Nail School Update: Intro / Alpha Phase Complete!

I’ve come to realize that I’m a terrible blogger when it comes to school!  I think my updates will be less frequent than I had originally planned, but at a minimum I’m going to cover the three phases of the program.  I haven’t taken many pictures because we really don’t do much nail art, and we haven’t started sculpting yet.  The pictures below were taken this past Thursday when my mom came in for a mani and pedi.  :)

The first phase called Intro/Alpha was seven weeks long and involved mostly non-clinic hours (77), and only a few clinic hours (21.5).  We spent the first five weeks in the classroom covering most of the textbook.  Our project for this phase was a book report where we had to find a book about sales and write about 13 different sales techniques that could be used in the nail salon environment.  It only had to be one page typed, so it was super easy.  I wrote two pages because it was almost impossible to fit that much info on just one page.

We practiced manicures, Shellac manicures and pedicures on live models in week 4 and then tested out at the end of week 5.  The test out consisted of a written test that covered all of the chapters that we learned so far, and we had to perform a manicure and pedicure on a live model which we were scored on as well.  Everyone in the class passed, which meant that we got to start working on the floor and taking clients in week 6.

Applying Shellac on my mom

I was so nervous about working on clients, but I’ve been doing it for 3 weeks now and it gets a little easier each time.  Luckily, my very first client was a 14-year-old girl that was getting her very first manicure, so she had no idea whether I was doing it right or not!  LOL  Of course I did my best, but it took the pressure off knowing that she wasn’t judging my performance.  She was completely thrilled with her first manicure experience, which I was relieved about.

I still prefer doing Shellac manicures over regular ones since it’s what I know best and am most comfortable with.  We use Zoya nail polish for our regular manis and I dislike working with it because it gets thick really fast.  Brand new bottles are easy to apply, but after a few uses they are goopy and difficult to use.  Ugh!

I was absolutely dreading doing pedicures on people, but it’s not quite as bad as I had imagined.  I enjoy doing the massage part of a pedi.  It’s really hard on your body to sit in that position for an hour at a time though!  Major props to people that do it all the time for a living, because my body aches after doing just one usually.  Feet are still a little icky to me, especially soggy feet that have been soaking a while.  I’m dealing with it.  LOL

Doing a pedicure for my mom

On the days when we work on the floor we either take appointments, help out in the mani and pedi rooms, or we play on our fake hands in the classroom if there’s nothing to be done.  Usually Thursday nights are slow, but I’ve been asking my family & friends to make appointments on that day to keep me busy.  Saturdays are an absolute zoo and we work all day long.  The past two Saturdays I’ve done two manis and two pedis, which is a lot for a beginner.  And because my first name starts with A, I am first in the rotation when clients call to book so I’m busy all the time.  The girls that have names further down the alphabet are hardly getting any clients, which doesn’t seem like a fair system at all.  They really need to find a way to rotate the schedule better.

I passed the Intro/Alpha stage with an overall score of 98%!  Woot!  The second phase is the Beta/Gamma Phase, which began last week.  In this 7 week phase we’ll spend most of our time on the floor working with clients and only one evening a week in the classroom.  Our project consists of creating a resume with a cover letter, thank you letter, job application form and we have to answer potential interview questions and come up with our own questions for a potential employer.  We’ll be learning artificial nail services including tips, wraps, and acrylics, and we’ll do mock state board test outs.

I’m looking forward to learning acrylics, but we don’t perform acrylic services on clients so I’ll only be working on my fake hand.  I’ll be in seek of some volunteers who will allow me to experiment on them.  :)

Also now that I’ve been working with products there are a whole slew of new things on my wishlist!  LOL  I really really want to buy a towel warmer because the hot towel treatments are amazing… but do I really need that in my home just for me?  Probably not.  I also want every Aveda product imaginable.  I bought a few of them already, but I’m holding off because I believe we earn a commission that we can spend on products when we upsell to clients.