Hair, hair, everywhere!

Aloha ladies and germs~

I'm not particularly proud of my inconsistent blogging right now.  I have so much stuff to share with you guys but I'm pretty busy.  It's hard to admit but blogging consistently is pretty difficult to do when I have such a small audience.  I wonder sometimes how many people this little blog actually reaches.  There's a little voice inside me that's kicking my butt to continue taking pictures and writing posts so I just have to keep on trucking.

In any case, I want to share with you some of the things I've been doing.  I've done a few shows in the past month but it's a process waiting for pictures to come in.  I've been doing a bit of hairstyling though and I have some pictures from the days I actually remember to bring my camera AND take pictures.

I cut and blew out a friend's hair at the salon last week.  I ran after her with my camera as she left the salon because I forgot to take a picture while she was actually sitting in my chair.  That's the wind beating up the curls and blowing them off to the side, so no, my haircut symmetry was not off.

I also partnered up with Laly Designs and MUA Kristine Rose to do hairstyling during their Fashion Friday nights.  It's a weekly event where people come to The Station in San Francisco for free wine, free makeup and hairstyling, and to shop for clothes.  If you're in the bay area, feel free to swing by Fridays at 6pm!

Here are some of the styles I did.  Seems like most women just want to keep it simple.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post.  Let me know if you'd like to see more hairstyling posts!

CosmoProf 2013 Spring Style Show (Super picture heavy!)

Hello everybody!  Last weekend I attended a huge hair show hosted by CosmoProf, which is a wholesale supplier for licensed hairstylists, nail technicians, and estheticians.  Because of work and other little things, I was deeply disappointed that I couldn't stay as long as I wanted to.  I had been looking forward to this show all year, but I suppose at least I was able to go for a little bit.  I took 200+ pictures, managed to delete all the blurry/repetitive ones and get the number down to 85.  There should be less than 70 in this post but definitely a lot.....

Paul Mitchell stage on the main floor

Paul Mitchell color class

Aquage cutting class

Aquage booth with one of their tall, gorgeous models

Another Aquage model

Chaos on the main floor

Hair extensions

Aprons for hairstylists

Color Club polishes.  Check out those prices.

One of the few makeup booths at the show.

Muse Beauty

Beauty blenders, Beauty So Clean, Japonesque lip palettes, and more!

Morgan Taylor polishes

It's endless!

Babyliss irons

Rusk stage on the main floor

Men's hair products by Crew

Cinderella hair extensions

Chi stage on the main floor

Joico stage on the main floor

Joico color and cut models

More Joico models

OPI booth

OPI nail lacquers

Seche Vite polishes

Babyliss stage on the main floor

The true "Beautiful Nail Salon" (Angelah Johnson reference). They would only
do one gel nail for you.

Schwarzkopf color and cut models

Schwarzkopf color and cut models

Canada's #3 men's hairstylist cutting a mohawk style.

Turned out AMAZING

Overall, the show was a lot of fun.  According to more advanced professionals, the show has become a lot more commercialized and focused more on selling products than on education.  But to a recently licensed cosmetologist, there was a lot to learn and a lot to see.  Can't wait till next year!

What would you be most interested in seeing if you attended a hair show?

The Bay Lights

Hello fellow beauty lovers~

I do apologize for my long absence.  My life has been a bit of a Korean drama.  I don't know any other way of putting it.  Love triangles, decision making, and all the stuff you tend to only hear about in soaps.  Bleh.

With that said, I haven't forgotten about blogging.  I have tons of posts lined up but I'm still waiting for pictures for some of them and I'm not terribly happy with my wording on others.  So for now, I want to share with you guys a fantastic opportunity I stumbled upon.

Those of you who live in the San Francisco Bay Area, or even California, may know about the Bay Lights.  The opening ceremony was last night, and it's a huge project put together by world renowned artist Leo Villareal, owners of Clear Grape Llc Timothy and Shelley Aglar, and many other individuals.  It's essentially a huge light show centered around the Bay Bridge, the other important San Franciscan bridge next to the Golden Gate.  These individually programmed lights will shine from dusk to dawn for the next two years, and is currently the world's largest light sculpture.  To read more about this show/project, click here.

Photo Credit: Wilson Lam of WLQ Photography

Through Kristine (the MUA I work with) and one of her contacts, I had the amazing opportunity to do hair for Shelly Aglar.  She and her husband achieved the amazing feat of raising 6 of the 8 million dollars needed for this show.  Can you imagine how nervous I was to have such an established client?  We went for Victoria Secret curls for the hair and a natural but dewy look for makeup.

Hair: Janny Zheng
Makeup: Kristine Rose
Dress: Laly Designs

I'm pleased to say that she was very happy with the makeup and hair.  Both Kristine and I were stressing out because we were both very afraid of screwing up and having an unhappy client on our hands.  Hopefully we will have a chance to work with her again!

If you have a chance, stop by San Francisco to check out the lights at night.  You have two years!  And make sure to hit me up so I can say hello, okay?

Mylene: Cut, Color, Highlights, Brows

Since I've been in beauty school, I get request for hair services from my boyfriend's family whenever I go visit him in Quebec.  On my last visit, his aunt requested a haircut, color retouch, and highlights.  She requested a trim on the sides and the back, but wanted to try out side swept bangs to look more youthful and to get rid of the middle part.  She also requested more prominent highlights.  While the color was processing, I cleaned up her brows with tweezers.  The entire process took 4.5 hours.

