Monday, January 05, 2009
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As you explore ways to finance your
beauty school education, you’re likely to come across the term “Pell Grants.” A major reason that som
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cosmetology schools choose to become accredited is so that their students qualify to receive Pell Grants, which distribute money provided by the United States government. The former Rhode Island senator who fought for this money for students, Claiborne Pell, died this past Thursday, New Year’s Day, at age 90. His funeral is today.
In 1972 when the U.S. Senate passed the bill to distribute this money for education, the program was called Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG). Although he was the force behind the idea, Pell didn’t title the grants after himself, but in 1980 his colleagues voted to rename the program the Pell Grants. “Because of Senator Pell and the Pell Grant, the doors of college have been opened to millions of Americans—and will continue to be opened to millions more,” Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden said upon learning of Pell’s death. “That is a legacy that will live on for generations to come.”
A statement by Pell’s family published by
The Providence Journal said that Pell defined his job as a senator in seven words: “Translate ideas into actions and help people.” What a great set of seven words! Maybe you’ll be one of the people helped with a Pell Grant toward paying your
beauty school tuition.
Click here for more information on Pell Grants, and
click here for the yahoo.com obituary on Claiborne Pell.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
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So here it is January 1 and you’re considering trying
beauty school, but you’re not sure. You know what happens when a new year starts: you regroup, make resolutions, look for new direction. What will you make of 2009? The s
ame old effort will get you the same old results. Perhaps you don’t even have the choice to keep doing what you’ve been doing, because this year you’ll graduate from high school or a higher education program. You have to figure out something, and
cosmetology school has been in the back of your mind for sometime now.
One of the beauty industry’s rockstars and top educators, Vivienne Mackinder, sent me a promotional email about her advanced education that began, “Be Yourself; everyone else is taken.” I really like that. You can’t be Rihanna or Michael Phelps or Angelina Jolie. They’re taken. But you can be the true you, which can work out really well. Plus, no one else can be you; that role is yours and yours alone.
If you enjoy fooling around with hair and make-up, if you’re always looking through fashion magazines and websites, if you have a burning need to express yourself creatively and if you love being the one to inspire people to feel good about themselves, the “real you” just might be a cosmetologist. Watch Vivienne Mackinder’s
one-minute glimpses of hair education, and if that rings your chime I’ll bet that enrolling in
beauty school will make 2009 a great year for you.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
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With her mother waiting in the car,
cosmetology school grad Krissy Simmons walked into the room where the theory portion
of the Michigan State
Cosmetology Boards was being administered, along with tests for other licensing. Two monitors “didn’t say a whole lot other than what was on their script,” Krissy reports, “but they were much more friendly than the people at my practical exam.” Krissy was required to leave her driver’s license with them while she took the test. They also took Krissy’s picture and had her sign electronically, so that if she passed her license would be all ready for her to take with her when she left.
As she sat down at her assigned a computer, Krissy felt her heart begin to race. “I’m a pretty religious person,” she says, “so before I touched the keyboard I just prayed for God to help me to get through the test, whether the result turned out to be good or bad. I felt a little bit better after that.”
The test started out with a few sample questions that didn’t count. Krissy’s heart was racing; she didn’t know what to expect. “I’ve heard that there are nine different tests that they give you at random, all focusing on something different,” she says. Would this one test on facts she’d learned in
cosmetology school? Krissy calmed herself down and began. In only 15 to 20 minutes, she’d be finished and either be a
licensed cosmetologist or not. Check back for details!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
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Beauty school may be the last thing you want to think about right now. If you’re in high school or college, you probably just finished finals and are happy to be on winter break. Perhaps you’re traveling to somewhere warm where you
can sit on a beach. You might be heading in the opposite direction—up a mountain to do some skiing, since there seems to be no shortage of snow this year! Maybe you’re going home to Mom’s good cooking and gifts waiting for you under the tree. Far from your mind are thoughts of books, studying and any school—even a fun program like
cosmetology school.
