Using Hair Products and Accessories This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 483.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there and download a learning guide for this episode.
The learning guide is an 8-10 page guide that will help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is called Using Hair Products and Accessories.
It's about a woman, a girl, who goes to get her hair done by someone who is a professional hairstylist someone who cleans and fixes your hair not surprisingly, will be introduced to a lot of vocabulary that is related to getting your hair done, especially for a woman.
Let's get started.
You're going to the prom.
How exciting!
How should we style your hair?
I'm really not sure.
I was hoping you would have some ideas.
I do, but first we need to see if we have the right tools.
Let's look in your bathroom.
Here's some shampoo and conditioner.
But where are the gel, mousse, and hairspray?
Here.
They're on this shelf.
Here's a hair dryer and some rollers, too.
Do you think we'll need the curling iron or the flat iron?
I'm not sure, but put them here just in case.
Okay, now I need a brush and comb and some bobby pins.
We'll need some elastic bands, too, to pull your hair back.
Here, they're all in this drawer.
Oh, this is a pretty barrette, but we won't need it for tonight.
Okay, ready for the transformation?
I'm as ready as I'll ever be.
Okay, let the fun begin.
When I was growing up, in the 1960s and 70s, men who wanted to get their hair cut professionally by someone went to what we called a barber shop.
Women who wanted to have their hair cut or styled, have their hair in a certain way, would go to a place called the hairdresser.
The barber was usually a man, almost always.
The hairdresser was either a woman or a man.
Now we have what are called hair salons.
And these are essentially places where mostly women, but some men also go to get their hair cut and styled.
There are still barbers that only men go to usually.
I don't go to either one, of course.
It's no longer necessary.
Danny begins our dialogue by saying to his young friend, Clarissa, you're going to the prom.
How exciting.
The prom P-R-O-M is a large formal dance in American high schools, usually for those who are in their last two years of high school juniors and seniors.
Almost every high school has a prom.
It's a very big, important dance that a man asks a girl a boy really asks a girl to go to this formal dance.
Not everyone goes to prom.
If you are shy and ugly like me, well, you sit home and you watch television.
Sad, I know.
Danny says, you're going to the prom.
How exciting.
How should we style your hair?
To style as a verb means to give your hair a particular appearance or shape, to color it, to make it shorter, to make it longer.
That would be to style one's hair.
Clarissa says, I'm not really sure.
I was hoping you would have some ideas.
So she's asking Danny for his ideas.
Danny says, I do, but first we need to see if we have the right tools.
He says, let's look in your bathroom.
Notice Clarissa did not go to a hair salon.
She asked her friend, Danny, to come over and help her with her hair.
Danny says, here's some shampoo and conditioner, but where are the gel, mousse, and hairspray?
We have several vocabulary words related to taking care of your hair.
The first one is shampoo.
Shampoo is a liquid soap that you use to clean your hair, to wash your hair.
Conditioner is a different liquid that you put on your hair after it's clean to make it softer healthier, easier to style, easier to comb.
A gel is a thick liquid that you put in your hair to make it stay in a certain position.
If you want the front of your hair to go straight up, then you would use gel.
This thick liquid would allow the hair to stick straight up, kind of like a punk rocker in the 1980s.
Mousse, spelled M-O-U-S-S-E, is also a liquid, but it is one that is very light.
It actually has small air bubbles in it.
You put it in your hair to make your hair look thicker.
You can also use it sort of like a gel to make it stay in a certain position.
Hairspray is a liquid that you spray on dry hair.
Normally, mousse, gel, and conditioner are used when the hair is wet.
Hairspray is used when the hair is dry to make sure that the hair doesn't move.
Clarissa answers Danny, here, they're on this shelf.
Here's a hair dryer and some rollers, too.
A hair dryer is a small machine that blows hot air on the hair to dry it after you wash it and put whatever other liquids you're going to put on there.
Rollers are small round pieces of plastic, a small plastic tube that you wrap your hair around.
It's what women use to make curls in their hair, where the hair curls around in a little ball.
That is a roller.
Sometimes the roller is actually heated.
Sometimes it's just plastic.
