Teachers mean well but they get stuck on what art is "supposed" to be. I've seen the same thing happen with digital photography and even with prints vs originals back in the day. If a stranger hands over $40 because a picture made them stop at your booth, that's a real reaction, not a fake one. Soul isn't something a teacher gets to hand out, the person looking at it decides that.

The fine metal tail is the whole game changer, right? I had the same stripey mess on my wavy girls until I grabbed one of those cheap brushes on a whim. Now I can actually see my section lines instead of just hoping the backcombing holds. It sounds so dumb but it really did cut my foil time down too. Same brush, same result, zero regrets.

Used to be all about name brand spices, but last month I did a blind test with my own chili and the cheap stuff won three out of four times for me.