This is the concluding lecture of the first module of this course. The lecture is divided into two parts. The first part, it deals with the convergence and divergence theme primarily to create common ground for creativity. The second part reworks exercises for writing performance. So, let me start with the title of this lecture, which is being, doing, writing as performance. What do I mean by these? I am again not introducing completely new terms, but I am refining some of the ideas that we have already discussed in different ways. This may give you another kind of perspective on the same thought process. While I was actually working out this title, it just immediately came to my mind when I came to the concluding lecture. And I realized with certain amount of pleasure and surprise that an essay that Richard Schekner had written in performance studies and introduction and this chapter title is, chapter two is titled, What is Performance? This had resurfaced in my consciousness, you know, and therefore it is highly influenced this way of describing our perception. It is highly influenced by this essay and this approach, but it is certainly also modified because we have applied it to the writing process, whereas Professor Richard Schekner has tried to enlarge the scope of human theater and its patterns of behavior and how to theorize about variety of instrumental and symbolic activities. So, therefore, let me now come to the terms of reference. Doing is existence, doing is activity and performance is to do something up to a standard. Now, what does that mean and how do we handle these ideas and what do I want to do with these ideas? So, then what I am again trying to draw your attention to is this connection between experience which is seamless, perennially influx, reflection which requires pause and it also leads to self-expression. But the self-expression when it is a conscious act of communication that is performing up to a certain standard, it requires working out, crafting and in that sense, this particular approach of writing as performance is also devoted to the processes of writing that require first the writing process, then the drafting, redrafting and editing out of material that does not seem to really hold the kind of significance one would like to highlight. So, from that point of view, what we have done is again to bring all the elements of the earlier lectures into some kind of focus for you and therefore, in while talking about these ideas, let me go over some of these important connections and I will spend more time with one or two new ideas that I have introduced here. So, the first thing is to maintain the writer's notebook or a kind of memoir so that you can dip into it for further refinement of your writing process. This inevitably may be an kind of act of random writing, it may also be an act that captures your epiphanic moments. So, it depends on you as to how you describe it, but this is one step which was seen as a preliminary step for the writing process. The second idea was related to the honesty of the amateur or the apprentice and this idea again is not an idea that does not demand certain amount of focus and activity from you. On the other hand, what it does is to require on the one hand a sense of wonder that really makes you write, makes you see the world from your own perspective and relish that perspective, but at the same time there is this perpetual sense of learning that is involved in this process and therefore, this is the second major step which often is ignored by apprentices or new writers. Although if you look at the suggestions that many of the professional writers have given across the board, it is constantly to suggest the need for reading and to share their own process of reading as a very significant aspect of their growth and also their search for their own distinctive voices. We will take this up in the second module when we talk about writers and their own perspectives and reading as writers by looking at this process in a slower more elaborate manner. The other idea is related to revisions and additions that is it is not just enough to read cursorily and retain some semblance of what you want to retain from that reading, but I think this reading should be careful process. So, you can learn from reading carefully and widely. The next step very crucial step is the ability to paraphrase or summarize the important aspects of the content you have gone through and the third thing is this ability to fathom your own connection to themes, ideas, experiments in writing. So, there is this constant search which should animate this process and I think one good way of handling this is to maintain a separate book of readings. So, separate it from your memoirs although some of the writers we are going to discuss later on especially Albert Camus, he did not quite separate the two, but I think I would sort of feel more comfortable if you separate the two so that you can see the overlap between the two processes in some interesting ways. So, now the other aspect of writing process is related to the language that you are going to use and of course you are using English. As I said you can also apply these ideas to writing in your own mother tongue, I think they are equally relevant and if I were to give a course on Hindi writing then I suppose some of the examples would vary, but none of the ideas and attitudes would vary at all. So, the first thing is grasp of standard English. The second is to the need for active exploration of words and their connotations. I find many of the students are fairly weak on in this area because they just take words for granted, I think that should be reviewed. Vocabulary development should not be just seen as memory or memorizing words and new words, their meanings, etc. But you should also begin to see which of the words lead to perceptual growth. For example, the word liminal that I had added to your vocabulary last time. I feel that that's the kind of word which you can, you know, grow with. Many of these words require experience. They generate their own dynamics and therefore, I think it is important to see which set of words can help you in your perceptual growth. There may be a sudden moment of recognition of a new insight that has developed through a new word and that's a marvelous process. You should not deny yourself that process. The next important idea seems to be related to a sense of judgment and really this is very, very important because I see all kinds of very awkward overlaps between the domains that I have just listed for certain amount of judgment that you require about appropriate use of language in different situations and for different purposes. For example, if you are using English for formal letters or official communication, your English will be different from the language you use for mobile SMSs or for informal communication and then again distinctly different in academic writing with its own rules and regulations and protocols and of course, creative writing. Of course, you can say that in creative writing you can use all of these ways of writing which is true but I think you need to have certain amount of judgment about this matter and this is really not to tame your sensibility but mainly to make you more educated and sensitive person because otherwise often there are all kinds of affronts that can affect your interaction and your writing also. One important idea now that I'd like to share with you is the significance of figures of speech so far. I have really not discussed this idea and so we are building block by block and so please add this block as a very vital one. Now figures of speech of course, when we undertake literary education, we often talk about that this whole idea in terms of how figures of speech are often used and crafted for emphasis, freshness of expression or clarity and so we often give the examples of metaphors, paradoxes, similes, etc. in order to highlight this idea but I want to add to that discussion in a slightly different way and this departure from that is not a departure in terms of doing it in a radically different way but by bringing in the theme of convergence and divergence by looking at metaphor as an activity which actually permeates everyday language also and at the same time some of the very important thinkers of scientific creativity have used this insight about the significance of metaphors in scientific creativity in a very, very interesting manner where literary and scientific creativity are brought together so I want to really use this opportunity to share this idea which I have really cherished for a very, very long time so I am indeed very glad that I am able to share this with you. The insight comes from two physicists and they are Bomb and Pete, one of them was a quantum physicist, the other one describes himself as a holistic physicist. I will leave that those tags and descriptions to you but let us see first what a metaphor is and then we will look at how Pete and Bomb have linked literary creativity with scientific creativity by placing metaphor as a very crucial element of the process of cognition so now this is what metaphor is so in a metaphor it is a figure of speech which establishes comparison between two different things or ideas and what Bomb and Pete have done is to dip into metaphor from Shakespeare but also the frame of reference in which they have undertaken this explanation is really related to scientific progress and scientific revolution so let me first give you the title of the book so that you can see the context a little better so I am sort of not able to see the full title I think we have given it at the end but this is science order and creativity and in this chapter they talk about scientific revolution and the crucial significance of metaphors in scientific revolutions and in their perspective or in their perception of scientific revolution normal science often is displaced by leaps of imagination that great scientists have undertaken and in this particular chapter which is devoted to metaphors they talk about the example of Newton and they also talk about the example of Archimedes so now they actually give the example of Newton in terms of this very well-known example of the falling apple and how through that image and through the comparison of the falling metaphor this comparison between the falling metaphor and the moon and the earth he developed very rigorously and mathematically this whole important theory of universal gravitation so let me read what they have said with reference to metaphors in the case of Newton and how this actually required a leap of imagination and then I will also read out their interpretation of Shakespeare's metaphor