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Cosmetology as a Career Switch

The fastest growing segment of beauty school grads isn't the 18-year-old crowd. It's people in their 20s-30s and older who feel the pull toward a career in beauty. Although happening in the hair industry, too, the trend is even more pronounced in the esthetics field-for people who do skin and body care at a day spa, hotel spa or destination spa.

Reasons older students give for switching careers and enrolling in cosmetology school include:

"This is something I've always wanted to do."
"Working at a salon looks like fun."
"I'm looking for something more creative."
"I'd like to work directly with people."
"I want to be able to set my own hours in my job."

That last reason-schedule flexibility-can be driven by a life change. A new mom, for example, may want a job where she can earn good money working only evenings and weekends, when there's someone around to watch her baby. Or a woman who quit a full-time job years earlier to be home with her toddlers now has children in school and wants a career that enables her to be home in the after-school hours.

But it often comes down to this: at a certain point, many people decide that time is too precious to go to a job every day that they don't fully enjoy.

Join the fun crowd

Some older students come from within the industry. They may have been working as a salon receptionist or a product distributor, for example. After observing how fun and rewarding it is to do hair, they decide to go to school and get their cosmetology license. In many professions, the results of your hard work show up much later down the road. When you do hair, you get the immediate gratification of a job well done, and that appeals to people.

These days, higher learning institutions in general are experiencing a mix of ages in the student body. Many beauty schools offer night courses to accommodate people who have daytime jobs. Despite any age difference, cosmetology students find that what they have in common is a creative flair and a passion to pursue a career in beauty.