VICTORY IS MINE! SORT OF...

Coming back to my little rage about my massage class and teacher. After writing to the college admin, I was able to transfer into a better massage class with a more experienced teacher. My new teacher has a great teaching style! She's quite strict about the rules (short nails, uniform etc), but given that I follow the rules anyway, it's not going to be a problem for me.

Now that that's sorted I just have to start stressing about the practical exams coming up over the next few weeks. Next week will be my lash and brow tinting and brow shaping practical exam. We had the skills test for it last week and received feedback on how we could improve for the exam and I only failed one area which was putting a hand towel over the clients chest so as not to drop any tint on their clothing. We still haven't received our tint kits so if you wanted to practice at home, you had to go out and buy the things - I couldn't afford this of course. However I'm not particularly concerned about this exam but more the facials and body massage practical exams coming up in about 4-5 weeks time.

In both facials and body massage class we are learning a massage and will be required to perform it without our notes in the exam. I can sort of remember the moves for body massage, and can remember a few for the facial cleansing and massage, but not the order that the moves go in. If they aren't done in the correct order that would be an instant fail of the exam. The facial massage has about 26 moves and a cleansing routine, including some lymphatic drainage moves which are a bit complicated. The full body Swedish massage that we are learning has over 60 moves but a lot of them are the same kind of move just on a different part of the body. You can imagine remembering the order is going to be killer!

Not having a proper massage bed here at home has been making it pretty difficult to practice with ease, so I suggest that you buy one before starting this course. You can get them on eBay for around $100 brand new, and around the same price from some of those discount websites, just have a Google. I plan on getting one when I have the money, but will be borrowing one from a friend who used to practice massage when I get the chance to pick it up.

UPDATE TO ANNOYANCES

The first order of business is more complaining about how disorganised the college is. I am about to enter week four and am still unable to login to complete my online learning modules which have due dates. The teachers still have no clue when this is going to be fixed, and when I spoke up in my massage class about it on Friday by innocently stating "Why wasn't this organised before we started?" I was promptly returned immediate dislike by the teacher and the excuse that the college had a large intake this year and was told to be patient. Well sorry guys, but I'm not paying you $10k to wait for you to get your shit together.

I really don't seem to be getting along with my massage teacher. She's quite obviously not the right person for this job (she's new this year) and she doesn't know the colleges procedures very well yet. She doesn't even stick to their curriculum or use their resources. She also treats the students like we are ALL teenage girls. Quite a few of the students are, but I'm 25 and expect to be spoken to like an adult, not scalded in front of the class and bossed around and critiqued like a child. There's a few ladies in the class older than me and I'm not sure how they are handling it. I've requested to be swapped into a class with a more experienced teacher as I know I'm not going to be able to put up with this teacher much longer. She's certainly taken quite a disliking to me for speaking up, so I get a bit of attitude from her when I ask a question like she is trying to prove that I'm stupid.

She doesn't give a demonstration at the front of the classroom for us to follow along with, she just walks around with a piece of paper reading the moves out and does the move very quickly on one of the students who are playing client on the massage tables and doesn't check that we have all mimicked it perfectly before rushing on to the next move. She's also not familiar with all the moves being taught at the college and has apparently taught a few moves wrong to confuse the students a bit more. Mind, I've only had 1.5 classes with her thus far after missing class last week.

I'm starting to question all together whether I want to continue to study this diploma, and I really haven't got much time to think it over as the census date is early next week. After this date, if I withdrew from the course, I would still be liable for the full course fees.

My other two classes, facials and lash and brow fundamentals seem to be going okay. It's tough getting my head around the facial procedure but the teacher is great. She's kind and treats all the students as equals. Despite the unorganised college that backs her, her lessons seem to be quite structured, and unlike the body massage teacher, she gives demonstrations in front of the class so we can follow along, but class runs overtime about 30 minutes in the afternoon. The lash and brow teacher doesn't seem to be too experienced with the theory she teaches us in the lesson, but she's still teaching the subject well enough in the practical side of study, and gives good demonstrations of the treatment procedures. However the workbook for that subject is poorly written and most of the answers haven't been provided in the resource book they gave us on the first day which supposedly contained everything we would need (rendering the text books optional). The workbook is due this coming Tuesday and I'm hoping my Googled answers are going to be correct!

This Tuesday I have a skills test for lash and brow class. This is a test in preparation for the actual practical exam the following week. We will be required to perform an eyelash tint, eyebrow tint and eyebrow shaping with tweezers. I suppose I'm confident with the procedure, but I do pretty much everything at turtle speed and when I am rushed I just crumble, and this is a timed exam!

We finally got to try on some uniforms for size last Tuesday. They are such a terrible fit and won't be arriving for another 2-3 weeks so I'll be sure to show you when it comes in!

LITTLE ANNOYANCES

Things that tax me about the College of Natural Beauty - being as judgmental and organised as I am, it was bound to happen eventually. I just have to say, this college is not entirely organised, or they at least don't have backup plans in place.