in all the world's stage and also their hypothesis that scientific and literary creativity have the same sense of sudden perception of two very different set of ideas which lead to a new paradigm so then this is what they had to say about the example from Newton's work according to them it involved a radically new mental perception radically new mental perception although that mental perception is shaped by the discourse within the field and they actually go back into it I am not a scientist so I think if you are a scientist and you are watching this you are better equipped to understand this idea in its intricacies so according to them it involved a radically new mental perception of nature it was Newton who perceived the universal implications of the fall of the apple for example Newton's initial insight into the nature of universal gravitation it came from this metaphor that developed in his mind which can be translated in this manner and again I am paraphrasing from Bohm and Pete so this can be expressed in metaphoric form as the moon is an apple which is then extended to the moon is an earth so these are different you know the moon is different from the earth from the apple but similar in the sense that they attract each other and obey the same laws of motion so then after the after establishing this connection which was a result of leap of imagination and it was also an expression of heightened perception according to them of course this metaphor was unfolded in mathematical language by you know through the theory that he established and then of course it led to corroborative experiments in order to you know accept this theory and so on and so forth so according to them metaphors are really very very crucial aspect of scientific creativity and the leaps that science has taken from stage to stage so let me again read their specific statement about metaphor metaphoric perception is indeed fundamental to all science and involves bringing together previously incompatible ideas in radically new ways so this is what they had to say and then they went on to look at the example from Shakespeare and the reason they picked this up is because they felt that for a non-scientist I suppose like me and many others it is somewhat difficult to understand these scientific leaps that easily but according to them these can be understood very clearly if you look at literary metaphors which reach a larger audience so the they picked up Jacques monologue from Shakespeare's as you like it where I will just read the first few lines all the worlds stage and all the men and women merely players they have their exits and their entrances and one man in his time plays many parts so this is the excerpt that they have chosen in that book and according to them these two ideas the world being a stage these are two different or incompatible things and at first side they appear to generate a paradox and therefore and again I am quoting from Pete and bomb if A is the world and B is a stage then the corresponding metaphor would be A is equal to B but common sense dictates that the world is not a stage therefore A cancels B the metaphor therefore appears to involve a simultaneous equating and negating of two ideas concepts or objects according to them this leads to heightened perception so very very interesting moment of heightened perception and that is where creativity emerges it is a combination of startlingly new come you know ideas expressions etc. So now it leads to heightened perception and then according to them Shakespeare proceeds to unfold the inner meaning of the metaphor by exploring the subtle similarities between A and B and finally and I think before I read this what you can do is to undertake this analysis yourself although I have also tried to do the traditional literary analysis in the you know PowerPoint and the slide that I have shared with you but I think you can also undertake this exercise yourself and I feel that if you begin to have a hold on metaphors it will really help you in a very very big way. So now this is how they conclude this idea in perceiving a new idea in science the mind is involved in a similar form of creative perception as when it engages a poetic metaphor. However in science it is essential to unfold the meaning of the metaphor in even greater and more literal detail while in poetry the metaphor may remain relatively implicit that is the beauty of poetry remains vibrant and keeps growing and you can interpret it in different ways at different points in your life. So this is an absolutely marvelous take on metaphors and I would like you to add this to the pool of ideas that we have shared and also see its connections in everyday life also that can also lead to lot of inventiveness even while describing characters and also describing their perceptions and many other ideas. Let me add a slightly more complicated idea here I actually debated whether I should add this idea or not but I have a feeling that many of you may be ready to actually explore ideas at a fairly complex level also. So with the geopolities you know I would say that if this idea works for you treat it as something that you want to think about right now otherwise see this as an add on and look at it whenever you feel like it. I have also given you the resource for selecting this idea which is Rob Pope's wonderful book on creativity but he I will explain where this idea comes from in a minute but let us see now some enabling metaphors for the imagination. So we have been talking about leaps of imagination and how metaphors can be a key element in this whole process and therefore now some of the enabling metaphors are imagination as a mirror, imagination as a lamp, imagination as a laborant of looking glasses and as I said this is a complex idea from a lot of theoretical work that has gone on and what Rob Pope is referring to is Kearney's conception of creative imagination as a further refinement of M. H. Abrams very famous study the mirror and the lamp and what he has advised is to think about these metaphors to model a particular kind of imagination as well as a specific historical stage. Now it is difficult to decipher these statements so easily but as I said this is a layer that I have added on and you can keep it in abeyance and also come back to it whenever you feel ready for it. While talking about imagination my suggestion is to play around with these enabling metaphors and therefore what I would like to do is to also quickly dip into this elusive nature of play that Richard Schekner has talked about in play and performance from the same source you know in the same book that I mentioned earlier and I think I will not read this full quotation but mainly it talks about the elusive nature of play and therefore I think I will leave it at that and move on to also some of the terms that have been generated by him in order to describe play, free play, Maya Leela playing in the dark, dark play and then I think this is time to move to the second part which now begins to tie up the discussion around writing as performance. And so now let us look at the series of activities and exercises that now we have identified as further kind of refinement of the earlier exercises that have already been shared with you. So I will not actually read everything here in detail but what I would like you to do is to mainly keep one or two main ideas in mind and look at the power point yourself, the slide yourself and also dip into earlier lectures in order to make sure that you have understood the ideas properly. So that is why my statement here is related to proper comprehension of previous lectures and ideas in order to conclude given writing exercises that the first one is observation exercise, the second is memory exercise, the third is multilingual exercise. There are two multilingual exercises because again remember we have talked about the vitality of multilinguality because it is really that is where some kind of fresh energies can be generated. A lot of advertisers now use this strategy but I think advertising is a very different kind of outlook whereas the search for authenticity that a writer undertakes is a different kind of activity. So I think you can do a lot of interesting work by exploring your multilinguality. So the two exercises are given here. Then there is an investigative exercise, we call it investigative because it would be possible for you to sort of see if you can also look at some of the words, the key words that we have discussed earlier and undertake certain amount of careful investigation in order to see how the words culture and creative are used in your setup because that can also give you some idea about different kinds of values that circulate change and redefine the world around us. So that is again take on earlier exercise. The next one is fusion exercise we have given lead terms here and these lead terms I think express our point of view very clearly in point of view where we want certain amount of fusion we do not want polarization in your thinking process because I feel that that is an obstacle to the wonderful potential that you have and so in that sense these two exercises again are fusion exercises and I think you can have a look at it and undertake them yourself. The next exercise is a flow exercise with infusion activities it is a flow exercise and the reason we have described it as flow is because while listening to great music I think you are able to reach a state of mind which is close to that of flow that is of total absorption and so now we have picked up two pieces for your consideration. So what we would recommend here is to listen to these two pieces I would really like you to listen to them but in case you really do not feel comfortable with this music you can listen to something else but these are really great pieces. So what you can do is to listen to this music and immediately write a short literary piece that the music evokes. So the suggested pieces the first one is Kumar Gandharva's Nirgun Kabir Bhajan, Suntah Hai Guru Gyani and actually even within this particular Kabir Bhajan what I would like you to really notice is the part which is captured in these words this is I think towards the last bit of this composition Bin Dharati Ek Mandal Di Se Bin Sarovarju Paneeray. Now in my own perception these two lines evoke the convergence theme that is a kind of Nirguni scientific take of sorts where Dharati without the name seems like a mandal and also Bin Sarovar without the name Sarovar you would just see whatever for what it is. So to me it seems like that kind of Nirguni observation which also is a starting point of scientific observation too. So you can again listen to this piece and see what you