Permanent Makeup Training - My experience and thoughts on it

I've been thinking about this subject for the past few weeks. I'm more and more involved in permanent makeup training and I've wanted to tell you my honest views and opinions about it.

Your success or failure in this field will depend a lot on how you approach life and education.

I've signed up for my first "real" permanent makeup class while I was in college.  It was summer and I was interning at a (statistical analysis) company, bored out of my mind at times. My coworkers were great, the pay was awesome for a 20-year old, but something just didn't feel right. Was the subject I've always loved really not something that I wanted to do my whole life? Crunching numbers and working for a big company.. isn't that a lot of people's dream? Not mine apparently. I took the plunge and signed up for a micropigmentation class in a different state in the U.S. that upcoming fall. I've always, always loved makeup. 

 I had to tell all my college professors that I wasn't able to take my mid-terms, and ask them if there was a way to take them a week early. Some worked around it, some just gave me a 0.

 Imagine my Calculus 3, nerdy professor looking into my eyes as if taking a class in permanent makeup meant I was going to sell my body and soul. 

I paid around $7,000 for training, flight and hotel. I slept for that whole week in a stinky Red Roof Inn cause I couldn't afford more. The heater hasn't been turned on the whole year and the smell that came out of it was absolutely dreadful. It was cold and I turned on the hot shower and left it on for 1-2 hours for my room to get warm. Before I even attended this class I bought this fancy, used permanent makeup machine for $1600. I was broke. All my savings from that summer were gone. I couldn't sleep at night. All I could hear is my friends and family's comments about how this will be a loss of time, that I will never have a client, that I should just stick to Math and computers. 

Leaving that class I've realized I made a huge mistake. This trainer who's been calling herself all sorts of big names "Master & Director of Education" was just a bunch of bs. How was I such an idiot? Why didn't I ask for her portfolio? It was all just words and not work that I've loved. I didn't know better. I promised myself that was the last class in my life that I would've regretted. 

The problem we have as  beginners is that we hope to finish a class and earn back our investment as soon as possible. It wasn't a confidence issue: it's absolutely normal to feel like you don't know everything and worry A LOT especially during your first 30-50 clients. I knew the information I received was very old-school. It wasn't the modern, delicate permanent makeup I've seen from some of those Russian and Ukrainian ladies. It was the old-school black sharpie brow.. my biggest nightmare.

 A couple months later I've asked my father to lend me $2,000 to attend another class. I have never really asked my father for anything. He wasn't present in my life and it just felt so wrong. But I needed a second chance, and I needed a better class. I somehow managed to attend this 3-day class and felt much better prepared. The instructor's English was kinda crappy, but hey.. I knew my theory as I read a lot about this field. I just needed to see her in practice. I needed to see a beautifully performed treatment on a client with my own eyes. After receiving my certificate on Sunday late at night, I ran out of the class and drove hours and hours back home to attend my finals next morning. I had a 0 on my mid-term and needed to get an A. 

The sad part is I had a second chance, but many people don't. Many people take a class where they learn absolutely nothing, They cannot afford a second chance and the bitterness of the situation pushes them out of the permanent makeup field before they even had a fair chance at it. 

Since then I've attended quite a few permanent makeup classes and conferences. 1-on-1 classes, classes with 10 people, conferences with 300 students where treatments are projected on a huge screen. 

If you're just starting out I've graphed bellow how I think is best to attend trainings during your career. Take this with a pinch of salt. I've simplified it as much as possible and this is no rule to success, it's just what makes sense to me. 

Beginning of career

When you're starting off it's nice to be part of a small class. Making connections, keeping in touch with people from the same field.. there aren't that many pmu artists in any city you go, so you'll feel quite lonely in this industry at times. A beginner doesn't have many questions when they're first exposed to training, so having a student next to you who might be more curious or might have taken a class before, will answer some of the questions that you haven't even thought about asking. A one-on-one class with a beginner who doesn't know much about permanent makeup feels like a monologue to the trainer. 

