Career Paths for a Cosmetologist

Continuing education is important to your career's future and it holds the key to individual development and personal motivation give you knowledge and confidence, and also provides you the best opportunity to advance your career and achieve real success. Hairdressing is an ever changing profession and education will keep you current with trends and the newest techniques. Your clients come to you expecting and deserving a knowledgeable professional, and if you are not able to fulfill their needs they will not return. Continuing your education gives you the opportunity to observe and practice the techniques and trends. You can never know enough in the hair world, you are always learning more. That is why it's so important to stay up to date, because things are changing so quickly. You need to have commitment in perfecting all your skills. Once you have completed school and are licensed, you will be amazed at how many career opportunities open up for you. There are countless routes to take in this profession.The possibilities are endless for a professional cosmetologist who continues their education. You can become a hair color specialist. You can train others in your salon to perform color services or work for a product manufacture. You can become a texture specialist. You can go teach others how to best perform texture services according to your guidelines and product instructions. One example of this is you can be a curly hair specialist, focusing on maintaining the natural curl. There a hair cutting specialists. This position requires a desire to learn various cutting styles and techniques. Try different techniques in every cut and find your favorite. This will allow you to perform top-quality hair cutting in your salon. A salon trainer is another. Many companies hire experience salon professionals and train them to educate others. You can become a sales consultant. The salon industry depends heavily on its product. A sales consultant provides information about products, new trends and new techniques. You can be an artistic directory. This position establishes the standard for a salon or manufacturers image.  The artistic director’s responsibility is to inspire hairdressers and create trends. This take confidence. You can become an education director, Go around and teach students new techniques and trends. You can teach others and benefit greatly from it. You need to be confident in what you do for this one. You can be a cosmetology instructor. This is teaching students while they are in school. Educating new cosmetologists can be very trying, but also rewarding. You can be a film, theatrical, or editorial stylist and focus on makeup. You can work behind the scenes in magazines and tv sets. You can be a creative directory, nail technician, esthetician, barber, only focus on styling hair, the list goes on and on. The best thing about this industry is you can choose what you like best, and move from there, There is so many career options that can be taken from being a cosmetologist. Pick what you are good at and go from there. Be creative and have fun with it! Do what you love.

Skin Care

Clear, glowing skin is one of today’s most important hallmarks of beauty. No matter how advanced the latest skincare technology may be, you still have to learn how to care for your client’s skin and know what you do to keep it healthy. You need to study the structure of the skin, how it grows, and why it’s important to maintain healthy skin. Knowing the skin’s underlying structure and basic needs in crucial in order to provide excellent skin care for clients. You will need to recognize adverse conditions, including skin diseases, inflamed skin, and infectious skin disorders so that you can give the correct treatment. A dermatologist is a physician who specializes in disease and disorders of the skin. Cosmetologists may be allowed to check skin, preserve the health of the skin, and beautify the skin. However, cosmetologists are not allowed to diagnose, prescribe, or provide any type of treatment for abnormal conditions, illnesses, or diseases. Cosmetologists refer clients with medical issues to dermatologists. The skin is the largest organ of the body. Our skin protects the network of muscles, bones, nerves, blood vessels, and everything else inside our bodies. Healthy skin should be free of any visible signs of disease. It is slightly moist and soft. Healthy skin has a smooth texture. The skin to the scalp is constructed similarly to the skin elsewhere on the human body, but the scalp has larger and deeper hair follicles to accommodate the longer hair of the head. The skin is composed to two main divisions: the epidermis and the derims. The epidermis is the outermost and thinnest layer of the skin. It contains no blood vessels, but has many small nerve endings. It is made up of 5 layers: stratum corneum, stratum lucidum, stratum granulosum, stratum spinosum, stratum germinativum. The dermis is the underlying or inner layer of the skin. The dermis extends to form the subcutaneous tissue. The dermis is comprised of two layers: the papillary and the reticular. The reticular layer is the deeper layer of the dermis that supplies the skin with all of its oxygen and nutrients. It contains the following structures within its network: fat cells, blood vessels, lymph vessels, oil glands, sweat glands, hair follicles, arrector pili muscles, nerve endings. Blood and lymph vessels are located in the reticular dermis. The skin contains the surface endings of nerve fibers. The first one is the motor nerve fibers, the second is the sensory nerve fibers, and the third is the secretory nerve fibers. The color of the skin depends on the melanin, which is the tiny grains of pigment that are produced by melanocytes and then deposited into cells in the basal layer of the epidermis and the papillary layers or the dermis. Melanin helps protect sensitive cells from the sun's UV light, but it does not provide enough protection to prevent skin damage. The skin gets its strength, from, and flexibility from collagen and elastin. The healthier that you are eating, the better skin that you have. Eat your vitamins and nutrients.Help your clients with keeping their skin the best that they can.