feel about it. The second piece that I have recommended is also a piece that I love very much. It is Vivaldi's Spring from Four Seasons and Vivaldi was an Italian composer and this is a violin concerto. Now this concerto has a sonnet. It is very interesting. It has a sonnet because there is a lot of debate about who wrote the sonnet but it is there many people believe Vivaldi himself wrote the sonnet. It also has some very interesting instructions like in the second movement of this piece Vivaldi would like to retain the sound of the barking dog. Also what I actually I mean I love the music for itself but what I also found really very interesting is that he wrote much of his music for the female music ensemble in this house of orphan girls which you know he was involved with he was taking care of these young abandoned orphans and so much of his music was composed during this period while he was teaching these young children also he was trying to empower them. So there are a lot of layers in this music that you can also try and sift. So this is an exercise and very much like you to undertake and enjoy. The next one is of course the pastoral activity where the ejective pastoral we do recognize we did not really explain it earlier quite deliberately but we do recognize that it has many meanings and connotations and you can look at all these meanings and try and see how you view nature. So we are relating nature to pastoral so write about nature as per your understanding of the terms nature and pastoral in order to establish a personal relationship with this phenomenon and this is also a fresh idea that we have included endorsed in this course because I do feel that our relationship to nature also it is a pre-given no doubt about it and it can also be seen in so many different ways but at the same time this is something that can help us see ourselves better and also establish better relationships with the world around us not just the social the cultural but also in terms of nature and also its larger ramifications today. In the middle of the blank page within the same frame of reference you can undertake an activity which we have actually borrowed from another text that is available but in the middle of the blank page write down a list of plants or animals and to the left of this list write a column of adjectives which describe the plants animals their textures special features memories they evoke and to the right of the list write a column or verbs which illuminate the features of the subject the verb should be energetic and exact you can dip into culture and nature related discussions undertaken in lecture 5 and 8 before you undertake this exercise. Neha had undertaken this exercise actually she undertook this exercise and in a fairly elaborate kind of manner but we decided that at this point in time what we would do is to choose only an accessible example. So we have chosen a very small part of what she had undertaken because we are constantly also trying to see if our ideas make sense or not we have tried it with the students who have undertaken the courses but sometimes we also try and undertake these exercises ourselves in order to keep learning and also keep exploring the effectiveness of our ideas. So she chose the plant orchid and the adjectives that she has chosen are expensive fragile rare purple and the verbs that she has chosen are decorate adorned freshen. So this is just to give you a feel for what can be done. The other activity that is added to the list of the ideas that we have already shared and this is to give a sharper focus on writing is to write a short autobiographical piece which constructs the agony or ecstasy of your educational processes keeping in mind the discussion generated in lectures 8 and 9. Redraft and edit this piece from the viewpoint of presenting it to an audience. Now that is very important because sometimes if you feel that you are writing in a vacuum you may not be able to really refine the process of your own writing very much but if you have a sense of an audience you may not think about a specific audience because of course once something is printed as Margaret Atwood has mentioned this is a work we will this is an essay we will discuss later on she says once something is printed then it gains different kinds of meanings but it is very good for a writer to have at least some sense of an audience. So try and do that and redraft and edit it from the point of your presenting it to an audience and if possible present it to your friends. The next exercise again is a very I think very entertaining and interesting exercise and this is related to the media. Watch any of the films mentioned in lecture 9. Write an analytical review of the art and craft involved in bringing alive the script or theme. So the interviews of the script writer, director and actors will help you understand the process of artistic creation better. I missed out on that whole package of DVDs that Mr. Hirani had released after three idiot you know came out in the public space but so I do not really know if what you think of that material but certainly with a social network the material that is available is exceedingly interesting and I think we can really do a lot with that material by way of engaging with this whole process of team work in some of the forms that we are talking about. This writing can be isolating but let us say in filmmaking it is a lot of team work is involved. So even a young team is not generally seen only from the point of view of the young it is also seen from the point of view of the older people mercifully I would say. So now the other media exercise I think relates to the young medium that has really changed everything around us. So what I have done is to choose this statement a very interesting statement made by Brindal Laurel regarding computers and so you can examine this idea it is taken from a book called A Companion to Digital Literary Studies that came out couple of years back and so this is what the statement is. Every user's interaction with the computer is a unique performance and moreover it is one that like theater typically involves an element of make-believe. So it's your young medium see what you have to say about this. So respond to it and create a piece or create a performance or create some team work by doing different things you know. By way of more ideas in this regard I think I have already identified the essay and in the reading list you can also see this once again. So now the reading list that we have suggested here actually we have suggested only two books really speaking. So this earlier book that I talked about if you want you can just have a look at it because we have only used one statement. We have not really used the concept and the approach in a radical way and that is why we just have retained this here. So you can have a look at this digital literary studies or just feed the word Brindal or Hill in Google search and gain more access to material. So then Pete we definitely you know would like to explore further ourselves and Shekner's performance studies also is a very interesting take on many of these ideas of performance, theater, human behavior in different situations and its variety. So anyway two more books I think that we have identified are related to reading and writing from literature especially Schwabbert's chapter on metaphors although we really haven't used this book much but we while offering our ideas to you we have also been reviewing new fresh material and this is a new way of teaching literature it's very vibrant. So we thought we would include this reference too and the last one Simon Ray and Susan Scheberman editors companion to digital literary studies and that's what we dipped into for performance and interaction idea. I think that's about all that we have for you and this concludes the first module for us and I think we are beginning to feel more excited and many of these ideas will be developed further in the subsequent modules. I hope you will stay on board and also give us feedback about what these ideas have done for you. Thank you.


This podcast is brought to you by our friends at MinervaBeauty. Check out MinervaBeauty.com and see their huge selection of chairs, stations, anything you could possibly want for your salon is on MinervaBeauty.com. Also, check out Millennium Systems International at MillenniumSI.com, the best salon software in the industry starting at $49 per month. If you're looking to better your online reputation, check out demandforce.com slash free salon education. Fill out the form. Somebody will reach out to you, show you how to better communicate with your guests and how you can build lots and lots of great reviews online for your salon business. Hey guys, this is Matt Beck from FreeSalonEducation.com. What was that? That was like a... You were applauding. Here we go! You were just so happy for this episode. I am. I'm super happy. I don't... you know what? I had the... that's got the thing on still. I can hear it. I had the... last night I was talking to one of my really good friends from back in high school and he's a teacher. So, what are you laughing about? That I have friends? No, we're watching you clapping on the podcast. Oh, nice. Awesome. So, one of my really good friends from high school, we grew up together. You know, I grew up in a town of 700 people. So it was, you know, he was a really good friend and I knew him all through school. And he's been watching our YouTube channel. He also watches the Fronos photo because I told him about it and he's into photography and stuff. So, I was talking to him last night and he wants to start a YouTube channel and he's a kindergarten teacher. So, you know, I was like... Right. Yeah, I'm like... Let me be your Sherpa. I'm drinking my lemonade and vodka and I'm talking it up and I'm just going nuts on ideas because it's so exciting. But then what I realized is as I'm going through, he's like, well, how did you do this with the podcast? How did you do that? And I'm thinking, well, we started with webcams and then we went to... I finally bought a camera and then so I kind of walked him through the last year and a half of this whole thing and realized it's pretty crazy how much stuff we've done. And then also yesterday I was putting together some stuff for American Sons doing a write-up and they wanted some pictures. So, I'm going through like our Facebook, like all the old pictures of just everything and I just look at like Thad on the stage at the Millennium Experience. I wish I could pull that picture up right now, but he's like this scrawny little guy. I didn't realize how tiny Thad was, but when you look at these pictures, it's hilarious. So, if you