Final

So last week in relaxers I did well on my written and extremely well on my practicals. This week we started off with another written going over relaxers only for me to come out with a damn 77%. WHAT THE HELL? I dont know if i was just off my game or really just that dumb. But what I do know is that I have a final on Chemical Texture Services Wednesday and yeah.... a 77% is not going to cut it. I am taking a couple days off of here to study and get back on my A game.

Relaxers (this post will be boring)

This past week our focus was on Relaxers. So with your typical relaxer the pH level is extremely alkaline. You have your Thio relaxers which have a pH of 10 or higher and go in and break the disulfide bonds and allow the hair to take a straight form. After the chemical has sat on the hair for allotted time you then go in and neutralize with a Thio neutralizer. There are also hydroxide relaxers which have a pH of  13 or higher. These relaxers can not be used on clients who have previously had thio relaxers as the two chemicals are not compatibale. The hydroxide relaxers are neutralized with an acid based shampoo. Next we have our Japenese Thermal Treatments and Keratin straightening. I dont really recall very much about the japenese thermal treatment as we have learned it in detail yet. But the keratin treatments were considered unsafe as when you put the chimcal in you then used a very high heat straightner to lock in the chemical. The chemical used in keratin treatments has furmaldahyde in it and was first said un safe to use by OSHA. however now salons can use this product if they have an OSHA approved ventilation system.  BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
   I got a 100 percent on my Virgin Application of the Thio Relaxer as well as a 100% on the retouch application finishing the virgin in 30 minutes and the retouch in 25 minutes. I dont have any pictures of either of these sadly. :(

Spiral Perms

So with the spiral perm its the same concept except the base sectioning is different. you do four big sections from the top of the ear over the head to the other top of the ear and then straight down the middle of the scalp. Then make a small section ( measure off the diameter of the rod you are using) straight across the bottom of the nape. and start from right to left. pull hair out and roll it straight up in a spiral motion. Move through the sections all the way to the ear and then move from the left hairline all the way across to the right side of the head. When you get to the top make sure you roll the hair in the way that the client would normally wear their part. Also some teachers recommend you alternate your spiral from left to right every other rod to give it a different texture or look. Here is once that i rolled on a manikin and friend. and let me just say.... it is soo much easier on a real person.

   

Below is the outcome of the manikin. I actually used solution to perm my girlfriend which unfortunately did nothing at all. I think it was  due to the thickness of her hair, i could have used two bottles to fully saturate the hair as well as the fact the she had recently done bleach highlights that may have prevented the solution from working properly.

We can chalk that up to the section of the book " Basic Building Block of Hair" That i didn't read that probably could have prepared me better and helped me understand prior to wasting my time....

that bleached hair is damaged and porous and will not hold a perm. Especially if it was over processed as hers was. But luckily she was a sport about it. Anyway, My manikin head turned out beautifully i think.

My first Practical... Perms!

First of all.......... WHY WOULD YOU START BRAND NEW STUDENTS OUT DOING FREAKING PERMS. THIS SHIT IS HARD!!!!

Shouldn't we have started with learning  how to brush, section, shampoo, condition and blow dry hair? I mean honestly i didn't even know how to hold my comb correctly and they hand me this huge kit with 120 different rods of every color and some little papers and a comb n their like " oh hey here, roll up a perm!" RIDICULOUS~!

 That being said, My teacher is pretty good and she did explain and teach us how to do this perm very well.
So what is a perm anyway? A perm is a type of CHEMICAL TEXTURE SERVICE that adds a wave or curl to the hair. To understand how a perm works, you must first understand that there are 3 layers to each strand of hair.

•  The Cuticle is the exterior layer of the hair. It surrounds the inner layers  and protect the hair from damage.

• The Cortex is the middle layer of hair beneath the cuticle. The cortex is responsible for strength and elasticity of human hair.

     BREAKING THE SIDE BONDS OF THE CORTEX IS WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO CHANGE THE NATURAL WAVE PATTERN OF THE HAIR.

• The Medulla is also known as the pith or core and is the innermost layer of the hair and may be missing in fine hair.

 The next thing you must understand ( which i still don't, I'm just saying... y'all should~ )

 HOW pH WORKS IN TEXTURE SERVICES...

       I'm not going to sit here and pretend like i fully understand it because i don't. Honestly. what i gather is that there is a scale from 0 to 14. Obviously 7 being the middle. The lower numbers on the scale represents the pH being more alcidic and 7 and above being more alkaline. THE NORMAL pH OF HAIR AND SKIN IF 5. Something about how the scale is measuring the quantity of hydrogen ions.

I feel like Channing Tatum in 21 Jump street when he is Ap class and he KNOWS NOTHING and hes like ...." So0o whats this school say about covalent bonds" YEAH! That's me. 

