Heading to TX

97 days to go
I have a busy 3 days in TX starting today.
I am meeting with Joe at the Rooster’s location where the event is to take place.
I have a meeting at a Pivot Point school in Austin where I hope to be able to secure a few judges and a team of students to work as assistants
I have a meeting with the owner of the TX Beauty Show. He is well connected in the Austin area and is enthusiastic about learning how he can be of support.
And, by the way, I am to be down here to do some REAL work too. I am presenting at the SportClips national Huddle event as well as judging their cutting competition.
I will return home from TX with a lot of information and hopefully what I need to move ahead with many pieces of the event
TY
CG

Another day, another conversation

98 days to go.
Since I put the word out that I am in need of help in the way of assistants and judges for the event the phone and email have lit up. Nice to know you have a support network out there when you call for help. A few people, as you would expect commented that I am beyond help... Those are the real friends... telling it like it is... Great conversations and good things have come from the requests... I have completed written job descriptions for each of the needed assistants as well as I am building a schedule grid for names to be plugged in as we go, identifying them. I am off to TX tomorrow for meetings and details for the event. More to come.
TY
CG

Setting Small Goals

99 days to go.
I had 3 objectives for yesterday's practice event.
1. To cut 13 heads within the hour to know that I can work at world record pace... mission accomplished.
2. To determine that I have all the needed tools and equipment to do what I need to do... mission accomplished. Today's small project is a fast trip to the beauty supply store. I have a short list of things we were lacking last night.
3. To test the choreography and physical/logistical execution, helpers, revolution cutting, tool placement, etc... Mission accomplished. Considering the pace at which I was able to cut things are working just fine.
For the next practice event the goals will be as follows:
1. Cut for a full hour, hit a target of 18 heads cut.
2. Refine my helper expectations... have a printed job descritpion to pass out to each helper
Small golas each tim and big success is attainable.
TY
CG

Practice event #1

Holy haircuts!
Tonight was practice event number one hosted by Empire Beauty School in Arlington Heights, IL, near my house. Val is the manager there, a good friend, a ClipperGuy fan and runs an amazing operation at Empire. The school was decorated with balloons and posters in honor of our event. The entire student body was present to help, cheer me on and support Andis and me and Empire. The plan was to cut for 1 hour and see how many we could cut. It would be a great way to see if I still had the pace to hit the numbers we will need. They were a few heads short of the 20 we needed so we went to plan B. We would cut 14 heads and see how ling it took. 12.5 would tie the record. 13 would beat it. We were looking for 14. I had a great team of student assistants.
There were more than these , but a few missed the chance to get their names on the sheet. While the entire Empire team can claim to have been a part of the event and all are greatly appreciated, the following were assigned tasks and performed flawlessly:
Vanessa Guiterez, Kristie Jigaiov, Claudia Tineo, Lisa Petitti, Sylwia Gres, Maria Torres, Johnathan Cernak and Carmen Hilliman-Kirkwood. Thak you all. A brand new Andis teimmer was their gift/reward for their efforts. Empire students all get Andis clippers in their student kits. They do not currently get a trimmer so these were much appreciated by all.
I cut all 14 heads in 27 min and 40 sec. This was well ahead of world record pace. It even beat my own pace for the 1 hour record. A few of the cuts were faster than the timing for the single haircut record too! I will be able to build a nice time and head count buffer so as to be in track for the record. There is no room for overconfidence. I still have much work and more practice events to do. This is just another brick in the road. 99 days to go as of tomorrow. Check out Empire in Arlington heights if cosmetology school is in your future. Your future will be just a bit brighter if you do. More excitement is sure to come. Tune in again here for more updates.
TY
CG

Countdown

The countdown begins today. There are 100 days until the world record event. I will be mentioning the day count in the blog entries from this point on. 100 days to practice and get it all together... seem like very few to me. I am sure it will fly.

Call for Witnesses

I have put out the call for people to serve as witnesses for me for the event. I need 6. 3 shifts of 2 each shift to witness and certify to what they experience for the supporting/documenting evidence for Guinness. If you know someone or you are qualified yourself, we need to speak. Witnesses must be licensed barbers or cosmetologists, cosmetology or barber teachers or in some other way qualified to be viewed as an expert in the haircutting business. You must pay your own way and expenses to TX as the rules prevent me from compensating witnesses... got to keep it fair and honest.

Yoga?

There is not much I will not do to achieve my next world haircutting record. Most who know me know this. I have even went as far as to start doing yoga. Those who know me know how just soooooo out there that last admission is. This is my wife's idea. To begin with, she thinks I need to learn how to relax... Think so? It will also be good for my breathing, flexibility, endurance, etc... so she says. Hey, I am willing to try it. problem is... just as soon as I get started I am yawning. Interesting? Am I being put to sleep? Am I being drained sooooo fast that I am really tired? or am I just so out of shape that just this little bit of activity knocks me out? We shall see. Yoga? Huh? O.K. Stay tuned.

Judges

One of the keys to the event is the selection of judges. I am thinking to go with 4 judges in 6 hour shifts this time. last time it was 6 judges in 4 hour shifts. Since I do not have the base of connections in TX that I had before in CA and IL to do the last one it will be easier t find just the 4. I am going to TX this week to meet with Joe from Roosters. I will tour the event location and go over all of the open agenda items we need to plan for. I will create a profile of the qualifications needed for judges and we will see what we can come up with.