Trying new things, some fuck ups, some good finds...

When is about touching your face, more specific, semi-permanent, or even worse, permanent things, you have to be very careful making decisions and/or buying the right products. Please, do I even have to mention that you still have to read the instructions for every tool or product you want to use for the first time? Have you already done your full research, studies, trials, etc as we have talked about in other chapters before you go ahead and get it done?

Making beauty mistakes on your face can be very damaging on your beauty journey, psychologically, morally, motivationally, financially, waste of time, etc besides the embarrassing part of having to walk around life with bad work.

Who hasn’t seen girls with terrible eyebrows micro-blading, lip fillers, semi-permanent makeup, etc. And I am talking about the girls with real bad work done, not the people that look terrible but in their eyes (as in their professionals) it looks good.

I have seen it all, and have gone through some of those scenarios myself too, obviously, I have tried all kinds of "beauty" hacks in my life, hiring professionals and DIY, that exposed me to some failures, some worse than others.

STORY. When I was a TV host for a Spanish video music channel, a big opportunity to switch careers and become a weather girl for the newscast was available. They actually accepted to cast me in, on the condition to change my hair and looks, due to the lack of seriousness of the tv show I was just leaving. So, my producers at that time, in agreement with the hair and makeup direction board of the tv network decided to cut my beautiful 21 years old girl natural, thick, shiny, the best hair I have ever had, waist-long hair (due to age, amazing diet & metabolism).

They cast me, and actually gave me the job. During the 2 weeks of training and preparation, they did all kinds of things to my hair and make-up. I was there for changes one day and the next, camera casting, next day change, next day camera casting.

They finally decided to go back to natural hair color and length. With hair extensions.

I could pause and tell you that I spent weeks on sweet-sour feel as I wanted to be depressed about my hair situation and at the same time embrace the amazing opportunity I just scored.

Then the real nightmare began, for a whole year at least once a week I had to be sit-in for over. Hours just doing my hair. Where I learned all about hair extensions, with the best of the best.

The tv network wanted my hair to go back to look as good as when I was in the previous tv show (yes, yes, you read this right, at first they did not want that, now they wanted it, yes I know ), so, they had the best hairstylist inside the H&MU department working on my hair and we tried a few techniques like braided hair extensions and then tape-in hair extensions. When that did not work, they sent a budget for me to go with the best professionals in Mex. city, we tried all kinds of glued extensions, silicon, keratin, etc.

While all this was happening, my hair in between hair salon visits was a mess, it was all broken, burned, over colored, etc. I was starting to have holes in my head o all the different techniques that were done so fast in so little time in my head. Over time, I also learned a lot about hair care, extensions and the best to use, and when to use them which I will talk about in further specific chapters.

STORY. I had a coworker that had a fixation with eyebrows, she obviously liked mine as I am lucky to have a nice natural shape and know how to style and makeup them very well.

In her pursuit to perfect eyebrows herself, when microblading techniques and henna started booming, she run and got hers done. Bad decision, not on getting them done, on running to get them done without the right amount of research.

You know I have my list of “absolutely necessary quality control before I jump into it” list, and most of it is logic, NEVER get something done beauty-wise when is brand new in the market, they don’t even know secondary effect yet or worse case scenarios. There are not “the best in the field yet” because there has not been time enough to even get what is a year minimum experience, what do you call a master? I call one after 5 years of profession, so unless it’s been around that time, I keep an eye on it until it does and then I go ahead and try it.

So the work that got done on her was not good, at that time the reverse technique was not even existing so she had to spend a whole year looking, belts just say it. Not good. She has nice pictures of a vacation to Iceland that I am pretty sure will not allow her to forget about that little mistake. Even a year late when finally a “reversible” technique was available, she got it done and, to be clear on the point I want to make, even then it is still was a fuck up.

It took 2 years until it completely fade from her face. And by that time, betta reversible techniques were available, and professionals in the field were actually EXPERIENCED by that time.

