Friday Sept. 30, 2011- sunday Oct. 2,- day 2-to-day 4

I'm ALIVE!!! sorry sorry sorry! it has been SO busy! and paying for internet is way too much money! So now i'm bumming it from the CNC Turning competitor!

Well as for our stay here: On friday we woke up early and did awesome tours all over D.C. we went to the white house, capitol, and sentate buildings. Spoke to many influential people and had such a blast!!
Later that night we went to the airport to board our London flight. That airport (washington dulles) is huge!! I can't believe it!! I swear we were walking and walking and walking FOR-EVER!!! oh well! we got on the plane, our flight left at 10:00p.m. and I sat next to a very nice englishman! Well that was about it! we got there 7 hours later, so my timing and sleeping were all messed up!
So then that night we went to look around, and we ended up in this super ghetto area. i was pretty sure we were going to be jumped in the subway. oh well! we all turned out okay. But we were all so tired we just passed out!!

SO here's where the fun is! today we have had such a blast! I woke up early and went exercising, saw the most beautiful sunrise of my life! and then we got ready, had a super delicious breakfast and then we met up as a team and went on an excursion as all the competitors.
It was really cool! we got to ride in these old british red double decker buses. and they showed us everywhere. We went to trafalga square, buckingham palace, big ben, westminister abby. It was SO much fun! and then we met at the end of the tour and went on a river ride. That was tons of fun!! Then at the end of that they dropped us off at the London Eye (the HUGE Farris wheel!) that was cool! and I got some amazing pictures! I couldn't believe everything I saw!! and then they took us to a opening social, and we ate good food and tried to meet all of our competitors! So cool! Canada for sure seems like a really cool girl! and it's nice because most of them speak english! (I love having the most common language)

So that's what we did today, I need to get to bed early (I'm keeping myself on a good schedule!) and after that we get to go meet with our experts and see our competition floor!! and make sure everything works right!! I SOOO can't wait!!

alright sending my love from London!! <3

Roomies!

Laina and Victoria

September 29, 2011- day 1

Well first stop, Washington D.C.! I'm meeting up with the rest of the SkillsUSA World Team.

My flight arrived earlier this afternoon around 2, but because somehow I was forgotten I didn't get picked up until 5. oh well! it was me, 3 full suitcases, and an ipod full of my "London" jams! (thanks Allison for putting it together for me!! you're the best!) and we just chilled for a few hours.

So now we're at a hotel, we really have kept it pretty chill, we went to dinner at tenderjacks, and we made a quick Walmart stop, somehow all of us girls forgot nylons!

Well I get a roommate again! It's Victoria Brown :) and she is competiting in graphic design. Such a funny girl! our room is definitely going to be the party room through this trip! (I'll post a picture after of us!) and thanks to Pandora we're listening to the Beatles radio station while I write on here and she transfers suitcases. (her's broke in the airport haha!)

Well I know this day wasn't very exciting, but tomorrow is when the fun starts, we'll be going into D.C. seeing the capitol, white house, and all of that fun stuff! So make sure you stay tuned!!

XOXO!

The improvement pictures

Okay this was the first Men's classical blow-dry I have ever done (the main point is to have it as square as possible) and then the second picture is the last blowdry that I did yesterday! this is why you should always photograph your work, so for 1. you remember what exactly you did and 2. you can see how to improve on it.

I'm not saying that this last blow dry is perfect, it's not at all, i can see all of my little imperfections, but I can tell you that it looks WAY better than my first one! and things like this... well it makes everything worth it!

2 days.. and let it begin!!

Well! this is it! I've prepared as much as I can, I've slept a good amount, and ate healthy.. and now it's TIME! I leave thursday morning for Washington D.C. and I will meet up with the USA World Skills Team. (team as in each of them competing in a different skill i.e. cabinet making, culinary, graphic design) I will be the only one competing in hair design from the USA. I'm up against 35 different countries! What a good competition this will be!

