Hanna Compton: Week 1!

hanna-0011Whew, well hello everyone. First let me tell you a bit about myself. My name is Hanna Compton and I am 18. Just this week I had my first experiences attending The Cao Institute of Aesthetics, A Paul Mitchell Partner School. The school is absolutely wonderful. It is owned and run by Alee Cao, an amazing hair stylist and educator, who welcomes all his students with love and open arms. He always has a smile and a good word. When I first took my tour of the school I just loved the vibe. The music was pumping, the salon was colorful and clean. The students looked happy with what they were doing, the reception was warm and welcoming. All of that plus Alee and Peggy's kindness got me sprung on going to that school, not to mention that it was a Paul Mitchell school.

My first day was on Tuesday September 8th, and surprisingly I had no jitters or worries about starting at a new school with total strangers. I knew it would be easy to make friends, first because we all share the same interests, at least when it comes to our careers. Also because as Alee put it "we are a family". The class sizes are small, making it very easy to get to know each other quickly. My class has eleven students total, all of whom I have gotten to know and befriended in the one week I have been at the school.

Okay, onto the curriculum. There are three different classes at the school, depending on what level you are at in the program. You start out in Core, which is where I am, then move on to Creative, and finally to Adaptive. Core is purely learning in the classroom, on doll heads, listening to guest speakers, etc. There are activities that are done with the other classes, but you aren't working on guests at all yet. There are also five extra-curricular classes you can get into which are Student Council, Design Team, Take Home Team, Go Green Team, and Phase 2.

We starting learning immediately. Tuesday we went over the rules and regs of the school and basically how things work. Took another tour of the school and met all of our Learning Leaders. Wednesday we had two guest speakers which was really fun. The first was Nadene Bruders, a former instructor at the State Board Exams who, after retiring, made a book called SCORE! which is used to help cosmetology students pass the State Board Exams. It is a booklet and a CD which goes over what your going to have to do at the exam and helps you prepare for it with quizzes just like the one you have to take at the exam. She also talked to us about how to pass with our appearance and other helpful tips. Our second guest speaker was a representative from The Makeup Institute. She showed us some pictures and passed around some magazines we might be interested in about makeup and hair, including American Salon (she has good taste) and then did a demo for us on a student. She showed us some of the makeup her company sells, all of which were fabulous, and gave us catalogs so we could buy it ourselves. Thursday we were in class all day learning. First our teacher went over the culture of Paul Mitchell Schools, which is one of my favorite things. The culture is basically all about positivity, which is something we don't have enough of in this world today. We also went over different learning systems, which was basically to let our teachers know and let us figure out how we learn the best. It's very refreshing compared to high school where they have a cookie cutter system of teaching. At my school the teachers want to get to know you and teach you in the best way that you can learn. We then went over the different face shapes and the best way to cut someone hair so that you can enhance and minimize the features of their face. We also got the doll heads out and learns how to do some braids, which included the Zulu Knot, the Rope Braid, The Bamboo Braid, the French Braid, the Fishtail Braid, and Corn Rows. And last but not least on Thursday we received our amazing makeup kits, furnished by Auraline Beauty. Thursday we worked on braiding some more and went over some general hair information in our books, things like the structure of the hair root and shaft, hair analysis such as density, texture, elasticity, scalp condition, etc. and hair growth. We went over the bone structure of the skull, and read a chapter from Winn Claybaugh's book Be Nice Or Else. Today, on Saturday, we got to go on the floor with doll heads and learn to do Finger Waves and Roller Sets. It was really fun to be on the floor with all the other students and the guests, and some of the more advanced students mentored us on how to shampoo the hair as to not tangle it, how to do the finger waves and roller sets. It was a really fun day that made me excited and anxious to learn more. I'm going to include some pictures of finger waves done by my classmates and I on the doll heads today too. That was all for this week, but it has been and will be an amazing, enlightening adventure and learning experience that I suggest everyone should try. You can never have enough hairstylists!

Until next week,

Hanna Compton <3