Coffee…. in researching trends we came to notice that premium coffee is really trending right now. It seems, from first research that the advantage is the caffeine in the coffee bean, especially when it is blended with herbal extracts that have been identified as having the ability to draw out impurities, firm and tone the skin, may temporarily help smooth out that unsightly “dimpling” effect of cellulite. It forms on the skin of many women (and not so much for men, but some none the less) and seems to be uneffected by either exercise or diet, with regard to lessening the condition.

Coffee grounds tout antioxidants that protect you from free radicals, so cell damage is lessened. The antioxidants in coffee grounds make beauty products that are beneficial and affordable and caffeinated coffee functions as 1.astringent, 2.antioxidant, 3.detoxifier, and 4.exfoliant. Finely ground coffee as exfoliant gently smoothes away dry, dead skin cells.  Also, the action supports improved circulation and temporarily reduces the appearance of dimpled skin. The caffeine in coffee grounds constricts blood vessels, and can lend to a tighter, firmer, smoother appearance to skin.

So it appears that, although no cellulite cream eliminates it, and no product has a complete solution, creams and topicals with caffeine can give cellulite effected skin a better appearance, so….

COFFEE, it’s not just for breakfast anymore!

And if you, or any of our beauty school grads, have a coffee treatment that you have tried and liked, let us know….comments welcome below!

We think of chemicals as an accepted part of the beautician’s job but that doesn’t mean we need to damage health from it…

We all know that there are chemicals and processes we use, in the salon, that can indeed effect health. And not only our clients health but the beautician as well. And when you think about it, it isn’t just a salon, but from Indiana to Florida and coast to coast, any public place has hazzards that need attention in order to lessen public danger.

First, a salon has people coming in and out and all those people bring all those germs… all flus and viruses get transmitted one to another, and bacteria can collect and flourish anywhere. In fact, the one place everyone seems to meet and “shake hands” is in touching a doornob or door handle. Hand after hand and cough after cough, germs collect and get passed around quite easily.

Invest in a sanitizer disinfectant, the kind we now find at the big box stores readily available near the entrance. It is offered to wipe down and disinfect the bar on the shopping carts to make sure we don’t take home something from our shopping spree that we weren’t actually shopping for. Have it readily available at areas around your shop, or if it seems to be visually negative, suggesting that the area is slightly threatening, then at least use it yourself on a regular basis.

Also, wipe down the door handles and chair arms where people tend to put hands all the time. Make sure the restroom handle is wiped as well as disinfected and kept clean inside. Your clients spend an hour at a time in your salon, but you will come into contact with nearly everyone that comes in, so it pays to take care in that area.

And what about chemicals? So many airborne chemicals are unhealthy to breathe, and since they evaporate into the air, they end up being a real health problem. Ventilation is important but often not enough, what with all the dyes, fragrances, hair spray, polish, hardeners, adhesives and what ever else you use in the accomplishment of your task.

Air conditioning will help and it is vital to have constant air circulation, changing out the fumes for fresh air. An air purifier can help too, in fact some are really efficient. Some air filters are double equiped to filter particles out of the air, and can remove chemicals and odors quite nicely. They are referred to as “particle arresting” air filters and are designed specifically for areas such as your salon. It’s worth the trouble to protect the health of everyone in your salon.

You may wonder how a shampoo technician could possibly need beauty school. After all, you’ve been shampooing your own hair for years! Yet, only the largest salons hire shampoo technicians, meaning employment opportunities can be extremely limited for those without any formal training.

Beauty training courses for shampoo technicians actually cover a lot of material, including:

•Chemistry
•Cosmetology theory
•Hair treatments and manipulations
•Safety and sanitation
•Scalp and skin
•Styling
•Working with artificial hair
Upon completion, some programs present you with a Shampoo Technician Certificate, while others award a diploma.

Work as a Shampoo Technician While Attending Beauty School
Want a serious advantage over the competition for the top cosmetology jobs? Working as a shampoo technician gives you intimate access to experienced hair stylists, a rare treat at some of the top salons in the country. You can observe their techniques and manners up close while you do your job and earn a salary.