So I've prepared and practiced every day. If your wondering about how much that is, it's about 25 hours a week the past couple of months, and the past week, it's more like 11 hour days. So it really takes a lot out from you! I did learn that you need to give your body time to rest. A really good friend gave me this advice (thanks Alex!!) So every sunday (and sometimes monday too!) I don't do anything with hair. I go have fun! and do things that I enjoy. Just to make sure that I don't wear out my body. And it seriously has helped a lot!

So what's the best part of practicing? HA! HA! HA!! that sounds like a question I would laugh at. I strongly dislike training! I hate putting in the hours, I hate doing a style, just to wash it out and do it again. I just don't like that! But the best part is looking back at pictures from where I first started, to now how i'm finishing it! Ten times better for reals! I'll post some pictures right after this! Seriously though, watching myself grow and be better each day, each time I comb that hair, THAT is what makes this competition worth it! I know I know, everyone says "but laina! anyone would kill for this chance!" . . . true... to an extent. you put in this much work and effort, and you'll see, it's tough! not saying it isn't worth it. but it definitely is tough!

Well that's that folks! I do promise that everyday i'm gone, you can have a day to day update about my competition! YUP! I'll try my hardest to write on here every night, starting Thursday!

And a big thank you to everyone that has helped me! My trainers: Manuel Rodriguez, Crystal Ferry, and Jina Son. My instructors: Karen Skinner and Marilyn Brown. My favorite College: Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College. To Pivot Point for providing the education. To my friends! for always putting up with me. To my family for always supporting and believing in me. and most of all to my Heavenly Father who has blessed me with this talent. I owe it all to him!

STRESSin'!

So So So SO SORRY! it has been too long since I've written on here. I know I said every tuesday. But life has been so busy! I am training for the WorldSkills event in London. I leave on Sept. 29th, so these past 2 weeks have been "crunch time!"
It really has been so good. for the past month I have been waking up early (6:30), eating healthier, and feeling tons better! I realized you can't expect your body to automatically adjust to waking up 4 hours earlier than you normally do. So this past month I've been training it to wake up earlier.
If you take care of your body, it will take care of you! I am such a firm believer! I have had so much energy and feeling ten times better about myself. and So much happier!

So back to competition. I am really stressing out! I feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders! But things have been going really good! I've been finishing all of my mannequins in the time limit (I have 8 different tests, all on raw mannequins), and that includes, cut color, styling, and finishing.

But here I am a little girl from Utah, thinking wow! I have so much to do with just styling the hair. Now you get to add on, cutting it there too, and not to mention coloring it. And if your lines of color are just barely off. well forget it! you just lost the competition! well that's not all. Notice how I said "finishing" well yes that does including putting clothing on your mannequin and doing make up.

I'm a stylist! not a wardrobe professional! or even a make up artist! I luckily have had such an amazing make up artist help me out with the make up. her name is Jill Tracy Chambers. GOOGLE her! she has a website! and her make up is flawless! she is so great at what she does and she has taught me tons! a comb used to be my weapon of choice, buuuut... I'm starting to have lots of fun with the painting and powder side of things!

So that's what I have been up to! I leave the 29th! and I'll make sure I post pictures of all 8 mannequins before then!

blog on!

Thursday funday!

This is the fun I've been doing all day!

How to get the most from your Shampoo

Okay I know what you are thinking, she's a hairstylist, so of course she's going to talk me into getting expensive shampoo!
... okay your kind of right! Would you like to know why?? Well first off what's in your shampoo- the reason why drug store brands such as dove, garnier, suave , etc. have such a cheap price is because of what's inside.. it's cheap! they take there product and water it down, so in the end you end up needing a 1/4th a bottle just to wash your hair.
Now when you are using a professional product it's concentrated so you only need a nickle size amount of shampoo for your whole head.
So in the end you end up spending the same amount on your $2 bottle compared to your $10 bottle.
So some of you may say "but it really makes my hair feel so soft!" want to know why? it's actually coating your hair with a wax substance found in some of the shampoos and most of the conditioners. So while your hair is feeling so soft, in reality it's not! it's the wax overlay on top of your hair. So while your shampoo says "reparative" it really means "cover up". These products aren't going into your hair to supply it with strength it's just coating over it.
Now your thinking "so! what's the problem with that?" well after awhile it coats up so much that you have to go to your hairdresser and they usually have to remove it. Your hair will in the end feel weighed down, oily looking, and droopy!
So now your thinking "Great! I can't afford that!" guess what? YES YOU CAN! ask your hair dresser what sales or discounts she has, if she knows your willing to buy, sometimes they are a little more willing to go down on the price.