First of all, I originally was told that uniform fitting would occur on the orientation day. This of course never happened and we are entering week three still with no uniforms. We have also not yet received the lash and brow tinting kit required for practicing at home for our practical exam in week four.

It's the same deal with student ID cards. None of the teachers were sure what was happening with the ID cards and we just haven't been kept informed about what's going on with them. I've heard rumours from other students that we could go to the library and get them - but I never heard this from a teacher. I'd like to have been kept informed every step of the way.

The next thing is that even though my very first class (Lash and Brow Fundamentals) was delayed a week because of the college closure during the flood peaks, assessment dates and the workbook due dates haven't been delayed by a week. I've been trying to rush through the workbook for this class as it's due Tuesday, and all the answers to the questions are supposed to be found in the resource documents that we were given on our first day (a mixture of info pages and slides from PowerPoints shown in class), but of course they're not all in there! Most of them aren't the kind that can be found on Google. It's the same deal with the workbook for body massage class, but thankfully this class seems as though it might be a bit more organised - though I've only attended this class once due to missing my second one last week because I had a bit of a car accident with a taxi on my way in.

I had a Google of the optional text books where it seems they derive a lot of the learning material for the course from. I only got to see sample pages of the books online, but it seems some of the information that we derive workbook answers from are contained in the text books...but there is of course no way that I'll be able to shell out $300 for these books just to be able to pass my course like the girls who CAN afford the books. There's a limited number available from the college library but that is of course first in best dressed (which is never me).

Everyone was also supposed to receive a log in and password for the online learning modules and quizzes which are beginning to become due in week three (next week), but low and behold I still have not received a log in and the teachers have no idea what's going on, but I'm still going to have to adhere to the due dates despite it being their fault so that I don't fall behind.

Another thing that grinds my gears a bit, given my background in graphic design and proofreading, is that the spelling and grammar is shocking throughout the workbooks and resources! Particularly for lash and brow class. I expect that if I'm paying over $10k to learn at this college, that they would at least proofread their materials a few times over. Even the contents page doesn't marry up with the alleged page numbers.

And of course there was that little mishap on the day of my first body massage class where we all spent the first half of the day with the wrong teacher and then had to change over.

So I'm overall a bit disappointed by these things considering how much I'll be paying to learn here. I expected that the beauty therapy industry is an industry where organisation and perfection are key, and I am very worried to be learning at an institution that is wavering on those two important things. At the train station I've been seeing girls from the other college I had originally considered (Australian National College of Beauty [ANCB]) that all have their uniforms and only started last week. It looks as though the dress code isn't as strict too. So here's hoping I didn't make the wrong decision. In any event it's too late now if I did!

In other news, I picked up a couple of massage oils (Sweet Almond and Apricot Kernel) for practice from Perfect Potion in the Queen Street Mall. I was delighted to discover that because I'm a natural therapies student, I get a 10% discount! Usually one would have to show their student ID to obtain the discount but the lady let it slide that time.

LASH & BROW CLASS

Well...here's the last post about all of my first classes!

Tuesday I took my first Lash and Brow Fundamentals class. My teacher for this class was very personable and knowledgable about the subject and interested in her students. The morning was filled with PowerPoint and theory and more student introductions as with all the other 'first classes'. We learnt once again about the layers of the skin (the same as Facial Fundamentals class), which was good in a way because I think I've memorised quite a bit of it now.

After lunch there was a bit more theory about skin and contraindications of lash and brow tinting/shaping then we got into the practical stuff! I was pretty delighted to hear that this subject was going to be largely practical.

For the first class, we did lash tinting and eyebrow shaping (with tweezers - unfortunately eyebrow threading is not covered at school, but You Tube is a God for that). The teacher gave the class a demonstration first on a fellow student - showing us how to set up our work area, follow safe practices and maintain a connection with your client (who will have to close their delicate eyes and trust you for up to 15 minutes through the whole procedure of lash tinting). After the demonstration we all buddied up in twos and dived in and grabbed our materials and safety equipment and had our buddy lay on the bed (also, on that note - we have no desks at CNB, each classroom seems to have massage beds in it and you sit at those instead, often unfortunately on a very uncomfortable wheeled stool with no back!), and the teacher walked everyone through the process one step at a time, checking how everybody was going, then we swapped over and our buddy did our treatment.

Blue-black eyelashes...hell yeah!

It was all very easy to do, just a little bit fiddley and easy to forget some of the hygiene procedures which seem to be very important when it comes to coming in contact with a clients bodily fluids.

So at the end of the day, my sensitive eyes came home a bit itchy but with blue-black tinted lashes and a few stray brow hairs plucked. Next week will be a bit more theory about skin and glands and brow tinting prac - I can't wait for that because my tragic orange bleached eyebrows are getting to be a pain!

