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.

DAY ONE POSTPONED

This week in Queensland, we have had some pretty extreme and exciting wet weather, which has unfortunately left people devastated by floods for the second time in the past half a decade. Well golly Mother Nature, tell us how you really feel!

This has forced the closure of lots of roads and businesses in flood areas and surrounding areas. I was all set to begin college tomorrow but due to the floods and for the safety of staff and students travelling to the college, CNB have decided to close the college to students tomorrow - that's both of their campuses; Fortitude Valley and Gold Coast.

It's sort of good in a way because it gives me a few more days to mentally prepare myself and get my sleeping pattern back to that of a normal person. It also gives me a few more days to wear nail polish :D

This is the message published by the college this afternoon:

"Brisbane and Gold Coast Campuses Closed to Students 

After looking at all factors including current weather patterns, unknown flood water peaks, functioning of public transport and persistent power outages the decision has been made to close the Brisbane and Gold Coast campuses tomorrow, Tuesday 29 January 2013. 

Both campuses are currently fully operational and undamaged. However the issue of travelling to and from these campuses in areas that are flood affected or damaged may present safety issues. Given the situation is still unfolding it is also unknown what the full impact will be on public transport, particularly rail - no doubt they will be trying their best in a difficult situation. The safety of students and staff is our highest priority 

From tomorrow both the Endeavour College of Natural Health and the College of Natural Beauty were expecting new VET student cohorts on campus for the beginning of Trimester 1.

The Director of Aesthetics Education for the College of Natural Beauty has determined that classes will not proceed tomorrow due to the risks associated with a large student cohort travelling to campus. Similarly the Executive Team of Endeavour College has confirmed classes will not proceed. 

A decision regarding classes scheduled for the remainder of this week will be announced at 2.00pm tomorrow. 

Executive staff will return to the Brisbane campus tomorrow along with other staff members not in danger of travelling through flood waters. The Gold Coast Campus is closed to all staff and students. 

Students can email info@cnb.edu.au for non urgent queries. 

Carolyn Barker AM
Chief Executive Officer"

CNB ORIENTATION DAY 2013

Today I pulled my hair back into a painfully tight ponytail and caked some make up onto my sleepy face, and headed into Fortitude Valley for the College of Natural Beauty's orientation day.

I would say there was around 50 or more girls attending, all quite young, a few that seemed to be under 18. We were given name tags and divided into two large groups and put in separate rooms where we were shown a PowerPoint presentation (URRRRRGH I KNOW - DBPP) and given more information about the college and about the course we are about to embark on.

There was a couple of group activities which I suspect was to get us mingling. The first was called "people bingo" where we were all given a sheet with square on it and in t walk around the room and ask as many people as you could within eight minutes which activities they had done and list their names in in the box, and the person with the most filled in at the end won a prize (which wasn't me - I've never won a prize so I didn't even bother to see what it was - I just resigned myself from the very beginning). For the second activity, small groups of five or so were given some butchers paper (I was the scribe) and asked to all come up with some key words about what we thought were important in the beauty industry; like professionalism, personal hygiene, discreetness etc.

The presenters spoke in depth about the dress code which was quite strict. Only stud earrings, no facial piercings, visible tattoos or jewellery, day makeup is to be applied every day (even if you're just going to have to remove it as soon as you get to facials class) and a recommendation that you don't wear waterproof mascara, black leather or vinyl shoes with black socks, no cleavage  no hair hanging in the face, and as soon as your hair is long enough it's to be put into a bun or braided bun. We didn't receive or get fitted for uniforms today and unfortunately we won't be getting our uniforms for another 5-6 weeks (and I was so dying to share with you now!) But we did get to see the uniform and it's a conservative, longish black tunic with the popped collar and buttons down the side - a regular therapist uniform really, embroidered with the college's logo.

