It's been a dogged two weeks of barber school. Making a transition from physical textbooks (and an older version of the book) to digital (and an all-new edition of the barbering texts) made for an awkward two weeks cramming material I've been learning since November, but in a new format, with updated and expanded vocabulary and an insane amount of instructional videos I had to watch in order to get credit. As a former professional who ONLY involved himself in the best of online learning experiences... this has been so painful. But I'm through it and tested through all manner of haircuts. I'm ahead on the work I need to do for Styling. I'm ahead on the assigned styles and cuts for this month. Even my first roller-set in a minute came out pretty great.
In the past two weeks, I also took care of my taxes, my annual check-up with my doctor (elevated blood pressure yay adulting), therapy. I hardly made it to the gym but I did manage decent sleep every night. The warm weather we had a week ago got me outside and disc golfing twice... but the bitter cold that followed and still is around has my ankles and hips pretty achey.
I'm looking forward to ducking out of school early on Monday, skipping Tuesday, to see Nine Inch Nails in Milwaukee with my boo (she calls me her bae; it's like that). On Friday, a high school student (Eric) got me decent for the weekend, even carving in some design work
Meanwhile, I caught about two cuts a day, consistently, even though the shop has been slow with uneven weather keeping a lot of normal customers at home, I think. I did get a few return customers in this last sprint. I got more experiences differentiating approaches among taper fades, drop fades and all-around bald fades. My last client on Friday was a fade I did start-to-finish unassisted and on my own, which feels like a real milestone, in addition to taking on a few female clients in the shop and doing a decent lining and freehand styling of afros.
Norrin came in for some mullet work and I feel pretty good with the results.
I think by the end of March, I'm going to aim to have online booking set-up. My skill confidence is improving to a point where I feel like it's time to get ready for a next level. I want more clients in the shop where I can get credit for the different cuts I do. More than that, I just want the practice and I don't mind coming to clients to get it.
Keep Doing
I started wearing my glasses in the shop the last two weeks and while it pains me to concede that aging is happening, there's no question glasses have improved my ability to see the details in fades; my whole game elevated as a result in pretty rapid fashion. So yeah, glasses are gonna be more a part of my routine even though I haven't needed them for most things... turns out I'm doing work where the visual acuity starts to matter in ways it hasn't up until now.
Less Of
I would really like to be doing less adulting (following up with doctors, accountants, state agencies) and I hope that all the adulting I just got done with will help reduce the amount of active adulting I have to do on the day to day. Similarly, I could do with a little less driving all over every single day. The last two weeks have commanded time to get from some point A to a point B. Was great to hang with Michael when he came in-town, meet up with my boo out west in the burbs where she's living... but less time driving around could translate into more gym time, or more music making time. Would be nice to get back to those next week a little.
More Of
With all this adulting I've been a bit more mindful about my budget and with my taxes settled I feel a bit better about my burn-rate for the savings I put away to live off of while in barber school. More being mindful about the things I need to be budgeting for (energy levels, cash) is gonna serve me well in the long, boring, hard and hot stretches to come this summer when things crawl around July.
Stop Doing
I get a little apprehensive when I'm assigned a client with a cut request I'm not confident about. At this point in the hero's journey, I'm in the forest now. Nothing is going to go how I'd expect, but it's never going to go badly. I'm in a safe space as far as learning environments go. I really want to chill the anxiety down as I can feel myself breaking into a sweat when I'm deep into a complicated cut. I need to remember that a) I know more than I can acknowledge and b) there are people around me who are committed to my success; c) which includes many of the clients because they kn0w they're in a barber school.
Start Doing
I'm going to advertise my services a little more. I love having people I know come to the shop because it shapes the shop culture a bit with having my people in it. Every conversation is a conversation that wouldn't happen in that shop otherwise, and the positive vibes linger well beyond the visit. Classmates and instructors are still giving props about Norrin's green hair and mullet long after his visit. I still hear people talk about how when John Malnor drove in from central Michigan for a cut. Especially as I start getting into color and tints, I'm excited for the services I can provide at an insanely reasonable cost (think $8 for a first-time haircut at the shop).
