Confession Time

We've all done it...We've all pretended like we could do something, when we knew we couldn't, just so we could do it. Like when someone asks you, "can you drive a fork lift?" and you can't, but you reply, "yeah". Next thing you know you crashed the fork lift into your house and that same guy is yelling "WHOA WHAT? I thought you said you knew how to drive a fork lift?" and all you can think to say is "Ooooh, you said a fork lift? Nope..." lol.

I've never crashed a fork lift into someone's house, but I did tell Elise Dungan I could cut her a cute a-line haircut when I had not yet learned how. I was still in freshman which is a 6 week course where you are only allowed to practice on a mannequin. So really shame on Elise for asking me to break the rules and give her a haircut. Well it was that exact day that my instructor demonstrated an adorable a-line haircut, and after that weekend we were going to learn it. After watching her do it, and having plenty of a-line haircuts on myself I told Elise I would LOVE to give her one.

She came over and sat on a stool in my kitchen. With her trust, and my husband and her brother sitting by watching, the pressure was on. It started out great and I was feeling confident, but that's because I had only cut the perimeter. When it was time to cut layers my brain was racing back and forth between cutting Elise's hair and the haircut my instructor showed us. It was then that Elise asked how it was going. I laughed and said "Well I forgot to mention that i've never actually done this haircut before, but so far it looks good." Elise laughed nervously and said "Wait, seriously? Do you know what you are doing?" I told her how I had watched my instructor do it earlier and it shouldn't be to hard. I also reminded her that I could do any cut, but I didn't say I could make it cute.

Well as it turns out, it's a hard cut. I ruined her layers. The back of her head looked like I used a cheese grader instead of scissors. She cried, I cried, and the boys laughed. It was the weekend and my school was closed so she couldn't go get it fixed. Her students made fun of her that weekend, but when she wasn't at church a hat made her look really cute. When she finally got it fixed I told her not to mention I did it. For one I wasn't allowed to do hair outside of school yet, and for two I still had a year with those girls and I wasn't about to ruin my reputation. The Sr. girls who fixed her hair laughed and said it was horrible, that was enough punishment.

About two months later Elise came back into my school and I redeemed myself, cutting her the most beautiful a-line haircut ever. Now when she wants something I warn her if I haven't done it yet.

Other than that time I have NEVER ruined someone's hair. I am three months away from graduating my year long program and I have grown so much as a stylist. But last night....I butchered some old ladies layers. First off she had a recent perm that fried her hair and made it so tangly. I spent seven minutes just trying to brush through it. She was in for a weave (high lights) and a trim with some new layers. Well normally she gets low lights (a darker color along with blonde high lights) so she doesn't look platinum blonde. So when she saw the blonde she wasn't a fan. Then I did the trim and that went great.

Her hair was tangled up so much I could barley get a comb through it. As I started doing her layers the tangled mess made me lose my guide. Not wanting to ruin her hair more than I probably just did, I blow dried it and told her I would finish it dry. Well having mirrors everywhere she saw the back of her hair and the "layers" I started to give her and freaked out. It looked worse than Elise's hair. Plus this lady had very long hair, to the middle of her back, and now her shortest layer was barley past her shoulder. Which she had agreed to, but saw it and hated it.

I could not redeem myself on this one, so I got my instructor to finish the cut. Layers normally take about 5-8 minutes to cut. He spent an additional 30 min trying to fix her hair. I could see the look on her face, it was a look of terror because all her long hair was getting chopped off. WHOOPS. What made it worse was that she kept saying things like "It will take me a few days to get used to it, but I guess my husband likes blondes so he might like it." or "oh yeah, I just normally wear it in a pony tail or a side braid now I just don't think I can...it's ok though. It's something new."

I wanted to die. I felt so bad because the appointment had gone so perfect the whole time. And she was such a busy person, this was her relaxing time. She even fell asleep while her color was processing. When she left everyone, but her, loved it and thought it looked fine. I obviously did not get a tip, and I did not deserve one. On the positive side, I'll never see her again and I'm officially on my three day weekend, so who cares!