Minimum 1-2 years experience

After working for 1-2 years, now's the time when you generally know where you want your work to go. Are you interested in areola reconstruction? Perfect! Find the best 2 areola reconstruction technicians in the world and go visit them. Ask them for a 1-on-1 class. If they're good, the price will seem absurd, but so worth it. I took a one-on-one class about brows with this pregnant trainer: cutest thing ever. I had 3 flights from Naples to Europe. Then a 6- hour car ride.. then another 2 flights to get to her. She came in, sat down and said something along the lines "I'm all yours today. Ask me whatever you want." I have to say I think she drew on 10-15 flip charts for me that day. All I saw was brows. A one-on-one class allows you to ask as much as you want. No matter how much you work on clients, you'll still have questions and concerns that pop up and this is the class where you can really get into the nitty-gritty. 

! - Don't be afraid of showing the trainer your work: tell them things that concern you, ask for areas where you should improve. You are the student and they are the trainer; you went there to learn so there's no shame that the brow shape you drew in the picture is awful, or the color choice is maybe a bit too warm. I've had students with years of experience and it was so hard to convince them to send me their work. I'm not here to judge you! I want you to improve and that's it. 

Large Conferences

I don't recommend conferences (100+ students) for people who still have basic questions not covered. You'll feel so, so lost. While the price is generally more acceptable and you get to see a lot of technicians work for 1-4 hours, if you have never heard that anesthesia changes the ph of the skin, or that your pressure should be cut in half when you work on the tail of the brow, you don't belong in a large class. Trainers from all over the world with all sorts of weird accents.. jeez, not only you need to know a lot of the new techniques and tools, but you also need a second vocabulary in your head to understand what the lord is that man from Hong Kong talking about?

I gave up on a lot of important times in my family's life to attend trainings.. I've saved for a car and spent those savings on new devices and classes. There were so many sleepless nights in college drawing brows on latex in the middle of the night. 

What saddens me is when I hear What's the cheapest machine I could buy? Oh, I live in Fort Myers so your training is too far in Port Charlotte. Why are my strokes straight and not curved/and flowy? 

One cannot achieve their best work by working with a $10 machine. I travel to the middle of nowhere to take a class and someone is complaining about a 30-mile drive. I've sent some drawing homework 2 weeks ago and they haven't even touched it.  

They say that less than half of the people who go into this field will be doing this even after a couple of years. This job is 5% talent and 95% work. If you're not wiling to put in the work forget about even going into it. 

Training with someone who's booked constantly will be expensive. You have to think that when they're training, they're not working on clients all day, and their income should theoretically at least match what they'd be making by just working. Trainers are left with 30-45% of the class price after costs, host fees and taxes. Some people pay $10k-$50k for a year of college and work afterwards for 8.05$/h. A good training will impact you for a lifetime IF you are willing to put in the work. 

Another thing I wanted to address is how poorly technicians talk about 1-2 day classes. They keep insisting that everyone should take "fundamentals"(which is generally a 5-day class). Listen, if we're talking  purely about time, I wouldn't be able to tell you everything I know about this field not even in 6 months of talking non-stop. Remember that first training I've mentioned? The 5-day one.. Gosh, dreadful. And those 5 flights I took and long car ride to spend 7 hours with a good trainer have truly impacted the way I work. The length of the training does not matter that much. 

But yes, I do have to agree that there's a 1-2 day microblading class at every corner of the street now.. taught by people who couldn't tattoo a line in a lifetime. 

Don't think about money. Always focus on how to improve, how to be better on every single level at what you're doing and the money will come with time.

I take classes every year. I'm taking one in 3 days from today and planning on another 3 this upcoming year. (Yes, my family does think I'm nuts and I hope my boyfriend's not reading this. Hi honey!) I don't know everything and never will. If I would, I'd probably be bored and switch careers. This is a very interesting, meticulous job that can bring you a lot of personal satisfaction. 

I hope this was helpful for some of you.

 The next 3-day training I'm holding is in February and it is sold out. With the encouragement of the host, we were able to open up more dates in March 24-25-26. 

I wish you a lovely, prosperous 2017