Homework for this class seems to come in the form of a workbook that you fill in the answers to. All the answers are included in the resources provided at the beginning of the trimester (PDFs with all the PowerPoints and info you get in class), but I've found it helpful to be taking detailed notes in class too. There's also a workbook for facials class. I've gone ahead through the workbooks and filled out everything I could so I wouldn't have to worry too much about them later. The lash and brow workbook is due in two weeks as the whole subject is a short one (four weeks actually - we move on to nails after this).

Exams for this class are practical assessments. Lash and brow assessment will be in week four, then after we have passed that, we are qualified to perform that treatment on real clients! Hooray!

I am off to bed now to get my beauty sleep for Facial Fundamentals class tomorrow! Hoping for some practical but I'm looking at the unit guide, it seems there will be an exam and more theory so I'll be hitting the Berocca hard!

FIRST EVER BODY MASSAGE CLASS

A fatigued me learning theory

Dear, oh dear, two posts in one day!

I won't make a post giving a detailed description of absolutely every class I attend, but what I'm doing now is just giving my readers a run down of the first class for each subject and then a bit later in the trimester, hopefully I can really launch into the fun stuff and have more videos and cool facts to show you.

As I mentioned in my last entry, today I had Body and Aesthetic Aromatic Massage class. It wasn't the most organised situation from the get go and there were a few mishapps throughout the day. We entered the class at 9am and spent at least 20 minutes sorting the role out. Girls from the other group on another level were coming back and forth unsure of which classroom they were supposed to be in because their timetables were misprinted. Then once that was all out of the way and we were all seemingly settled into the right class, our exceptionally passionate, animated and very energetic teach launched into a PowerPoint presentation.

First was more housekeeping and common sense. We were informed that there would be a uniform check in week two and of a system they call the 'red dot system', where if we don't follow the various rules set out by the college (such as dress code, attendance and lateness, success in exams etc). It's all quite strict. My understanding of the exam system is a bit loose but I believe you get three attempts at your practical exams, and if you blow them, you pay about a $200 fee to resit the exam during the trimester break. I'm not sure yet how many attempts you're afforded for workbooks (printed activity booklets that you get for some classes which is mainly homework), theory exams and online quizzes, but I know there is also a fee associated with re-sitting them.

The rest of the lesson up until lunch time was theory about body massage - general stuff like all the different types of massage and what they're purpose is and contraindications. Then we learnt about the importance of clients filling out a medical form, then we were required to fill out our own. You have to note a lot of personal information about ANY medical condition you suffer from and it is going to pretty much be shared with all the other girls in the class and the teacher. I seemed to have sat next to the least shallow girl this particular class, but the others seemed like they would have been pretty icked out that I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, ha!

After we got back from lunch, there was more chaos - the teachers realised they had the wrong students so we swapped teachers and rooms and had to play a bit of catch up with the new teacher. The new teacher was also new in the sense that she only just started at the school too and admitted to not being familiar with muscle names (which the students are expected to learn throughout the course), so hopefully she will be a knowledgeable enough teacher. She was very kind and down to earth however.

We spent the rest of the afternoon with our new teacher learning how to set up our massage table and then she demonstrated some movements of the Swedish massage on one of the students. Next week, I envision we'll probably play a bit of catch up and be a little bit behind and then practice on each other - so I'll be wearing my best bra!

Still no uniform or student card - a little bit concerned with organisation at CNB, but hopefully they'll get it together next week. On Tuesday I'll be off to Lash and Brow Fundamentals class.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Yesterday was the first day of school for many, including me! After class being postponed due to the weather on Tuesday, I started college in Facial Fundamentals class.

It was a theory based lesson, and after seeing the lesson plan it's going to be theory based for a few weeks. The teacher was very engaging and knowledgeable but it was still a bit of a challenge to stay focused as there was a bit of death by PowerPoint going on.

We learnt about the different skin layers and functions, the names of facial muscles and bones, the effects and contraindications of facial massage and a few basic massage movements (practiced on a rubber dummy). Don't ask me to remember them though! This massage thing is going to take a whole lot of practice.

In my class, there was a few age groups. There was a mother in her 40s returning to study and even a much older lady, there was me of course being 25 and the rest seemed to be recent year 10 and 12 leavers, most of which said they want to open their own salons.

The teacher broke the class up with a decent amount of breaks. We were given 20 minutes in the morning at around 11am and then an hour for lunch and a five minute in the afternoon. She even had us make mini trifles with ingredients she had brought in to represent the skin layers.

As I write this I am sitting in the common room at college waiting for today's class which is Body and Aesthetic Aromatic Massage. Everyone was given a USB yesterday which contains all the resource booklets and lesson plans for each class this trimester and according to that it seems that today's class will also be very theory based for a while.

In other news, next Friday I have a job interview/trial at a inner city hair and beauty salon for a part time salon coordinator (which is basically a receptionist). It will only be for 10 hours a week I initially, so hopefully I can handle that on top of my studies and freehand design work. Some days it could be a five hour shift straight after an eight hour day at college. We'll see how it goes - it would give me great experience!

Until next time, adios.