Cold coffee and Sunday mornings.1/28/2018 It’s Sunday morning, I sit here at my dining room table, drinking a cup of black coffee. I have yet to go to the gym, shower, meditate, or eat. I have roughly two hours to get as much done as possible before I head to the Capitol theatre for our final performance of Moby Dick at Utah Opera. This entire week has been revolved around working in the salon and this production of Moby Dick. I feel like I haven’t even had time to catch up on life at home or even think about this blog. My mind has been so preoccupied with countless other projects happening every moment.
And that’s what I want to talk about today. I know it’s not necessarily hair related but I want to discuss the idea of space. Within the last couple months, I have been personally prioritizing my life, seeing what is important to me and letting go of what is not. Once I began to let go of activities or actions in my life that served me no or little purpose I created an empty space. This also is applicable to our thoughts, to take out the trash in our head, let go of thoughts or worries of the future or past and to be in the present. To let go of the stories we make up in our head, to let go of the outcomes we think may or may not occur and to be fully present. To be where we are which is Here and Now. To create space in our head, or even better to get out of our head, what’s that saying, “You’re out of your mind.” We should all get out of our mind from time to time. Creating space in our life allows for creativity and change to occur. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. That’s how this blog was created, I allowed space in my life, I let go of thoughts and actions that caused stress. I had no idea what was going to fill that space. After having that openness, mentally and physically this blog was birthed. A year ago, I would’ve never thought about writing a blog, but here we are, and I love it! A year ago, I was in a different place, overworked, over-stressed, overweight, and over it! When you’re over it why hold on to it? Let it go! Create space for something new. After creating that space, it seems that it is temporarily full again. Life will balance back out, this opera will close, I’ll post this writing for the week and then I’ll have some empty room again, and of course it’ll fill itself up. Life is like a mug, first it’s empty, then you pour yourself a cup of, oh let’s say coffee, Ethiopian blend, you drink it and now you have room for the same blend or a new blend of coffee, or tea, or water, yogurt, maybe cottage cheese, or even red wine. I know I’m not the only person who’s ever drank wine out of a mug. My point is, you need to have emptiness in your cup to try something new, if it’s filled with shitty cold coffee from four hours ago then you don’t have room for anything else. You either have to suck it up and drink it or dump it down the drain. Life is too short and precious, don’t hold onto shitty coffee, let it go and allow your cup to fill with something you’ve never tried before. Dan Millman wrote, “Stress happens when the mind resists what it is.” Get out of your mind, follow your dreams, be happy, relax into the world, and love unconditionally. If you want change in your life you have to create the space for it. I’ll leave you with one question. How much shitty coffee do you need to let go of? Love always, DJH
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Five minutes ‘til places!1/21/2018 Since the belly of the theatre world is so different I thought this week I would walk you through what the wig and makeup crew at Utah Opera typically do in a performance night. To keep the element of surprise for those who plan on seeing the performance I will not go into graphic detail of the blood, scars, tattoos, and special effects that creates the world of our current opera, Moby Dick. Moby Dick first debuted in 2010 at Dallas Opera. This modern piece is based off the novel by Herman Melville, it’s a unique take on a classic story. Currently Utah Opera has four crew members in wigs and makeup. Yancey Quick, the current wig and makeup designer, Michelle, Bailey, and myself. Yancey, Michelle, and I are helping the principle artists (the leads) into their wigs and makeup, while Bailey oversees our men’s chorus and assisting them into their makeup. At Utah Opera we use a variety of different hair and makeup products in our productions, while each artist brings their own makeup kits we do have a stock supply which consist of brands like MAC, Ben Nye, and Kryolan. The hair products we use are from Joico and UNITE, Yancey Quick is an educator with Joico and I am an educator with UNITE, we use these products because they create beautiful results and support the craft. The wigs come from a variety of different place, for this show all the men’s wigs are hand tied, human hair, lace front wigs. There was so much time and detail into the construction and styling of these wigs a person would never know who is wearing a wig and who is not. Wigs like this do not come cheap, the least expensive wig we have in this production would be priced around $900. For Moby Dick the first makeup call is at two hours before the top of the show (5:30pm). The reason being is because this show has called for some special effect makeup like scars, blood, and tattoos which take some time in the application. We are also not creating ‘pretty’ makeup. Yancey designed the show to create the world 'out at sea'. You’ll see the makeup revolves around sun burnt, bloody, and dirty skin, we try to keep the performers as realistic as possible by creating textured skin that you would see on a sailor. The makeup artists have anywhere between 30-45mins to get each principle artist into their wig and makeup. The most fascinating aspect of this English opera is the fact that there are no women characters. When I think of opera I always think of a beautiful soprano who can hit those lovely high notes. Even though all the characters in Moby Dick are male, we do have one female performer. She plays Pip, a ‘pants role’. A pants role is when a female performer plays a male character, the reason why a company would cast a female in a male role is typically because the character is a younger boy (like Pip is in Moby Dick) or they need a vocal range that typically only a female can sing. This is a fun challenge, taking a beautiful woman and transforming them into a man. Once the curtain goes up our job is not over, we stay through the entire performance to assist the performers with wig and makeup changes, to do touch ups in between acts, and assist the artist out of their wigs at the end of the performance. Once everyone is out of their wigs and costumes we must clean and tidy up the wigs for the next performance. This consists of cleaning the lace of the wig which can get dirty from makeup and sweat, block the wig on a canvas head, and restyle the wig. We also have to clean our makeup brushes and makeup before the next performance. Typically, the wig crew are the first people to arrive at the theatre and the last to leave, along with the wardrobe department. For myself I arrive at 5:30pm and leave around 11:30pm, it makes for a long day especially when I'm working in the salon before I head to the theatre. This is such a beautiful production with some of the most talented people in the industry, I would highly recommend seeing this show before it closes. If you've never seen an opera but are 'opera curious' this is a great show to start with because it is sung in English. Moby Dick will be running until January 28th at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City, Utah. If you would like to learn more about this production or purchase tickets please click on this link. I hope you have found this interesting and I hope to see you at the theatre! Until next week. DJH Photos credit: Utah Opera Facebook page
Earlier this week I was having a conversation with a client, we were discussing how amazing she looks! Within the last six months this client made a few drastic shifts in her life. First off, she started going to the gym five days a week for about 30-45 minutes a day, next she tried a 30-day vegan challenge, and then she started taking vitamin supplements. After her 30-day vegan challenge she decided to continue her vegan diet. Since she made these few adjustments to her life she has lost a significant amount of weight, her skin looks amazing, her minor health problems have cleared up, and her hair is full and luxurious.