get a chance, go back and... You know what? I'll post it today. Scrawny Thad. Little scrawny Thad throwback Wednesday. Just go back to the wash house video that we did. Like that really shows it off or the product knowledge one's up front. Yeah, but I don't think... When you see this photo, Thad, you're like wearing like your dad's jacket or something. And I think he went and bought it and he spray painted it, but it's so big on him. It's like he's drowning in it. I was going to say, I have lots of pictures. Next year it'll be you. I'll be gigantic like Thad and Dustin. No, I won't. So, anyways, I got Brian Hare with me. Justin Scott, Drea Bolland, Thaddeus Bolland. So, we got a lot of things coming up, a lot of big things and seems like so far this year has just taken off and every week is a new opportunity. So, this is going to be a very exciting year. I'm watching everybody on the podcast right now talking. So, good morning to everyone that's following us live from Finland and everywhere else. So, and that's pretty much, you know, I'm very, very excited. We got ISSE coming up this weekend. I did a video for that. We're giving away furniture from Minerva there. We're going to be doing podcasts. I've every single person for the most part that I've reached out to and said, hey, I'm going to be there doing a podcast. Would you like to sit down? I've all said yes. So, I'm really excited to be there and hanging out with the Millennium Group because we're going to be at their booth. I think it's number 204, but don't quote me on that. But if you get a chance, stop by the booth. I would love to meet you guys and I'm thinking about just throwing people up and just saying, hey, let's just talk about the show. So, you know, that's what's going on. All right. Anything else? How was your week? It's been good. Been busy. I was saying, I was just telling some of the other day, another hairdresser friend of mine, that what's funny, now that the holidays are over, it feels like I'm dead, but really, I'm just back to my normal busy. Like the fact that I have time to maybe have a bite of a sandwich or run to the bathroom when I need to feels like we're dead. Yeah. I gotta say, as much as I enjoy December and Christmas and all that, I'm really glad it's over. I know. It's just a fun rush. You know what? It's because, for me, it's like, because of this, how it screws up the schedule. You know, like it's, I don't like, I like being in a routine even though I love change.  Right. So, it's just, it's confusing.  Yeah, you spend it all and then all of a sudden, you're not as busy. So, that's what I said when the paychecks came last week, because of how it just fell with Christmas and New Year's this year. You missed this day. You missed that day. I was like, finally, this is the last interrupted paycheck. Now it's back to normal. Yeah. Yeah. Were you gonna say something? Sorry.  It's after the holidays and they're talking about how relaxing their holiday was and they had this week off between like Christmas and New Year's and I'm like, wow. We were off for like 20 minutes because of Christmas. We need to do family haircuts around the Christmas tree. Yeah. And I'm like, huh, I'm like, I don't know what that feels like. I was like, my, my holiday was like so fast. Yeah. Somebody wrote, hey, no thumbs down today. Hey. Yeah. Yeah. Hala. Wait, do we not have it yet? No, we don't. Not yet. No, I mean. I think that guy we, we just put out my video that I find beyond funny. I didn't think I was even gonna enjoy the video, but yeah, pretty funny. I got two thumbs down. So I made a point that the guy made another count just to, you know, mess with. Wait, because you got thumbs. So, so Justin's new to the creating videos. This is second video. Yeah. So we're used to it. Were you super depressed when you saw, well, he's too tough for that. Yeah. I go into like drinking coma. No, we had to like have that, but ourselves in therapy after when I get to like 100 thumbs downs, I'm like, why are there so many people? Can you talk to me after work? I would really love that.  Tell me I'm special. I got another thumbs down. It's like when I call my dad, I'm like, dad, this happened to me.  I'm like, dad, dad, you make me feel so much better. Like no matter what, he's on my side. It doesn't matter. So all right. So let's get into a little bit of feedback from last week and then we have some other cool stuff to talk about as well. This week, we've kind of crunched together feedback and questions because I didn't feel like sorting them out. So they're just like all together, even nice potpourri of social media interaction. Nice. Nice word choice there. While I'm thinking about it, did you cut your hair or is it just curled extra? It is cut a little shorter. I thought that this morning too and you colored it, right? Yeah, it is colored. It got cut last week, actually. Uh oh. Matt didn't do it. No, he's not. That's a good point. What? Who's cutting your hair? She is. She's doing it in the bathroom. Yeah. If I just do a little bit, they'll forget that I have long hair. Whatever. That apparently thinks he's the only one who can cut his own hair. It's true. Fair enough. All right. So for the jump off, one of the first questions that I saw, our girl Michelle Brisson asked, uh, when are we announcing the winner of the Mizetani contest? I threw this in there because I've had a couple other people ask me as well. Yeah. And I was like, just, it's coming. I don't know what the actual answer was. So since we had to sort through 5,000 videos, it's been. It's overwhelming. I'm just kidding. It was not that many. It was 11. But we have, so we have to sort through the videos and Kiyoshi from Mizetani is also watching the videos. So we're going to watch them. I'm going to connect with him this week. We'll be announcing the winner a week from today. So, you know, it's really up to when he says, Matt, I really love this one. I mean, it's his, he's giving away a thousand dollars and the scissors. So I just want to kind of need his input on that. Yeah. Like, we're just the channel with which he's doing this contest. Right. So, uh, so yeah, it'll be coming up this week. All right, cool. So stay tuned for that. Kiddos. Uh, Amarlin Stewart said, so excited to hear that you're going to be Long Beach Hair Show. Is your whole gang going or just you? Either way, it's all good. You guys are all awesome, talented, funny, and you know how to keep the passion alive. Thank you and can't wait to meet you. She's been around for a while. That's why I was glad that she commented and you're going to get to meet her. It's just me. He's actually just got a new carry on bag. No, that's all into. So like, is it just you or is like everybody going? Oh, I don't think I know. I know. I'm just kind of how she said it. Um, yeah, the rest of this will be holding down the fort. Yeah, because these guys fly everywhere all the time and we kind of can't keep up with that schedule. So he's got to work. This launch is going to be closed a lot. Yeah, we're on tour. Sorry, new hope. We're out of here. But yeah, well, there'll be more things in the future that will kind of rotate everybody, you know, going to things. But right now that comes with me, too, because he that's hilarious. So we're in that's hilarious. Yeah, that's hilarious. Nate's comic release. So we're not favorite. So I decided to bring this huge flight case with all the tripods and everything to the millennium event in Florida and not knowing or thinking about the fact that the flight case is already like 30 or 40 pounds on its own. So horrible decision.  So but the funny thing is we get back. No, I don't need a freight truck. I have a sad we get back and there's like this girl. It's like super late and we get back to Newark and there's this girl standing there waiting for her bag and that's like standing next to her and I'm watching this whole thing from like 10 feet back and that's like already. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Yeah, so this is one of the things where we didn't talk about this, but I saw it happening. So he's like standing next to this girl. He's got like his metal music and his earphones already and he's like pumped up ready for this like freight thing to come through and he's like I'm just going to need a little bit of space because I've got to grab this huge bag. So he so he the thing comes around. He's like he just muscles this thing and I mean it is it was 85 pounds. I'm picturing him doing push-ups waiting for the start like just to get ready the small girl next to him next time. Could you arm wrestle me real quick? I gotta get well. I just for solid like trying to grab it and then knocking her out like out of the way. I'd rather like give her like some warning. Yeah, but collateral damage.  She was like my mom's age. She was not your mom's. How old is your mom? I don't know. Oh, don't say that actually, but that's not a good subject to get on. She's not. She was like your age. No, she wasn't. Oh, how far away were you? I was far. I was far and late and I hadn't slept much. You did not want to be part collateral damage. All right. Well, that makes that story even funnier because you were impressing the mom. That's that's fantastic. She had a daughter, though. I didn't want to knock her out. That's great. All right. That's the one that goes with Matt because they've learned how to become travel buddies. I don't know which one of us would die first if Matt brought any of us on these travels or they sit in a car for 12 hours. We room together. Matt, how would you handle me for a trip? You wouldn't know. I don't. I haven't figured any of that out yet. That's why you're not on the intro. You haven't figured how to work with me yet. No, we had so but that's really great.  