How To Execute Flawless Natural Hair Styling Techniques & Take Your Business To The Next Level

Thank you, foreign foreign. What'S up everybody, how are you tonight? Can you hear me, can you see me well, can you hear me, can you see me well if you can type a one in the chat if you are ready for this live, let me know, I see Florida in the house, New York in the house, South Carolina VA, I mean y'all in here tonight and you're spending time with me on a holiday weekend. I am so grateful all weekend. Y'All know what I'm saying night before Thanksgiving. Thank you for coming in tonight. We'Re gon na go ahead and get right to it. You know why you're here you are here, because you are looking to learn how to execute Flawless, natural, hairstyles and techniques to level up your skills in your business you're, trying to take it to the next level. So if you are here for that, this is the webinar for you, let's get it so welcome. Welcome my reason for holding this webinar tonight is: I decided to to really speak to a lot of stylists and potential stylists, because a lot of styles come and ask me: how do I get that execution that Precision that detail in my braids and my locks and My twists, and because of that you know, I decided to go ahead and Host this webinar, so I can give you some of those tips and those tools, so we can get to the next level together. So, who is this webinar for you might be able to say this is me so if you are a natural hair stylist and you don't have consistent clientele and you want to be able to support yourself and your family as a stylist, this is for you. If you are a cosmetologist wanting to sharpen your skills, this is also for you. A lot of cosmetologists find that they need to transition because their clients are wanting to transition and they don't want to lose that clientele right if you are working a nine to five, but you have always had a passion to do natural hair, and you really just Feel like it's time time for you to make that transition to leave this nine to five. This is for you as well, and maybe you may just be a mother who wants to do your children's hair and you want to save some money, and maybe you just want to you know, make some extra money on the side as well. So I want you all to stay tuned uh. You may even be not new to natural hair and just want to figure out if this is something that's up your alley, so stay tuned, you're in the right place and because um you're here, I'm gon na show you how you or anyone can turn their passion For natural hair style into a profitable, profitable profession, so today I am going to teach you how to become an in-demand okay, not just any average stylist, but an in-demand stylus. There'S a difference right in demand and successful natural hair stylist. I'M going to show you how you can execute these proper techniques, so you can go out and really build your business with confidence right, no fear over here. Even if, though, even if you have never been taught the proper techniques before um, the reality is that there is no formal training for natural hair stylists and you can go to YouTube. But the reality is: there's a sea of people who are just talking about any and everything, and we all know I mean I've had clients come in and say: oh yeah, I watched on YouTube I'm supposed to do this, I'm supposed to do that. I'M like what no don't do that you know whether it's black jail or so there's a lot of incredible um information on YouTube, but again cosmetology schools do not teach the Precision the the techniques, and so it's like. Well, where am I going to get this from? So this is going to work for you. If that's you, it's also going to work for you. If you lack the confidence. Why? Because um, I know I know, what's going to help, build your confidence. Let'S just say that right, and so what does it look like to not have confidence? Some of it could be that you would fear attempting new styles that you second guess yourself like. I don't know you know, sometimes a client might bring a picture in and you don't really know if you can execute it. So you don't really want to touch that um. You also may not want to post your work, because somebody say that might be me, and so, if you have a fear of posting your work, it just shows that there's a lack of confidence, and so we want to get past that, and you also may have An inability to charge what you are worth right and ultimately you're, just not making the money that you desire when you lack confidence. So that's go. It'S gon na work for you, regardless it's gon na work for you. Also, if you don't have the consistent clientele, you may work a nine to five and it may be frustrating because you want to become a full-time stylist you over it right. You you tired of clocking in knowing that it does not resonate with who you are right, and so, if that is the case um and you know, you want to be financially stable, doing something that you love. This is going to work for you as well um, but even if you're not fully booked we're gon na help you get book so we're going to go through a step-by-step on how to become an in-demand natural hair stylist. I just want you to tell me something tell me: would you like for your books to look like this now? This is a real screenshot of um stylists that work in my salon, um it's three of them, and this is all uh their books for next week. In every stylist, in my salon, I have trained um, they have went through the academy, they have, you know, went up and through the ranks and they they some of them came knowing nothing. You hear what I'm saying and now they are completely booked. So I think that if this is what you want to do like we're, not again we're not going to be doing it on the low end like we come to dominate right. So if you stick around to the end, I will show you how you can have the same type of success for yourself and for your business. Let me say I want the same type of success, so I got a recipe for y'all and there's a very good chance that, with this recipe I mean it may not taste exactly like mine, but you're gon na put your old Twist on it right so anytime. You do a hairstyle, you don't really want to completely like replicate it like somebody else. You want to put your own twist on it, so I'm gon na give you the recipe, but I want you to spice it up right all