CUT: Shattered Graduation, Toni&Guy Classic Cuts. I hear this collection is available in a book, and on DVDs. Maybe they're sold together. Not my job.
STYLING: Bumble & Bumble Prep and Styling Lotion (love both). Finger-dried at the roots,get a good grip on the root and pull it against the hair's natural pattern where you want volume or movement, and with the pattern where you don't (this saves so much time). I used a flat brush to move the hair from side to side in the back, and then just curled it under slightly with the brush (leafing) in the front, brushed and dried upwards on the top. Moving the hair side to side in the back along the head shape gives it a perfect amount of curve under the head and lays perfect on the neck.
Every week, sometime every other week, Phillip (Owner and top stylist) made all the New Talent (new stylists and assistants) get a model with straight hair willing to do the haircut he'd chosen for us out of the Toni&Guy "Collection Cuts".
This week (8/13/09) I remember I had no model right down to a half hour before class. I went across the street to the only place where I could hunt someone out, the grocery store downtown. The only grocery store downtown.
In the cereal aisle I passed Elizabeth, who was seriously analyzing the ingredients of something healthy looking. I actually think I walked away and came back and circled her again. I figured the only way to propose something like this on such short notice was to just say it.
"Hey, I'm Gunnar, I'm a stylist across the street at Altamoda. Anyway, I need a model for this class at the salon in like 20 minutes and you just happen to have the perfect length and type of hair I need. Can I get you to be my model?"
I showed her a picture of the cut, and of course she hesitated for a minute or maybe just over. Like 80 seconds. I was playing it super cool, but approaching people in the street... Well, I mean, I've done it. Just, never sober. I was desperate for her yes, and I got it.
The cut was an amazing variation of a traditional haircut. In school things were kept simple, but here I was learning to bend all the rules and make your own haircuts. And being with all these people, my age, learning their own version of what I was learning. I got to see 4 people do this haircut in a different way. These classes became priceless to me.
Elizabeth and I lost touch for a while. Then, she came into the salon on a Saturday a few months ago and had just gotten an awesome promotion. She was moving to Dallas, Texas wanted me to do her hair one more time (some awesome red highlights on a really dark red-brown, almost black, actually.)
I met Elizabeth only a couple weeks after I got my license. I'm not sure if she noticed, but that night I had the time of my life. Learning a new part of this craft I perform with my hands. Meeting someone so special in an experience that was part of my job.
What I needed more than a model that night, was to meet someone who saw the world I did. Elizabeth was a smart and hard-working, beautiful woman in a city where many women I met aimed for a husband instead of a career.
Gunnar
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