Okay, I’ll give you a few days to decompress. Once your head clears, winter break can be a great time to take stock and look into the crystal ball to see what’s coming next. Soon it will be 2009, a whole new year. What will it hold for you? The immediate job outlook isn’t so great, so biding time in school can be a great idea. By the time you complete your program, the employment picture may look a lot prettier.
If, like me, you’re staring out your window at bare trees and frigid temperatures, you might want to cozy up with a blanket and a laptop and explore your options for what comes next in your life. Right here at
BeautySchoolAdvisor, you’ll find a lot of information that can give you direction toward
cosmetology school and a rewarding career in beauty.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
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Paying tuition to a
cosmetology school is truly making an investment in yourself. In this recession, is there a better place for your money? If you, or
maybe your parents, have been watching a stock portfolio dwindle, the interest rate on your savings CD slide or the price of your house plummet, you may have lost confidence in stocks, banks and real estate. None of the traditional nesting places for money has turned out to be a sure thing. But you— you’re something you can count on, something you control. Your future career—whether you achieve it through
beauty school or other training—is what’s most likely to earn you money that you’ll live on all your life.
A lot of people believe in the get-rich-quick idea: put your money into some high-return investment, and you’ll have free cash forever. Yet, as we've seen in recent news, some of these “investments” are no more than schemes that implode after a while. Other high-risk endeavors are launched amid favorable market conditions but eventually tumble even more quickly than they climbed.
Absolutely, the stock market has had some very profitable years, and people have made money. But ultimately private individuals have no control over the rise and fall of the housing, financial and commodities markets. When you have skills that address needs in the marketplace, though, you’ll always have paying clients. My advice is to invest in yourself, and going online to check out
cosmetology schools is a great place to start.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
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Every little bit helps when you’re putting together tuition for
cosmetology school, and I will always tell you when I track down any source of cash to help you pursue this rewarding career. While you should check your
state’s cosmetology board 
website for any leads on financial help that your state provides, I’d like to make you aware of a source that does not depend upon the location of the
beauty school you attend.
The
Joe Francis Hair Care Scholarship Foundation is named for the founder of The Barbers, a hair care chain that merged with The Regis Corporation about ten years ago. Along with his wife Florence, the late Joe Francis employed about 8,000 hair designers and pioneered the franchise concept. Florence Francis oversees the foundation that honors the couple’s passion for beauty education and commitment to the future of the salon industry.
To qualify for a scholarship from the foundation, you must be either enrolled in or accepted to a cosmetology school program as of August 2009. You can download an application from the website, and you must submit it between January 1 and June 1. According to the information there, applicants are judged on “their potential to successfully complete school, their financial need and their commitment to a long-term career in cosmetology.” In 2008, 18 cosmetology students each received a $1,000 Joe Francis Hair Care Scholarship award to put toward their
beauty school tuition. Perhaps next year you will be among the recipients of this nice gesture!
Friday, December 12, 2008
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With the practical portion of her Michigan State Cosmetology Boards successfully completed, our correspondent, recent
beauty school graduate Krissy Simmons, prepared to take the written test or “theory” portion. As much as Krissy was eager to
become a
professional cosmetologist, she was not looking forward to this exam. She was all signed up, thanks to
PSIExams.com, and turned to former classmates who’d already taken the test for advice on how to prepare.
“I found a huge difference of opinion!” Krissy exclaims. “One friend had studied quite vigorously and still didn’t feel confident walking into the testing center, while another didn’t even look over any study material and ended up finishing the test in seven minutes with the confidence that she’d passed. I decided to take my cue from my friend Marie, who had reviewed a mini-study guide that was included in the kits we received when we started school. Marie said that it helped her out.”
Krissy’s best intentions, though, didn’t serve up much in the way of results. She continues, “For a week, I took the guide with me everywhere I went. But I would start looking at it and just fall asleep! Needless to say, I didn’t get much studying accomplished and, therefore, I wasn’t as confident as I could have been going into my theory exam.” So, relying almost entirely on her memory of what she’d learned in
beauty school, Krissy entered the testing room, where next time we’ll pick up on her adventures.