right, I'm sorry I'll be talking and I'll be like I'm thirsty. So, let's start with my primary goal for you today, which is to prove to you, be on a shout out that every single person on here can do three things: uno dos entries you can number one is that you can part with Precision. Somebody say I can part with Precision see this is the thing you have to affirm yourself, you have the you have to say, I can do it, and so I can Precision part I can execute with braid integrity and you might say, okay, what what is great Integrity is Essence just making stuff up. No, I'm not when we think about the word integrity it thinks about it, talks about being one and being whole, and so when we look at braids braids that are very quality, high quality, it's the consistency and it's the Integrity of the brain. So that's what braid Integrity is and then also two the third one is to flawlessly flat twist. So if you want to be able to do those things is what we're going to talk about today, and not only we're not doing this just to do it. We'Re doing it because we want to become well paid and highly celebrated and recognized stylist right all right, so I'm gon na show you step by step. Let me say, step by step how to master these three techniques and in a short amount of time. Let'S get it's gon na be in record time and you should be able to implement these skills and techniques. No matter what level you are um, or even the experience that you had. We teach a lot of Hands-On classes and I'm telling you just one one little tweak and it's just like a light bulb goes off and somebody's head is like. Oh, I get it now, but let me ask you: why is this important to you now? Well, let's talk about the truth. The reality is that there are a lot of changes, even in legislator, let's just say the word right legislation and even when it comes to government, so you know that there has been discrimination towards natural hair. There was a point in time where black women could not wear their hair, any kind of way that they saw fit like it had to be in a conformed straight manner, um because they could potentially be penalized. Well now, the law has been passed, which is the crown Act which pretty much opens up the doors for um professional women to go into their jobs and wear their hair. However, they please, whether it's braids it's locks, it's twists, and so some of you say, hallelujah Hallelujah. Another reason why this is important is because we know that chemical styling um poses many health risks, and so, even as a hair stylist for over 20 years, there were so many women that started to transition, not necessarily because they wanted to, but because they had to Right they may have had some medical um conditions that really made it like a. It was more of a risk for them to wear their hair in any type of chemically processed way, and because of that, there are droves of women that are choosing their health right. As it pertains to their hair in other areas as well, so this is another reason why it's very important for you, so the demand for natural hair styling is increasing. Somebody say it's going up. Somebody said it's up now now, so so with that being said, it just means that there is a booming industry, and that means that guess what there's room for you, somebody say my gift will make room for me. So let me break down these into three training phases. Three training phases: um the agenda for this training. Again we're going to go over Precision parting, so precise parts set the foundation for flawless natural hairstyles. It is the essential it is essential that your parts are excellent. We we always as we do whatever we do. We always want to make sure that we are concentrating and executing with excellence um, and I'm also going to show you step by step, how to part with speed and with ease to set yourself up to create the masterpieces that you've seen on Instagram and on on Magazine covers and phase two we're gon na go over braid Integrity. Now just explain what braid Integrity is, but let me just give you a further definition and it really speaks to the neatness of your braids. How neat are your braids y'all? Don'T understand? Two people could do the same hairstyle the same hairstyle, but the quality of neatness is what's going to make that distinction right. That'S going to determine whether you're gon na have a like a returning, client or a client. That'S just like I don't I don't know it's just not as neat as I'd like to be so we have to have that brain Integrity, um and so we're gon na dive deep into the proper technique and also kind of talk about tension and why tension tension Is really important because we don't want to be hurting our clients right and also too thinking about it from a standpoint of we also don't want to hurt ourselves and if, when we don't have a proper tension, what it does is it actually makes our hands lock Up and that's how we start to experience carpal tunnel, and I can say for myself: I did hair for over 20 years and in that time of doing hair I my hands were always good. I only had one time where my hands really started to hurt, and that was during that time when I was trying to prove myself to the world, and you might think to yourself like what are you talking about you're trying to prove yourself? Well, probably in the early 2000s I I used to be able to grip like really really short, hair, really short hair. I mean they could be growing their hair for all the two weeks almost and I could braid it right, and so, when I was when I was doing that it caused me to do a technique that made me twist my fingers in a particular way and when I did that over time that motion was hurting my wrist and I realized that technique was not good for my hands and I could no longer be trying to prove prove myself to people or or even to myself, and so I had to stop that technique and So that's why the proper technique of braiding is beyond important. It speaks to how good your braids look, but it also speaks to how long you're going to be able to be in this industry and make money right so phase three is going to be the Flawless flat twist. Your twist need to lay like cornrows from from afar, a person shouldn't even be able to tell whether is that a cornrow. Is that a flat twist like I can't even tell? And so when you have that level of