Is Cosmetology School for Me? Everything You Need to Know
Is Cosmetology School for me? You might ask yourself.
What do I need to know beforehand?
Do I have what it takes?
Here are 5 questions to ask yourself and a little more information to help you make an informed decision to see if cosmetology school is for you or not.
Is Cosmetology School for Me?
What does it take to become a Cosmetologist?
In this article we will be discussing,
- What is Cosmetology?
- What Else Can I do with a Cosmetology License?
- The Difference Between Cosmetology School vs Beauty School
- What’s the Difference Between Cosmetology School vs Esthetician School
- 5 Questions Regarding Is Cosmetology School for Me?
- Signs Cosmetology School IS for You!
- Cosmetology School is for me IF I’m Considering an Alternative to College
- How Long is Cosmetology School?
- After Graduating Cosmetology School – What Now?
- FAQs for Is Cosmetology School for Me?
What is Cosmetology?
Cosmetology is the skill and trade in which licensed professionals have been trained in hair 💇, skin 💆♀️, and nail services 💅.
Under a cosmetology license you are able to perform haircut services, chemical services such as color, highlights, perms, relaxing, and styling services.
Some states allow cosmetologists to use a straight razor on the back of the neck or behind the hairline, but not on the face. To use a razor on the face would be considered ‘barbering’.
What Else can I do With a Cosmetology License?
- Facials
- Body scrubs and wraps
- Acrylic nails
- Manicures and pedicures
However, there are several services that require extra certifications but are permitted under a cosmetology license ,such as, chemical peels, microdermabrasion, permanent makeup, spray tan, and eyelash extensions.
In a nail salon, using an electric nail file requires an extra certification to use in a salon.
Extra certificates to be able to perform these services are easy to get and most schools offer these classes so you can graduate with everything you need to know.
The Difference Between Cosmetology School vs. Beauty School
Beauty school generally includes barbering programs, esthetic programs, nail tech programs, as well as cosmetology programs.
Cosmetology school exclusively teaches cosmetology.
20 Questions to Ask a Cosmetology School
What is the Difference between the Cosmetology vs Esthetician school?
Esthetics focuses entirely on skin care.
Estheticians work in spas and specialize in facials, body wraps, scrubs, chemical peels, microdermabrasion, spray tanning, makeup, and some are certified in eyelash extensions.
Cosmetologists are qualified to perform basic skin treatments and makeup, but must take elective classes and have special certifications for to perform these specialty services.
What’s the difference between Barbering and Cosmetology?
5 Questions Regarding ‘Is Cosmetology School for me?’…
Before attending school, or beginning your search for the right school for you, ask yourself these questions.
- Do you like to work with people?
Working with people is the majority of the job. Clients from every background and lifestyle come into the salon. Same with your potential future co-workers.
Can you be around people all day long and constantly meet new people?
- Are you a creative person?
Creativity means more than just making new and beautiful things. But thinking ahead and problem solving.
It takes creativity to be a cosmetologist because every person that comes to you for a haircut has different ideas and preferences than the last, as well as different hair in texture, color, and growth pattern than the client before.
Are you a creative problem solver to be able to give each client the results they want even if it means that you have to do it differently for every customer?
- When you make a mistake, do you gracefully learn and try again? Or give up?
As a cosmetologist there will be many mistakes made, and that’s okay! But it is very important to have the ability to give yourself grace and allow yourself room to learn from the mistakes and try again.
Can you be determined enough to push yourself to try again and again to perfect your trade? If yes, cosmetology school may indeed be for you!
- Are you a motivated person?
It takes determination and motivation to go to cosmetology school and work in the hair industry.
Determination because there are many long days spent in the salon on your feet. Working as a cosmetologist can be exhausting. It takes motivation to keep going when you are having a bad day, or tired to go back to work after a break or a long day.
- Do you like hair?
Hair is the greater majority of cosmetology. When asking yourself ‘is cosmetology for me’ consider if you like touching hair.
Though it might seem a silly question to ask yourself, it is a valid one.
When I attended cosmetology school there was another student attending that didn’t like feeling other people’s hair. She didn’t think about it when starting school, but she couldn’t bring herself to cut other peoples hair because it was a bad texture to her in her hands.
Signs that Cosmetology IS for You!
- You want to be independent in your business one day
- You love expressing creativity
- You want to help others feel beautiful and confident
- You want flexible hours
- You want a career that continues to educate and flourish
- You love a non-traditional learning style
- You are detail-oriented
- You love beauty and making things beautiful
- You never want to ‘work’ another day of your life
- You like talking to people and listening to other’s tell their stories
If this list checked all of your boxes, cosmetology is for you!
Cosmetology School is for me IF I am Considering an Alternative to College
Trade school is an excellent alternative to college!
It is a great idea if you are looking for something to do to help you get through college later on.
