Swingcopation!!!

     I wish I could say I came up with the word "Swingcopation", but unfortunately, I did not. One of my great friends, Keir, was on the swing team at his school last year, and that was the name of it. Pretty darn awesome, right? I just want to keep saying it! Swingcopation. SWINGcopation! SwingCOpation... OK, I'm done.
      I showed up at Jasmine's to do the finger-waves on her hair. One: they turned out super cute & they stayed in the whole night! Two: We were both matching! Totally not planned at all! Three: We listened to the Doctor Who theme song when we first got on the freeway. I could barely contain myself, and I wasn't even driving. We both felt so hardcore with the windows rolled down, zooming down the freeway, Doctor Who blasting out of the speakers...
     Anyways, BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE! The Duce is such a cute place! All through the night, I kept discovering cute decorations. I feel like it is something you find on Pinterest that you can never copy. Maybe I'm just slightly obsessed with Pinterest... BUT I do not think I have ever had so much fun, much less asked to danced as much as I did tonight! At the very beginning, Jasmine and I would just dance with each other, which was in and of itself so much fun. I guess the men (yes, MEN) noticed our dancing and liked it, because we were both asked almost every single song. Hopefully, I don't sound like I'm bragging or anything.
     All of the guys I danced with were really nice, and so great at swing dancing! Of course, there is always that one creepy guy who you can feel him staring at you the whole time and you just feel creeped out. Then, there is that one cute lil' old man who you have a lot of fun dancing with & talking to. Just like another grandpa! There were three men in particular who stood out to me dance-chemistry-wise. First, there was John, whom I used to be really good friends with back to oh-so glorious high school. My senior year, the ballroom teacher was always going on and on about John, and I have not danced with him in a few years, so I had no idea how pro he is. So, a few months ago, I attended another swing joint called Kat's Korner. I got up the nerve to ask him to dance... Did not end up well. He did not say a word, but I felt like I was doing horrible, thus felt really embarrassed for asking him in the first place. Anyways, he asked me to dance tonight! Quite a shocker to me, but man, I had so much fun dancing with him! Again, he didn't really say anything, so I don't know if he had fun. I certainly did, though!
     Next, there was Morgan. He was taller than me, so that is always a plus. Probably about in his late 20s, I'm not sure, but that does not matter. He was so fun to dance with! He threw some moves at me I was not familiar with, and he was really great at leading, so I didn't feel like I messed up a whole lot. Even then, whenever I'd ask him if I did a move wrong, he did not tell me how I could be better, we would just keep dancing. At one point, he would throw the move at me again, and he told me "You got it!" Later on, my friend, Rebecca, taught the basic move for Balboa. She left to dance, but Morgan came over and helped us get it down! Seriously, super nice man!
     Lastly, Miguel asked Jasmine and I to dance at some point. When he asked me to dance, the song that was playing was this super cool modern swing song. No words can describe it, except it is one of those songs you feel hardcore walking to the beat. Anyways, he told me that was "his song", so I honestly felt pressure. From what I pick out, swing dancers have songs they like to dance to, and they have their own flare they add to it. I was scared he was going to flat out improvise something I had never done before. Does that make sense? He turned out being one of my favorite people to dance with! Yes, he did a few things I had never done, but they were moves that were easy, but SO much fun to do! Turns out, he was possibly just as nervous as I was, because he says he has only been swing dancing a few months! Miguel is definitely going somewhere with swing dancing. I can feel it!
     The whole night was hands down the best night of dancing of my whole dance career. Maybe it was because I was having really bad dance withdrawals beforehand. Either way, it felt great to dance the night away, especially with Jasmine. I wish we would have another chance to go dancing before she leaves on her mission. We will definitely rock the Duce once again when we are both home!

   

Tutorial for Swing Dance Hair! (French twist)

     So, tonight, my best friend, Jasmine, & I are attending a swing dance place called "The Duce". Neither of us have personally been there before, but one of my other friends is a regular, and she highly recommends going there. I don't know about Jasmine, but I am super de-duper stoked! We are going full out with our outfits (Possibly make-up, including red lipstick. Blech) AND hair! I'll be doing finger waves on her naturally curly, pixie cut hair! Finger waves are super hard, much less hard for me to teach, but here is a tutorial with both pictures & videos. I hope you learn something!
Tools: Curling iron, brush, teasing brush, tail comb (I ended up not using it), hairspray, heat protection, hairpins, bobby pins, duckbill clips.

Left to Right: Hairpin, bobby pin, & duckbill clip. Just for a reference :)

Step 1: Arm your hair with heat protection! Now, I have not experimented with different heat protections, but I have been using Rusk Thermal Protection. I have used it every time I curled or straightened my hair since October (?) & look how much I have! You really don't have to use much, and I have oodles of hair!

Step 2: Curl your hair in alternating directions. You can do this however you want, but I like alternating the curl direction layer by layer. Like this:

The direction of the hair in the left picture is counterclockwise, going towards the left shoulder, etc. The next layer, shown on the right, is clockwise, going towards the right shoulder. Make sense?

