The Making of an Esthetician

Saturday was an interesting day. I did my first chemical peel, a half-leg wax, an underarm wax, got my underarms and eyebrows waxed, and was basically called a liar by a fellow student.

The morning started off slow, so I sat and did some homework and then had a fellow student wax my underarms. Colleen usually waxes them, but she has all her sign-offs for this, so I asked another student who needed the sign-off to do it. I’m so used to Colleen waxing me and so comfortable with her doing it, that I was a little nervous to have someone else wax me. As it turned out, the student did a really nice job, and I had nothing to be nervous about!

Another student asked if I would wax her underarms and legs, and I jumped at the chance. I believe we need to do 10 underarm waxings, and I think I’ve only done two or three. It was good for me to wax someone else so I could see the difference in the hair and get used to waxing different hair textures. Her underarm hair was a little more coarse, very curly and grew in all different directions. It was definitely challenging, but well worth it.

As for leg waxings, we need to do five half-leg and five full-leg waxings, and they are kind of hard to come by at school. I had only done one half-leg wax so far and it was Colleen, and I’ll admit it, I got lazy after awhile and didn’t get all the hair. This student made sure that didn’t happen, and I’m really glad she did because I wouldn’t be able to do that with a client. She made sure I paid attention and I’m grateful. I need to make sure I give the same service to a fellow student as I would an actual client.

I was almost done waxing her legs when another student knocked and came in the room to tell me I had a client. A client who wanted a spa facial AND a body wrap. I addressed this in my entry, “My Demo (or Lack Thereof) Dilemma” about how a fellow student in my class had a client who wanted a body treatment, but she hadn’t seen the demo yet, and how there was an uproar about that. Well, it’s happened again.

As of this date, we still have yet to see a body wrap demo at school, and I got a client on Saturday who wanted one. When I went to tell the head instructor my client wanted a body wrap and I still hadn’t seen the demo, she was surprised to hear that. There was a student in the office with her, and the student decided to get involved and kept insisting that not only did I see the demo, but my entire class did, too. I told her we did not. We must’ve went back and forth three times when I finally said “No we did NOT see a demo at school.” To that, the head instructor mentioned the outside demo we saw back in November. I reminded her that it was two months after we started school, we just graduated from basics, and we hadn’t even had our first client yet. She took the paperwork and got another student to do it. Nothing more was said about it.

I’m having a hard time letting this go and I’m not sure what to do about it. There are two issues that are bothering me: one is that we still have yet to see a body wrap demo; and the other is this student is not only telling me what demo I have seen, but is basically calling me a liar by continuing to insist I saw this demo when I am sure I haven’t seen it. And she’s doing it in front of the head instructor.

There are nine students in my class, and we are ALL insisting we haven’t seen the demo, but no one seems to hear us. The last time this happened, one of the student teachers made a list of which demos we’ve seen and which ones we haven’t seen. We all told her we haven’t seen the body wrap demo. I’d like to know whatever happened to that list because obviously nothing came from it.

So what do I do about this? I know I want to talk to the head instructor about it and tell her we need to see this demo ASAP. I also think she needs to talk to this student and tell her she really needs to mind her own business. Although, even if she does, I’m afraid it won’t be taken seriously.

Any advice on how I should approach this?

1. Svetlana
   June 24th, 2008 at 6:33 am

   Sandra, I honestly don’t know what to recommend you, but I can tell you what I’d do in similar situation.

   I’d assume that everyone is in school to learn.
   What everyone else learns is up to them, but I’d try to derive from school that I pay money for as much as possible of knowledge and skill of the sort that people pay extra money to figure out.
   Since I can learn interpersonal relationships rules anywhere else I’d forget about about this component of the situation and move forward: I’d volunteer to perform any new treatment as long as the school trusts me to do that. I’d first harass my (or any) instructor to get from them a brief reminding direction. Then go ahead an proceed. If the service went smoothly - I got a new great skill at hand, if not - there is no damage, and I’ll learn from my mistake.

   That attitude might be unpleasant - let me know, what you think.

2. Sandra
   June 24th, 2008 at 8:19 am

   Hi Svetlana: I really would’ve been okay with doing the body treatment, but I would like to see the proper way to drape the client. We saw this back in November and I barely remember it. There are some treatments that can just be explained to me, like doing a lip or an eye treatment, and I’m okay with doing it without seeing it. But I feel a body treatment is something more advanced and is something we need to see when we’re a little further along in school and not when we just graduated from basics. I’m definitely going to push for the demo. As for the other student, that is probably bothering me the most, but I’m going to try and put it behind me and concentrate on learning as much as I can while I’m there. I only have 3 more months to go! Thanks for the advice! I appreciate it!

3. Carrie, Instructor - Into Skin Aesthetics
   August 7th, 2008 at 2:53 am

   Sandra,
   I never have my students perform a service unless I demo it, then oversee them practice it. Of course, for time purposes, I demo only one of the 4 body treatments we offer and inform them that the procedure is still the same, only the product applied is different. Every client still gets a dry brush and is draped the exact same way. If a student is unsure about any service, I make an effort to do anything I can that will gain their confidence to perform this. I want them to leave the school with the best possible skills to gain credibility with salons / spas / medical offices. And the more students we can have perform the services we offer on our menu, the more money we can generate for the school, the more clients we can service, and the more practice the students can have. I hope your head instructor will listen to you. Students are not allowed in the instructor offices at the school I teach at so things like this do not happen. Good luck!

4. Cynthia
   August 14th, 2008 at 2:27 pm

   Hi Sandra,
   I have worked with people like this that can’t mind their own business and cause a wrench in the works.
   We had a co-worker of ours insist on a shift change that would effect the rest of us (5 people)in our personal lives. We typed up a proposal asking to work out the situation in a way that would be fair to ALL. If she agreed we would bend and help her. It worked out even though she wouldn’t agree to our terms. We didn’t have to make any schedule change and our boss saw team work and compromise in the rest of his team. He was impressed.
   It might be in your best interest and the rest of the students to type up a written proposal asking the head instructor for a demonstration on how to do a body wrap.
   Underline that you are all here to learn and have not yet seen a demo. YOU ALL have to sign it this way your head instructor will understand that this is a classroom request.
   It might be worth a try to use the same tactic my co-workers and I used.
   Good luck,
   Cynthia

5. Anonymous, 64395 - 83947
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