I flew back in town on Tuesday afternoon, spent the day cleaning the house and doing laundry, the next day I woke up early, went to yoga and then to the salon. This has been everyday since my training in San Diego, trying to catch up from all my recent trips, but my training was fantastic! Half the training was devoted to haircutting and styling techniques and the other half was spent on doing a photo shoot. This was a great balance of hands on and watching demonstrations, I always look forward to this training, I look forward to seeing friends from around the country, I look forward to learning new tips and trends to take back to the salon.

This is my favorite training I attend, I also take classes locally when they are available, I feel that continuing education is vital for growth in our careers, it doesn’t matter what your field of expertise is. I feel that the only way to grow and expand in your career is to stay educated on what the latest changes are in your field. That is why I am so passionate about continuing my own education and teaching others. Technology is rapidly changing the world and how we can obtain information, I say take advantage of it, take an online course or a webinar, expand your knowledge.

I am beginning to rant now...

Some of the valuable information I brought back would be, how to cut and style more editorial or high fashion styles, refined my razor cutting techniques, and how to run through a successful photo shoot, I wont be going into the technical details of it all because, like I stated earlier this month I’m trying to become more visual in my posts. Below are photos from the demonstrations and photo shoot from this past weekend, you may look through those to get an idea of what a weekend of continued education looks like for a hairstylist, as you can see that it was not all serious and we had lots of fun. 

Next week I will be taking you through Utah Pride weekend and be exploring hair and makeup through Salt Lakes gayest celebration.

Xo,
​DJH

 For the last eight years I have worked for a product company called UNITE, within those eight years I have had a variety of different job positions and responsibilities. I worked in their salon in San Diego, I was their education coordinator at the head offices in Carlsbad, a Regional Artistic Director in Utah, and currently working as an Art Team Member. Long story short I have been involved within their education department on many levels for some time.

Over the years I have worked all over the country, I’ve taught haircutting classes in Atlanta, worked backstage at New York Fashion Week, worked with sales consultants in Boise, taught styling classes in Washington DC, and coordinated regional events in Philadelphia, just to name a few. There was a time where I was on the road at least one weekend a month and sometimes I was in five different states in a month.
                      
Being an educator for a brand like UNITE has been an incredible experience, not only do their products work amazing, but they are a brand that I believe in. They are always striving to continue to grow their company, give back to the community, and take care of their employees.
                      
This weekend I venture to Carlsbad, California where I will be attending my annual training with UNITE. Once a year they fly their educators to their head offices where they work one on one with us and help us grow as hairstylists and educators. I look forward to this training all year long, not only do I get to train with some amazing hairdressers, but I also get to see some of my friends from around the country. These training are always different, sometimes they are focused on haircutting skills, presentation skills, or how to demonstrate a styling class. I will share with you next week what this training was about.
                      
Unfortunately, I must cut this week’s post short, I have a full day at the salon and then leave straight to the airport. Next week I will be expanding on this post and talk about my trip to Carlsbad, I’ll be exploring what and how hairstylists continue their education.

Until then.

​DJH

This week I dive into what it takes to become a drag queen! Like I stated last week I will be providing more visuals, I have posted a video of what I do when I’m getting into drag, followed by before and after photos. Unfortunately, the original video I recorded was a makeup tutorial and is too large to post, so I had to time-lapse the original, hour and twelve-minute video to a twelve-minute video.

        Since the video is now a time-lapse here is the quick step by step.

1. Begin by shaving your face, add moisturizer, and alcohol eyebrows to remove moisture.
2. Add orange lipstick in areas where facial hair grows to brighten those areas.
3. Glue eyebrows down.
4. Add crème foundation and crème contour.
5. Powder face to set.
6. Use powder contour, blush, and highlight.
7. Paint eyes and add lashes.
8. Add wig, hips, tits, and lips.
9. Then you’re in drag!

                      
I hope you enjoy this week’s post!

Lots of love,

DJH & Trixie Belmont

Looking at the calendar for this month I see I only have two days off, this month is booked up with appointments, classes, work trips, a family trip, photo shoots, drag shows, and prepping for the Utah Pride Parade. Looking at the schedule I was worried about how I’m going to get my weekly blog posts, but then I was inspired by the muses. Maybe I can do a slight shift in how I am creating my posts for this month.

I am going to try something new, this may be implemented into other future posts. I am going to document the work I am doing this month through visual mediums, i.e. photographs and videos. Each week I will post a video or photographs of what projects I have been working on, this will hopefully be entertaining to see all the different elements of hair and makeup I am involved in. Up until this point I have used writing as the main catalyst to explore the geography of hair.

I’m very excited about this for many, first off it only makes sense for me to use more visuals since the vast majority of what I do in hair and makeup is visual. Secondly, this will be fun for me to try something new with the blog. Lastly, this will help me keep the flow of the blog going in my busy schedule.

Some of the posts for this month will include, the process of turning a man into a drag queen, different influences geography has on our hair, how hairdressers stay educated on trends in the world, and how American culture creates a melting pot of hair trends.

I am extremely excited to steer this blog into a more visual, documentary style for the next month. I hope you enjoy the posts to come. If you’ll excuse me, I need to start recording next week’s post.

Until next week,
​
DJH