This is not a blog post where I am going to tell you, “GO VEGAN!”, but I want to dive into all these life choices a person can make and discuss how and why all those choices have improved her hair and skin. Let me start with physical activity, one would probably not assume that working out can improve your hair and skin, but it can impact it. When we are exerting our body, we are increasing our heart rate and taking bigger, deeper breaths, bringing in more oxygen into our body and into our blood. This is beneficial because our hair and skin needs oxygen and healthy blood to stay beautiful. Why is that? Hair begins to grow from the root in the hair follicle, blood feeds your scalp at the root, this creates more cells, so your hair can grow. Having healthy blood full of oxygen feeds your scalp and creates beautiful hair. Now let’s investigate diet, in my opinion diet is the key component to achieve healthy hair and skin. Now you don’t have to run off and become a vegan, although as a vegetarian myself I would promote alternatives to meat, but that’s another topic. Your body needs nutrition, I don’t think anyone would argue me. If you eat fast food all day, every day your hair and skin will reflect what you eat, and your skin and hair will look greasy just like the fried food being ingested. That sounds dramatic but it’s not, I have clients who in there 30’s experience severe acne, oily skin and hair, and are eating at McDonalds daily. If you eat a well-balanced diet your body will reflect that. Going back to blood, since our hair and skin feed off our blood you need to insure you’re eating the foods that promote healthy blood. Eating fruits and vegetables daily will insure you are getting the iron, vitamins, potassium, etc. that your blood needs to be healthy. A lot of beauty products have ingredients derived from coconuts, cucumbers, almonds, oranges, apples, and so many other fruits and veggies. If you are ingesting these foods, it is going to help create beautiful hair and skin. Creating healthy hair starts before it even grows out of your scalp. Our hair is also composed of over twenty unique types of protein, be sure you’re eating enough protein as well. If you are a vegan or vegetarian you make sure you’re getting enough protein daily, protein can be found in broccoli, beans, soy products, nuts, and grains like quinoa. If you eat meat be sure to get a variety of different proteins, some of the best protein for meat eaters would be fish because of the omega fatty acids, these fatty acids help improve skin and hair and are not found in other meats like beef or pork. Sometimes we don’t eat all the nutrients we need for our body. That’s why I recommend taking a daily multi-vitamin. This will ensure you get all the vitamins and minerals your body needs to keep producing healthy hair and skin. Do not buy the hard tablets, these do not break down in the body, a lot of people pass them before they digest, therefore I suggest buying the soft capsules or the gummies. There are so many brands of vitamins it can be overwhelming and hard to decide which one to get, so please consult with your medical professional first. They will be able to find a brand that best suits your body. There are other supplements that can help improve hair and skin like Biotin, prenatal pills, iron tablets, etc. however I would consult your doctor before buying every supplement that help with hair and skin, especially if you have any medical conditions. These three easy, simple acts, physical activity, eating healthy, and taking vitamins will be more beneficial to your hair, scalp, and skin than the most expensive products on the market. Taking care of our body with exercise and proper diet will produce beautiful results throughout your entire body. Take care of yourself and your body. Until next week. DJH The winter hair struggle1/7/2018 During this time of year, the freezing weather can be extremely hard on our skin and hair. A lot of my clients complain about dry hair and itchy scalp during the winter months. The reason why we get dry scalp is because of how dry our atmosphere becomes. Here are a few tips to help keep your hair and scalp feeling and looking great!
I hope these tips help promote a healthy head of hair during the harsh months of winter. If you have discovered any tricks to prevent dry hair please share them in the comment section below. Stay warm out there! DJH THE GEOGRAPHY OF HAIRThe Geography of Hair is devoted to share experiences and stories in cosmetology and how it has affected people, myself, or us as a society. Archives
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