Now there are so many shampoo's out there from body, color, normalizing... what do they all mean?
well here's an explanation!
Body shampoo-for finer hair, your hair is limp, stuck to your head, or very staticy
Moisture shampoo-your hair is dry, hard to run your fingers through, feels wiry, or coarse (this is different from split ends, or "fried" hair)
Color Care shampoo- for those that not only have color in there hair, but also have it chemically treated (i.e. perms, relaxer). If you only have "highlights" in your hair, you do not need color treated shampoo.
Reparative shampoo-Those that have hair that is breaking off, have decolorized it, or they feel like there hair is "fried". a Reparitive shampoo is going to add more protein to the hair, which will rebuild your hair from the inside out.
Balancing shampoo-If you have extra oily hair, a normalizing shampoo will help to control your oil production and give it an extra clean feeling
Normalizing Shampoo-This is for those who feel like they have "dandruff". Normalizing shampoo is going to hydrate your scalp and help normalize it.
Clarifying shampoo-Those who have lots of build up in there hair, this will strip out color and permanent waves
Purple Shampoo-This shampoo is purple, it is meant to use if your blonde hair has tinted yellow, from decolorizing, or from the sun. Becareful not to use this shampoo everday or your hair might start to get a violet tint to it. (yes just like the lady in front of you in sacrament meeting)
Curly shampoo-This is going to help enhance curls and NOT weigh them down.
Straightning shampoo- this is usually a heavier shampoo meant to weigh down the hair, to straighten it.

Usually it is also a good idea to mix up your shampoo's. switch name brands, and different kinds. it's true, your hair and scalp will get used to a shampoo and can become immune to the effects of the shampoo. so make sure you switch it up regularly.

Also when shampooing your hair, make sure you try to direct the SHAMPOO towards the roots of your hair, leaving your ends free of shampoo. (wanting your hair to grow? make sure you give an extra long massage to the scalp to stimulate blood flow).
Now when conditioning, DO NOT put the conditioner on your roots, only put conditioner about 1/3 of your hair strand. I know this gets difficult with shorter hair, but I promise you will learn to love the results!

Try out these tips for at least 2 months, and I promise you'll love your new shampoo, and the new condition of your hair!

The Future aka October!

So I spent all day training today! I think the hardest part about training is getting up to do it! I HATE waking up early. (this is making me laugh because it sounds like I'm saying exercise training, no way! I mean hair training!)
Wondering what I'm "training" for? well it's Called World Skills. It will be held in London, This coming October.
I get to do 8 different mannequins all from scratch. that means cut, color, styling, polishing. thats also known as a lot of hard work! I try to practice for sure 1 mannequin a day, if not 2.

At World Skills i compete against 40 different countries. All of there best of the best. Talk about nerve racking!

There is a lot more to competition than people think. One little hair out of place, on little divet, and you just got knocked down 10 points! you HAVE to practice every day to do your best.

The good news about my life is that I have already competed in HairWorld which is the biggest hair competition there is, and World Skills is the hardest competition there is. So it's nice that there is a little background there in the world arena.

this is what I do. I practice practice. Well that's what I did today.

Want to know the best part of my day? I got called a Hair Ninja. haha thank you random civilian.

Even though the practicing is tough, peoples faces dropping when they see your art that you've just created, yeah that makes it worth it!

H.A.I.R. it's what I do

To explain myself, my name is Laina Call, I grew up in Ogden Utah and I have always loved to play with my dolls hair!

I'm going to be posting every week tuesday to be extact so please stay tuned! also.. I'll be giving hair tips, photos, and the story of my travels!

Hope you enjoy it!!