Cosmetology school is great for those wanting to learn a skill that they can use but leave and come back to if they need to. It is a handy skill to have in your back pocket when you want a career change or a break to focus on something else.
How Long is Cosmetology School?
How long does cosmetology school take? How many years does cosmetology school for hair take to complete?
Cosmetology school is regulated by hours. Each state has their own requirements of how many hours are required before the training is complete before being allowed to apply for the state board licensing exam.
Generally speaking, depending on which state you attend school in, the range of required hours will vary from 1000 – 2300 hours. To see how many hours are required in your state please click here.
Depending on the school you choose to attend and the program you choose, completing the cosmetology program can take between 10 – 24 months.
The hardest part of getting all of your logged school hours is actually showing up. And like we talked about above, motivation and determination is important from the very beginning.
12 Things I Wish I Knew Before Cosmetology School
Questions to Ask While Visiting a Cosmetology School
Amongst the questions you have for the school itself when you visit, ask some of the students these questions while you’re there.
- What do they think of the school’s strengths are when it comes to its programs?
- Is there a very high turnover rate for instructors?
- What do they wish the school would do differently if anything?
- Are the students satisfied with what they are learning? Do they feel that they are truly being prepared to work in a salon, or spa, or barbershop, once they’ve graduated?
After Graduating Cosmetology School- What Now?
Time to celebrate!
By the time you graduate cosmetology school you will have worked hard and earned everything that certificate represents.
It is now time to apply for your state board licensing exam and start interviewing and applying at different salons where you might like to start building your experience as a professional Cosmetologist and begin building your clientele.
You can start interviewing before you even get your license. Most salons will hire on new stylists and allow them to learn how to work the reception desk before they have their license and they can work behind the chair. But once you have your license it’s time to build your clientele and experience as much as possible!
15 Questions to Ask at a Salon Interview
11 Tips on How to Get Hair Clients Fast
FAQs for Is Cosmetology School for Me?
How Much Does Cosmetology School Cost?
Most cosmetology schools have a set rate for their cosmetology program. Other schools charge per hour. And like mentioned above, each state has a different number of required hours and so the price might vary.
Depending on the school, nation wide chain school (Empire Beauty School, Paul Mitchell The School, Toni & Guy, Aveda Cosmetology Academy – for example) , or a locally owned or smaller chain of schools in one or two states might have different set prices for their programs.
Generally cosmetology school can range in price from $600 USD (usually included as part of a high school trade program) to an average of $27,000. When scheduling a tour of the school you will visit the financial office and they will have every option for tuition assistance programs available for you to look into and help you pursue while you continue your application for the school.
Again, these prices vary state to state so I highly, highly recommend visiting several schools before you choose which cosmetology school is for you.
❌ Do not choose the beauty school closest to you just because it’s close or because it has the least expensive program.
To help you decide which school might be best for you, what questions to ask at the school, and what red flags to look out for, please see the article below.
How to Choose the Right Beauty School
Is Cosmetology Worth the Money?
In my personal and professional opinion and experience- Yes!
Cosmetology school was hard work and expensive, but I was able to make back twice as much as I paid for school in the first year and by my fifth year of being licensed I became self-employed and had my very own clientele, and could choose for myself how much money I was going to make by setting my own prices and schedule.
Is Being a Cosmetologist Hard?
Yes. But I enjoy the work of a cosmetologist. I truly asked myself is cosmetology school for me before I attended school 10 years ago and I have no regrets.
It’s hard because cosmetologists work long hours on their feet. It takes a lot of energy to talk to people all day long and play detective and figure out exactly what clients want and how to it give to them.
Any industry that works directly one-on-one with people like cosmetologists do is hard.
To be honest, life is hard and any other profession was going to be hard too. You get to choose your hard.
Cosmetology is hard because it’s physically demanding and takes quite a bit of energy to work with people all day long, but to me, it’s the best job in the world.
What is the Best Cosmetology School To Go To?
There is no simple answer. It’s not just one set place.
All of the schools claim to be the best. Some truly are the best for one year and the next go down the drain. Here are the things to watch out for to see if the cosmetology school you are considering is the best or not.
Things to check to see what the best school is –
- Is the School Accredited?
- Instructor Turnover
- Graduation Rates
- Drop-out Rates
- Student to Instructor Ratio
- The Kit
- The Clientele on the School Salon Floor (how busy is it and who do they bring in?)
One little trick that might come in handy is to join any local community cosmetology or hair groups on Facebook. These are great to be a part of anyway but if you are considering cosmetology school you can ask locally who attended, graduated, and if they still recommend it or not.
Can you Take Cosmetology Courses Online?
Most states do NOT allow you to complete the entire cosmetology course remotely because most of the technical learning and state laws require hands-on and in-person hours and experience working on real clients in the school.
However some states do allow you to transfer some cosmetology credits from online courses to their school. But be sure to check before taking any online courses.
How to Prepare for Cosmetology School