Split Ends

Though it defies logic, since I’m still cash strapped and living in limbo, I had a pretty great Summer. Summer’s over now though. Well, according to the calendar, Summer won’t really be over until next week, but the leaves are already starting to change colors. There’s a chill in the air. I’ve been wearing lovely jewel toned sweaters…. (OK... OBVIOUSLY none of that is true! :) School has started again, though, which means that whether it’s official or not, it’s Fall.

It also means that I am substitute teaching again. (Though my Summer did include some fun surprises, none of them were a book contract/a five or six figure advance, an offer letter for my dream job, a winning lottery ticket or a wealthy, handsome gentleman seeking my hand in marriage.)

Yesterday, I subbed for a Cosmetology class at the high school. Did this kind of class exist when I was in high school? I really don’t know. If it did, I know I didn’t take it given that I was all wrapped up in those pesky college prep courses, which were supposed to all but guarantee my stable financial future.

If we did have Cosmetology at my high school, I can’t imagine that the classroom was anything like this one. Honestly, I half way expected to see an aging Frankie Avalon come sauntering in with the Pussy Cat dolls and performing a hip hop version of Beauty School Drop Out.

In my Baby Boomer mind, high school classrooms have gray floors, desks, chalkboards and pencil sharpeners. They don’t have black and white checked floors, pricy electronic equipment, capes, adjustable chairs with dryer hoods and bins of mannequin heads with eyes that would scare Chucky.

What really blew my mind though, wasn’t the appearance of the classroom. It was the lesson plan. The students in three of the classes were supposed to either style their own hair or work their magic on the mannequin heads. The other three classes were supposed to watch The Style Network’s show, Split Ends, and then answer a few questions about the episode they saw.

For those of you not in the know, Split Ends is the salon version of ABC’s Wife Swap. A stylist from one type of salon temporarily trades lives with a stylist from another type of salon and hijinx ensue.

For example, in one of the episodes we watched on Wednesday, a glorified barber who generally comes to work in flats and no makeup and who works at a salon/antique shop in rural Washington state which caters to a local logging community trades places with the owner of an East Coast high end salon known for its very fashion forward, highly trained staff. The Washington state salon charges around $20 for cut and its counterpart charges somewhere in the several hundred dollar range for a precision cut and color.

It was another one of the many out of body experiences I have had since my hiatus from corporate America. Here I was being paid to watch bad reality tv while bored 17 year olds whispered back in forth about what they're going to wear to homecoming. Anyway, I left school yesterday afternoon a little more current on teen fashion and more grateful than ever that I don’t live in a community where I have to look at plaid flannel, decoy ducks and old furniture when it’s time to get my hair cut and colored.

What did you do yesterday? Did you go to Hot Heads? If you were smart, you did. (See my last post about the advantage of going to Hot Heads on a Wednesday.)

Wishing you a day with no Split Ends. Be back soon! The HHG