That is how you set yourself for failure on the "beauty journey", never do this to yourself.

Now, to point fingers at me. Many years before that, I got my first set of boob implants done. By that time boob implants were already trendy for longer than 10 years and it was pretty safe to get them done.

I got the best doctor and implants, money was not an issue then. And even with all that, after 5 years of having the implants I realized, they were not that great.

They were hard, rounded in shape, like having 2 tennis balls under my skin. They looked terrible in my bikini pictures.

I started checking other girls with new boobs that looked way better than mine, and after more new research is when I started realizing the power of technology, evolution and the time that new techniques on everything that has to do with human beauty actually get tested to know real results, fuck up’s, how to fix them and then obviously the most important, improvements.

When I got my second set of boobs, the difference was such that make me acknowledge the power of research, medical and technological research, and the time that already has been invested in it to know all facts, good and bad about anything to improve ourselves.

I know most of the new beauty things advertised lately, are very tempting, just make sure, before you jump on any of them quickly to go through a thermal review of pros and cons but mostly worse case scenarios.

Always ask yourself

-Have I found the top professional in the field?

-Do I have the money not only to get it done but to keep up with the full treatment, procedure, sessions, etc required for the job/products to work as they should.

-What is going to happen if I am not happy with the result, how can it get fixed?

-Money, time, and repercussions? ex. Sometimes you have to wait several weeks to even try to fix something, and please follow medical or professional advice when this is indicated, don’t make it worse, take care of yourself. Yes, in the "beauty journey", fuck ups happen, you will have to deal with them, and live with them for a little or a while until it gets fixed.PLEASE. I can not stress this enough, when anything in beauty procedures gets fucked upon you, even if it is just a bad haircut, just leave it alone, just leave it, DON’T TOUCH IT ANYMORE, keep your hands off it, don’t look at it in the mirror, don’t obsess, don’t stress, don’t make it more noticeable.

Do something to hide it the best you can, and then move on. The better you become at keeping your head straight brig these times, the faster it will heal and be fixed. This is a life hack that will change your life.

For sickness, for beauty, for diet, for bad haircuts, for pimples, breakouts, pink eyes, dental work, or anything while you are fixing it or a bad work getting fixed, it applies for anything!

OK LET ME REPEAT.

Just leave it alone.

Don’t touch it.

Don’t look at it in the mirror.

Don’t obsess.

Don’t stress.

OR YOU WILL MAKE IT MORE NOTICEABLE.

Do something to hide it the best you can, and then move on with your life. Ignore comments, but expect them to happen, yes, people will notice, and count on it, they will have something to say about it, expect it, embrace it, and don’t let it affect you. Failure happens. Whatever, when you fix it will be 10 better than before, period. BUT DO FIX IT. Do not stay with bad work done and give up on your beauty journey as foolishly I have also met people choosing this road and giving up on everything at once for one embarrassing fail.

The problem with beauty is, that is embarrassing not being perfect and people will poke at it. This feeling will stop most people for the rest of their lives from doing something to improve their looks.

So, please read this again, fuck ups will happen, yes they will be embarrassing, but the end result is WORTH IT.

The idea is for you to let me guide you to cope better with the fails, and in an even better scenario, not even failing and just moving forward to your best you carefully and with the right steps, use my fuck ups and experience to fail the least, as I am trying to make your “beauty sailing a smooth trip” haha is that how it’s said? I guess some things don't translate the same.

Through guidance, you will fuck up less and when it happens you are better prepared, hopefully, even the fuck ups are small and easy to fix. With time it gets there, as you get older you know what you like, need, and work on you the best, you are more experienced managing your budget and have more maturity/requirements for big spending and investments when necessary, you will also recognize the good signs of a business immediately and so the opposite. The beauty journey gets easier as you get deeper into it, even though the battle becomes harder with the years to keep yourself looking your best, not young, your best, ok?

With love,

Jay Rodriguez

The Beauty Designer