These are also called curlers.
Rollers, that is, are also called curlers.
To curl as a verb means to form a circle with something that is otherwise flat.
You can curl up a piece of paper.
You can take a piece of paper and make it into what looks like a long tube.
Clarissa also asks Danny, do you think we'll need the curling iron or the flat iron?
A curling iron is a small machine that is heated and It has a long piece of metal like a stick of metal that gets very hot.
And it allows you to curl the hair to make them into small circles by putting it into your hair.
The hair goes around the curling iron.
An iron is generally a piece of metal that is hot.
That is used normally to make something flat, such as if you have a shirt and you want the shirt to be completely straight without any wrinkles, you would use a clothes iron.
Well, this is a curling iron.
There's also the little machine you can use called a flat iron.
A flat iron is a machine that you hold in your hand that has two flat pieces of metal that get very hot.
So you put the hair in between the two pieces of metal to make the hair straight.
So a curling iron takes the hair and makes it into a round circle.
A flat iron takes the hair and makes it flat or straight.
Danny says, I'm not sure, but put them here just in case, just in case they need them.
Okay, he says, now I need a brush and comb and some bobby pins.
A brush is a piece of wood or plastic that you hold in your hand that has many small pieces inside.
They're kind of like hairs.
They're usually pieces of plastic though they could also be metal that you use to make your hair straight or to make your hair go in a certain way.
A comb is similar, but it's flat and it just has one row of these individual we call them teeth that A man can use to straighten his hair, or a woman.
Combs and brushes are used to make the hair go in a certain direction.
Both the word brush and the word roller have different meanings in English, in addition to the ones we talked about here.
Take a look at our learning guide for this episode for some additional explanations.
Bobby pins are small, thin pieces of metal that are folded in half.
They have an opening at one end where you can put the hair to keep it in a particular place.
For example, if you're a woman or a girl and you have some short hair in the front of your head and you want that hair to not be in your way, you want to put it back on your head.
You can use a bobby pin to keep it there.
Bobby pins are not usually easy to see.
They're small and are the same color as your hair.
They allow you to put your hair up into different positions.
When I was a kid we used to use them like paper clips to keep pieces of paper together.
For some reason my mother never liked that.
Danny goes on to say, we'll need some elastic bands, too, to pull your hair back.
An elastic band is a small round piece of plastic that stretches.
It becomes larger.
You can put it around your hair to keep it in a certain position.
For example, if you wanted your hair to stick straight back in what we would call a ponytail, then you could use one of these elastic bands.
Clarissa says, here, they're all in this drawer, all of the things that Danny is looking for.
Danny says, oh, this is a pretty barrette, but we don't need it for tonight.
A barrette is a small piece of plastic wrapped wood or metal that opens and closes at one end.
It's similar to a bobby pin.
It allows you to put your hair in a certain position, but it is bigger and it is easier to see on the head.
Danny says, okay, ready for the transformation?
Are you ready for this big important change?
Clarissa says, I'm as ready as I'll ever be.
This is a phrase used to show that you are ready to do something, but you're a little worried.
You're a little nervous about it.
But there isn't any more preparation that you can do.
You just want to go ahead and do it.
I'm as ready as I'll ever be.
Danny says, okay, let the fun begin.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
You're going to the prom.
How exciting.
How should we style your hair?
I'm really not sure.
I was hoping you would have some ideas.
I do, but first we need to see if we have the right tools.
Let's look in your bathroom.
Here's some shampoo and conditioner, but where are the gel, mousse, and hairspray?
Here, they're on this shelf.
Here's a hair dryer and some rollers, too.
Do you think we'll need the curling iron or the flat iron?
I'm not sure, but put them here just in case.
Okay, now I need a brush and comb and some bobby pins.
We'll need some elastic bands, too, to pull your hair back.
Here, they're all in this drawer.
Oh, this is a pretty barrette, but we won't need it for tonight.
Okay, ready for the transformation?
I'm as ready as I'll ever be.
Okay, let the fun begin.
The script for this episode was written by someone who knows a lot more about curling irons, bobby pins and barrettes than I do, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
