A few things you shouldn't do when going to get your hair done...

When I started this blog I wanted to write about something that I knew about. I wanted to give advice and thoughts on a topic that was important to me. This isn't a mommy blog since I don't have kids, and this isn't a craft blog since I only really knit. This blog is about my life and the things I have going on and one of the biggest things in my life, besides Lincoln, is my job. I have been doing hair now for almost ten years. The title of the blog is in regards to the changes in my life with my new husband, but it also has to do with hair stuff. Get it? The "split ends" part of the title. Anyway, I work a ton and I have a ton of things that I want to say about how people look, how they think they should look and how to get the look you want. I know this topic may seem lame to some of you, but give me a chance. The things my clients tell me would make a prostitute blush. I have been through some very interesting situations with my job. But, let me get back to the true meaning of this post. I wanted to write a few things you should never do when going in to get your haircut. It is a comb people, not a magic wand. Help us, help you. Having good hair is a huge deal, don't make it hard to achieve by making some common mistakes. These are in no particular order. They are all important to remember.


1. When talking to your hairstylist don't look them in the eye, look at them through the mirror. This may seem weird, but we are working on the back of your head. If you turn around to look at us we will either cut your hair funny or cut our finger. Even if you are describing to us the latest concerns with your anal leakage and looking us in the eye might help the dramatic effect, we can still achieve maximum gross out even with you looking at us through the mirror.

2. We do want to have a sense of comfort and understanding with our clients, but there is such a thing as TMI. The anal leakage story actually happened to me just this week. I had no words of comfort to give my client. I just didn't know what to say. For some reason, I can wash someone's hair bring them back to my chair and the flood gates open. They tell me everything about themselves. I don't mind at all, actually I find it comforting that they trust me so much. But I do think there is a line that many of my clients have crossed, and after that happens it is very hard to go back. For example, telling my that they are cheating on their spouse when their spouse is another one of my clients, telling me something humiliating about their child when I also do their childs hair. Stuff like that, oh, and embarasing medical stuff that I know nothing about. These things don't necessarily effect the end results of your hair service, unless you are the client cheating on my other client. It just helps to not shock your stylist with some unwanted news while they are trying to concentrate.

3. Never ever come in saying this, "I really want a change, but I don't want you to take off a lot of length, and I really don't want any layers or bangs and I don't want you to color it either." Ok, well, then can I suggest you go shopping for new clothes or makeup, cause we can't make any changes with those rules. Come into a salon with a open mind. If you really want a hair change, don't set up boundaries, let them actually give you that change you are looking for.

4. Don't come in with a hoodie or turtleneck on! I have had clients wear these huge scarves to the salon and wanted to keep them on while I did there hair. If there is a huge bulge on your back or around your neck, expect the cut to be uneven. Along the same lines, don't wear your most expensive clothes when you are going in for a color service. Even if I have my clients wear a smock and a cape I still worry if they come in wearing cashmere. It just isn't worth the worry that it might get something on it. After all, we are working with dyes and bleach...

5. Don't touch your hair or have a spaghetti neck while your stylist is working on your hair. There is nothing worse than a client who can't keep her fingers out of her hair when you are working with it. The partings and sections are for the haircut. If you touch it and flip it around before we are done, our sections will get lost and the haircut might be ruined. On another note, there are so many people who talk with their heads. They move it around from side to side to better explain their story. This generally doesn't bother me since I usually just hold their head still while I am working, but there are some people who move around so much they make my job very difficult. Especially if you are getting a weaving. The color needs to be applied carefully so that it doesn't get on the scalp. If you move around like a bobble head, you may mess things up.

I know these suggestions may seem harsh or I might seem like I am nitpicking, but they are for your benefit. I can keep it cool when someone tells me more than they should, and I can give suggestions to cleints who are stuck in a rutt. This isn't about your hairdresser, it's about you. You can go to the best stylist in the world, but if you don't know how to be a good client, then you might not be getting all that you could out of your hair service.

Thanksgiving through the years

I know, I know, it's January. Why am I writing about Thanksgiving? Well, I have no answer. I just am. Here are a few shots from Thanksgiving past and present.

Back in 2005 my sister Nikki asked me to go to Prague with her for Thanksgiving. Um, yes please. We had a great time and soon started a short tradition of leaving the family and heading to Europe for turkey day. Unfortunately, they don't recognize Thanksgiving, so there was no turkey to be had on this day. Oh, well, I'll take the memories over food any day.

The next year we decided to take our younger brother Marcus along with us as we traveled all around Greece. It was so great to be there with them on this awesome trip. Unfortunately, again we had no turkey for Thanksgiving. We instead ate giros. Side note, I hate giros. But it is all for the memories, not the food.