definition, when you have that level of precision when you have that level of creativity, you're going to have like the flawlessness that I'm speaking about the flawlessness, so in total it's probably gon na take me - I don't know how Long, it's going to take me, but I'm gon na try not to keep y'all too long. Just because I know Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I'm sure you're with your family, so um so 90 minutes 30 minutes we'll see how long it's going to take, but just just hold on with me. So as far as my qualifications, who is Essence China when it comes to teaching this topic, some of you maybe have never heard of me - and some of you may have heard of my story, but either way it goes, I'm going to try to keep it on The short side, so, let's, let's get into it. My name is Essence, China, and that is my real name. My mother was a very creative and I thank God for that, and so she made me Essence: China. I grew up as China, my whole life and um. I started doing hair very early. I realized that I had the gift. I mean like around 12 when I started you know just playing around with hair and I became a natural hair stylist. I was natural hair stylist for 20 years. I own natural hair salons here in Phoenix Arizona, I'm a business coach, I'm a confidence coach. I uh train hair stylist. I I do it all right. I do it all and so um. Let me give you a little bit more information for those of you. Who'Ve. Never heard about me, I changed the law and in 2003 in the state of Arizona you had to have a license to do any and all types of hair right, and so at that time I thought it was unfair for me to have to go, get a License for something that I already knew how to do, plus they did not teach or test on it, and so I challenged the State Board of Cosmetology in 2003 and I'm gon na play a little clip just so you can kind of get a little uh more Insight, so if you can go ahead and roll that clip real quick does so much more than style hair, she made history, Arizona, native and accomplished. Stylist Essence farmer has been braiding hair since the age of 12.. I think a lot of black women just got to a place where they wanted to embrace their natural and authentic selves and their own Beauty, because we've always been shown. Another standard, her Iconic Hair Design featured an Essence magazine and in the national museum of African American history in Washington DC, whatever flows out of you, you know you give to your client your clients able to just be able to wear it as almost a piece of Art, but it wasn't always easy for her to be that artist, Arizona law made it difficult to open up her own hair, braiding salon. They told me I had to have a license at the time. Arizona'S Board of Cosmetology required 1600 hours of classroom instruction, even though not a single hour of natural hair, braiding instruction was included in the program. I took up issue with it because the things that I did, which was braids, locks twists, they didn't teach, nor did they test on it and at a cost of at least ten thousand dollars all that time that would have spent going to cosmetology school and the Money to me just it makes sense so at just 23 years old and with the help of the institute for justice, she challenged Arizona's, cosmetology Licensing Laws, arguing they stifle job opportunities and suppressed a vibrant expression of culture. It'S just a lack of inclusiveness because of ignorance. You know if you don't have to really think about other people and include other people. You probably won't. Even you know, make concessions. In April of 2004, then Governor, Janet Napolitano signed Senate Bill 1159 into law, allowing all natural braiders to practice their art without the hurdles. I realize I made history. Essence now travels the world teaching and speaking on how to be successful in the hair braiding industry, it's crazy to know that I've actually standard her icon. It'S just a quick little uh. Clip of you know the history that God allowed me to to make, and I'm super grateful for that, and so, if you have um heard anything about my story, you also may know that my hairstyle was actually on the cover of essence and magazine, and my salon Was also featured in Essence magazine, and so you can go back for a second. Are you good, and so this particular style went viral? It was like one of the first natural hairstyles to ever go viral. It was. It was all over. So some of you, if you've seen this hairstyle you've, already seen my work. You maybe acquainted with my work before you were ever acquainted with, who I am and so um crazy story with that particular hairstyle. Is that uh this model right here she's my friend and I brought her in to do a photo shoot for my salon. This was my first professional shoot and I remember speaking it into existence without me, even actually, knowing I was speaking into existence, and I was telling her I was like girl, you never know you might. You might be in essence, one day just speaking it right, and so that's why you have to understand the power of your words and next thing. I know the photographer, who I worked with told me. He was like guess what Essence picked up your work and I'm like what I didn't even know. I was, I didn't even know they knew like they were shopping like they knew about my work, and so it's just crazy. How, when you make you know the right connections and the timing is right and you invest in yourself how things can really happen for you, and I believe that it's something that can happen for every hair stylist. If you really have the passion, I always say, if you have a passion, you truly have the potential. So if you're on this live, I don't care where your braiding skills are at. You have the potential, even if you feel like. Oh, I didn't grow up. Braiding, hair or you know, I don't feel like a natural born Natural Born braider. It doesn't matter. If you have the passion, you have the potential all right, so we can keep moving. Thank you. So, the for being a hair stylist I've been an entrepreneur pretty much. All of my life, as I told you I started doing, hair very early and um. It'S afforded me a life that I'm beyond blessed to have, and so, even though I've been able to you know uh, you know do those things. I realized that there were so many people who did not necessarily know how to do what I knew