Day 6

1st November 2007

Today's journey to The Academy was not a smooth one.

My train was late arriving at my station by 25 minutes due to a 'door' problem. The train could not then leave because a passenger had been taken ill. In the end, I was running almost an hour late.

I finally arrived at The Academy at about 10:50am. I explained the reason I was late to Lee, who thought it was a load of rubbish.

It had been decided that I would not be cutting hair today. Instead, I would be doing treatments. First up, a 'mud wrap'. The client is exfoliated, then covered in mud and wrapped in tin foil. I half expected to stick an onion in her mouth and set the oven to gas mark 7!

With my first client cooked until tender, my next client arrived for a massage. It is SO tiring doing a massage.

Since it was the last day of the week, the trainees were summoned one by one to Lee's office for an appraisal. When my turn came, I had flashbacks of times at school. We discussed what I had learned, and how far I thought I needed to go to in order to be good enough for the live hair show we are working towards. I described myself as an oil tanker - very slow to get up to speed, but once going, hard to stop! Lee was impressed with this analogy and said he would like to use it.

Rachel, producer from the Chris Moyles Breakfast Show on Radio 1 popped in for a massage with her colleague Aled. However, Lee coaxed her into allowing Aled to give her a cut. She seemed very nervous. While Aled prepared himself in the staff room, I washed Rachel's hair. She seemed very anxious.

While Aled cautiously snipped away, Lindsey (beauty therapist) and I manicured and painted Rachel's nails. She got the full works. She left The Academy looking slightly paler, but with pink nails!

With only two weeks to go until the live hair event, the pressure is building. I need a day off.