One things that I thought was particularly cool is that as part of your enrolment at the college, you can have three free confidential counselling sessions with the 24/7 Student Assistance Program for pretty much any issues that could affect your studies like relationship issues, depression, stress and anxiety (yay for me), gambling, grief, drug addiction and all those sorts of things.

There's not much else particularly interesting to say, but I suppose if you're reading you're not looking for interesting, just informative so other activities included in orientation day was filling out forms; first a sort of quiz that asked questions like 'what are your strengths and weaknesses' and 'why did you choose beauty therapy' etc, the others were medical forms where you were obliged to disclose any illnesses you suffer from in case it could interfere with your classes (i.e my allergies are not looking forward to aromatherapy so much) and an agreement to say you would tell the college if you have hepatitis and then just a photo consent form for permission to use images of you on their Facebook and in publications etc.

And just a few more bullet points about things learned today:

• There is a big university style library on the third floor open until 7pm through the week with computers and quiet study areas and areas for laptop plugins and printing services (which cost)
• There is a freaking awesome hydrotherapy tub on the fifth floor which looks like a space ship
• There is very small lunch room but I don't remember what floor; the fridge space is first in best dressed
• Parking is $10 at McWhirters or $9 at Valley Metro (which fills up quick), and you need to validate it at the college reception on level two to redeem these rates
• No smoking in your CNB uniform - beauty therapists have to smell perfect!
• Further to that, there is no perfume allowed to be worn THANK GOD
• Assessment is by way of workbooks and online quizzes and some practical examinations that you get three attempts for
• Every student does 18 weeks of work in the student clinic/salon
• They recommend that you complete a first aid certificate
• Employers can come to the student clinic as 'secret shoppers' looking for the next star
• The clinic will be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in the future and it's going to be hard to secure the Friday unless you have extenuating circumstances
• You will need to do lots of practice at home - especially massage which is a big component at CNB as opposed to most other colleges
• CNB are against animal tested products and ingredients! Yay!

Right, so I start this coming Tuesday, with lash and brow tinting class. Will report back with my findings!

WHAT'S IN STORE THIS TRIMESTER & THE FUTURE

I've received my timetable for the first trimester and I thought I would share it here as it's got some good information on it. As you can see from the image below, for the first three months of the year at the College of Natural Beauty (CNB), I'll be learning facial, nail, lash and eyebrow fundamentals as well as massage.

One very cool thing about the diploma is that at the end of the trimester after completing all these modules, you'll be qualified and ready to work in these particular areas if you can manage to find a salon to take you on. It will also be really beneficial to you in future to start working in the industry as fast as you can...and I shall tell you why!

The mentioned academic calendar can be found here.

I've been receiving beauty industry job notifications for a few weeks now to get a feel for what I'll be looking at once I'm qualified. I have to say it's a bit disheartening because about 99% of advertised positions I've come across ask that you have 2 years experience in the industry as a requirement of the job. It makes me worry that unless I graduate top of the school, it's going to be tough getting a start in the industry. So I think if you can manage to find a casual position, even just volunteering your services in a real salon it is going to count toward your overall years of experience when the time comes to look for a full time job.

As I said before, all the schools have student salons where you can use your skills on real paying clients, but I'm not sure how employers consider this experience. I guess you've just got to go out of your way to be the best at school and get some good references and commendations from your teachers.

On another subject, I'm not sure yet exactly what the uniform looks like. I'll be being fitted at orientation day this Friday and will probably receive it on my first day which is next Tuesday the 29th of January.

THE BEGINNING

Howdy folks and welcome!

My name is Bobbi, a gal residing in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

I'll get started by letting you know that writing is not my strong suit, but there's a subject I want to share with people in my city on the same journey as me (and potentially my country or the world), and that subject is beauty school in Brisbane, Australia.

For the past seven years, I've been an amateur professional and freelance graphic designer, and after two years of being unemployed on and off, then over time pretty much losing my employability completely due to being out of the game so long I decided it was surely time for a change. It had come to the point where I was even being turned down for positions at supermarkets.