It was like one of those things where nobody really wanted to learn to run the cameras. And then so and that did it. And then now it's become like a very valuable thing because somebody's got to run them and that knows how to set them up. He knows how to do all of it. So it's been really cool. I really enjoy having that with me because again, he's not scared to lift anything. And he, you know, he and I got to say from my own personal experience, he's a nice quiet roommate. I just remember the story last week. I don't know. I can picture you jumping on the bed. Like the entire time. That's pretty accurate. Are we going to go somewhere? Are we going to go somewhere? Are we going to go somewhere? Dad's like, dude, I'm going to bed. He puts his music on. Well, I don't know. I just, for some reason, the story popped into my head last week and we were joking about it. I don't know if you remember years ago, like I had only just met that. Like I'm Brian, I'm sad. That's it. I didn't work here. We didn't know each other. And we were both working and I check in and they're like, oh, by the way, the reservations are kind of messed up. You only have one bed. And I'm like, I remember that. And so I text that. I'm like, we only have one bed. I have never slept so far on the edge of a bed in my entire life. My favorite part is you guys really did sleep together. You didn't say can I have like you didn't take couch cushions off or anything. No, we made it work. We just slept. There was enough room for the rest of the team in between us on that bed. And he's like, just so you know, I listen to metal first thing in the morning. I'm like, that's fine. Yeah, he does. It's OK. And he does. He locks himself in the bathroom with the metal blaring off of his phone. And I'm just like, all right. Yeah, I like he was a great roommate. Yeah, but it's not like it was a luxurious weekend away. Like you were working a hair show. What time did you guys get up in the morning? Like what time did you get back? We slept together for like three hours a night. So it was a nap. Actually speaking of working a hair show the so 10 years ago, actually this coming IBS, International Beauty Show in New York City, I was there as an assistant and I had just moved to New Hope from Iowa. And so as a beauty school, like just graduated, started at this salon and the owner worked for Paul Mitchell.  Robert Cromings is going to be there so you can assist his team. And I was like blown away. I had no money, nothing. So I he put me in a hotel and when I tell you I thought me and him were staying together, he put me in a hotel like off of Times Square, like in the middle of an alley. And like you walk in and there was like bulletproof glass, like to check in.  And then there's another door to actually get in your room. So it was like double doored like with like a four foot gap so that it would take somebody longer to break in and get you. I mean, that's nice. Yeah, it was nice. That's a precaution. And because of that scarring experience, Matt only puts us in first class. Yeah. So I will take you guys when I can put you in the penthouse. Yeah. And and then he goes. So we go out that night and and have some fun, whatever. He goes and stays with Nina Covner, who at the time is like the vice president of Paul Mitchell and at the Marriott. And I he put me with two people I didn't know in the meth who he randomly selected who turned out to be really cool people. And I still know them to this day.  But I got to assist at the show and it was awesome. And so now 10 years later, I just got an email this morning that says would you like to come back and I quote the same hotel. You're on your email list. Yeah, we would really love to have you back eligible for. So this is from we'll leave the name unknown for now until I know that I can say it because it's private. But it says Matt congratulations again for being named master of ceremonies for the 2015 International Beauty Show Main Stage. So I'm going to be the emcee of Main Stage IBS which 10 years ago I was assisting assisting getting pink hands feeling awful and sleeping in like, you know, a crack then and and now I just feel really, really lucky in the fact that, you know, I was asked to do this. I'm only second person to do it. And so they kind of passed the torch down and they're really excited to see what I'm going to do to try to make it fun and interactive and, you know, just bring something different to IBS. So I'm super excited about it. So that's in March. So if you guys get a chance to come to IBS in New York. That's really awesome. We're going to be hosting. I feel bad. I feel like we should. I almost wish it was like a surprise for us so that we could react how we actually reacted when you told us the first time. It's like awesome. Awesome. Yeah, I wasn't allowed.  So but now it's official. I got the official email. That's super awesome. You guys were in the loop way before. Yeah. I just to keep things exciting in between segments. You have the audience do push ups. Yeah, you can lead that. That. Why don't we bring some want to bring some Monday shirts? Yeah. They seem to be big. Oh yeah. We're going to be throwing out t-shirts and all kinds of t-shirt. I was just saying, can I be the t-shirt camera guy? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. We should get a t-shirt cannon. I was just going to say bring helmets. Yeah. I'm aiming for the kids. For the t-shirt. Thanks to Amazon Prime. We'll have one tomorrow. Yeah. T-shirt cannon for sure. We're going to get that. The drones will drop it off in the back. I should try to get a t-shirt cannon for ISSE. Yeah. All right. Just launching. This just got so cool. Launching t-shirts. Yeah. Sweet. Good job guys. All right. So we're still on feedback. Yeah, we're still going. Actually, I think Millennium has a t-shirt gun. They do? Yeah, but we need our own. I saw them using it at the experience. Maybe. We need the fist gun though. Like we need one that's like. Maybe we can borrow it. Can we buy the Hulk fist and like paint them teal and just shoot them? Yeah. Hulk hands everywhere. And I just totally did that on the show. Yes, you did. Twice. All right. Again, last week, I remember if I think it was last week, we were talking about fantasy colors and different ones. You were saying fantasy football. Yes, of course. We were. Last week, yeah. Doug. All right. So fantasy colors. Fantasy colors. Michelle Burson put up a picture. And what's funny is I noticed it as soon as she put it up and was like, I recognize that color scheme. Hey, guys, love the show. I've used the Joyco Color Intensity fashion colors and they rock. Here's a picture of some of the colors I played with. And I think that's kind of a familiar color scheme there with the blue and the purple and the pink. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. It's pretty. I like it. Looks like Armanican. Yeah. All right. And then feedback. James Delman on and not sure which video. Oh, yeah. The Justin's Clipper video says, thanks for the info, Justin. Have a great night, day, night. Because if you when you watch the video, you got to stay through because Justin got a blooper reel. Yeah. And it was it's funny. It's much funnier on video because Dray and I are sitting there waiting to film and we're like, oh my god, stop saying night. Yeah. Stop saying night. And everyone have a great night. I'm like, I didn't hear the habit. This is YouTube. They watch all the time. It's like it's like a DVR. So he's like, all right, guys, we'll have a great night. I'm like, no, people only watch YouTube at night. All right, let's try it again. And he goes, all right, have a great day. That's not better.  So it's really fun. And it was a cool video. I loved actually sitting there when I was editing it. You know, I kind of I thought we were going to have to like really splice it up, but it was very interesting the whole time. So I just left it 10 minutes. You know, I didn't want to cut it out too much because you break down both types of clippers, how to take them apart fully. And it's a really good detailed video. So I was really happy. I thought I messed it up, but I was actually impressed with it. Yeah. So watch that video if you haven't yet. And Michelle Golden says, Matt, I didn't know you're from Iowa. How cool. I'm in Ames, Iowa. I grew up in, well, I grew up in Illinois, but I went to beauty school in the Quad Cities, which is like on the edge of Iowa and Illinois. So, so yeah, I grew up there. I was 21 when I finally moved out. I'd never been on a plane, never done anything. So I made the jump here just for this career. So when we were getting coffee, Justin, I was just talking about you being from Iowa because he's going for some show and he's like, what's in Iowa? Are there cows? And I was like, there's like meth and cattle. Right. I said, I know there's cows because Matt and I have talked about cow tipping before. Beyond that, I don't know. But this was like, this was a big discussion I had because when I first moved here, I told everyone I was from Iowa, but I'm not really from Iowa. But I felt like if I say I'm from Illinois, everyone thinks Chicago and like I'm from this like, you know, crazy city or something. But when I say Iowa, they go, so there's cows. I'm like, yeah, that's where I grew up. Can we pause you? Yeah. We got, we got shirt cannons. You got it? I mean, I, this is fantastic. We got, he's like, we got shirt cannons. We got shirt cannons. We're both viewing them. So. How much is a shirt cannon? Well, the one we want, it's like it's, it's like an assault rifle for T shirt. Yes, guys. Yes. You know what? Just hand them here. You know what? Let's not even do the show anymore. Let's just talk about this. So. Shirt cannon. How much is it? Four grand. What? But this is like your shirt. Look, look, watch this. Watch this, watch this. Well, we can finance that. We can finance it. Yeah. Is that right off? Yeah. They have five easy payments. Look at that, look at that. Oh my God. That's a, okay. All right. That's a $4,000 cannon. You guys have no idea what we're talking about, but that's a pretty cool looking cat. We'll post it later. All right. I was going to say, can you save that because I'm kind of jealous that I'm not seeing it right now. Can you post that on Facebook right now? Drea? The like the link? Yeah. Just copy the link and paste it and paste it in Facebook. So going off of that, Denny Lane said, I want that shirt. Sure. But you got to take it from the cannon. Or take it off Justin. You have to take it off Justin. Or the cannon. All right. I'm just repeating what you said. Oh, okay. I was like, were you thinking that? No, actually I thought that this is a original statement you were going to say. I was like, oh, he said cat. No, he went there too. Justin actually thinks he's the third person. He does. Yeah. And then going off of that. Okay. Going off of that, Foxy Tay says, love the video a lot. I can't help myself, but you are super hot. With then four kissy emojis. She's going to thank you, Foxy. She will tackle you. You. Awesome. That's where the show went today. Yeah. I missed this one. All right. Shoot. I don't remember. Anissa. Shoot. Anissa. No, I think it was. Because she finally corrected me. She told me how to say it. Now I don't remember. You should save that in your notes. I think it's Anissa. Big A. Big A. There, problem solved. Big A. Great episode, guys. I was finally able to watch the episode live. I forgot to factor in different time zones. Oops, I'm in California. Oh, so super good morning to you. LOL, what are your favorite tips and tricks for vibrant, long-lasting regs? Reds. And do you