I have always been the type of person that strictly and simply DOES NOT CARE HOW IT WORKS... JUST THAT IT WORKS. PERIOD! Clearly that's not how its gonna go down in cosmetology school because you STRICTLY and SIMPLY  have to know how it works in order to perform it correctly.

   Here's what I understand. Chemical texturizers raise the pH balance to a more alkaline state that softens and swells the hair, breaking through the cuticle to the cortex where reconstruction can begin.

Sadly, there is this whole next section concerning amino acids, peptide bonds, polypeptide chains, keratin proteins, side bonds, disulphide bonds, salt bonds, and hydrogen bonds annnnnnd how it all relates to each other. This is building blocks of hair. I'm sorry. I don't care. I know i need to. But i just don't get it. They want you to know what each one of those words is made up of and how it is broken or bonded to what. And since we learned this section the only word from the above listed that i have ever even heard brought up again is the disulphide bonds. So at a later date,  I will go back and re read this section and probably have to make myself some of those Styrofoam circle things with tooth pics to really understand how it all works. ( what? I'm a visual person..... plus I love arts and crafts and who doesn't like playing with Styrofoam????? ) 
 Now to the good stuff. PERMANENT WAVING is 2 steps.

• First a Physical Change ( being rolled up into rods) and then a 

• Chemical Change ( adding the solution )

  There are several different rods shapes sizes and styles to roll up in which i am not going to get into here. Each one that i learn i will post.
So for a Croquinole Perm we section the hair into 9 parts. From the top of the ear straight over the top of the head to the other ear. And then from the top of the ear around the back of the head to the top of the hair. Leaving you with 3 sections.
 Then starting at the base of the forehead you measure your sections by the length of the rod straight back. BAM now you have your three sections up top. and you do the same for the middle and nape regions. NINE SECTIONS.
 Go back to where you made your first section, decided whether you want your rods ON BASE OFF BASE OR HALF OFF BASE.  ( ask if you don't know cause this thing is getting lengthy and my hands are tired) 
Make your sectioning straight across and only as wide as the diameter of the rod in which you are using.

wet hair, add end wraps, ROLL IT UP! Move straight down the middle section and then to the right side and down left side and down then the left and right front section. It is important to roll it right and roll it tight because however you roll it.... when you add the solution, that is how it is going to come out. I thought about half assing mine and just making it look nice but really it was going to be crappy because it really takes such a long time to do. But i decided to actually do it right.

Okay once it is rolled up, It should look like this...

 So this is the physical change that takes place. Next you add the solution.

which like we said is going in and breaking bonds and junk and raising the pH of the hair to a more alkaline state and is forcing the hair to soften and swell. 

How long you allow the solution to sit on the hair depends on the hair but no mroe than 20 minutes. You rinse for 10 minutes KEEPING THE RODS IN. And then add the neutralizer. YOU MUST ADD NEUTRALIZER. This goes in an repairs the broken bonds locking in the form that the hair has taken due to the rods. let this sit depending on brand and other factors no more than 15 minutes. Rinse thoroughly and remove rods. Towel Blot. DO NOT WASH FOR 3 DAYS OR PERM WILL WASH OUT. ( can you tell im getting lazy... yeah yeah i know. shitty )

 here's the end result though....

The Prologue

I originally had the idea to start this blog in an attempt to keep my sanity through school. As many of you have found I'm sure....

             NO ONE CARES TO HEAR ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED AT SCHOOL.

 Or why this perm did or didn't turn out better than last 12 you did, or how a relaxer works, or how hard your practical test was or the fact that you were graded unfairly......
   So at first i wanted to start this so i felt like i had somewhere to turn to gripe and vent about my days. However, the further i progress in my schooling, I'm realizing that there is no way I'm going to be able to retain all of this information in order to pass my board exam. I have approximately two years in school and 1082 pages of information to remember. I've thought long and hard about it and this blog will now not only be a humorous rant about the on-goings of a cosmetology student but educational as well. I'm going to try to blog every new assignment and the greater points and how to's of it. Not only may this help you or someone you know but i will be able to reflect these and re-teach myself as well in order to be prepared for Board. It's going to be a long hard road and I really am going to try my hardest to keep proper grammar, spelling, punctuation etc.. because i do want to be taken seriously and as we have all seen on facebook a million times....

     Grammar is the difference in knowing YOUR SHIT or knowing YOU'RE SHIT.

But I'm very lazy which will you will learn over the next couple semesters  and sometimes i just don't freaking feel like being grammatically correct. Also i will probably drop a few Eff bombs so reader discretion is advised. If you read and find any of the information i am giving to be wrong or questionable please respond, as well as any tips you have to make the process in which I'm writing about in that specific blog easier or better, please please please provide any tips or help you may have. Thanks so much for stopping in. Let's Go~~!