The State Board

The course I took at beauty school only took six months. Then I had to go to Jefferson City to take the state board test for my license. I chose mom to be my model for two reasons. First of all I needed her to take me up there and secondly I had worked with her hair before and it was fairly easy to manage.

The first part of the test was a written one. The second part was when I worked on mom's hair with their scrutinizing eyes watching me like a hawk. (It felt like it but they probably really weren't). I gave mom the required haircut, she had been letting it grow a little bit so I would have something to cut. What a mom! Then I had to do some finger waves, that is waves down the back of the head like old ladies use to wear. After that I set it and put her under the dryer. Of course she came out of it looking lovely. I passed the test and just had to wait a few weeks to get my license.

While waiting for my license I started to look for a job in a beauty shop. One of my main problems is that I didn't have a car. I did find a small shop within walking distance. It was just a very small one that only the owner worked in. It only had two shampoo bowls and a couple dryers. She hired me so that I could take any walk-ins and overflow. Problem is I would sit there all day and there was no drop-ins or overflow. Back then, a beautician earned no base pay. We worked for commission only, we made 50% of the cost of the service. In other words, if you didn't have a customer all day you made nothing!!