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lunch breaks, having to eat quickly or in between clients.

      You will find that many people think hairdressers are unintelligent, but you will soon realize that hairdressing is not only a highly-trained skill, but a profession, as well. It might only take two to three years to become fully qualified, but it takes many years of experience to become a real professional. In this sense it is a little like learning to drive – qualifying doesn’t take long, but the more practice you get, the better you become and, in the case of hairdressing, the better your reputation will be. Hairdressing might not require the same intelligence as for becoming a doctor or a lawyer, but it is still a profession that requires skills in maths, science, language, communication skills and art, not to mention common sense.

      If you are thinking about a career in hairdressing, be warned that the hours are often long and the pay is not brilliant to start with. Having said that, however, the rewards increase as you progress if you own a business or are just really great at what you do, as people will pay a lot of money for good hairstyling. Tips can be an excellent bonus of the job and are common, and the majority of managers offer commission incentives to their staff. These can earn you good money, although you have to work hard for it.

      Perhaps the hardest part of hairdressing is the customer service. Dealing with the public in most jobs is demanding, but physically changing the way someone looks is particularly risky. It is also surprisingly hard to talk to people all day; people with whom you often have nothing in common. The reason hairdressers often talk about the weather or holidays is not because they are dull – it’s just sometimes the easiest way to open up a conversation with someone you know nothing about. And it works – people tell you all sorts of things when they are comfortable with you, and you can often lend a sympathetic ear as part of the service.

      You are constantly being educated in hairdressing, and gaining a qualification alone is not enough. Styles, fashions and techniques change rapidly, with new technology and new ways to cut or do technical things such as colouring. It is vital, therefore, to keep educating yourself with new courses and product knowledge.

      In summary, hairdressing can be as exciting or as boring as you make it. If you’re motivated and inspired you will learn much and go far, and can earn a good living from it. If you just want to plod along then that’s fine too, if less rewarding. The huge advantage of a skill such as hairdressing is that it goes with you anywhere you go, and is a skill that requires very little but a pair of scissors and a comb as the bare essentials.

      Georgina Fowler

      “ The very best hairdressers have passion for their job, and without it you won’t last long.”

      combs

       In hairdressing, combs and brushes are essential tools of the trade. Without them it’s almost impossible to create some of the looks we illustrate in this book. Combs range hugely in size, shape and the material in which they are made. Below are a selection of combs available, but certainly not the only combs you will see in the industry.

      Cutting comb

      Used mainly for cutting and sometimes for combing out wet hair, cutting combs often have two different rows of teeth from one end to the other. One end has finer, closer teeth; the other has slightly wider-set teeth for thicker hair. The comb is also often wider at one end and thinner at the other. The actual comb size also varies, which is for the comfort of the person using it. Be aware that some cheaper combs can be made of cheaper material, so can bend when combing thicker hair, or even snap, as they are not strong.

      Tail comb

      A tail comb is used mainly for colouring, perming, setting and putting up hair, as the prong is useful for separating and weaving out strands or sections of hair. The other end is like a regular comb and is used for combing knots out of the weaved or separated strands. When used for setting, a tail comb is good for taking sections of hair.

      Tail combs vary in size and the material they are made of. There are both plastic-ended and metal-ended tail combs – personally I prefer the metal-ended type, as a plastic-ended tail is often too thick to take a fine weave. It is also much wider than the fine end of a metal-ended tail comb.

      Wide-tooth comb

      A wide array of combs fit into this category, but generally they are good for use prior to cutting or when the hair is wet, perhaps with conditioner on. As the name suggests, wide-tooth means that the teeth are set wide apart, so enabling you to comb out knots and snags from the hair easily. Again, this comb comes in many shapes and sizes.

      brushes

       Brushes also come in all shapes, sizes and materials. It is worth investing in a variety, as all of them will come in useful at some point in your hairdressing career.

      Circular brushes

      There are a great many different sizes of circular brush, from the smallest round brush the size of a packet of sweets, to very large round brushes with the circumference of a mug. The barrel of a circular brush comes in several different materials, the two most common being metal and nylon. The main difference between the two is that the metal barrel heats up when you dry with it, so it helps to set the hair into place rather better. However, a nylon or wooden barrel is a lot softer on long hair and can be left in the hair like a roller while you carry on blow-drying the next section with another brush.

      Circular brushes are used on all lengths of hair, and it does not necessarily follow that you have to use the smallest one on short hair – small circular brushes can be good to get into the roots of long, curly hair when a client wants you to dry their hair straight.

      Denman and vent brushes

      Denman brushes don’t seem to be used as much these days, but if you ever need to do a set, they are good for brushing out the heavy set curls that leave lines in a client’s scalp. They are now more commonly used by nonprofessionals as an everyday brush, but they are still great brushes for dressing out hair that has been blow dried.

      A vent brush has very wide-spread prongs with gaps in between them, and is always made of a heavy, strong plastic. It is a very good hair-drying brush. By contrast, a Denman brush has a solid rubber spine which the more condensed prongs come through. The prongs are a lot closer together, which makes it a lot stronger for brushing out hair.

       PADDLE BRUSHES

      Paddle brushes have been used for hundreds of years and have recently become popular again. They are made by many different companies and come in many sizes, but they

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