L.A. Hair: Episode 8: Naja's Late Coworker Causes Tension on Set

Wow. Wow. WOW!!! Is all I can say. I have worked in salons for four years and on set for five years, and in all my years I have not seen anything like this. I was truly taken a back at China. I couldn’t believe it, BUT it was actually happening.

I saw China (left in the picture) the night before right after she got her hair done at the salon -- I was dropping off yet another bag and picking up one at my Kim Kimble closet for nail supplies (lol). I asked China, “What time tomorrow?” She told me noon. I joked and said, “Ok see you at 1.” She barked back in her cartoon voice with big eyes, “Noon!”

I got there at noon. I set up all my nail supplies. No China. I did the walk through with everyone involved -- the photographer, make-up artist, stylist, and Vivica Fox. Still no China. I showed Vivica all the nail options, and we decided on a good ol' standby: Wicked by Essie. The look was to be very glamourous/old Hollywood so a dark vampy shade is just the right fit.

In China’s head she was always getting there at 1, so in her mind (and only in her mind) she wasn’t late. After seeing her behavior, I thought it might have been her first time on set. Believe me, on set work is NOT FOR EVERYONE. I tell people this all the time and people tell me all the time they could not do what I do. China said she’d worked on set many times before. I don’t understand how. Maybe that day was just an off day BUT it was REAL OFF!
 
Vivica’s hands and body language were so stiff and irritated it made my job harder. I tried to smooth things over and relax her with a hand massage and NOT be grouped together with China. I in no way wanted China to be a reflection on me.

It was soooooooo tense in there. You could have cut the tension with a knife. I hate when it gets like because then the clients start to get extra picky and comment on polish lines, something hurts when it normally wouldn’t etc., etc. When I went looking for China and she came back and said, “You RAANGG” like the Adams family I thought I was dreaming. I really did. I have never! I am still quite speechless. WTF?!! It was over from there and no coming back. What a long day.

China just does not understand set etiquette. Yes, there is a lot of sitting and waiting around. I worked on set with Nicki Minaj just the other day. I drove an hour out of L.A. to location. I was there at 7:30 a.m. because that was the call time for the ENTIRE beauty team involved. I did not do ONE THING except eat breakfast until 12:30 p.m. It’s just the nature of the game.

I had no clue whatsoever that I wasn’t supposed to mention China being in the book too. I thought it was so cool that she was going to be in a coffee table book. Dontay was going to come to set to do her hair, and I was going to do gold metallic Minx on her. I thought it was common knowledge they were both being shot that day. When she started to blame me for her unprofessional ridiculousness I was so confused! Really confused. Just tell me to keep it quiet and I would have.

I was really disappointed because I had shown Vivica my custom designed gold lace Minx that we were going to layer over the Wicked polish for the second look.:(

So not only did our finished work of Vivica not get shown on air, my Minx designed did not make it to the book on Vivica or China and China didn’t get photographed. Choose your battles, China. You lost too much on this one!!

naja

Editor's Note: We're thrilled that celebrity nail tech Naja Rickette is blogging exclusively for NAILS Magazine during the second season of L.A. Hair. Read her past posts by clicking on the L.A. Hair (We TV Reality Show) link under "Post Categories".