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Learn the art of airbrush makeup, whether you're interested in becoming an airbrush makeup artist or if you just want your own makeup to be flawless. . ![]() |
| Thoughts on the industry by Sue
Shroy of MetrOasis® Advanced Training Center |
First of all, I want to let you know that I would never have guessed 20 years ago that I would be doing anything other than Graphic Design. I spent 30 years doing art. I started out with a crayon in my hand and as the years passed, I progressed to other mediums. Pen and Ink. Pastel. Acrylic. It was no surprise to my parents when I decided to pursue a Bachelor's of Fine Art at Seattle Pacific University. I graduated with honors and was thrilled to get hired on at the University to work as a graphic designer in their publications department. Most of the staff at University Relations are still working there today, 25 years later, and I never imagined doing anything else, either. But life is strange. Within 10 years of graduating college, I married my hairdressser, started my own graphic design business, had a baby, moved to Alaska, and began plans to open MetrOasis Advanced Training Center with my husband, Sigel. When we presented our business plan to Sherry of the Alaska Commission on PostSecondary Education, she verbalized her dismay over what we were attempting to accomplish. There was not a beauty school in Alaska that was anything like what we were presenting to her... a school with respect for the student as the cornerstone of our training, and a school that provided a true salon experience for those walking through the door. Although we could see she believed our ideas were overly optomistic, we could tell she was excited about the quality education we were committed to providing to our students. That was November of 1994. I am writing this 17 years later. According to internet reviews, we are voted the #1 beauty school in Alaska! We have indeed accomplished what we set out to do, and continue to strive daily to improve the quality of our facility and services for our clients and educational experience for our students, still holding firm to the cornerstone of respect. This is a very hard industry to succeed in. Competition is fierce. To make it as a hairdresser or esthetician you must seek out the best education possible. First, you must choose the best beauty school in Alaska and make a commitment to YOURSELF that you will be active in your education. Show up on time. Present yourself as a professional. Impress your instructor with how tuned in you are to every aspect of your education. And second, after you get your license, refine your art. Get out each year and attend conventions and shows. Participate in local photo shoots. Do whatever you can to stay current and excited about your career choice. Is this possibly a second career choice for you? Or a third? When Sigel asked me to train under him when MetrOasis first opened, I was aprehensive. I wasn't the hairdresser type. I was an artist! Nevertheless, it was God's will that we work together to create the best beauty school in Alaska, so we poured everything we had into creating it. As the years went by, I came to realize that I am still an artist. And what makes a really great hairdresser or esthetician is a love of beauty and a love of people. As an artist and philanthropist, I have come to believe it is the most amazing job in the world. On a daily basis, I get to express myself in a creative way as I tend to the phyical and emotional needs of my clients and students. But now, instead of a paint brush, I use a color brush! |
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Q. What was beauty
school like for you?
A.I really hated the first beauty school I attended. I didn't attend a beauty school in Alaska, I went to the oldest and biggest beauty school in Seattle. I transferred about half way through to a smaller school and it was better. The first school I attended had about 130 students or so. It was so big in fact, that I had to use a student number instead of my name. While I was in school I decided that I would never own a business where people were treated like numbers. There are factory beauty schools in Alaska also, just not quite as big as this one in Seattle. The second school I attended (also in Seattle) was smaller, about 20 students or so, and much better, but I still only learned the very minimum required for me to pass the state board exam. EVERYTHING else I had to learn after beauty school. It took me about 12 years until I felt that I had learned what I should have learned in beauty school. That's why we opened MetrOasis® as an Advanced Training Center instead of just another basic beauty school in Alaska. I try and save my students those frustrating 12 years. Q. What does
"Advanced Training Center" mean?