how to do, and so that's what made me want to teach but there's a level of freedom that comes from not just doing hair but doing something that you Actually, love something that you're actually aligned with um. I remember one time I had went to Jamaica and I was on my. It was a birthday trip, and so I go to Jamaica and I'm with a friend and she she somehow another told the guy a guy that was like a a local there that I did hair and he looked at me. He'S, like you, do, hair and next thing. I know he he like went away and came back with a cold, and I was just like. Oh you want me to do your hair. Well, because I had the love for it. I am gon na lie, lie to you because I loved it so much. It didn't even matter that I was like on vacation, because I already know I'm a quick braider. I can get his hair done in like 30 40 minutes and be done, but because I loved it so much because I was aligned with it. You know it's like when you do things that you love and you're aligned with uh. It doesn't feel like work. It just didn't feel like working, so I had no problem with doing his hair and so um, but Freedom right, the freedom to travel, the freedom to do the things that you want to do so freedoms for and even some time, freedom to wake up. Now is a freedom to wake up, but at the same time you know that your your client, even though you don't have a boss as a hair stylist, so to speak, your clients are your boss in the sense that they can fire you. But you still have a freedom, because you have you have the money you don't have to think about. Oh, am I do I have enough to make to make this uh to buy this outfit or to go on this trip or to buy this food like there's a level of freedom, because when you really get competent and confident in what you're doing you're going to Be highly compensated right, you're going to be able to charge your Worth right, so the ability to provide even substantially for, like my family members and friends, and even the causes that I believe in this. This lifestyle afforded me that, and I think that sometimes people think that being a hair, stylist there's it's inconsistent or it's it's not something that I can necessarily depend on and let me just let me just go ahead and uh tell you that's a lie like there. There are people who are willing and ready and will be so loyal to you right once you know what you're doing so now that you know a little bit about me a little bit about what you know. My background um, I just want to know, is this what you feel like you may need if you feel like this is the training that you may need for yourself? Do you feel like this is going to be useful and relevant to you? Will this be useful and relevant to you, I'm waiting for some common sense. Let'S see if we can get some, it is going to be useful and relevant. Yes, yes, Lord, for the rest of our day. Yes, all right, so we got some yeses up in there. All right, so if you have tried braiding your friend's hair, your family members here, but you have no idea what the proper techniques are or you have a clue, but it still ain't it ain't hitting like something's off. I don't know what's up um and you want to see the detail on how I can execute Flawless natural hairstyles, and this is for you, if you have never been taught through cosmetology school, but you want to learn a proper natural hair, styling techniques. This is also for you and, if you're, unsure about your career path and you're ready to get out of this rat race, you use tithe right. You just tie, and you know honestly, it's like. We understand that there there's a path that we're told is right. There'S a path that says: go to school, get in debt, get a job and pay them back and the next thing you know you look up and that's your whole life and you realize dang. I never did what I actually was in my heart. I never did the thing that I actually wanted to do. This is for you, okay, this just is for you and if you lack confidence or you feel like you're introverted, I hear that a lot. I feel like I'm an introvert, and I don't really know if I can, I I can do it or I don't know how to connect with my clients, and this is still going to work for you like if you're, if you're scared of posting your work. Listen all of it is going to be for you, so this is especially relevant to you and we're going to solve that problem wants. Oh somebody said: Hallelujah hold up hold up, hold up, bring me back. Take me back: okay, if you have a cash flow problem in your personal life and in your business, and if you'd like to learn a skill set that you can increase your income and support yourself and your family, then this is for you and finally, if you're A cosmetologist, a natural hairstylist, an entrepreneur, a college graduate working professional, a stay-at-home mom parent. Listen again! If you have a passion, you have the potential. This is for you, so this session is going to help. You do exactly that all right, so we got a clean house, real, quick. I love everybody. I really do, but I don't want to waste your time and I really want you to understand that um in anything like you have to put in the work um. You know it's one thing to know a thing and it's another thing to do a thing, and so I really I I think that we can get the skills and we can still be like self-sabotaging and self-defeated, because we don't put in the work right. So, regardless of what I teach you today, um you have to you, it's a it's a personal decision, a personal commitment to ourselves and I'm willing to do the work. Like anything, that's going to be worth having that's going to require some work, and so this what I'm even gon na like share with you today it took me years to find out. I didn't necessarily have anybody to teach me formally. I had to figure it out and the reason why I had to figure it out is because I'm gon na tell you in a second. Let me just hold that go hold that um, but I want to give you the shortcut. I don't. I don't want you to have to spend the time that I had to spend and go through quote the disappointments, the disappointments of clients walking out the door because they brought me a hairstyle that I didn't know how to accomplish. You know I didn't know how to execute um. So if you are not willing to put in the work and the time, I'm sorry this ain't for you. But if you are, if you really, if