website revamp

I've revamped my website to better reflect my current interests & my new career. Check it out and tell me what you think!

officially graduated

Tonight I received my diploma from PMTS Woodbridge and officially became "alumni". It still doesn't feel real that I really accomplished this huge goal.

The moment was made all the more sweet because of the presence of my fellow graduates, my friends. How appropriate to celebrate our accomplishment together!!

my last day

Its hard to believe I have ended my official time as a student at Paul Mitchell The School - what a challenging, inspiring, and wonderful adventure it was!

18th Century Hair & Wig Styling

I can't tell you how excited I am about the publication of 18th Century Hair & Wig Styling by Kendra Van Cleve! Not only is Kendra a fabulously talented costumer & wig stylist but she is also a meticulous researcher and clever writer. I've taken several of her excellent 18th century hair and make-up classes at Costume College and I'm so excited to have all that information (and more since she has been doing even more research and styling for this project) at my fingertips in book form. Really it's hard to say what I'm more excited to get my grubby hands on, the over 20 women’s & men’s hair styles demonstrated in the book or the yummy research. Either way this book fills a much needed gap and is sure to become a much referenced and treasured resource.

Of course this project can only happen if she gets enough funding to self-publish this book. She is offering pre-order sales, with discounts and extra goodies but the offers end January 31st 2014. If you are at all interested in hair, wigs and/or the 18th century pre-order while you still can so we can all enjoy the wealth of info Kendra wants to share with us! Because if this project falls through and there is no book I will sit down and weep. A lot.

please don't make me cry.

To pre-order or contribute to the book, go to Indiegogo.

For more info about Kendra & the book, visit the website.

For the lastest updates and more info on the project, like the Facebook page!

now on Facebook!

You can now follow me on Facebook! I will continue to update this blog of course, but "like" The Jennylafleur Page for the most up-to-date news, inspiration & photos of my hair & beauty adventures!

important reminders

Today I was suddenly reminded of the big picture of life and how blessed I truly am.

The petty things I'd been struggling with and so wrapped up in this morning lost all their importance when a young man blacked out, had a seizure and drove his car into the concrete pillar in front of my school this afternoon. His foot was still on the gas when the car was stopped. Luckily no one was hurt (he had cuts and bruises and may have hit the windshield) but if he had been a mere 12" to the left that car would have missed the pillar and come straight through our glass front building, through the front desk, the waiting area and beyond. I was actually walking toward the front door on my way out for break when it happened.

God was very, very good to us yesterday. Very good indeed.

the layered approach

Many apologies for the delay in updating this blog! It has taken me longer than I thought it would to get my feet under me and to get used to this new life of being a cosmetology student. Hopefully this long lapse won't happen again but I make no promises...

When they said it was an accelerated program they really meant it! The fast pace, my personal drive to LEARN ALL THE THINGS and the horrible Metro-DC traffic have left me with little time for a social life and even less time for blogging and my beloved hobby of sewing and costuming. I comfort myself with the mantras "I can do anything for a year" & "Work now so I can play later". Sewing and playing dress-up with be there for me when school is done so for now I'm determined to focus on the task at hand and make the most of my investment at PMTS.

The time is really flying by and in the past 9 weeks I have progressed through the "Core" and "Protégé" phases. As of today I am officially an "Adaptive", meaning that I now spend half my time on the Salon-Clinic floor and half my time in the classroom. Overall I'm really loving school and am so glad I choose this Paul Mitchell School. My classes are interesting, many of my fellow classmates are great people and the more I learn, the more I'm confident that I'm meant to be a cosmetologist. Of course there are things that I don't like about school and things I struggle with but such is life. Overall it's been a good experience so far.

The curriculum's approach has been interesting and honestly not quite what I expected. While there is an emphasis on making the information accessible to many different learning styles there is no escaping that some of the teaching methods used are not the way I personally learn best. That was a little disappointing if fair. The curriculum's basic approach is one of a system of layered information. Basically every subject is on a rotation and as you go on you get more each rotation through. As a "Core Baby" I was basically exposed to all the basic elements of cosmetology, but only getting a basic foundation and taste of each. During the next phase, "Protégé, I learned a bit more about each subject (albeit very condensed since Protégée is only 2.5 weeks long). As an "Adaptive", which I will be for the next few months, I'll learn more as we cycle through and in the last phase "Creative", even more.

I'm the kind of student that likes to reach a certain level of comfort and mastery in one thing before moving on to the next so that has been a struggle. I have often felt a bit lost at sea without a life vest and it's been very uncomfortable at times. Still I've learned some valuable lessons and made some self discoveries through it. Being stretched and tested is never fun but it's a necessary part of life. Without it you can't grow and I certainly don't want to be stagnant - that is not a good way to live at all! So I have started down the path to let go of some of my ODC/perfectionist tendencies, swallow my pride, grow in my faith and be content to accept life as it comes. Oh yeah and I'm learning about cutting, coloring and all that jazz too. I can't say life as a Future Professional is dull, that is for sure!

welcome to Stylin' à la Fleur

With Cosmetology school starting next week there will be all sorts of things I want to share that don't seem to fit on my Costuming Blog, Jennylafleur, so a new home was needed - welcome to my Beauty Blog!

School will eat up a lot of my time in the next 12 months but I'm committed to sharing some of the things I learn along the way, what the cosmetology school experience is like, fun links, product reviews and the historic hair and make-up tutorials I've been promising my costuming friends for years.

The posts behind this one have been re-blogged from my costuming blog. I kept the original posting dates for context, which is why they are so spread out and sporadic, even though this blog actually opens today. But enough of the housekeeping notes - on to some current and original content...

Let the games begin!