Shortly after this, my travel partner Nikki married her dear love Cameron. This would have been a huge problem when it came to Thanksgiving travel, but I was able to spend my Thanksgiving at home with my love, Lincoln. We had a great/nervous time as he met most of my family for the first time. It was a great time with great memories AND great food.




This year was another year away from Ohio. However, it was not a year away from family or great food. Lincoln and I went out to Utah to be with his family. We had a great time together. His parents planned a trip down to Moab where we hiked around and enjoyed time in beautiful Utah.




Ok, I know that this post seems forced or maybe an old topic, but it is one of my favorite topics. Each one of those pictures have so many great memories to them. I loved my trips with my sister and brother, and I love my new Thanksgivings with Lincoln. It is all about the memories, not the food.

One of life's lessons

If you are in the middle of something and you don't want to answer you phone, don't try to turn the phone on silent with your toe.  Chances are you will hit the answer button and the person on the other end will hear everything you are doing and saying without you even knowing.  Trust me, this can be very embarrassing. 

What a difference a year makes

A year ago (in October) Lincoln and I had just started dating.  We had no idea it would end up getting married!  We took the top picture after carving pumpkins last year.  Notice my dark hair and horrible yard.  Who would of thought we would  be doing the same thing a year later, but married.  It was Lincoln's idea to wear the same clothes,  I didn't match perfectly from year to year, but you get the idea.   

We were still in the beginning stage of our relationship in the above picture.  It was very easy to date Lincoln and everything went so smooth, but I am still human and I couldn't help but be a little weird and insecure at the beginning stages of our dating.  

After a year of being together as a couple and being married for over four months, you can see the weirdness has slowly gone away.  It is very easy to be with Lincoln, he is great.  I wonder if we will be doing the same thing next year... of course we will, and I am sure Lincoln will wear the same thing then too.  Here's to many more years!!   :)

Pumpkin Carving/Couples FHE: Take One

Since Lincoln and I got married we have tried really hard to stay social. It seems to be a curse for newlyweds to all of a sudden have no friends and a blank social calendar. That just won't work for me. Lincoln and I have decided to take action and work on keeping up with our friends. Last month a small group of us went to the dollar movies on a monday night. We joked about it being our Family Home Evening group. The joke soon seemed less and less like a joke and more like a great idea. I didn't want a great idea to pass by, so a few weeks ago Lincoln and I had some people over for dinner and carve pumpkins. It seemed like the right thing to do since it was October and Lincoln and I did the same thing a year before, only we were just dating then. It turned out to be a great time and hopefully a small step to getting us back on track with a regular social calendar. I am still working on the picture thing, so bare with me....

   

Matt showing Haiquis how to carve her first pumpkin!! 

Tiffany and Christy showing off their knife skills.

Maria and Jeremy working together.       

Mark taking credit for the pumpkin Stacy carved while he was watching football.  Good one, Mark.

Some of the finished works of "art." 

Like Clockwork

There are certain things you can always expect to happen in October.  The leaves start to change, the weather gets colder, the kids overdose on candy, and I get sick.  I can't remember the last October without me being sick.  It isn't just a little cold sick, it is lose my voice to sound like Marge Simpson's sisters sick.  It is head ready to explode, sinus pressure to the max sick.  It is sleep all day, up all night coughing sick.  It is waking up all wet from a high fever sick.  I could go on, but I think you have the idea.  The worst part is that I love October and being sick stops me  from really enjoying it.  I hate being sick.  

Last year I was so sick I called off work and went to the doctor.  Two things that I very rarely do.  I was prompted to go after a really tough night.  I usually cough like crazy when I am trying to go to sleep.  I stack my pillows up and try to sleep sitting up.  This never works.  I have a permanent place in my mouth for a cough drop, and once I have sucked it down, I cough uncontrollably.  This particular night I ran out of cough drops and tried to suck down water every time I started coughing.  I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to sleep with the full glass of water on the mattress beside me, but I did.  I later woke up in the middle of the night with a soaking wet mattress and a drenched lap.  The first thing I thought was that I had coughed so hard I had wet the bed.  You would think that after coming to that conclusion I would have sprang out of bed and jumped into action, cleaning my sheets and taking a shower.  Instead, I sat there sick and weak wondering if it was really that gross to sleep in your own pee.  A few minutes later I realized it wasn't my pee, just the tipped over glass of water that I thought was a good idea to sleep with.  I was so tired and sick that I just stayed there hoping that it would dry up by morning.  The next day I called off work and went to the doctor. 

I feel like there are two types of people in the world when I am sick.  Those who have loads of advice as to how I can get better, and those who are sicker than me.  I let most people know when I run into them that I have lost my voice and that I am not contagious.  I have no idea really if I am contagious or not, I just want them to feel better about me coughing all over them.  They then tell me one of two things, how I can get better, or how much sicker they are than me.  I usually just listen quietly while they tell me about the latest pill or humidifier or rub I need to get, or they let me know that I am lucky only having the few symptoms that I have since they are clearly worse off  with all their aches and pains and rashes and what not.  I don't know what it is about my expression that makes people think I want to hear any of this.  All I really want to do when I am sick is go to bed with a tall glass of water and a hand full of cough drops.  Let's just hope I don't try to put the glass on the mattress beside me or Lincoln might have a interesting surprise in the morning.  