process under heat? I guess with clients, the long-lasting reds that I always go for is those are the people that you kind of don't give the option of using professional grade products. You kind of make them understand like there's no point in even doing this unless you're literally going to use every single product and even start looking into every single tool that I use on you to make sure like if you need this red to last. Right. Then I need you using all the same stuff I do because if you came in here for your blowouts every day it would last better. Yeah. Yeah. Not wash it as often. Right. You know. Well, and the thing is reds are just as high maintenance as blondes. Blondes, you don't always have... They are a little bit more understanding so they'll come in a little bit more often. Right. People think reds are something simple and easy. They're not. They need their high maintenance. They need to be taken care of. They need refreshing. Just so you know, she's completely talking about herself. I am very high maintenance. She really is. And she's not understanding. No, I'm like, I just... No, she gets it. She knows. J.S.T. is on top of that red. I know. That's what's up. I was just talking about it in general. Oh. You know what? Brotherly love. All right. Pink Streets asks, what would be your advice for a student looking to find a receptionist position at a salon? Should I go to every salon with my resume and talk to the hiring managers? What are some tips you can share once I get into the receptionist role in order to make myself more valuable to my coworkers? Personally, I think if you're a student in school, you should probably go for more of an assistant position than a receptionist. Yeah. I mean, I understand. I think the front desk is a very important place that you need to understand what that's like. Because like here, we don't really have... I mean, I know we have Claudian now, but we all know how to do that. Like we all do that job. But in much bigger salons, it is not... It's not an easy job. But you got to think about too. Most people that are going to go get a receptionist job at a salon, most salons are not even utilizing the receptionist the way that they should. So you're going to sit there with nothing to do. You're going to be on Facebook the whole time. But I've also worked in big places that... I mean, that's like a very... Yeah, but you live in New Jersey. Right. You know what I mean? So there are... There's just a different... In Iowa, we didn't have a lot of huge salons. Most people were going... The majority of people that were graduating beauty school were going to work in a small place. So like if you go to get a receptionist job, but then if you work at a salon like you worked in, it was huge. I mean, you're going to have a lot to do. But that's not the majority of salons. I mean, I think the average salon in America has four chairs. So... But at the same time... Quarter six, I think.  So you could take that as she's not a senior yet. So she's not actually able to touch a client, let alone shampoo, blow-dry, towel-dry, not to do a thing to a client. So at that point, I would say, definitely go in for a front desk receptionist position, kind of get your feet wet, see what the salon environment's all about. Then when you get your midway point, which most states do, you get your permit, which you can then work in the salon to assist. Then you can move up from there. I guess that's a different... Because Jersey's like that, but PA's not. Kathleen is not California. I know what California is. Florida is a lot of states are. You don't have to even go to school. I understand that, but I'm saying for those who are. Right. So, all right. The first part of that, we suggest getting an assistant position first. Yeah. If it's offered. If you can. If it's offered. If they don't have it in the salon that you want to go to, all right, then you start with reception. Yeah. Just to get yourself in the door if that's the salon you want to be in. As far as what you can do to be more valuable, we were just talking about this. Actually, I was talking with Claudia about this last week, because I actually became really, really good friends with one of the assistants. The receptionist at one of my old salons, and she just messaged me. She was coming out to get her hair cut in a couple of weeks. And one thing that I loved about her was, you know, she knew the flow of the salon. She knew the flow of my book. So there was never any, hey, who's supposed to be here? Like if that client was not there in 10 minutes, she knew how I booked what I was able to do. Yeah. And she would be on the phone before I even went to her. You know, well, if you can't get here in the next five minutes, then I have to reschedule you, or we can do a little bit fewer services or whatever. Just get to know the people that you're helping. Get to know the books that you're trying to book for, and ask them what they do. I mean, I've had receptionists come in and rate flashcards on the different stylists on how long they really need for a haircut and really need for this service, just to really get to know the environment to help make it run smoothly. Yeah, and they got to study. And then if you can start making decisions without going to the stylist every time, like you're saying kind of like, if you have to go to them every five minutes, you're like, ah, she's five minutes late.    I don't know what to do. Or what is... Ask the stylist what they want. Yeah. Like that was my thing. At 10 minutes, there's a phone call finding out where they are. Yeah. And if they're more than five minutes out for this blowout, then guess what? I can't do it in eight minutes. Yeah. And that's based on your day.  They got nothing else to do for the day.  Like life happens and you should just, you should take them if you can. But when you booked back to back, I mean, that's just, you know, that's an easy phone call because you're not trying to be mean to them.  So I can't, I don't want to rush what I need to do to you. And I don't want to step on the next person that's coming in. Exactly. And the biggest question, the biggest statement I have for anybody saying as a student is, don't lose focus of being a student. That's what I see a lot happen as long as an instructor, as a stylist, as a barber, whatever job I've had.  They don't keep up on studying to pass their boards. They don't keep up on anything they really have to. They start taking days off school to be at work. Any boss who knows you're a student shouldn't ever ask you to take time away from that school to be at work. So if you're finding you're in those positions, get out of it.  So I mean, don't lose focus of that. If you can't get a license, it's no point to know how to do really cool haircuts or color techniques. If you can't actually put it to use. Yeah, and you make a good point because I think students, like you're just getting through school, you're trying to learn the 90 degree haircut and all that stuff and whatever to pass your state board. But they really need to utilize that time to focus on learning all the time because then if you step out of school, you could learn so much in that year or year and a half that you're in school.  They don't do anything, right? You know, and they're out smoking cigarettes, doing whatever and just taking a client randomly whenever they can to do that next shampoo and set. When really you have a whole entire school full of, and I'm not saying that they're all, you know, fantastic, but you have minds that have been in the industry for a long time that you can pick their brains the entire time you're in school and learn from them. Everyone's got something that can teach you. Yeah. And like I know, I think the big difference that I saw between like myself and a couple other people, when you first get on the floor somewhere, whether it's as an assistant or doing whatever, you should be, I guess, nervous just because it's your first time doing this haircut without the waiver and not because it's your first time doing this haircut ever. Right. Spend your time in school doing everything. You know, make yourself uncomfortable. Do the stuff that you're like, that you know you're not good at because you haven't done it yet. You know, like don't, I don't know, do a relaxer. Yeah, don't tell yourself. Do a stack, do a mullet. Do everything that you can while you're in school so that when you get out of school it's never your first time doing something. Right. Okay, cool. Just throwing that out there. Why don't you jump on to the next one? Zach, can you hit that camera in the back real quick? I need to adjust something. We're having a couple sound crackling things so I just want to... All right. Moving on. Again, while we were talking about fashion colors and actually this could pertain to the redhead question as well. Wisconsin Donna said fashion colors are a stain. See what you did there. Color molecules are large and meant to wash out. They sit between the open cuticle think of a ball in an open doorway. So if you close the cuticle or seal it, the color is just going to wash out faster. She suggests, and I back her up on this, use cold water. Don't shampoo as much as you can. Use toning conditioners and then talk about dry shampoo because I'm seeing more, I feel like every day I go on Instagram there's just more and more people doing fashion colors. Yeah. Yeah. Which I love, which is great. Super exciting. But we definitely need to have that in our arsenal. Get to know whatever color line you're using. Talk to them about shampooing.   I don't take cold shower. You don't have to. Just shampoo and rinse with cold water. It's not that hard.  I've washed my hair in the kitchen sink because... Yeah, because you wanted to hang on to your color. Because that was taking too long in the bathroom, we know. Obviously. Yeah, I mean because you think about it like what she's saying with just picturing it. We've all seen the up-close pictures of what hair looks like with the cuticle. It looks like an artichoke with the little thing. It looks like an artichoke. It does. And, you know, when you're... Most of these fashion colors, I can't really think of one that's not. They're all, you know, just that... What is it? Direct dyeing? The one that just is what it is. It looks like that color. It doesn't need to process. So it's just big, fat color molecules that just get under there and then just sit there as long as they can, depending on the shape of the hair and what you do is going to be how long it lasts. I always, with those situations, I totally get a little hair school 101 with them.  