Given that in the past I had worked professionally in government agencies (even the museum!) and was highly commended for much of my work, the constant rejection letters was a definite red flag; something had to change in my life...drastically! So, instead of sitting at home waiting for the next rejection letter, I set out seeking the perfect course of study to suit my attitude, creativity and any untapped potential I might have.

Limited to courses that are VET-FEE HELP approved (if you don't know what this is, it's a sort of  study now, pay later government loan which any eligible Australian citizen can apply for), I managed to narrow it down to two choices - psychology and beauty therapy. I honestly admitted to myself that I would not thrive at all in a largely theory based classroom environment...I needed practical and hands-on. Thus, a star was born! Bobbi Fox would study a Diploma of Beauty Therapy (course code SIB50110) in the year of 2013.

Next came the incredible dilemma of choosing a college at which to study. Given that it was already early December, I knew I may have already missed out on a place at the more prestigious colleges. There are many beauty colleges in Brisbane, but only four that offer VET-FEE HELP. I researched the colleges for a few weeks looking for blogs and reviews by students and tracking down alumni to ask them about their experience all to no avail. It ended up making my decision very difficult and so I decided to create this blog to share my experience with you as I study at my chosen college.

I did a drive by of each college and toured the facilities of two of the colleges to see which was most modern. I also researched the teaching staff at each college as best I could. The four options available (and information I gathered) are:

1. Australian Institute of Applied Sciences (AIAS) - Located in Stones Corner, course fees $14,865 (including uniform and tools). Plenty of places to eat and shop at lunchtime!
2. Endeavour College of Natural Beauty (CNB) - Located on 269 Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley, course fees $10,600 (including uniform and tools). Doesn't offer microdermabrasion as part of the diploma as others do. Full time = 3 days per week with the option of Saturday. Discounted $10 a day parking in McWhirters carpark.
3. THINK Australian National College of Beauty (ANCB) - Located on Costin Street, Fortitude Valley. There are two eligible areas of specialisation (Electrolysis or Spa Treatments), unsure of fees but includes uniform and tool kit. Seems to include more electives than CNB and AIAS. Full time = 3 days per week with the option of Saturday. This college fills up quickly and you may be wait listed. I found it to not be too conveniently located near places to get lunch or park.
4. Southbank Institute of Technology (SBIT) - Ideally located in South Bank, though full fee course cost with the VET-FEE HELP is unfortunately $19,500 (including uniform and tools).

All colleges have a student clinic where students are able to use their skills on real-life clients - clients pay a very discounted price for treatments. Still unsure of which college was going to be the most prestigious to graduate from, I've decided to go with the College of Natural Beauty because of my aversion to the use of chemically products as CNB use all natural and organic products through the course. I figured this would also cater much better also to my aversion to animal tested/containing products. Though I'm disappointed that it does not include the microdermabrasion - I intend on completing that separately someday as it's something I'd like to learn, along with spray tan and intimate waxing.

CNB seems to pride itself on presentation, and there IS a dress code. I have a lot of tattoos which worried me - the uniform doesn't cover my tattoos. When I went to the college to speak with someone she told me I would have to wear a 3/4 sleeve top under my uniform tunic to cover up my tattoos - I'll happily oblige as I don't like people asking about them anyway!
The rest is:

• Black pants (I bought some nice slim straight leg slacks from Target for $30)
• Closed in, rubber sole black OH&S acceptable shoes (I bought a pair of comfy Grosby flats from Target for $30)
• Knee high stockings to cover any bare foot flesh (I bought flesh coloured but may need to be black too)
• Clean manicured nails
• Hair tied back neatly
• Tasteful day makeup applied

I attend orientation day at the college on January 25th and start my first class on the 29th. I'm both nervous and excited! It's been a long time since I studied and I hope that I can pull some motivation out of these ashes caused by the long-term unemployment! I hope to have the time to still do my freelance retro inspired graphic design work during the course.

Till next post, I bid you adieu!

-Bobbi