A. It means that we offer advanced training to people who have already graduated from beauty school but need some additional training, but it also means that we offer our students to training that they normally wouldn't be exposed to for several years if they had attended a regular more "basic" beauty school. Q. What kind of things are you talking about? A. Things like condensed cutting techniques like volumetric concave/convex, geometric cutting, trimetric projection, etc., the proper application of Italian colors, advanced color formulations, and an inside look at the salon & spa business. MetrOasis® is the ONLY beauty school in Alaska to teach these techniques! I had to travel all over the place just to find out where the color goes when you bleach the hair. I know that sounds simple, but try asking a couple of hairdressers where the color goes. Many national level educators can't answer this question.
Q. Your place doesn't look like any beauty school I've been in. A. The first beauty school I attended was a converted grocery store. They took the rows and rows of grocery shelves out and replaced them with rows and rows of tacky stations and mirrors. They had one entire wall of shampoo bowls. It looked and felt like a big factory. I felt like a little widget going around on the conveyor belt. The second school had these tacky free-standing triple stations made of pressed board and Formica. We have decided to do none of this at our school. We travel internationally each year finding new techniques, new products, new ideas, etc., and we bring these back to Alaska which makes MetrOasis® unique, and no other beauty school in Alaska has taken these steps to compete with us. Chances are that if you pay attention to what we teach you, that you're going to end up working in a nice salon, and we just thought that it was logical to have our students working in a really nice environment to start with. Besides that we have a passion for beauty, antiques, and craftsmanship. Why not surround ourselves with what we love? I guess everybody else just loves boring? Q. Was there anyone in your past who helped you to develop your business into what it is today? A. Numerous people have helped us along the way. Travel helps us a lot. I was fortunate enough to have worked for Gene Juarez right out of beauty school, who actually changed how I thought about being a hairdresser. ![]() I was assisting him one day when he asked me to get some fresh water in his spray bottle. I filled the bottle and returned. He then asked me what temperature the water was. I told him that I didn't know, that I had simply filled the bottle with whatever temperature that came out of the faucet. He looked shocked at my complete lack of thought. He said that I had an opportunity to choose the temperature. Why hadn't I thought about it? I took the bottle back and refilled it. When I returned he asked me again. I told him that I had filled it with 110 degree water. I think that at that moment I started to look at things differently. THIS was the day of my awakening! Instead of me hoping that things would go my way, I realized that I had to plan for things to go my way, and then they would. I realized that everything I did was a combination of hundreds of smaller decisions. I started taking the smaller decisions more seriously and the bigger decisions seemed to be easier to decide. Q. You mentioned that you learn a lot from your travels too? A.I do learn a lot on my travels also. I LOVE craftsmanship! It is very important to us to import this world class craftsmanship back to Alaska. We are not trying to just be the best beauty school in Alaska, we are trying to train our students at an international level so that they can compete with other stylists anywhere. I was really impressed by the gondolas in Venice. MetrOasis® is a lot like a gondola. ![]() It's not just the average row boat. The left side of a gondola is longer than the right which helps the gondola track straight in the water instead of veering left with each stroke of the gondolier. It's a bit like choosing the exact temperature of the water instead of just following the crowd, or just doing what is "average" or "normal". This is true intellectual craftsmanship. Did you know that it takes eight different kinds of wood to make one gondola? The forcola, the oar block is really interesting. You can find out more here. It has to be cut from a specific kind of tree trunk, that has grown in a specific way, that is a certain age, that is cut a specific way, that is allowed to dry for two years. ![]() THAT is craftsmanship. I love the idea of taking an object and working with it year after year, item after item and perfecting it to the limit. That is one of the really fun things about my job. I don't produce gondolas though, I produce amazing hairdressers and estheticians. The process is similar though. This is why we are so picky about the students we accept into our school, about the methods we use to teach them, and about how we do everything at MetrOasis. Q. Do you have any advice for someone looking for a beauty or esthetics school? A. Sure! Think about the temperature of the water you're going to put in your bottle. Think about the forcola you're going to become. Each person gets to choose the school they attend, which will be one of the most important decisions they will make during their entire career. Choose a school that can offer the skills needed to perform in today's extremely competitive market, and that can provide the training needed to get a job in a really nice salon or spa and don't just settle for "average". Excel! Perform! Achieve! Apply outstanding craftsmanship to your career decisions! |