Shock Horror!! :(

So, I French manicured my nails, bought a new notepad, arranged my holidays around college term time, psyched myself up for six months of hard graft, and I’m good to go.  Turn up at college at 8.50am on a Saturday morning and go to reception to find out which room I’m in.  The security guard at reception is very surprised at being asked where Beauty Therapy level 2 is, flounders a little, then directs me to the Hair & Beauty corridor and asks me to loiter around there for a bit.  So I go into the beauty salon reception and ask there instead, saying I’m a new starter on beauty therapy level 2.  They don’t know which room either so I’m told to loiter in the corridor.  I do so.  There are 3 girls also loitering, who turn out to be on the level 3 course.  When their tutor arrives, she tells me which room I should be in and that it probably starts at 9.30am. 

So I go and get myself an overpriced vending machine coffee and sit watching nail art tutorials on YouTube for 20 mins.  Tartofraises actually, 10 techniques for one stroke flowers, good tutorial!

9.20am and back to the loitering corridor, and there are a group of students all dressed in beauty uniforms chatting about waxing.  I ask if this is beauty therapy, level 2.  It is.  At this point, I’m a bit worried that they have uniforms already and are talking about waxing, as I thought this was a beginners’ course and no prior experience was needed.  Why were they on this course if they’d done waxing before?  What previous course had they been on to know each other already?  How come they had lever arch files stuffed with notes and textbooks with them? 

The tutor turned up, and we all went into the room.  I took a seat at one of the couches.  Then the tutor looks at me (me being the only one not in uniform!) and says “Can I help you?”  Why yes you can! “I’m starting on the beauty therapy course today”.  She tells me that this course started in September and the course I enrolled on had been cancelled!!  Not enough people signed onto it apparently.  I couldn’t believe it, no one from the college had contacted me to tell me this, I’d turned up in the wrong room on the wrong course, for a course that wasn’t even running.  Nightmare!!   You know when you turn up at your first uni lecture or A-level class, and the teacher tells you what the course is just to double check that everyone has the right class.  And there’s always that one dunce who’s in the wrong room on the wrong course, and has to do the walk of shame out of the room.  I was that person!!!

Anyway, I couldn’t believe it, gutted, disappointed, upset and a bit humiliated kind of covered it! I was so looking forward to doing the course, had told all my friends, family and colleagues I was starting it, and was very annoyed and the college for being so rubbish and incompetent.

But, eternal optimist that I am, after 10 mins of annoyance and calming down, I started thinking about the nail courses I’ve been wanting to do (obviously not at this college though).  I couldn’t afford to do them at the same time as beauty therapy and wouldn’t have had the time.  So, here’s my new and exciting plan: enrol on the Shellac course, then gels, then acrylics.  So many people have asked if I do Shellac, I think this is definitely the one to start with, and then I can start earning from this pretty much straight away.  Looking forward to what happens next...

What to expect...?

One week to go....I'm really excited about starting the Beauty Therapy course!

I rung up the college last week to ask what I'd need to bring on the first day, apparently just myself and a notepad & pen!  What to wear though?! Jeans and a top?  Some comfy black leggings? Do I wear make up? Or not? Hair up? Or down? Yes, all these thoughts are going through my mind!

Think I'll opt for comfy leggings, hair up, minimal make up and a neat french manicure.  Surely all these things must be considered when embarking on a beauty therapy course!!! He he!

Part of the cost of the course is for the uniform and kit.  I guess that will all be ordered when we get there.  I think the uniform is a black top and trousers.

The course consists of:

• Health & Safety
• Promoting additional products/services to the client
• Facial skin care treatments
• Enhancing the appearance of Eyebrows & Lashes
• Waxing
• Manicure
• Pedicure
• Make up

Although this course isn't cheap (I didn't get any help with funding as I work full time), I like the fact that you get to practise your skills with real clients in the college salon.  That's one thing I need, to build my confidence working with clients (who aren't friends or family!).  So I'm hoping the 'promoting additional services' module will really help, and give me the confidence to build my mobile business.  It could be that the course is more geared towards working in an actual salon, but I'm sure it will be helpful for a mobile therapist too.

I'm not planning on doing facial treatments as part of my mobile service, but I love facial massage (or any type of massage!) so it's something I'm very much looking forward to.

Where the brows are concerned, I usually thread and tweeze my own eyebrows, or occasionally go to the department store to get them threaded.  I went on a threading course a while back, but found it really hard to properly master the art of threading (where they use the hands and mouth).  It's something I want to practise and improve upon, and maybe offer as a service, together with eyebrow waxing.

Not sure how much I'll learn from the manicure part of the course, but again, I want to get more confident dealing with clients in their homes, so either way it's just more practise.  Never done a pedicure, but let see how that one goes!

As far as make up is concerned, I guess we all love make up!  Although I personally don't wear a lot of make up day to day.  Not planning on offering this as a service, so this will be purely for fun, but again, I may enjoy it so much and decide to take it further - who knows!

So that's what I'm expecting from the course.  It'll be hard work, having a full time job, going to college on a Saturday, practising and doing 'homework' during the week, as well as being a newly married lady!  But I'm looking forward to the challenge, bring it on!!