Here's to feeling better and enjoying the beauty of October.

Tagged

Ok, so my BFF Sarah just tagged me on her blog.  I guess she was tagged all these questions, and after answering them she had to pass them to other people.  I was one of the (un)lucky ones. It reminds me of one of those chain letters.  Since I don't have a ton of stuff on here, I thought I would go for it.  Besides, it gives me a great chance to talk about one of my favorite things...

What is your husband's name? Lincoln Elliott Fielding

How long have you been married? It has been 4 months 5 hours 12 minutes and 50 seconds... but who's counting.

How long did you date? We are still dating, we are just married now.  But we dated for about five or six months before we got engaged and we then were married about 3 or 4 months after. It is all very loose since we talked about marriage before we officially got engaged and we went out a few times before we officially considered ourselves as a couple.

How old is he? He is only 25.  I am 5 years older!  This was pretty hard on me at first, but he talked me through it pretty well.  And, let's be honest, I am a very young 30. 

Who eats sweets? ONLY me!  Lincoln does not eat anything bad.  He doesn't eat candy, cake, cookies, chips, soda, I could go on and on.  He just has amazing will power.  I feel like a slug around him. 

Who said "I Love You" first? That would be him.  I was giving him until Christmas to say it.  I thought it would be nice for me to let him make this move in our relationship.  He said it way before I was planning on ever saying it.  It blew me away.

Who is taller?  I am...ok, he is taller.  I have this horrible mindset that I am taller than everyone.  He is constantly reminding me that he is like 4 inches taller.  I just don't see it.  I have a freakishly long torso, and when we sit next to each other I am about his height.  He has really long legs and beats me out in the height department there.   

Who can sing best? He blows me away on this one.  People are always telling us in church that we sound so great together singing the hymns.  Little do they know, I am not singing, they are just hearing his angelic voice.  

Who is smarter?   Ouch, are you serious?  How about I let you decide.  He is a third year law student at Ohio State with a Bachelors in Economics from BYU that he got in only two years.  I went to Ricks for two and a half years when it was only a two year school, I just really liked my friends.  Yes, I do hair and I love it and I am good at it, but that doesn't make me smart, just lucky that I found a skill I can do.  I am also pretty sure that was a run-on sentence.  I guess you can say I am more of the street smart variety. 

Who does the laundry? Lincoln is very good at starting the laundry.  I don't think he cleans out the lint trap that often, but I can't complain since he is doing the laundry without me asking.   

Who pays the bills? We both do it.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He sleeps on the entire bed, and I try to fit in wherever I can.  But his pillow is on the left and mine is on the right.

Who mows the lawn? We have a condo, so neither of us do.  I have only used a lawn mower one time in my life... I'm just saying. 

Who cooks dinner? I am really working on this.  He cooks better than me, but I do it more often.  It is really hard with our crazy schedules.  We eat a lot of cereal and sandwiches.  

Who drives? I don't enjoy driving.  Lincoln does it and he puts up with me freaking out whenever I think we might hit something.  I am a very scared passenger.  It is not a good thing, but he is really patient with me. 

Who is the first to admit they are wrong? I feel so bad saying this, but I think he is.  I am so defensive that I don't usually think I am in the wrong without a reason for being wrong.  I always have to explain why I did something to help prove my point.  I am working on just being wrong.  

Who kissed who first? Totally me!  That's why I wanted him to say, "I love you" first.  We were in his apartment pretending to watch t.v.  I had put myself in the most perfect position ever for him to just lean in and kiss me.  It was like handing it to him on a silver platter!  He wasn't taking the bait.  I could tell he was freaking out.  Finally I said, "kiss me Lincoln."  It was great. We laugh about it now all the time.  

Who asked who out first? He asked me out first.  It was so random and out of the blue.  We had been friends for like 2 years and neither of us ever thought about dating each other.  Our first few dates were not uber romantic.  They were just really fun and comfortable.  In fact, he didn't even walk me to the door after one of our first dates.  He finally got the idea that I was interested in him too and he started to put himself out there a little more.  The dates just keep getting better and better.    

Who wears the pants? Lincoln is very respectful about my ideas and thought on things.  We don't really have a "leader" between us.  I am old-fashioned and willing to let him take more of the lead.  We are still new at this, we might settle into something, but until then we are both very open about things.  

There it is.  I can't think of anyone else who I want to tag that wasn't already tagged by Sarah. I hope this fulfills my blog tagging responsibilities.