Monday, December 08, 2008
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Since you’re considering going to
beauty school, a book you may want to pick up is
Passionate Salon Professionals by Dr. Lewis Losoncy and Joe Santy (link to
amazon here). A section at the end of the book, “100 Thoughts to
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Bring Out Your Passion for Your Profession and Life,” starts out with “20 Passion-Generating Reminders to Myself.” Any one of these 20 “reminders” could serve as an inspiration that would drive the right person to enroll in
cosmetology school and join this wonderful industry. But I’d like to draw your attention to two of the 20 reminders.
Number 10 reminds the cosmetologist to keep a before-and-after mental image of every client. You picture how these people looked when they walked in and then how dramatically improved their appearance is as they walk out. It’s a motivator! Number 19 takes a different twist on that, saying: “I am able to see the results of my work as soon as it’s done, unlike in most other professions.”
So many cosmetologists, hairdressers in particular, have mentioned “instant gratification” to me as one of the best perks of their career. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, even home decorators all have to wait to see how their efforts turn out. Hairstylists, make-up artists and massage therapists see the changes they’ve made in someone’s life within an hour or two. Client by client, they all walk out amazingly better off than when they walked in. Are you impatient for reward?
Beauty school will serve you well!
Thursday, December 04, 2008
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Several of the various bloggers and websites that offer advice about saving money during these challenging economic times have come up with
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a great suggestion: get your hair done at your local
beauty school or get skin care services at an
esthetics school, because services are affordable and professional.
Typical of this hot tip is this blurb from
internetbasedmoms.com: “Every salon superstar has to start somewhere, and that somewhere is cosmetology school. They offer great rates and unless you’re asking for something super complicated like turning your jet black hair platinum blonde, then chances are they can accomplish it quite successfully. If you’re still shaking your head and thinking, ‘NO WAY,’ it might help to know that the students are under tremendous pressure to do a good job, they want to do a good job—their grade and their future depend on it—and the instructors are never far away. Still unsure, send your sister there first! Kidding, try a manicure or just go in for a trim to see how they handle it.”
The same article promotes esthetics schools for massages: “The warm and skilled hands of massage students are just waiting for your stiff neck and sore back. Yep, massage students [also] need people to practice on. They can knead out all of those knots and sore muscles for a quarter of the cost of a [licensed massage therapist].” Enroll in
beauty school during this recession, and you can take advantage of a larger pool of clients than ever!
Photo credit: I took this photo during my visit to Empire School in Arlington Heights, IL.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
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Schools and colleges tend to prosper when unemployment is high. The thinking is that as long as you can’t find work, you might as well bide your time by getting a degree or certification. So if you are having trouble landing a well-payi
ng job, this is the perfect year to try
cosmetology school. But following the crowd is not why I think the timing is good. Rather, I’ve been doing a little research and want to expand upon my previous blog post about becoming a
professional cosmetologist even though consumers are spending less.
It seems that I’m not the only one promoting cosmetology as a great career choice during a tough economy. At
hrworld.com, “beauty, health and erotic services” is listed among the top 25 careers that do well during hard times. This entry says, “Regardless of a recession, people who enjoy being pampered will seldom give up the simple pleasures in life.” And, yes, we’ll just skip over the “erotic services” part; better to stick with beauty! Over at ezinearticles.com, an item called “
Top Careers to Pursue and Refrain From During a Recession” has this listing under the “pursue” category: “Beauty $30,000+. Presentation has always been and will continue to be important to an individual and required by their boss. Examples include: Hairdressers and Barbers.”
There’s still another reason that this is an ideal time to enroll in
cosmetology school, which I’ll reveal in my next blog post. Can’t wait to tell you, because you’ll love it!
Photo credit: I took the photo during my visit to Empire School in Arlington Heights, IL.