It'll go for your redheads. Just color longevity in general. And Matt's ready to rumble. And you couldn't see that. I just unzip my... This was... I was just unzipping this. Not anything else. Yeah. Yeah. That's his signal. He's got an arm muscle fad right now. Cleavage. Yeah. Cleavage. All right. So that's pretty much... I think that pretty much covers most of social media stuff. Yeah. Okay. So thank you guys. Keep it coming. So I hope the sound is good. All right. Cool. Crackling gone. Sound is good. Fantastic. I love watching... This live feed thing rules. I know. I'm so excited about it. And I love seeing everyone talking on there. So a couple of things with Mizutani. We got the new spray bottle. I love them. They are so cool.  Well, I loved the way the old spray bottles sprayed. Yeah. Now I love the way these look. Okay. Yeah. Does it spray the same? I think it's cooler than matte black. It does spray the same. It misses the same. There's so much electronic equipment around here. I'm like the who at the end. We'll just knock all the cameras over. So... But yeah, this is a cool bottle. I like this thing a lot. We just got it in, so I haven't had a chance to really use it yet, but that was really nice. And I got to be honest, I love that it's small, because it'll keep you from putting so much water in it that it goes stale and starts to smell. Yeah, I could do it on people. That's disgusting. I also like that it's black, because it's not going to show any color. The color spots that we got all over the white ones. Yeah, that.  So these will be available on shopfsc.com soon, but they haven't got it in the big shipment. It's on the boat on its way over. These are overnight pops from Japan. And I got a picture sent to me from Kiyoshi the other day, and it was the gold scissor with the fist logo on it. So pretty sweet. So that'll be available coming up in the next couple of months. You'll be able to get the limited edition FSE gold, matte gold scissor. I love that it's matte gold. Too legit. It's fine. Matt, can you just go, I like gold. Why would I do that? I was like, what is he doing? I got them for the scissors. Come on, bed, show my boots. I love my boots. Can we get an embroidered fist on the boots? Yes. So let's see. So that and then I want to talk about texture scissors a little bit. I'm having a heart attack. I don't like this. So we have a bunch of different types of texture scissors, and I wanted to just break them down a little bit. Brian has a couple as well. So the key things I think you need to look for when you're looking at a texture scissor is there's different types. This one is the Acro Leaf Wide texture scissor. All Mizutani texture scissors have actual grooves. The teeth are almost like a saw. And so when you're cutting down on the hair, it actually grips onto the hair instead of letting it slide at all. And that's why you get that smooth cut when you flow through it. And I love having the dry cutting blade on the scissor at the same time. This is the M50 Acro Leaf Wide texture scissor. And then we also have the Acro Yoragi 10. I use the 0, the 10, and the 6. But these are just the standard one. But I love the slip on the teeth. And you can even see that there's an edge. There's like a longer tooth on it. You're not going to be able to see it. But there's a longer tooth which grips it even more as you're cutting through. So the detail that goes into Mizutani scissors is ridiculous. And that's the cool thing about Mizutani is every bit of these are done by hand. So all of them, the amount of detail that goes into it. Most companies are going to China and then they're getting scissors for $30, selling them for $500, and making a lot of money. And I'm not going to name those companies, but that's what I love about Mizutani. It's all handmade. And that's why it's the best quality scissors you can get. So legit. Too legit. Too quick. Do you want me to talk about mine? Yep. So this was my Christmas present. I feel bad because I'm just now realizing I have no idea what they are. Like name-wise. But I have been playing with them a lot. Yours are one of the kinds. Really? Yeah, they were developed. Somebody developed them and then never got them. Yay. So it doesn't matter what they are because you can't have them. But anybody can design. That's the other thing about Mizutani is if you have an idea, you can take it to them and they can create it for you because what's the difference? They're doing it by hand anyways. You just have to wait. For me, it was just learning the difference between because I don't know how well you can see them at all. The little texture side of it. One side does have like you were talking about the little grooves in the teeth. And then it's got these nice big pits down at the bottom where they go to. Like rather than just a strong stripe, it's got like this little pool, this little ball down at the end. And what I've noticed when I use this, I've been loving using these on really thick textures, really like curly textures for going in. And then that little pit down at the end just makes it so that it's not really holding the hair anymore. So I can just glide this shears right back out after I dry cut them. And it just helps to take. It just makes a really chunky piece. I've actually been enjoying these a lot on bangs. Okay. Because it really, it's for the noticeable texture. Whereas these, it's much finer. It still has the little pits at the bottom so it helps to glide out afterwards. But if you can see, it's like really tight, thin little lines that sort of skip. I don't know why it just reminds me of music notes. This I'm noticing on like finer hair when I want to take texture out without necessarily seeing the texture that I'm putting into it. When I want to sort of just thin the hairs because I hate people saying that. That's the only visual that's popping into my brain. When I feel like I want to take out but not see like crazy PC texture just to like soften the edges. That's what I'm noticing. I like the smaller ones for. Yeah. And that's, so those little pits are, you know, because a lot of texture scissors, even if you look at these on the Mizutani scissors, there's a blade. So like there is a gap in here where hair can slide through. But no matter what, you're sliding hair along that blade. So it's going to have some kind of pull. If the blade is not sharp enough, that's when you're going to get the tugging in there. You're also going to get a lot of stylus when they're cutting with a texture scissor and they go to slide through and it snags. It's almost like it ripped out one single hair. That's because the teeth didn't have the grip on them to actually cut the hair off before it got through. But when you look at like the Type Z dual, you've used this, right? Yeah. So this one, when it closes down, it cuts only the hair that it's cutting and then it's all open. It's open air. So you can slide right through and you don't have to worry about a blade sliding up against the hair and cutting extra hair that you didn't want to do. Right. So, you know, there's so many benefits to this and it's such a cool scissor. This one just came out and I just did a review. I did kind of a review on it. I want to start doing haircuts with it. I said, do you use that a lot? I do. Yeah. This is the one my go-to. I said that would be your go-to for like if you're doing like a blending a line in on let's say a shorter haircut. Yeah. Yeah. It is. I do like because it has a lot of teeth, you know. Usually a 32, 42 shears what you'd be using to blend in like a tapered men's haircut. Yeah. And it blends really well.    Yeah.  No one's happy. Pulls their hair. And lines free now. Isn't helping. So just utilize the blade and just the blade. Don't go too far. Yeah. And to answer the question about international shipping on the scissors, the problem, the reason I do not do international shipping right now is because I only have the rights to sell Mizutani in the United States. So there's different distributors of Mizutani scissors.  I work with Kiyoshi who is North America. So I don't have a relationship with Mizutani anywhere else. So that covers us, Canada. Yeah. And that's it? Yep. Okay. So where do you take your scissors to get sharpened? Does Mizutani offer sharpening? They do. And they have somebody that they recommend. All you have to do is send.  I would highly recommend that. I also got a name from Josh XO. The other night when we were talking on the phone about a guy, I think his name is Brent, that's going to be at ISSE and he's like the best sharpener there is, I guess. So I want to sit down with him hopefully for a podcast. But because it's really important and that's one of the biggest questions is who sharpened. I was actually going to... Sorry, Brian. Say, can we do a video on the importance of sharpening shears and the right way to do it? I mean, maybe you could bring your... You're going to have your video stuff there, right? Yeah. Can we have him like have a sit down and talk to people about that? Because I see that all the time these people... I hope so, yeah.  And I mean, obviously, we all know don't give them to the guy that goes in the van and does it. But we don't know the guy that brings in the fancy equipment, says he's the world's best sharpener and I have so many awards and oh my God, I'm like the best. And then he takes your nice pointed scissors and goes... Yeah. So you have to... You have no idea. I heard about that. Maybe there's key things that you should be looking for in a sharpener or there should be a website that has like... I think I just found our new venture. Oh, yeah. How's your set? No, I'm not getting into that. But there should be. So if somebody make it, a website of the best sharpeners, there are so that we know that they're quality ones. We can review them. What was it? Oh, do we yet? Because I don't think we've sent any off, but have we been told is there like an estimated turnaround time for sending scissors back to Mizutani? What to expect? I think it takes about a week, seven to 10 days. Okay. It's not long. All right. So start to finish. Maybe expect like give yourself two weeks. Yeah, I would say two weeks is a comfortable thing. And they, it depends on where you are in the country. So they're in San Francisco. So if you're close to that, but I think they send them to a sharpener in North Carolina. So... Wow. Relationships. So he's the best. North Carolina. They recommend that I think it's like every six years or so, you send them to Japan and they will completely redo the screws for you and completely like make the scissor brand new. So I love this company. Yeah. It's really awesome. Matt, you had a follow up question about international shipping on other stuff other than scissors, shirts, etc. So here's another problem is when you have an e-commerce store, I use a company to create that store. I can't just say, as of right now, I can't say, okay, you can buy t-shirts internationally, but you can't buy scissors. So right now, if I say internationally, you can buy stuff, then it's everything. I don't have a way to change each product. So I'm working on it. You know, eventually it will happen because I've really, I want everyone to be able to get the stuff, obviously, that would be better for everyone. I want to see our shirt in front of the Eiffel Tower. Yeah. Yeah. Who can make that happen? If you send me, I'll do it. I was going to say, I might be... I might be on the way. I'll just bring mine. You want me to just, I got one. I'll go to the Great Wall. Okay. Okay. That can go to Australia. That can fight a kangaroo. Send me to the place with all the poisonous things in the world. Because that's terrified of Australia. Is he really?  