Communication

Do you believe that first impressions are important? First impressions are often the gateway to obtaining a job interview. There are many factors that help create a professional image. However, how a person looks is often the first clue to determine if they have what it take to do the job. You need to present yourself in all good ways possible. Clients rely on beauty professionals to look good and be well groomed. Having a professional beauty image helps to build trust with clients and leads to repeat business. There a consequences to not maintaining a professional image including loss of clients, a poor reputation, and loss of income. Being well groomed begins with looking and smelling fresh. Basic hygiene starts with showering and bathing. Personal hygiene is the daily maintenance of cleanliness by practicing good healthful habits. When working as a stylist, you are up close to your clients. You need to always make sure you are smelling good and that you are clean. It is miserable for your client to have to be surrounded by that. Make sure you use deodorant and brush your teeth! Wash your hands throughout the day.  Make sure you are well groomed. It helps you advertise your beauty profession. How a person dresses and takes care of their skin and hair, reflects their grooming habits. You need to dress professionally and clean. Your clients will base how good you are at doing hair by how you look. If you look and are dressed cute, the client will automatically assume you are good at hair. Dressing for success does not mean you have to be someone who you are not, everyone is different. Just remember to tune in to the salon you are working at culture. Never go to work with your hair not done. You are working in a salon, the least you can do is have your own hair look good. It is very important to keep your hair color and haircut fresh. Like I have explained, if you hair looks good your client will assume you are good at doing hair. Make sure your makeup is done. This will help you promote a professional image. A positive attitude is one of the biggest things while developing a professional image.  Negative gossip should never happen. Being good at communicate and using professional words will help you look professional. Use social media to communicate with peers and clients and post helpful content. Do not use profane language or argue on social media where your peers can see. Your physical presentation involves your posture and they way you walk and move. Good posture portrays confidence. Sit with your back straight and have your shoulders relaxed and leveled. Not only does this make you look professional, it helps you not have any physical problems. Having good posture allows you to get through your day feeling good and doing your best. If you are feeling good, you will look good. Always be aware of your professional image at work and in your everyday life.

Your Professional Image

Do you believe that first impressions are important? First impressions are often the gateway to obtaining a job interview. There are many factors that help create a professional image. However, how a person looks is often the first clue to determine if they have what it take to do the job. You need to present yourself in all good ways possible. Clients rely on beauty professionals to look good and be well groomed. Having a professional beauty image helps to build trust with clients and leads to repeat business. There a consequences to not maintaining a professional image including loss of clients, a poor reputation, and loss of income. Being well groomed begins with looking and smelling fresh. Basic hygiene starts with showering and bathing. Personal hygiene is the daily maintenance of cleanliness by practicing good healthful habits. When working as a stylist, you are up close to your clients. You need to always make sure you are smelling good and that you are clean. It is miserable for your client to have to be surrounded by that. Make sure you use deodorant and brush your teeth! Wash your hands throughout the day.  Make sure you are well groomed. It helps you advertise your beauty profession. How a person dresses and takes care of their skin and hair, reflects their grooming habits. You need to dress professionally and clean. Your clients will base how good you are at doing hair by how you look. If you look and are dressed cute, the client will automatically assume you are good at hair. Dressing for success does not mean you have to be someone who you are not, everyone is different. Just remember to tune in to the salon you are working at culture. Never go to work with your hair not done. You are working in a salon, the least you can do is have your own hair look good. It is very important to keep your hair color and haircut fresh. Like I have explained, if you hair looks good your client will assume you are good at doing hair. Make sure your makeup is done. This will help you promote a professional image. A positive attitude is one of the biggest things while developing a professional image.  Negative gossip should never happen. Being good at communicate and using professional words will help you look professional. Use social media to communicate with peers and clients and post helpful content. Do not use profane language or argue on social media where your peers can see. Your physical presentation involves your posture and they way you walk and move. Good posture portrays confidence. Sit with your back straight and have your shoulders relaxed and leveled. Not only does this make you look professional, it helps you not have any physical problems. Having good posture allows you to get through your day feeling good and doing your best. If you are feeling good, you will look good. Always be aware of your professional image at work and in your everyday life.

