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Editor's Blog

New Video: Beauty School Makes You “Not Just a Hairdresser”

Published: June 03, 2008
by Rosanne Ullman

In an earlier post I was telling you about how cosmetology career professionals have their own rock stars, the most famous of whom, Vidal Sassoon, not only introduced revolutionary hair cutting methods, but also pioneered the concept of salons branding themselves by opening beauty schools and developing product lines. Now I want to share a youtube video posted by a more recently well-known educator, Vivienne Mackinder. Titled, “I’m Not Just a Hairdresser: Legends,” the 5-minute spot promotes a film of the same name and features Sassoon along with fellow superstars Robert Lobetta and Trevor Sorbie, who all came out of the magical scene of 1960s London.

I hope you watch the video, because it celebrates the power of the hairstylist and shows you what a rewarding profession you’re joining. But I have to say, with full respect for Sassoon’s unrivaled status as the game-changer in this industry, that his story about improving one client’s life strikes me as outdated and chauvinistic. Here’s this little housewife who wanted to please her husband, so Vidal tells her to lose weight before he’ll do her hair? Oh, please. Do that today and you’ll have a lawsuit on your hands for causing emotional distress. And I’m not sure as a jury member I wouldn’t convict.

Still, the video prepares you for real life in a cosmetology career, because today the circumstances may be different but the end result is the same. As a hairdresser, you have the power to truly change people’s lives.

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Try Electrolysis School: Prevent Hair Growth, Promote Career Growth!

Published: May 30, 2008
by Rosanne Ullman

I had an interesting conversation recently with a professional electrologist who told me what a rewarding career she’s had for the past 30 years or so. After completing electrology school, also called electrolysis school, she began her quest to take the bushy out of eyebrows, the bother out of daily leg shaving and the pain away from the dreaded bikini wax.

Unlike about two-thirds of U.S. states, her home state of Illinois does not require a license to do her work. Whether you’re licensed or not, you can apply for certification from the American Electrology Association. It always gives you credibility when

you can frame a professional certificate and hang it in your workspace.

This particular professional’s passion was eyebrows. She said it’s the first thing she notices about a person’s face, even a man’s face, and there’s no reason for anyone to have anything other than perfect eyebrows. I asked, “What about women who had their eyebrows permanently shaped into the scary pencil-thin look that was in fashion a few years ago?” She replied that she never follows those fads. The classic eyebrow shape never goes out of style, she said, and it’s the only look she recommends. I was impressed with her professionalism and how much she loved her work. Although there are fewer electrology schools than general cosmetology schools, you can find some great ones here at BeautySchoolAdvisor. The photo is courtesy of Berkowits School of Electrolysis in the Queens borough of New York City.

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Awkward Turtle Could Slither Into Cosmetology School

Published: May 26, 2008
by Rosanne Ullman

I love when something totally random comes along and suddenly you see and hear about it everywhere. Along those lines, I was considering the rise of awkward turtle and wondering whether the gesture gets used much in beauty school. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, awkward turtle refers to a creative way to silently acknowledge that you or someone else has said or done

something awkward and uncomfortable. Place one hand on top of the other, spin your thumbs forward and you’re communicating this message that’s frequently needed not just in high school and college settings but later on as well.

A blog I read recently recounted a time, before awkward turtle landed on the radar, that it could have been useful. Blogger Graham Beckwith on thelantern.com had graduated from high school, and an adult commented that Graham would encounter a whole lot of students at the big college he planned to attend. The blogger agreed, adding, “I imagine it’ll be just like high school with all the sects.” After a long pause he realized that the other person had heard “sex” instead of “sects,” as in “cliques.” Trying to correct things he only made it worse with, “I mean ‘sects’—you know, in groups?”

So before you find yourself implying that sex in groups could be popular at the beauty school you choose, maybe you’d better master the awkward turtle technique just in case it’s the only way to move on from a tricky moment! Do you have any awkward turtle tales to share to give me a laugh?

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Esthetician and Massage Therapy Schools Provide Entry to Medical Field

Published: May 22, 2008
by Rosanne Ullman

Among the decisions you’ll make when you graduate from esthetician school or massage therapy school is the type of environment you want to work in. While this is true for hairdressers, too, estheticians and massage therapists have more available to them a major alternative to the salon: medical facilities.

Increasingly, doctors are hiring estheticians. Typically, these are dermatologists who have the estheticians supplementing the

medical treatments by doing facials that fight everything from acne to aging, plus waxing and other services. Massage therapists can look for work at hospitals, which employ them for assignments ranging from infant massage to relaxing, pre-surgery massage. A similar environment is the medi-spa which, as the name implies, is a spa with a doctor on staff and an emphasis on more intense, medically oriented therapies.

When graduates of esthetician schools and massage therapy schools rent space in a salon, they must market themselves constantly in order to build, retain and replenish a steady clientele. It’s really your own business when you go that route and, for some people, the self-promotion is unpleasant and difficult. Even when you’re on staff at a salon, you’re expected to help recruit skin care or massage clients. Spa technicians who choose to work within a medical setting, however, often have all the referrals they can handle just from among the doctor’s patients. For people who do not enjoy marketing themselves and want to focus on therapeutic massage or facials, this can be a great solution in a growing field.