Nice. Are you afraid of dying? He's just afraid of Australia. It's painful deaths. It's big sharks and gators and jellyfish and... I'll go to Australia gladly. It's awesome there in all those spiders. It's beautiful. Let's go. Mostly spiders. I'll be like that. Our next trip is... I'll show you. Justin can go first chance. Anyone else can go. Hello. Anyone else can go. Dad's like, I'll pay for one of them to go. All right. Do you want to go over? I want to do trending tresses because we got five minutes. Let's do trending tresses and we'll... No mallets today, Matt. Sorry. I can do Big Ben. What's Big Ben? Big Ben, like in... Clients here, I don't think. London? London? The big clock? Big Ben, yeah, the big, huge clock. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. I don't know anything. That's all right. They didn't... I know how to cow tip. I know how to cow tip. Oh, man. Is the door locked? I don't think so. All right. Yeah, the navets were good. Okay. So, trending tresses? It's not that cool, though. Yeah. Time for trending tresses. All right. First off, we have Kate Boesworth, who has adorable Bob that I love. It's just got a lot of texture. It's PC. It's fun. It's slightly shorter in the back, longer in the front, but it's not exaggerated. So, I thought that was fun. Question. Yeah. When someone brings you this picture, how are you going to cut that? Because that cute look is through styling. I feel like more so than a cut. So, what are you going to... How are you going to cut that to give that to someone before you teach them how to style it? Well, you have to...  Right. But then you have to teach them to style it. But then you have to teach them to style it. You've got to educate them. Right. So, is there anything special that you would recommend doing to that cut to make it so that it's possible for them to style it that way? I think you add a lot of texture to it. Being able to... I think that's... It's not an undercut. It's more of like kind of a fatter Bob. She doesn't look like she has a ton of hair. I can't really... I'm looking from a... It's on the finer side. I have a hard time from 10 feet away. Just judging women, I guess. But she looks like... Yeah, she doesn't look like she has a ton of hair. You didn't need to do the undercut. And I think the new trend right now is kind of... I've seen Ira doing it a lot, like the fatter shapes at the bottom. So, forever, we've been talking about you got to get rid of that Christmas tree shape and cut all that weight out. And now it's like... Bring it back. Let's fatten it up. So... I got to say, it almost looks like in the front, they accidentally took the front a little too short when they were creating the texture on this. Yeah. Like the line of it kind of doesn't come all the way forward before it jumps back up. Yeah, I noticed that as well. Yeah. I mean, I've done that actually. I like it though, because it kind of softens the face. Instead of having that harsh front, it gives it a little softer feel. Lightens it. Yeah. Almost like a bang.  If you cut it to kind of have that weight shift back just in the front, then you can have that little messy texture and it stays where it needs to be. You know what I mean? Like... So, I think it was probably purposely done, I would hope. But for that reason, so that they could have that softer feel back here instead of having it all up in the front. Well, what I love also about this is you can do the messy, tousled look. You can do big curls with this. And you can wear it smooth and straight. There's so many options within this cut. Versus so many bobs before in the past have always been just smooth, straight, classic. Yeah. You know what I love? You love a trending dress.  She doesn't hate this one. Like a lot of things. James. James says, I swear everyone knew... Or I swore everyone knew what Big Ben was, but obviously not. No, it's trending. Sorry, James. We knew. Yeah. What was your code word for him last week? Sweet potato. Sweet potato? Sweet potato. All right. So, next up we have Chris Hemsworth, who has cut his hair off into a nice little short crew cut. He, in an interview... This is done playing Thor. Yeah, in an interview he said how he felt like he was losing his Thor powers when cutting his hair. He did state how he loved his long hair and it was epically awesome, but unless you have a stylist following you around styling it, on the day to day it was not very practical. Act like you couldn't afford that. Did he say epically awesome? I may have ad-libbed that. I say, did him and Thad sit down and talk about hair? Something he didn't say. That is hashtag epically awesome. That's hilarious. I like him with the short hair. I'm glad. I think it makes him look younger. Finn's at his face too. All right. All right. We got an average. All right. Moving on.  Yeah. That's nice. That's all I got. That's wrong. Of course, Andrea's so good at getting the worst picture possible of a human being. I follow her on Instagram. There's like 95 good pictures of her with this hair color. I got distracted. I'm sorry. Like if you just do this and cover the face and torso, the hair color is really nice. I really like the hair color. That's about it though. Oh, Nicole. I love Nicole Richie. Just because you don't like her, doesn't mean... I don't like, I don't dislike her. It's a cool color. Thad, we're on the next one. Oh, my bad. You didn't say me. That's true. They didn't say a name. Thad, Nicole Richie. Nicole Richie has teal hair. Yes. Okay. Next one. Okay. Moving. And then Emily Blunt is going back to her Blonder Shades with lots of... It seems to be a ton of Baleage ombre in there. So that's... The hair color looks great. Yeah, I don't love that color on her, but I mean, again, it's a picture. It might be a bad shot. Yeah. It's horrible. Like the flash might be a little too bright for that because... It's just a transition. Yeah. All right, cool. So, all right. We're going to spin the wheel. So, Dre, did you pick somebody? I did pick somebody. And we have... Brian got a package today. Yeah, we got a surprise for Brian. Oh, yeah. So, you can open it. So, Brian got a package. This is something very exciting for him. Although, I don't know. It might be terribly disappointing when we see. So, he decided he wanted to have dreadlocks. So, he's going to... I can't wait to put these in his hair. So, he Beyonce'd it and got some... Yeah, I'm not going to grow my own dreadlocks. That's going to take too long. Right. So, he ordered some dreadlocks. So, we'll see... It's been 32 years to get my hair this long. When you get bored of that, we can put them in my beard. Oh, yeah.  It's going to look so ridiculous. They look like string. It is string. That's what dreadlocks look like. No. That looks like a rope that you would play tug of war with. Yeah. That is not a dreadlock. Those look so fake. They really do. They are. Who cares? It'll be fun. All right. Whatever. Has Brian ever come to be natural? Okay, let's spin the wheel. So, Thad, do you want to get the wheel up there? And who do we pick? Morgan and Elizabeth Johnson. So, Morgan, who's been a long-time follower, super exciting. She has a chance to win a cutting stool from MinervaBeauty.com, a Bolly Box or a Amiga five-piece iron wand set. We also have on the wheel millennium systems international, three months free of Mevo. So many different things. FSC, T-shirts, all that stuff. So, Dread, you want to stand up and give it a... And here we go. What do they get? What do they get? And the winner is... T-shirt. Boom. Good take to the Eiffel Tower. Or Big Ben in Iowa. I will not send this shirt unless you wear it at the Eiffel Tower. So... James got Big Ben. They got that covered. Yeah. We'll send James a shirt and he can take a picture in front of that. There you go. And then anybody else that lives somewhere cool, we would like to send you a shirt to wear in front of it as well. And if you don't wear it, we'll find you. Fair enough. Hashtag wear in the world is something to just wear in the world. But W-E-A-R. Wait, we don't have to send T-shirts. Well, just true. That's good. We'll put the T-shirts on, drop the green screen, and we'll be anywhere we want to be. That's true, Justin. I'm in Delaware. Hi. Okay, so thank you guys. Don't take a picture. We're going to send you a bill. It's freezing cold outside. I think we have guests out there. They went to Starbucks. They did. Oh, okay. So thank you guys so much for watching. Follow Brian Hair. Brian. At Hairstyle. Follow Brian Hair. At Hairstyle. Justin Scott. At, uh, what was it? Did you change it? No, it's still Tom McCartney 666. I know. He needs to change it. Dreia. Dreia 82289. Thaddeus. That bullenized. That bullenized. And follow us at Free Salon Education. Follow us on Hairbrain.me, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. We got nominated for another Hairbrained video award. So we'll be at that party as well. So many different things coming up. I can't even tell you how excited I am about even just today. Oh my God, this is going to be. This is going to be majestic. This is, uh. Can this happen today? No, it's going to. You know it's happening today. He's got no patience. Yeah, I had to cancelation. So yeah, this is going to happen. I'm going to cut his hair and put some dreads in. Thank you guys so much for watching Splitting Hares. We're going to, and everybody that followed live, I love that, watching everyone talking and just chatting away and helping us with questions. I had a lot of fun this episode. Did you guys have fun? All right, heck yeah. Yeah, I don't want it to end. I don't even want to do hair. I just want to sit here. Hang out all day. All right, guys. I will see you guys on the next episode and hopefully we'll see you at ISSE this weekend. Yeah, this weekend. Bye. Bye.