Celebrity part Deux

I held my tongue when one of the first quarter students last quarter bowled me over with her (HER) striking resemblance to Samuel L. Jackson. If Samuel L Jackson plastered his hair to his forehead with enough gel to form a protective helmet, youd be hard pressed to tell them apart. But I have to break my silence as there seems to be a disturbing trend of female cosmetology students resembling large and remarkably masculine actors. I looked around the small crowded room the first day back, taking stock of who was still there, who was back and who had gone missing. Paris, the froggy crack-starlet who left and tried to go to some school closer to her Auburn homestead has returned. So has Jamaa, Ruby and Nathan's friend from my class, who left after annoying troubles with financial aid, she has to go back to third quarter instead of staying with our class. VON and LAURIE the special twelvesteppers from the second quarter class have held on and are beginning their time on the floor (be afraid, be very afraid.) Tamara, Abena, Camille, Ms Dolores, Lourdes the mexican girl who hates me, Benicio del Toro....BENICIO DEL TORO??????? You heard me. There is a woman, with long purple acrylic nails, and a terrible quickweave who looks EXACTLY, unnervingly, distractingly, like Benicio del Toro. I cant look at her. When ever I do, i cant tear my eyes away. For the first few days I didnt say anything. Then, since Abena was the only one I said anything about the Samuel L Jackson woman to, I pulled her aside and told her about Benicio. She was confused for a moment and then this look of amazement came over her face. Ive told one or two other people about it and they cant argue with me. Its absolutely incredible. I will make it my lifes work this quarter to get pictures. I dont care if I have to get a camera tie a la austin powers, you guys HAVE to see this to believe it.
This week was alright. It had some ups and downs. I had a woman with really short overprocessed hair who wanted tight marcel curls and i really couldnt do it, especially not as fast as she wanted to get out of there, so I had to have ms V finish it. I gave a couple of Mom's friends some good cuts, then cut moms hair which is the hardest head of hair Ive ever worked on in my life. Its like three heads in one, three coarse and obstinate inconsistantly wavy heads. It looked cute at the end but it was SO EXHAUSTING, and I needed a lot of help. I kept getting lost in it. On wed afternoon, I went up to the desk to see what my thursday was going to look like. Camille, who was working the front desk said "oh, I booked you a haircut in the afternoon, i can take it if you cant but she specified that she didnt want an asian person to do her hair and youre so good with the crazies..." Great. I have a rep for being good with the crazies, so anyone weird gets automatically referred to me. So I ask the woman's name; Irene Jew. Of course. Camille was like " she might not be Jewish, it could just be her name!" I didnt think that was too likely, why would anyone have the burden of the name Jew if they werent of the chosen people? I resigned myself to having someone effectively cut her own hair using my hands and complain incessantly about asian drivers or people who have the nerve to come here and not learn english. Imagine my suprise at two when I called her name in the waiting room and a blind chinese woman got out of her seat and moved towards the sound of my voice. At first I was nervous. But she was amazing. She can see shapes, and though she is deaf in her right ear from years of working as a Boeing Machinist she hears decently from her left one and is sharp as a tack. She knew exactly what she wanted done, she had let her hair grow all winter since it was warmer and she wanted it cut a lot shorter. She knew all the terms, she had had a hairstylist tell her how to say what she wanted so she asked for layers, tapered at the nape and fringe. Her hair was snow white and coarse like piano wire, and it grew in a strong pinwheel whorl in the back. I adapted to talking into her ear, guiding her at my elbow to and from the shampoo bowls and taking her gnarled and tiny hands up to her hair to check the length (which I had to recut to make it short enough.) She told me stories about being born on a ship from china just over the us line making her a citizen while her brother remained chinese as he was born on the chinese side of the waters. Mostly she told me recipies. Steamed fish braised in oil and green onions, tofu soup, zucchini, and long beans. All with a close eye on bargain ingredients. She gave me her phone number and permission to call her anytime and she would tell me how to make any chinese food. She was very concerned with people who ate too late at night, supposed to be bad for the heart. Her son came to pick her up. He was beautiful and looked like he might be homeless. He complemented me in a staccato nervous way and said his moms hair looked great and that he might come in for a cut soon. I told him he should, and Id look forward to seeing him. Then I walked back to my station and cried. I wish you had seen them, standing in the wind waiting for their cab. During a haircut you get this little snapshot of someones life and sometimes its exihilerating and sometimes tragic, even if theyre not sad or their life isnt tragic that vision of the human condition can be an emotional experience. Its funny because I know people have had that experience with me, through my conversation or even just energy vibration during massage appts, haircuts, doctors visits, laser hair removal. Pay attention next time you have some kind of appointment like that, how your mood expression or life condition at the time effects that person who is taking care of you. Its pretty amazing, I wonder how Ive affected their days long after I left their physical presence. It can be very profound.
So yeah, the hair show was good. I guess. I learned that I dont love hair shows. Theyre gay, and corny as hell. Its really a trade show, everyone is trying to sell something and that means they have to out-glitz each other, which makes for a glitz-a-thon of staggering proportions. Everyone has a headset mic on, its a goddam din in there. You cant hear one person over the others, especially since the center stage show is playing wack gay club music as they cut hair with ludicrous speed and drama, creating some of the least wearable hairstyles ive ever seen. I like the classroom pace a little more, although if the classes were more hands on, like on a manniquin head or something, I think I would learn a lot more. Its like, yeah, great, you do that really well and im sure if I tried it at home it would look like a suck and cut job.
We watched a class with Madrid, a black haircare guru out of Arizona who gave Shi'lana a rediculous orange and yellow weave with an asymmetrical cut that didnt fit her face or her style at all. His daughter did a beautiful flat twist updo on Abena's mom, who looks about 32, but used a funny yellow color of hair that I wouldnt have chosen unless I couldnt afford anything else. Madrid is a charismatic speaker and a pretty good educator, he knows his stuff and if he would skip the low budget dance music in the background of his videos, I might have bought them and learned quite a bit.
We got our schedules for our externships which start at the end of this month!! I will be at Robert Leonard two days a week starting on the 27th. I will have to give up some of my clients, or fit them in at home but I am so excited to not be in that school every day and to have some new teachers and new techniques that it will be worth it.
I guess Ms A, my friday rollerset regular, went to hong kong with her disgustingly rich, white, pacemaker having, suitor. I cant wait to hear about it!