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Loans Can Help You Through Beauty School

Published: May 18, 2008
by Rosanne Ullman

If you're pretty sure you can't pay your beauty school tuition on your own or with your parents' help, it may be a good idea to consult a financial advisor because things today are so complex. I'm certainly not one of those, I don't know anything about your individual financial situation and I'm not a big fan of starting out life in debt. So with those disclaimers, I would nevertheless

encourage you to consider taking out a loan if that turns out to be the most workable way you can pay for cosmetology school.

First, as higher education loans go, the amount of money you'll need for beauty school is significantly less than many students need for two-year and four-year programs. Second, if your credit is good, interest rates are relatively low right now. And third, I am confident that once you get your cosmetology career going you'll have no trouble paying back a loan. But recent reports of financial institutions defaulting on loans may be scaring you, and it makes sense that you should pay attention to that. Also, as in any career, it will most likely take a few years for you to reach an income that makes your loan repayment comfortable. Make sure you have a long enough grace period before you must start repaying the loan.

To educate yourself, go to the website of your favorite bank, and see whether the bank offers financing for students. Compare the information with that of other bank websites. Also, www.finaid.com provides a lot of information, and estudentloan.com helps to match your specific situation with appropriate sources of loans. I believe that, ultimately, all the time you spend filling out forms and the sacrifices you make in order to go to beauty school will be well worth it.

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Cosmetology Classes Round Out High-Schoolers’ Day

Published: May 14, 2008
by Rosanne Ullman

While visiting Empire Education Group’s beauty school in Arlington Heights, Illinois, I asked to see a classroom. The spacious room held a series of long tables arranged in two rows. On the floor at the front of the room sat a line-up of

mannequin heads side by side. More heads were on the tables, where the cosmetology school students worked on them and practiced doing cuts, color, perms and styling.

Using the room at this particular time was a group of high school kids whose curriculum included spending part of their day in cosmetology school. The first thing I asked them was which aspect of school they enjoyed more, the time they spent in their high school classrooms or the time they spent in their Empire school classrooms. They didn’t hesitate for a second!

They all agreed that beauty school was a lot of fun.

But that didn’t mean that they were slackers at high school. When I joked that hair class sure beat biology class, one girl didn’t quite agree. She was planning to enroll in college and pursue a nursing degree after she finished up at Empire. A guy who identified himself as an artist explained that he was exploring his talents in various arts, including hair design but also perhaps photography and graphic design. Since cosmetology school typically takes less than a year, it can easily complement other programs of higher learning. It was cool that these kids were excited about their future.

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Advice From a Beauty School Instructor: “Love What You Do!”

Published: May 10, 2008
by Rosanne Ullman

Speaking of Empire Education Group from my last post, completely coincidentally I happened to be passing by an Empire school in Arlington Heights, Illinois. I always enjoy visiting beauty schools, so I decided to stop in and take a few photos to

post here on the blog. I want to give a shout-out to school staffers Jamie Herhold, who helps students plan out their cosmetology career, and Jessica Joyce. They were both very nice and made me feel welcome.

In addition to the classroom activity, which I’ll write about next time, the “clinical” section of the salon was really interesting. It’s a full salon, with equipment and clients and hairdressers just as you’d find in any salon. There’s even a reception area, where I chatted with a mom waiting while her teenaged son got his hair cut. Although the prices are low, clients do pay for the

services; they’re not just hair models. The only real difference you might notice is the supervisor, Linda Balkcom, walking around to check on what every student hairdresser is doing. No scissor, color formula or perm solution hits a head without Linda signing off on it.

I asked Linda what advice she gives students. She replied, “The most important thing is to ‘find yourself.’ Learn everything about hairdressing, but choose one thing and focus on it. That’s where you’ll make money, and it’s also what will keep you in the profession. Love what you do!” I’d say that’s great advice for students of all beauty schools. Thanks, Linda!

Top photo: Jessica Joyce (left) and Jamie Herhold. Bottom photo: Linda Balkcom (left) supervises a student hair stylist giving a client a perm.

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Prizes Are Amazing for Cosmetology School Competition Winners

Published: May 06, 2008
by Rosanne Ullman

Among the cosmetology schools large enough to support in-house competitions is the Empire Education Group. Open to Empire students in 86 schools across the country, Empire's competition this year in Hershey, Pennsylvania, attracted more than 3,000 students to show what they can do with hair.

What impresses me is how Empire rewards its competition winners. No, they don’t get a car! But what the winners do receive may be even more valuable. They’re treated to more advanced education, have the opportunity to shadow some of the industry’s top hair professionals and, okay, this all takes place in not exactly the armpit of the world. This year’s top winner in the “Lon

g Hair and Evening Design” category, Kara Adams of Philadelphia, receives an all-expenses-paid trip to Honolulu, Hawaii, where she’ll study with well-known stylist Paul Brown and take full advantage of the Paul Brown Hawaii Salon & Day Spa. Meanwhile the winner of the “Trend Cut & Color” category, Gia Kavanaugh also of Philadelphia, receives as her prize four days in Spain to sightsee and attend the Goldwell USA Beauty Forward educational event. Other winners and runners-up are on their way to New York City, Las Vegas, Florida and other cool destinations.

Cosmetology schools offer various benefits. If you want to participate in large competitions with students from your sister locations, a big corporate group of schools will serve you well. You can do worse than winning a trip to Hawaii or Spain!

Photo is of Empire’s Deborah Danik-Angeloni with Franklin K. Schoeneman, chairman and CEO.

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