Edumacation

Yesterday I attended a cutting class. I know, normally I was the one cutting class, and now I'm deliberately attending a class on cutting.

It's sad to say that over the years of doing hair, I've picked up some bad habits. Some out of shear (ha ha!) laziness, some out of necessity, but bad nonetheless. I tend to have a limp wrist when I cut. I tend to hunch my shoulders. I tend to crane my neck. All bad things. But as the years have worn on, they have become natural to me, and therefore they seem normal.

I was smacked with a terrible reality yesterday. As I stood in line to make sections and cuts on our Mannequins head, my wrist started hurting terribly. When I mentioned this to the instructor, she said I have been doing things wrong for so long, my ergonomics were all screwed up. Makes sense. Luckily it wasn't anything lasting, so I can go back to my lazy limp wristedness today, and things will feel much better.

But I also learned something else at my cutting class yesterday. I have been out of the loop for so long, I forgot how important education is. It's amazing what a little shift in texture here, or a snip at a different angle there will change in the look of a cut. I needed a little refresher course, and I got one. It was fun to see stylists from all ages and experience levels learning new things together. I never thought a beauty school student would ever teach me anything, but some of them really have a lot on the ball, and really know what's up in the hair doin' world.

So now I'm all edumacated. I feel smarter, and I think what I've learned will serve me well. At least until next season.