you're willing to bet on yourself and invest in yourself and put in the work and time um you're gon na kill it, because I believe that, like students should out like they should out shine and outgrow the master at Some point you know like it's time to take it higher it's about to take it higher. So if you're still with me after that lower rant, let's get let's get to it. Please let's get to it. So, let's get to it, please foreign, so how to execute three in-demand natural hair, styling techniques that will take your skills to a whole other level and position you to pursue a career as a full-time, natural, hair stylist. These are the three in-demand techniques. The first thing I need you to know is that it's it's easy you might be like Essence, is easy, but if I give you everything, it should be easy. Anybody can do it so once you know the process and you have the passion. Let me let me stay right there for a second see, because sometimes people were just doing things that they can do just because they just want to go. You know, I don't know. Just go: do it for a second or whatever, but it's like. No, I want you to have the passion. I honestly don't even want no hair stylist that wants to do my hair. She ain't got the passion. I need you to love this right. So just understand that, once you have those two things: the process and the passion I are I'm giving you that blueprint right um, all you got to do is repeat it, because the thing is we can learn the wrong things and practice them over and over again And we still will get wrong results. I'Ve been like. I can't tell you how many stylists have come to my Hands-On training and said I've been braiding for 10 years. I'Ve been braiding for 15 years, but their braids just don't have the results. They don't have the execution or the detail, and it was just a tweak, a tweak that changed their life. That'S a tweak that changed a week, I'm selling y'all silly all right! So, let's get to it now. Don'T laugh at this picture. That is really me. That is me and if you can see that I was the same technique, I told you when my fingers was hurting. That'S the technique right there. I was doing this pinch this. I know you can't even see because, like my my Smock that I had on and his hair is kind of blending, so you can't really see how short his hair is, but it was peach, fuzz, listen, it was so short and my fingers was cramped. Y'All hear me it was cramped, but I was making it work. I'M like yeah. I could braid your hair. I don't care how short it is, but at this time in my life I I had it I didn't have it all figured out. I was still learning. I was still trying to figure things out um, but things change when I figured it out now. These pictures here y'all this was before the picture. I just showed you this. These pictures are from the somebody's like the 90s. This is from the 90s. This is my first business card and I'm not even proud of this business card because that'd be never nappy. China, braider ghetto fat. Why? Why did I want to be ghetto fabulous like where? Where did I get that from I was just being influenced? I was a follower y'all, I don't even know get up, look for real. She could do braids like well y'all. Remember that song Whoa, I might be too old, so you may not even know that reference, but she could do braids like well and to really date. This card to really date: it does anybody, see the page number. I didn't even have a cell phone I'm about to spin around on that one, real, quick, listen, y'all! I had a page a number so this this is this. Let me say back in the day, so the picture below the business card is me braiding, hair. Out of my uh, like my my childhood laundry room, I got two clients in the wing. You know so I had a little waiting area over there. I had a client's head that I was working on and I'm just parting it out, and that was my mother. She allowed me to turn my our laundry room into a salon, so the other side of the picture is you see the washer and dryer. So all of my products are in this little bin right. Here I got my Combs uh. I had the Blue Magic. If you could look real hard, you see the blue magic in the back. I mean I was getting it in and I had clientele, but I still did not have like the all the techniques in my tool belt. I was still trying to figure it out, so I say that to say that I was very much in the same situation that you were in, like I had the passion and I even had some clients that that love for me to do their hair. But I kept remember seeing Allen, Iverson and seeing Carmelo Anthony and they would bring me these hairstyles and I'd be looking. Listen like I was looking at a puzzle like I don't know what to do with this figure this out, and so those things drove me to try to figure out. What do I need to do, and so this is what I want to give to you. So you can just shorten that curve. Real quick! I just want to give you that, so, if you ever felt that um that this is you and you're in this situation, just know it's not your fault. It'S really not your fault. Um. The skill set has not been formally taught. Obviously, cosmetology schools do not have a curriculum, and even if they do teach braiding, it's not necessarily like. You know like what you really need to be successful and be equipped as a natural hair. Stylist just don't teach it. So don't worry, it ain't your fault, there's a lot of people in this. In this situation, some people they just they. It was passed down in their blood, but there's other people who they're like they need to know. They need to know the tools and the tips and so um. I will say that once I learn these this set of skills, every everything everything changed, I was able to be a full-time stylist, um, support myself and then also teach other stylists and build my style. My my team and all of that, so all everything changed when I got the techniques, so, let's get down to business, I want to teach you a few things. I want to show you how it's done. This is going to take up a little bit more of this webinar today um. I would recommend that if you have a paper and Pen, I might say something, that'll just drop in your mind like that's it. You know um, if you, if so, if you have a paper pan just you can take some notes, but I want everybody to take a look at this picture right here and I want everybody to drop in the chat