I has a Hair Stylist and Salon Manager for 7 years until my husband joined the Army and I had to find other things to do. Stupid state to state licensing and various requirements for each one, combined with continuing ED hours and frequent moves... I may get back into it now that he's out and we're stabilized.
Worked in a warehouse for a time as an order auditor... worked great with my OCD and I lost like 25 pounds from all the walking.
Worked in a hardware store where old men would treat me like I was a silly girl that didn't know anything. That was amusing.
Then did order processing for Home Depot accounts for Granite counter tops. Learned a lot. It's expensive and damages easy. I enjoyed that job but husband needed me home.
So, now I clean houses for side cash. Thinking about making it an actual business, we'll see. Specializing in empty home total clean outs and scrubbing. Not a fan of weekly spot cleaning, I can do that at home. One house a week pays more than a part time job would and I'm gone less. Works out well.
Being an Army wife was like having a job only with no pay. Between the expected obligations and keeping him together, it was full time. I could unpack a house and make it look like we've been there for years in 3 days!
Really though, still trying to find my "calling" that utilizes all my strong points and that I enjoy. Doing hair was close, creative, technical, social, color was my best service. I could make anything happen. Natural or completely punk, corrective, or closely scheduled routine maintenance without frying the hair. Or strip out burgundy to return the hair to a pretty, natural looking blonde without damaging it too bad. Took 2 days, cost $600, but it turned out AMAZING. You never saw a prettier blonde. Cost so much because it took every bit of 2 days and her hair was super thick and past her bra strap. Everyone said I wouldn't get it even. There's a trick to that! And I know what it is.
One time this guy came in, and said "I'll give you a $50 tip if you can make my hair blue with true white hi-lites". Easy, have a seat! If you take yellow, and tone with blue, you get white. Depending on the shades. I took his whole head of hair to yellow. Started out a medium brown. Pinched off the pieces to be white, wrapped in foil to protect them until the rinse. Applied the blue. Processed, partially rinsed. Applied shampoo, made a blue lather. Removed foil balls, worked lather through, rinsed thoroughly, shampooed again, and dried. The result, a striking blue with stark white hi-lites because of the toning action of the blue suds on the yellow.
The trick is knowing how much yellow to leave in the hair. When you bleach, you need to go past orange and stop it as soon as you see yellow. If you go too long, the blue won't have any effect. Color works with the natural pigments, and each level of change during the bleaching process removes that natural pigment.
Where most people mess up, is going too long. Going to the desired white through bleach alone without toning. So, when you wash out the blue, the white hair turns blue as well, since you left no pigment to cancel it out. Actually, it will turn a more silver/gray sort of color. Timing is crucial, the longer the blue has contact with the yellow, the more blue that will take effect. Thus the reason the rest of his head turned blue. It had 20 minutes of full undiluted processing. The blue suds were diluted, and left only a moment.
The white then gets "refreshed" every time he washed his hair until the blue faded out. Really a neat process.
My brother had a foot long mohawk, and with the color I did, when he fanned it up, it looked like his head was on fire. Dark roots left natural, fading to a dark red, to a true red, to orange, light orange, and then almost white on the ends.
There was a dancer that wanted a flash of color when she flipped her hair on stage. (that's another thing, you never know who is going to come into the salon!) She was a brunette. So, I took her to blonde with mixed in hi-lites. Usually you're spacing them apart, fewer on the bottom, getting lighter and lighter towards the top. I reversed it, so that it was darker and more natural on the top, going lighter and lighter until at the nape of her neck it was really blonde. Then I took a one inch tall and 8 inch across section right across the back of her head where most of the blonde was, and made that fire engine red. The result, beautiful brown hair with blonde hi-lites mixed in, until she flipped her head around and flash of red would show. Combine that with a creative cut, and you didn't see the red at all under normal wear. (unless it was in a pony tail)
I also dabble with metal by making trellises, shepherd hooks, plant baskets, topiaries, and anything else I can think of..
