they meant that in the sense that the student applying for the grant had to do so on the day that they signed their enrollment paperwork or they were ineligible. Because the staff at Empire were not particularly familiar with this grant, despite it being in their handbook, I missed out. On the plus side I only missed out on $250. Money is money, but in the scheme of tuition, it's piss in the ocean.
For a different school or different location the amount of money provided could be different as well. The AACS provides money to various schools to fund the ACE grant depending on several statistics about the school. The school then distributes that money based on need between 5 students. Just make sure that you ask about it before you enroll if you're interested.
Most of the other available scholarships can be located through the AACS website at http://www.beautyschools.org/index.cfm
The bulk of them are for students who are presently attending school and are halfway through their studies.
You can bet I'll be applying for them.
Next: (On Rearranging Your Life)
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