Here are some before pictures:

After:

We mixed three different colors for the color service to get the desired deep reddy violet brown.  Funny thing is, her English is limited as is my French so I didn't realize she wanted only to touch up her roots at first.  What I ended up doing was coloring her entire head and we ran out of her usual color formula, so we used a violet on the sections from the occipital bone down.  On her fringe, I used a freehand technique for the highlights because I thought softer highlights would be more flattering.  I really wanted to style her hair after rinsing out the bleach but her hair has been heavily processed in the past (entire head of hair bleached) and we did a lot more processing today, so I let her hair air dry.  

Also, I'm very sensitive to smell.  Whenever I do a haircolor or perm service, I can taste the chemicals in my throat hours after the service.  Seeing as I didn't have any masks with me, I wrapped one of my boyfriend's shirts around my face as I did the color services.

Taking a food break while color was processing.
No worries--my gloves were clean.

If I had time, I would have liked to do a makeover as well, but Mylene had to get to work.  But it was a lot of fun!  Things would have been a little easier if I had access to a proper shampoo bowl.  All in all, I can't wait to do some more color and highlights!

I know a lot of you guys color your own hair at home (something I personally haven't done yet).  What are your tips and tricks when you do so?  I'd love to know!

Weddings, Raiders, & more: Some things I've been doing lately....

Hah!  A blog post!  A miraculous event coming from me nowadays, isn't it?  Part of the reason why I have neglected blogging (other than than being unable to upload pics).  This will essentially be a compilation of events I have done in the past month as I am trying to build up my career in the beauty industry.  Most of the pictures I took were, unfortunately, not of the actual event going on because I'm so busy and focused that I forget to do so.  But I wanted to share anyway :D!

Let's start at the beginning!

On Labor Day weekend, I helped do hair and makeup in a bridal photoshoot.  This shoot was for a wedding fair brochure a local wedding planner was put together, and also whom I was to partner up with but things didn't work out.  Still had fun though!  I did makeup and hair on the lady to the left and hair  for the lady to the right.  Here is a teaser of the photoshoot, as I'm still waiting for the pictures:

Bridal Shoot Teaser 090212
Models: Paula Carvajal, Thu Nguyen, Brittany Huynh
MUA & HairStylist: Janny Zheng, Jessie Nguyen at JVN's Glamour
Makeup: Motives Cosmetics via JVNsGlamour.com
Photog: Calvin Lu Photography — with Paula Carvajal, Thu Nguyen and Brittany Huynh at JVN's Glamour Studio.

Not too long after that, I helped Jessie out at a makeup launch party at Pure Organic Spa in San Francisco.  I actually applied to a makeup artist position at this spa, but it was just filled, and the spots that were open I needed a license for.  The spa itself has a lovely, calming environment and smells wonderfully like jasmine.  Here are some pictures that were snapped with Jessie's iphone:

 

And yes, I am indeed rocking some corn rows.  Here is a close up picture:

Pretty cool, huh?  Too bad they only lasted 3 days.  My scalp itched so badly by the third day that I had to rip them out.

The next day I hung out with Jessie (again!) to do hair at a wedding.  Between the two of us, we had five women's hair to tackle in approximately three hours.  I tackled two of them, but I unfortunately only took pictures of one.

 

The best part of this wedding was when....I MET JASMINE FROM JAZZYBABYCAKES!!!!  

She used to make some of my favorite makeup videos on Youtube, but she seems to have moved onto working for beautylish.  Man, I was so starstruck and giddy that I totally embarrassed her in front of the bridal party, most of which were her high school classmates and did not know that she had a very popular Youtube channel.  I couldn't believe I was able to meet her in person!  She is so super sweet.  I miss her videos :(

Two days later, I went to my very first football game.  Ever heard of the Raiders?  They're kind of a big deal in the bay area.  Well, I was very fortunate enough to be referred to the head hairstylist, Destiny, who does hair for the Raiderettes, the Raiders' cheerleaders.  From this event forward, I became one of her apprentices working under her as part of the glam squad for the Raiderettes, UC Berkeley Cal Bears Cheerleading and Dance team, and a few other cheerleading and dance teams in the San Francisco Bay Area.  While this is not a paid position, it is definitely a dream come true to have this sort of hands on training and actually seeing how the industry functions behind the scenes.  My very first gig with Destiny was at the opening Raiders game.  Next time I'll capture the work in progress but for now, here are some within the club house of Oakland Coliseum.

   

Ice Cube :O!

And my latest event was last Saturday.  I tagged along with Destiny to a wedding she was hired to do hair for.  I also had a chance to meet and chat with a MAC makeup artist, Kristine, at the gig.  The bridal party were very sweet and very chill.  I prepped and curled hair for two of the bride's family members while Destiny styled and put finishing touches on the bride and her relatives.  Again, I wish I had better pictures of the event.

Hair products!

Just some of the hair tools.

Makeup station.

Some beverages lol. 

Kristine doing her magic.

Destiny having just worked her magic and the photographer working his.

Wow, what a long post.  But yeah, hopefully now you guys can see why I haven't been posting too much lately.  I've been at these events on top of my school and part time job.  I've been out of the makeup loop but I'm trying to get back into it somehow!  Still working on trying to put on makeup everyday....it can sure get exhausting.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post.  Let me know if you enjoy reading stuff like this!