now. I know that there's a lock style, there's a flat twist out, there's a braided style. You know there's a variation of styles, but I want you all to give me a one or two words of what is similar about these Styles, like if you were to point out the similarity in these Styles. Just tell me if you see what I see, what is the similarity in these hairstyles right here we got, we got ta, keep it interactive and I know I got some very educated and Brilliant uh, stylist and future stylist on here. Partying is clean, neat Parts. Okay, so it's the parts, it's intricate, okay, the intricacies. Okay. What else we got on here? Clean Parts clean for everybody say it's the parts, the intricacies, the updos uh uh up to the party? Okay, all right. So what I really want you to understand is that when you break down every amazing creative, natural hairstyle, the consistency - that's a good word right there. It'S the Precision it's the, but really we got to get down to the basics, and the thing is, I think, a lot of times stylists they want to get to the the intricacies which is great and what we it's, what we need, but the foundation of every Style is a braid. The foundation of every style is a part. The foundation of every style is is a flat twist. If we can Master the techniques, the foundation, the basics, we can build from that, it's called building blocks and what I find sometimes in the style is they want to get straight to the updo and it's like girl them Parts. Though look at these parts right right and that's no Shade, that's just to say that no, we, when you master that that's what's going to have clients coming back like crazy, because it's like I don't care almost how simple the style is. But if it's clean, if it's intricate like like, if it's so neat and there's, there's so much Integrity in it, people want cleanness, probably even before creativity. I'D rather something looks super clean and super neat than to be a whole bunch of mess right got Stars over here circles over there. I just couldn't be neat all right. So now we understand the foundation of every style is a clean part, a clean, braid and also a bomb flat twist. If we're doing flat twists, then we have we're on the same page. We are on the same page. So again we talked about the precise parts. We talked about the brain integrity and we also talked about the flat twist, and so I am going to you can go to the next one so again precise Parts when we look at this picture right here. One of the things I like to highlight is the comb. So when we're talking about parting stylists, don't really understand that as much as it is the technique, it's also the tool, it's a technique and it's the tool. What tool are you using, and so we know that we can go, buy a rat tail comb, you know from any dollar store, but it's like. If you have the right Tool, It's Gon na Forge you to be able to part with speed and with ease, and what I find is a lot of hair stylists they're using the wrong tools. The tools are taking too much time and then they can't they're not able to take as many clients within a day so they're not making even amount of money that they can make. Your tools also equate to your time, and so if we can get the right tools right, it's going to really change the game for you. So so so what are the characteristics of the right tool for a comb? So I don't know if, if so, if we look at this comb right here um, I don't know if we can get that, but if we can that's all Mike is out. I'M gon na keep talking y'all. Let me know hello, hello, hello, it's better! Y'All! Let me know what's better over here: we good all right. Just let me know. Okay, all right, I don't want to lose y'all, though I want to lose y'all. So what was the last thing you heard about the comb? So the comb is highly important, and so it needs to be durable enough, and I was just saying that I don't plug my own products. I'M just really saying this to understand that every comb is not going to necessarily be as durable, and it's not going to give you necessarily the the sharpness that you need and if you're parting over and over and over again it's it's taking too much time entirely Too much time so we're gon na get into The Parting um in phase two we are going to get to the braid integrity and I want to really talk more so about your body positioning. We don't understand how important some of the things have. Nothing almost to do with our fingers, but have to do with our shoulders have to do where we're standing. How all of that is very vital and important, and so you have to understand like how, like your your body, positioning and all that plays into how neat your braid is. Okay, but once you learn these techniques, you're going to increase your speed and quality of your Styles and plus you're, going to lower the risk and then the last thing is the Flawless flat twist and we're gon na I'm gon na bring um a mannequin on in A second foreign, the comb, your tool is just as important as your Technique and the comb that needs to be very durable, right and so like. If you have a comb and it ain't making this noise, can you hear that, if it's not making that noise, it's letting you know that it's a flimsy comb, and so the reason why it's important for the comb is because you need to be able to have Control and I'm going to go over that when I get on the mannequin, you need to be able to have the control. So the way in which you hold the comb is going to provide you to have that control, but the sharpness of the comb. Now we don't want it to be too sharp, but the sharpness of the comb is also going to afford you to be able to part and get that Precision sooner than if you're parting with, like a you, know, something that's dull right. So, even though you may be able to part with a paper clip, we need a tool. That'S going to help us like get through this faster, because again, your tool will also play into your time right. So if you have the wrong tool, then it's going to slow up your time and you won't be able to make as much money right. You won't be able to take as many clients within a day. So that's why your tool is going to be important. So I was just saying that I'm not trying to plug my products, but we do sell these um. How about oh and in the comb. The end of the comb is cool, but it's not necessarily as in as