Oh, in case you wanted to know, this is how I curl the hair. Of course, you can do whatever you want. :) 

 Here is the finished product:

Step 3: Sectioning off the hair on the very top, tease the hair in vertical sections. Depending on how much hair you have, how much volume you want, etc. take bigger or smaller sections. Since I have a lot of hair, and I want a good amount of volume, I teased medium-sized sections. *I took the whole section in front of the ears and teased the whole thing from behind*

Step 4: Smooth the hair on one side by loosely brushing the hair with a hairbrush. I would not recommend using brushes with plastic bristles; boar and/or nylon would work better. Hairspray to tame the fuzz.

Step 5: Using bobby pins, pin the hair going straight up, making sure you get ALL of the hair. this will make it easier to do the twist part. As you can see, it is not perfectly straight. *If you smoothed the hair to the left, make sure to put the bobby pins off-center to the left. It just works better this way trust me :) *

Step 6: Smooth the hair on the other side. If you have the bobby pins in well, they should not fall out. Plus. only brush to smooth, not remove the tangles! Hairspray.

Step 7: Roll the hair up! Step 8: Cross the bobby pins with hair pins! Put it in pointing to the head, then turn the hair pin towards the bobby pin. Trust me, it really secures the hair, especially ridiculously thick hair like mine! 

Step 9: Do the bangs! Now, you can totally do whatever you want! Braid them, leave them be, poof them back, the choice is yours! I wanted to add a more vintage feel to the style, so I twisted my bangs back, pinned them, then with the remaining hair, I twisted it to the point it was raveling around itself, and pinned/hair-sprayed that. :)

Step 10: "But Mary, what about the rest of the hair?" Again, you may do whatever your heart desires! I put the remaining hair in a loose ponytail right above the twist, teased tiny sections, and placed them around. Oh, to hide that "line" between the twist part and the top part, I left out some hair and pulled them back between the bun and the twist. 

Finished Product!

I accessorized with a feather! Isn't it cute???

Stay tuned!!!

Done With Beauty School! (...Now What?)

Hello!
     It has been a long time... Over a year, to be precise. There are few ways I can let off some steam. The best outlet for me is dancing, and dancing well. Another is anything cosmetology related. Creating up-dos, cutting people's hair, pampering people with facials, you name it. I feel so much better after serving someone and they appreciate what I do for them. The one thing I hardly ever turn to is writing it all out. In fact, when you feel anything strong, whether it is anger, sadness, joy, or excitement, most people encourage to write it all down. Seeing I do not enjoy writing by hand, I decide to revive my blog, and post pictures, goals, thoughts, etc. So, without further ado, here I go...
     Beauty school was a fun, yet dramatic, yet super challenging ride. I got sick of it; I almost quit. Yet one day, something changed inside of me, and I started thinking more of what the client wants instead of what I wanted at the time. (Which was to just sit and play with my mannequin.) Slowly, but surely, I feel like I improved and started doing various haircuts all by myself. The one time I did a color without an instructor there for the consultation, the formula was off, the client was not happy, and I beat myself up about it all the time. To this day, it is hard for me to automatically accept that nobody can just pick up anything and do it perfectly right away. I am grateful for everything I learned in beauty school. I wish I figured all of this out earlier and learned even more. You know what? There are ALWAYS more opportunities to learn, but you cannot sit around and wait for it to come. Get up, seek opportunities yourself!

      What have I done since I have come home?
     I applied for working at the Tantrum Salon! I am hoping I get this job, because I need the money, I am excited to learn more than the basics, and the salon itself is ADORABLE. It looks like a cute cottage tucked in a magical forest... in the middle of the city. The salon will be a nice haven, and learning/working environment. Plus, if my work hours will allow it, I may most likely have a nanny job in the mornings Tuesday-Friday for one of my most favorite families ever! Their children are so adorable, and well behaved. I just love them to death!
     My big brother left for his mission to Chihuahua, Mexico yesterday... I feel part of myself left with him. We are super close, and although this sounds a bit strange, I feel he took the role of father for me personally. As in, he is the main man of my life. Since my dad passed away, there is this gap in my life. When Deborah came home from her mission, I was happy yet sad. We were all united again, but at the same time, we are not. Yes, it was stressful dealing with my dad's depression. It got really hard, to the point I wanted to be away and dance my worries away, and have them stay that way. You cannot wish your worries away, and you definitely cannot run away from them. Stop, stand tall, arm yourself with prayer, and turn around. Heavenly Father does not throw things your way you cannot handle. Have faith. You can do anything.
     The final subject I would like to expound upon: I miss dancing so much. I honestly do not remember the last time I danced and truly felt great about it. I feel my technique has gone downhill. I am dying to learn more. I am dying to find a partner I have great dance chemistry with. This partner I speak about does not need to be a boyfriend, just a good friend. My last dance partner is kind of serving his mission. If you are familiar with the song "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone", yes, that is how I feel. Dancing is not the same without him, much less any of my guyfriends from the good Swing Club days in high school. I cannot look back, I can only look forward at this point.