Life skills

While good technology skills are important to master, learning and applying life skills are just as important. The salon is a creative workplace where individuals are expected to show their artistic talent. In addition, it is a huge social environment. These life skills are a foundation of success for students and professionals. Practicing these skills will lead to a more satisfying beauty career. Some of the most important life skills for you to remember and practice include: being helping, making friends, feeling good about yourself, having a sense of humor, maintaining a cooperative attitude, having responsibility, being consistent in your work, mastering techniques to become more organized, and adapting successfully to different situations. There are many things that lead up to success. Building your self esteem is a huge one. Self-esteem is based on inner strength. You need to trust yourself. If you have high self esteem you will feel more comfortable with the things you are doing. Visualizing success helps you want to be successful, because you want to live up to what you are imagining.  Build on your strengths and practice doing whatever helps you maintain a positive self-image. Always be kind to Li and stay true to yourself. Keep your energy up. Respect all the people around you and treat them all as friends. Stay productive and keep busy. You need to feel a sense of personal excitement and a good reason for staying in the course. Stay creative and keep up with the trends, this will help you to jump into new things. You need to design a mission statement. A mission statement established the purpose and values for which an individual or institution lives and works by. Setting goals is a huge help for yourself. Goal setting is the identification of long-term and short-term goals. When you know what you want, it will help you get there easier. By mapping out your goals, you will see where to focus your attention in order to fulfill you dreams. When you set goals, categorize them based on the amount of time it takes to accomplish the goals. Short term goals are shorter and long term goals are measured in larger increments of time such as two years. Organize all your thoughts and write them down. Learn to prioritize your time by ordering tasks on your to-do list from most important to least important. Never take on more than you can handle. Give yourself some downtime whenever you a frustrated or overwhelmed. Make daily, weekly, and monthly schedules. To realize the greatest benefits education can provide you, commit to these things: attend all classes, arrive for class early, have materials, listen, take notes, pay attention, as questions. Establish good study habits. You should interact with people with a pleasing tone of voice. Be nice to everyone around you in the salon. Be effective to your clients as they talk about their life. Show concern and love for them. Be kind and speak with kind words.

