We sent two of our Sexy Hair Creative Team members, Dean Bradwell and Luke Davies, to Los Angeles earlier this month to the Sexy Hair Institute of Courage, where they would receive an in depth knowledge of all the products and the theory behind Structure in Motion.
Luke kept a diary of his trip and we're delighted to share it with you:
10th November
It's a weird feeling. I'm on a coach to Heathrow airport at 4.30am to meet a guy called Dean, who I've never met before, to fly to Los Angeles, in a country I've never been to before! It's all very exciting, I'm going to the Sexy Hair Institute of Courage. From what I've read online, it's a place that can change the way that you look at hairdressing as well as the rest of your life. I don't know what to expect really.
I met Dean at Heathrow Terminal 3 just before check-in. We had a bit of time before we had to board so we thought we'd get to know each other over a pint or two ... It's 9.30 in the morning!!
We arrived at LAX at 3.05pm PST after an 11 hours and 40 minutes flight. We were met by Skot Foss who is the International Sales and Education Director at Sexy Hair. He'd arrived in the U.S. just a day before us but seemed to be handling the time differene very well. He took us to our hotel, the Sheraton Delfina, Santa Monica. As you can imagine after a flight that long, I didn't take in any of the surrounding area. We checked in and took our bags up to the most amazing room. We had no time to relax though, we were going to meet with the lovely people from ID Hair Denmark by the pool, who were also coming to the Institute. After being introduced to everyone and having a welcome drink (Sounds like relaxing to us Luke!) we decided we would eat with the people we had met to get better acquainted. It was so funny, as we left the pool area, Dean turned and stepped straight into the pool! Luckily he only went in to the second step and was only soaked to the knee but it started what turned out to be a running joke ...
We were invited on an 'optional excursion' that was being run on November 11th which which would take us through Beverly Hills, down to Hollywood and then shopping at The Grove. There was obviously no option! We were in LA and had been offered sightseeing and shopping ... there's no option in that, right?? Dean and I then left the group to do a bit of exploring. We walked through the shops on 3rd Street, down towards the seafront and then onto the pier. We found a real pub down by the beach called 'Big Deans' which would become our local for the week.
11th November
After sleeping like a baby I woke up at about 9am, which meant I'd need to shift if I was going on the trip. Not that I cared, I'd have gone to see Hollywood in my pyjamas if I had to! Skot arrived at the hotel and told us that our transport was waiting outside. We were greeted by our driver and told that we'd be travelling in a hummer limo for the day!! We pulled up outside the Kodak Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. A group of photographers ran over to the car but quickly vanished when they realised we weren't celebrities.
We only had about half an hour sightseeing before we went shopping at The Grove. In that time I managed to see everything I wanted, as well as fall in love with a shop called Hot Topic! We decided to go for lunch, so Skot, Dean, Anna and I went to the Cheesecake Factory where we had cocktails (all of us, apart from Dean) and good food.
12th November
After a few hours of shopping I met up with Dean and we headed to Venice Beach. It was a really unusual place. You had the extremes of people eating out of the bins on the street to people walking around in designer clothes wearing solid gold jewellery. All of that in a market place atmosphere with live music from people playing instruments in the street. In the evening we returned to 'Big Deans' and spent most of the evening trying to understand the rules of American Football.
13th November
We were picked up at 8am this morning to be taken to the Institute of Courage! Everyone was excited as we got into the limo to travel the 25 minutes along the gorgeous coastline, then up through the winding roads to Topanga.
When we arrived at the Institute we were greeted by some of the nicest people at the gate. It was an amazing place. A Spanish style house in the middle of nowhere. After looking round the venue we were taken upstairs to the dining room for breakfast. The dining room was the kind of room you'd expect to see in the most expensive of houses. A huge dining table meant that we'd all be sat together, and that included the people who worked at the Institute. After breakfast we were taken outside to do Tai Chi on the decking. The Tai Chi helped us relax, as well as make us move in the right way to be able to do Structure in Motion. We also learned gow to get into the 'Golden Rooster' position. The guys who worked at the institute were with us for Tai Chi too which broke down a lot of the barriers. We all laughed at each other and it took away from the student/teacher feeling.
After Tai Chi we were treated to a show. Rafe, Ian and Lonn were on stage demonstrating 3 Structure in Motion haircuts. We saw Headliner, Ragdoll and Dolly Rocker which was adapted for curly hair. After watching the demos we were itching to have a go. Rafe then took us through the theory of Structure in Motion. The SIMCore Tool was fantastic. It really made us think about the angles, profiles and the symmetry of our haircuts. He talked us through all this whilst cutting the signature A-Line bob.
After lunch we were allowed to get our hands on the dolls' heads and try our hand at the A-Line bob. We were watched very carefully and corrected quickly if we weren't using Structure in Motion correctly.
It was quite hard to get used to a lot of the movements. I've never seen any hairdresser use as many movements whilst cutting hair, nothing like I'd been taught before.
14th November
Today we are being picked up at 9.30am. This is because we are having a special dinner tonight at the Institute. I'm looking forward to developing what I have learned so far and building on it.
This morning we had a lesson in product cocktailing from Skot. I've never met anyone who knows so much about hair products before! He knows how they work, why they work and what's inside them! He showed us how to sell the products to our clients, as well as cocktailing products to tailor make something that's just for that individual's hair. I think it's a good idea to be creative with products, it means they are getting something that they can only get from you. After our cocktailing lesson Ian taught us about SIM-3D which was building on what we had already learned, as well as adding a more creative aspect. He demonstrated an undercut hairstyle which would look connected and give a variety of looks.
After lunch it was our turn to have a go and got to try the cut out on the training head. After that we were asked to work in groups to teach and learn what we had been shown. We had to cut a section each, while the rest of the group made sure we were doing it right. It was a fun task, but got a bit difficult when the girls tried to instruct in Danish!
In the evening we all went up to the dining room for our dinner where we were greeted by the kitchen staff who gave us all drinks. We sat down to eat together which was lovely. The food was fantastic, the wine was nice and it was a fun night.
15th November
Today was unfortunately the last and shortest day at the Institute of Courage.
We had breakfast around 9am and then went straight into Lonn's creative up-styling workshop. He showed us quick ways to put hair up using a lot of different materials to add bulk and shape. It was interesting to see how quickly he could put hair up. As it's something I love doing I tend to lose track of time so it was nice to see time saving ways. Dean had never put hair up before. He started out looking lost but he's so good with hair he soon got the hang of it and produced something really unusual (in a good way) when it came to having a go ourselves.
We were then let loose on the dolls heads, and I mean let loose! We could do whatever we wanted as long as we were using Structure in Motion. It was a lot of fun, the music was turned up and we were only talked to if we weren't using the system correctly. Everyone produced something completely different even though we were using the same techniques. It was great to see that we all could comfortably use Structure in Motion, something that felt completely alien a few days before.
After lunch we were presented with a certificate for completion. I couldn't believe how much we had learned in so little time. Everyone at the Institute was so nice and I was quite sad to be leaving already.
I'd definitely go back and show them how much I've come on in the future!
Sexy Hair UK would like to send out a huge thank you to our family 'across the pond' for welcoming Dean and Luke and looking after them so well.
We can only benefit from their new found knowledge and experience so are eternally grateful.
"SEXY ROCKS!!"
