Mrs. Alvarez taught me more about thinning hair in one Saturday than beauty school did in a year
Back in 2011 I was doing perms and colors at a little salon on 8th in Bakersfield, and Mrs. Alvarez came in every third Saturday for a wash and set. One day she looked at me and said, "Mija, just because they ask for a perm doesn't mean their hair can take one." I fought her on it for weeks, but she was right, and I started actually checking elasticity and porosity before every chemical service after that. These new grads coming out with their textbooks, do they still teach you to feel the hair strand before you touch it with anything?
Most schools barely touch it. They run you through the motions, hand you a mannequin, and call it a day. A mannequin's hair takes whatever you throw at it, so you never learn to read a real head. Mrs. Alvarez was doing you a favor whether you liked it or not. You can't feel porosity off a textbook page. The strand tells you everything if your hands know what to listen for.