Apprentice Alexis: Day At The Salon

For Dominique Spencer, it was knowing she had a stylist to work with her daughter Devin’s natural hair and make her look beautiful for the first day of Kindergarten. For Devin’s stylist Tamica Crawford, it was proving her skills as a professional stylist on her first day of work at .

For Apprentice Alexis, it was an opportunity to learn how to style hair, period.

How does someone with no experience in fixing hair other than her own go about doing the work of a trained, professional stylist?

The answer is simple yet complex and one fact can be concluded—it’s a process. Here's how the day went down:

2:15 p.m.: Alexis drives into the parking lot of the and searches for a parking space near the salon.

2:30 p.m.: Alexis finds a parking space on the other side of the mall, about 10 minutes of walking away from the location of her story, and parks her car in an empty space.

2:40 p.m.: Alexis arrives at the salon with reporter’s gear (notebook and pen, voice recorder and camera) in her purse, ready to “get the story.”

2:50 p.m.: After a brief round of introductions with the manager and Devin’s mom, Alexis has permission to be an apprentice to professional stylist Tamica and to try her hand at braiding the youngster’s hair.

2:50 to 3:15 p.m.: Tamica shows Alexis the tricks of the trade, from working with clients who are “tenderheaded” like Devin (meaning you have to comb and brush the hair gently because the client’s scalp is very sensitive), to sectioning the hair with precision, knowing how much or how little product (in this case, grease) to apply to the scalp and how to braid hair with ease and perfection.

3:15 p.m.: Alexis takes her newly acquired skills and puts them to practice by attempting to braid a section of Devin’s hair. She’s happy to hear from Tamica that she’s doing an okay job for someone who’s never done anyone’s hair other than her own.

3:25 p.m.: Alexis finishes braiding a section of Devin’s hair and turns it over to Tamica who smiles and gently reworks the amateur attempt to braid Devin’s hair, into sheer perfection.

3:30 p.m.: Devin returns to her mom who was waiting in the lobby with bright eyes and a big smile across her adorable face. Dominique hugs her girl and thanks both the professional stylist and Apprentice Alexis, happily expressing that her daughter is now ready for her first day of school.