important, because I now show it when I get into it like what the purpose of the end of the comb. But this is really for the Precision parts for precision Parts, okay, um. So in your flat twist, so we're gon na get into the flat twist if we can go to the full screen the slide and your flat twist should have definition, precision and creativity. So let me get this ready for y'all. Let me know how how good we can see that once we're able to get on foreign all right, Coolio, all right, just let me know when we back all right. We can go full screen. Please, and thank you all right, so you guys won't be able to see my face, but hopefully you'll be able to see my hand, so we're just going to get into parting, and so, let's get this thing in focus all right. So when we park number one, the the angle in which you hold your comb is important. Now I always tell people you need to hold your comb like a pencil. Why? Because we are technically we're artists and we're essentially drawing on our clients head. So you know we got like a little bit of just we're drawing a little bit and so having the hand the comb in the proper position, which we don't want to be too high up. And we also don't want to be too far down because we'll lose that control. So it's just you know somewhere right in there to where we know we have the control. So this these two fingers are anchoring really well, so you might want to even go get a pencil or even a comb. If you can and just ask yourself okay, how do I normally hold it, because that's gon na um determine how well your parts are. So when we get into The Parting depending on like which direction we're trying to go, you know obviously there's there's creative parting, there's straight back Parts, there's there's all different types of parting, but right now we're just talking about just the Precision in and of itself, and So um in order to get that position, Precision remember this is a mannequin head, so mannequin heads don't necessarily part as good, obviously as like a real head, because it's it's less dense, so you know hairs be all over the place, but I'm gon na just do Like an angled part and I'm gon na bring it down and around the ear and just taper it back and a lot of times, what I find with hairstyles is that they lose track of how much hair is in the back of the head and then they They don't make room for this, and so you have to narrow these parts out when you get to the back, because otherwise you'll have clients with braids falling off way over here, it's like why. Why is a braid ending at the ear, and it's only because like they did not properly proportion and get ready to come on, come on down there, so we're just going to go ahead and just get into this part right here. So if you notice how I'm holding this comb - and you also want to make sure that your client's head is tilted to where it makes it easier for you to get to get to that parting, so let me just see if I get hurt a little bit Better is that better y'all can see pretty good. You can hear me pretty good all right so when I, when I'm parting, typically I'm passing through maybe um. Now her hair is a little out of control, I'm fighting it a little bit, but I'm not taking a million a million times, and so sometimes I find that Styles they're over they're just over partying like because of this perfectionism um type of like I just want To make sure that it's it's perfect and the thing is like: if we, if we aim for Perfection, What happens, is we tend to just overwork and then now we're taking too much time because we're trying to be perfectionist? What we always need to do is make sure that we are aiming for just Excellence right. We always want to just execute with excellence and not necessarily Perfection, because Perfection will have you just staying there for forever. I should have blow dried her hair. I knew her hair wasn't ready so now, what I'm doing is I'm giving her like a little bit of a swoop. So as I'm angling down, I know that I want her to have more of a pointed um tapered part, because I don't want the block part. So there's a difference between like a block part to where it just like. Coming straight off the scalp, like almost a straight back, where it's wider versus more of a taper where it starts off very skinny. So I'm just kind of going right along that hairline and I'm parting it down and then I'm angling right around that ear and then I'm just going to taper it back a little bit now. Obviously, if you're getting into more of like a zigzag part or if you're getting into you, know a different type type of part um, that would require you to do some different maneuvering. So you want to have the proper tool you want to have the proper body position and you tell the part where to go, and so sometimes what I find is that a hairstyle is there there's somewhere where they can't see or they're somewhere, where like they, they Can'T really move the combat the way they need to and that takes away from the ability to part properly. So now we're just going to get into a little bit of braid Integrity. So I'm going to apply a little bit of product on her hair and the application of product allows for um you to have a better grip. It'S also going to allow for you to um. Just have a better finesse like you're, going to get some shine on it and you're just going to have way more detail, because the thing is it's all about being intentional. When you braid, when you do hair styling, you don't want to just haphazardly just be picking up hair wherever you want to pick it up like you have to think through the process right and so, as I begin to braid, because this piece is so small right. This is such a small piece, but because it's tapered it has to be small, so I'm just I don't want to this is what happens? I see hairstyles they'll start braiding and the braid won't even start until way. Back here you know, like you'll, see a whole bunch of hair and then the braid will start there and it's only because they probably took way too much hair to start with, but because I'm trying to get detail, I need to start right where that hair is At I need to start right where that hair is at and I'm taking my time with my revolutions right. So I'm not moving down the braid too fast when we start moving too fast, not necessarily in the speed, but we're we're grabbing way