To get started, earning your online high school diploma is a great first step if that is an option that works for you.  It is recommended that you first attend school to get your own certificate, since these programs typically only last a few weeks to a few months. You don’t need a license to get a job in this field. You can impress employers with your formal training and all the skills you learned in beauty school, and start working at an exclusive salon or spa. Keep that job while attending beauty school to advance in your career as a hair stylist or cosmetologist, and you already have a foot in the door upon graduation. Even if that particular elite salon isn’t hiring, you’ll have made important connections in the industry.

Shampoo Technician Salaries and Job Prospects
The average shampoo technician earns $18,300 annually, which can certainly help you pay tuition at one of the top beauty schools should you choose to advance your career and increase your employment opportunities.

Some states pay even higher wages. For instance, in Washington D.C., shampoo technicians earn an average annual wage of $22,160, in Nevada they earn $21,080, and in Tennessee they earn $20,900.

Only 29,000 shampooers worked in the U.S. as of 2006, compared to 617,000 hairstylists, hair dressers, and cosmetologists. Employment for shampooers is expected to grow 13% by 2016, however, bringing that number up to 33,000 and creating excellent job prospects for you.

How many times have you moved in the last ten years? Relocation creates obstacles for many military spouses and they have a hard time  developing their own professional career.  But, Beauty school offers a real opportunity in that direction. –it can great for you and your spouse.

Cosmetology School Options and Military Spouses

Education requirements vary depending on the state guidelines, so cosmetologists may need to take classes and earn extra experience hours to meet the new state's requirements. Some states, such as California, require enough hours to meet most other states' reciprocity requirements. If someone moved from a location like California, to New York, that person will already have enough hours to meet the requirements in New York. And that my well be the case in many places, so licensing is a small hurdle, indeed. So, cosmetology school is a great option for military spouses who want to work in a creative, fashion-forward industry.

A place called Bellus Academy is reputed to provide a course for international certification through what is called ITEC. Now that is truly useful for military spouses (and anyone else who may have the travel bug urging them onward)!  ITEC is an international examination board, and ITEC certification allows cosmetologists to work in more than 30 countries. This certainly provides more options for military families when transferred out of the country.

Job Placement is another benefit of beauty school for military spouses. Schools that are members of the American Association of Cosmetology Schools, can tap into that network and help relocating students find jobs. 

Military Education Benefits for Military Spouses
Military spouses can receive financial assistance for training and education for portable-career opportunities through Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts (MyCAAs). Cosponsored by the Department of Defense and the Department of Labor to help active duty spouses develop portable careers, a MyCAA pays up to $6000 of education expenses, including tuition, books, fees, tools and equipment, and licensing fees.

There also are scholarships for military spouses and qualifying service members enrolled in the Post-9/11 GI Bill program can transfer their educational benefits to their spouses.

Family-Minded Military Spouses
One of the biggest benefits of a cosmetology license for military spouses is the flexibility for spouses who plan to start a family. "There are MyCAAs, scholarships, and GI Bill financing available to spouses, and it's a career that can transfer almost anywhere," says Lynelle. "But one of the biggest benefits is flexibility, and not just in relocating. Military spouses who want to start a family can make their own hours and just work part time. This is one of the few industries where that's possible."

It shouldn't feel guilty to be beautiful..

Okay, this one is for everyone, experienced cosmetologist and beauty school student as well. It may surprise you to make the connection between energy conservation and buying "at home".

DO you know what the difference is between made in USA and made in China?  The answer is: a whole lot of tons of fossil fuel!

Most cosmetics are made in china and so we have them shipped to us here in the states. That really adds up to a lot of fuel consumption, so to choose "made in the USA" is not only supporting our own businesses in this country, helping our own economy, but also saving the earth by lessening the use of fossil fuels.

It's easy to accomplish this one, just check the "made by" labels on your cosmetics before purchase, and by those made on American soil. There are just as many cosmetics and color schemes available in products made here at home as out overseas, so support businesses making cosmetics here in the United States.

Cosmetology professionals and beauty school grads, and we don't mean only here in Indiana or the Chicago area, but everywhere nationwide, can do their part as far as conserving electric is concerned. One way to do that is to opt for energy efficient hot tools.

Did you know that ceramic blow dryers use less electricity? ANd because they use less, they waste less. And did you know that using a ceramic dryer emits negative ions? That in itself has the effect of smoothing out the positive ions, which serves to eliminate frizz and fly away hair.