Sanitation

Sanitation is a very important thing to remember when being in the salon. As a cosmetologists it is your responsibility to prevent the spread of diseases. Always remember to remove all hair from combs brushes and clippers. Then, scrub brushes with soap and water. Immerse all combs and brushes in barbicide for 10 minutes. Rinse it off after removing from barbicide. Spray clippers with disinfectant lubricant or disinfectant and oil. Remember to oil your scissors so they are always moving well for you. This will keep them in a good working order. Wash your hands with soap and warm water before and after every service. Washing your hands is the number one way to prevent diseases from spreading. Always sanitize combs, brushes, clips, shears, and other implements after each haircut by washing thoroughly and placing them in a disinfectant solution. You should replace the blade in the razor prior to each client. Discard used blades in a puncture-proof container. Sanitize your work station after each client you work on. Sweep after them and disinfect everything that was used on them. As stated, infection control has two steps: cleansing and then disinfecting. Remember that when you clean, you must remove all visible dirt and debris from all equipment washing with liquid soap and warm water. The more you clean your surface, the number of contaminants in reduced. A surface must be properly cleaned before it can be properly disinfected. There are 3 ways to clean your tools or implements. 1. Washing with soap and warm water and scrubbing them with a clean and properly disinfected nail brush. 2. Using an ultrasonic unit. 3. Using a cleaning solvent. The second step of infection control is disinfection. Disinfection is the process that eliminates most, but still not all. In the salon setting, disinfecting is really effective in controlling microorganisms on surfaces such as shears. Implements must be thoroughly cleaned of all visible matter or residue before being placed in a disinfectant solution. Use only on precleaned, hard, nonporous surfaces- not on single-use abrasive files. Always use gloves when handling disinfectant solution. An item must remain emerged in a disinfectant for ten minutes unless product says other way. Disinfectants can cause skin and eye damage. You need to be careful while working with these. Always wear gloves and safety glasses. Avoid skin and eye contact. Add disinfectant to water when diluting. Mix all disinfectants according to the manufacturer's directions. Hair clippers, nail drills and other types of electrical equipment have parts that can not be immersed in liquid. These items should be cleaned and disinfected using an EPA registered disinfectant designed for use on these devices. Follow standard precautions to protect you and your client. Standard precautions are guidelines published by the centers for disease control and prevention that require the employer and employee to assume that all human blood and body fluids are potentially infectious.  By following all these guidelines, you can prevent disease from spreading. It is very important to sanitize and keep all your implements clean!

Scalp Care, Shampooing, and Conditioning

When clients visit a salon for the first time, the immediately begin making judgements about their surroundings. How does the salon look? Does the receptionist greet them with a smile? Make sure you do everything in your power to make sure your client has a good salon experience. You only get once chance to make a good first impression. One of the most important experience a stylist can provide is the shampoo.  Making this a pleasurable experience can have a great impact on building your reputation as a stylist. The “shampoo “ part of the service comes in three different parts: scalp care and massage, shampooing, and conditioning. The shampoo gives the client relaxation time that is free from the stresses of the day. If clients are happy with the entire shampoo experience, they are far more likely to be happy with the entire service. The two basic requirements for a healthy scalp are cleanliness and stimulation. Scalp massage is a procedure you will do often and one you should be well at. Proper maintenance of the hair and scalp begins with the hygiene practice of shampooing. The hair should be shampooed often to remove oil and dirt. If the scalp and hair are improperly cleansed, unhealthy disorders of the scalp may appear. When performing a scalp massage, remember to keep the client’s head supported and maintain contact with the head at all times. Use slow, deliberate motions and a soft touch. You as the stylist need to be relaxed as well. Keep your fingers loose. A dry hair and scalp treatment should be used when there is a deficiency of natural oil on the scalp. If their scalp is dry, manipulate the scalp using a kneading technique to increase blood circulation to the surface. This will reduce any hardened sebum that has been collected in the pores of the scalp and can be removed with gentle pressing.  If their scalp appears to have dandruff on it, use an anti-dandruff shampoo and conditioner to treat it. Correct hair brushing also stimulates blood circulation to the scalp. Brushing removes dirt, dust, and hairspray build up. It gives the hair shine. You should always begin brushing the hair from the ends then work towards the scalp. This makes it easier to get rid of all the tangles.  The shampoo service provides an opportunity to make sure that the hair and scalp are properly cleansed and nourished. If there are any open wounds, reddened scalp irritations, scalp flaking, or apparent disease, do not continue with the service. Select the proper shampoo for you client. Everyone has different hair which means everyone needs different shampoo to treat their hair the best. Be aware of which shampoos are meant for which types of hair. There's conditioning shampoo, medicated, clarifying, balancing, strengthening, dry, neutralizing, and color-enhancing. Conditioning is applied to the hair to deposit protein to help restore the hair’s strength and moisturize it. There is a cleansing conditioner, rinse-out. treatment or repair, and leave-in. Always remember to drape your client really good so you do not get them wet at all. Remember to make the shampoo memorable!