too much hair and when we grab too much hair, it makes the braid look like it's dragging right. It'S just. It has a drag to it, so I want to make sure that when we braid we're just picking up the hair that we needed in the moment, because I always say this - you don't want no hair missing the bus and what that means is you can sometimes Move so fast down the braid that you miss hair, or you pick or you pick the hair up too early and that takes away from the Integrity of the braid and so you'll see the braid as it forms in a second hold on. Let me let me cut that corner a little bit more smoother. So what you really want is you want that hair to come in very succinctly, because sometimes we think that it's our parts that are off when really it's, because you didn't pick up the right hair at the right time, and so it looks like the braid is Dragging it looks like um like the hairs are not going in at the right time and so again you want to braid with intention and precision foreign. So if you do too many revolutions and what A revolution is, every time I cut I'm doing a revolution right. That'S a revolution, so every time I cut, that's actually creating a new dimension of the braid. If, but, if you do too many revolutions at one time, you're just you're making the braid look Bunchy! So again, if you do too little revolutions, it's going to be very um, lagging it's going to be dragging, but if you do too many, it's going to be bunched up, and so, when we think about brain Integrity, we're looking at like how quali the quality of The braid are the Revolutions going at the same time. Are we grabbing too many hairs or if are the sections all equal, because if your sections are unequal, you're going to have like a lopsidedness to your braid, the braids are not necessarily going to have like that. That quality and that characteristic, so I'm gon na bring another mannequin on just so you can understand so I recreated my signature styliness on this mannequin and I I even gave her the earring, but she had no hole in her ear. So I just I just put it in her hair, real quick y'all say just give it a little look but um, so you can see like so on a step style like this. You might look at him be like. I don't even know where to start like how do I even begin to it's okay, I'll just talk to that. How do I even begin to get like this look? Where do I start on this style, and so these are the type of things that we teach um in. You know all the things that we be doing like in the uh, Hands-On training and and our um in our courses. And so you have to understand that you want to start and get that detail. But if you see how these braids are like just angling and they're very narrow and then they widen out, and then these in these inner braids they're not going all the way to the hairline they're starting in between the hairline, because you never really want to start A braid so thin unless it's just a whole thin style, but like this Biggie Smalls look you always want to have that braid on the inside as opposed to the outside. So that's how we pretty much execute that. So, just remember that you always want to have this the equal amount of hair in each braid, and then we also um want to make sure that we're not grabbing too much hair at one time, and now we want to get into these flat twists these flat Twists all right, so when it comes to Flat twists, I just took one out so you cannotice her hair um, granted again it's a mannequin. So you can. You can see that it's a flat twist, but the way that it's laying it's not like too too poofy right, and so what I find is that a lot of hairstyles they'll do their flat twists. But they don't have that that definition, and so it has to do with the way that you prep the hair, has to do with the products that you use um. All of these play a part in the definition and the Finesse of your flat twist. So I took one out and we'll just go over this technique a little bit, so I'm gon na just comb this hair out, because it's essential that you're working with hair, that's prepped really well. Sometimes I remember when I used to braid hair um before I really got into like washing my clients, hair and blow drying it and making sure that it was prepped. I was fighting y'all. I was fighting through hair. That was it needed. Not even it needed a hot comb, and so now I understand how to properly prep the hair right and um. That'S really important. So, let's get into this flat twist, so I just took out one in the middle so when you're flat twisting and we're doing two two flat twists right, I mean two strand flat twists, so it's not just a roll over flat twist. It'S a two strand flat twist and now we're just what we do is we take those two pieces and we're cutting in between and we just rolling it over y'all rolling it over. Okay, y'all see pretty good, let's see if my fingers, if I need to turn, let me see if I go that way: okay, yeah, I just got ta catch it. You know what I'm saying you got to catch it all right, so my body positioning is important, as I am doing even this curve, so you notice on the braid. I was just going down and around the ear, but on this flat twist, I'm coming down from like the the more Center of her forehead down into like a dip, and then I got ta bring it back up. So when you, when you're doing a style like that, you have to position you you yourself as a stylist need to reposition yourself, you got to get in position. You got ta, get information, okay, so notice how how nice this this corn? This this! I'M about to say cornrow this flat twist is laying you say: it's laying huh the tension, the technique. You have to have the proper tension because again, if you're, if your hands are overly tight and you're just gripping so hard, what you're doing is you're passing tension down from your your shoulders, because in order to grip that hard, it's got to come from a source Right so then, we wonder why we're so sore stylists and while we're going through all of this aches and pains is because we didn't realize that we were just gripping too hard all right, so we just cutting all the way through and we're bringing it up now Notice when I brought it up, I'm angling back, so I'm just going to turn her head, but what I need to do is I need to reposition myself so that I can bring it back into the proper perspective.