SO if you really depend on your hot tools to style hair, at least switch away from that standard coil heating dryer and reduce the strain and drain on the electric! And don't just throw out your old blow dryers, search for places to turn them in to recycle the aluminum, steel and plastics that they are made from. 

SO now we graduated cosmetology school and, yes, beauticians too, have all done our part for the earth, from reusable mugs to canvas grocery shopping bags to hanging our laundry out to dry (well, not the steamy loungerie stuff but shirts and jeans and towels, etc, you know the drill)

But what about our beauty products… well, forget how many nasty chemicals there are, we really just want them to WORK!

But it really is possible to dazzle, to de-frizz, to glow, and to be eco-conscious at the same time. There really are some things that make a huge difference..

First tip…what about that packaging! It does matter, and some companies go out of their way to use recycled materials. Once you find good eco-friendly packaging, check for less toxic ingredients in your products. Also, look for recyclable bottles. There are other ways to make plastic, like using sugarcane derivatives, which uses somewhere around 70 percent less fossil fuel and emits 170 percent less greenhouse gasses. Little changes mean a lot, so even efforts like choice of bottle, can reduce your carbon footprint and make your "glow" so much more "naturally" beautiful.

Okay, so Suzie wanders into the salon and plumps down in the chair and…

She says: "I hate my hair, it's just too flat, I just don't want to cut it."
Beautician thinks: "Oh no, how on Earth am I going to do this one…"

Here's the secret to that… hair that moves looks full and airy, but what makes hair look so flat and heavy is lack of movement. So if hair needs to move, it is the weight of your hair that will matter.

So what do you do if you don't want to shorten hair? What the hairstylist in Suzie's case suggested was to take layers off inside instead of off the length, and she kept the length long on the bottom layers. And she also hooked her up with a volumizing shampoo and other styling products that added some volume.

The point was to present the problem and have a solution offered. Suzie's hair looked great, she felt like a new person and she sent two customers her hairdressers way. Moral of the story is, reach a little farther for solutions for your client, because one haircut in hand is worth two more in your chair…

If you attend beauty school, either here in Indiana or anywhere, or are a cosmetology school graduate in the industry anywhere from New York to Chicago to LA, here are some valuable thoughts to keep in mind that apply to all, continued from the same previous blogpost of Salon-ese Lesson 1…

Same girlfriend, different day (my pal Suzie is always a topic, maybe because she lives in the fastlane and comes across "situations" so much faster than others) and she got the v-shaped cut she wanted and now wants some color.

She says: "Get the red out."
Hairstylist thought: "You don't want any warmth."

Well, what she thought was red or orange was simply the warmth of the color. And of course, we all can recall hair with too much warmth, as it definitly looked brassy. But some warmth is better and more natural looking than none at all and unless you are really in love with ashy or cool shades, that is what you will end up with if you try to "get that red out."  Those shades aren't natural looking on everyone and often are not flattering, so the first thing to consider is your skin tone.

And that is what Suzie's beautician did, suggested shades that were recommended for her skin tone and opened up the conversation about how much red is too much. So keep in mind that there are lowlights to darken instead of heighten the color in your hair, and also toner to tone down the red with out removing it all.

So keep in mind that discussion is best, and be open to suggestion if it seems based on good objectives.

Whether here in a beauty school salon in Indiana, Chicagoland cosmetology centers, or coast to coast at spa schools nationwide, you have to admit that there is no place where you need to speak the same language as in your hairstylists chair.

Common sense, you say! Nay, I do not agree… like my girlfriend who got distracted one day and asked her cosmetologist and hairstylist friend for an "inverted cut", when what she wanted was her hair flowing down into a v-shape mid-back.  That would be a regular kind of v-shaped cut, but what with the new boyfriend, her mother in town, the dress she still had to get for the class re-union… and of course then add to that the tragedy of a hairstyle gone very, very wrong… what a week that would have been!

My friend was lucky, since it had been that her hairstylist had a client back when she was in beauty school that had a habit of expecting her stylist to read minds… she forever after double checked with her customer. Instead of getting the bob that was shorter in back than the front, she managed to end up with what she wanted because the hairdresser checked twice and asked for clarification!

So what you think you are saying to your hairdresser, and if you are a hairstylist, what your customer is saying to you…. may not be what you are hearing. Miscommunications happen more than you think and it can happen to you

Best advice… bring a picture!