Every year, MODERN SALON celebrates our MODERN SALON 100, a list of gamechangers and beauty makers. For the first time, this year, we included 10 recent beauty school graduates. 

If we are celebrating the stylists, barbers, and nail technicians that will be moving this industry forward, then we also wanted to applaud this next generation talent who have chosen beauty as a career path.

The decision to “choose beauty” has not always been encouraged—by parents, educators, or society. But there are positive signs that this is changing.

Beauty School Is One of the Many Right Ways for Post-Graduate Education

Way back in May of this year, as the school year was ending, I spoke with Melissa Hamm, the junior high and high school counselor at Scotland County School District in Memphis, Missouri.

The conversation was prompted by an online photo post I saw. In it, several Scotland high school seniors sat smiling at tables with signage that said “Aveda” and “Paul Mitchell.” Upon graduation, these students were heading to beauty school.

This photo was taken on what is often called Decision Day in high schools. It’s a time when seniors show where they will be headed after high school. Maybe they are wearing a sweatshirt for the college they’re entering in the fall. Or sometimes they are signing letters of intent to play for a college sports program.

And seeing Scotland celebrating cosmetology school as a choice prompted a call with Hamm, who is very aware that the path forward from high school doesn’t have to be a four-year college. 

“It’s important to know what you’re interested in and then explore that, and it doesn’t mean you need a four-year degree,” Hamm says. “I have my master’s degree, plus extra hours for this job, and my husband didn't go to college because his family owns a farm equipment business.  But if you compare our rates of pay, he makes a lot more than me because he is in sales.”

The smiling kids I saw had been guided through a year of exploration to show them there are many “right” choices post-high school.  Every student in the Scotland Senior Class was required to put in one application—for a job, a trade school, or a college— which encourages them to be thoughtful in making decisions.

“At the beginning of the year, students had to research and come up with a plan,” Hamm says. “College isn’t going to be for everybody and that is ok, so we help them discover the next step, whether that be attending a trade school, the military, or other post-secondary education. Some will already have a great job to go to and that’s great. This is a ‘work strong’ community, and many of the kids have parents who are self-employed and who have farms.”  

Hamm says they ask students the question: “How will your profession help this community?”

“And one of our cosmetology students said she would be taking care of the farmers when they came in to get their haircuts.”

Bellus Academy Beauty Camp Offers a Look at Beauty Careers

Over the summer,Bellus Academy, an award-winning destination beauty school that offers education in cosmetology, esthetics, barbering, and nails, held a Beauty Empowerment Camp in Manhattan, Kansas. Sixteen “happy campers” between grades nine and 12 attended the camp, where they engaged in hands-on activities, indulged in salon services, including facials and manicures, and took home some serious camp swag. 

Campers also interacted with Bellus Academy graduates and educators, receiving real-world feedback about working in the professional beauty industry. Guest speaker Tieler Randel, a 2022 Bellus Academy graduate, talked about the transition from beauty school to hairstylist and offered insights about opportunities in the salon industry.

Bellus educators served as “camp counselors,” providing demonstrations on haircuts, special effects makeup, advanced styling, and a comprehensive overview of the professional beauty industry. 

“Hearing from people who are ‘living the dream’ of a career in beauty, whether as salon professionals or educators, gave students a first-person perspective on the many pathways and possibilities a career in beauty offers,” said Kendra Marston, outreach and event coordinator.

David Yocum, director of the Manhattan campus, said that as interest in trade careers surges, careers in beauty blend competitive earnings with life-work balance and flexibility. “As young people think about their plans following high school, our goal was to provide students with a glimpse into beauty careers, including hairstyling, barbering, and esthetics,” he said.

Elevating the Beauty School Experience and Connection to Community

According to IBIS World, which provides industry research on thousands of industries worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic and fluctuating enrollment rates created unusual volatility for cosmetology schools in the past five years. Not a big surprise, there, but what one educator saw evolving was a craving for the hands-on experience that barbering and cosmetology careers--and many trade careers--offer.

Lilly Benitez, educator, author, and founder and director of Blade Craft Barber Academy, says she saw an uptick in enrollment, especially after students burnt out on learning at a distance. 

"During the pandemic, many high school students did their senior year on Zoom," says Benitez, who is the author of Create Something: Crafting an Entrepreneurship Journey. “They were tired of screens and wanted to do something that put them into contact with other humans. That human connection is why we are here on earth, after all. We saw the largest classes we’ve ever had that summer of 2020, especially of young men. And I saw that they wanted to explore a career that isn’t going to be replaced by AI (Artificial Intelligence).”

As Benitez pointed out, AI requires humans to ask the right questions to get the right results. “If they automated barbering, it’s going to malfunction," she says. "A machine might not understand the nuances of a medication your client is on and why that color isn’t taking properly. A machine can’t understand the client’s personality to prescribe the right aromatherapy. The more screens that people are around the hungrier they are for human interaction.” 

Benitez also feels that cosmetology schools could be creating an experience for students that is as memorable and meaningful as any four-year college journey. “We all see people wearing their alma mater’s sweatshirt or showing up to college football games, years after they have graduated. Beauty school alumni should feel that same pride and excitement about gathering with their fellow graduates or even returning to the school to share what they have learned. 

"Once a student graduates and gets behind the chair, builds up a clientele, they are now responsible for their survival," Benitez continues. "And they have to grow their book, manage their business…it might not occur to them to reach back to their school unless the school has encouraged it and the student has a sense of pride about where they went to school.

"I do reach out, I connect with our alumni, I invite them back to demo or teach something that they would like to share; it doesn’t have to be complicated, it can be a simple lash-tinting demo. But we have invited them back to connect with the future of barbering and that means something to them. That is something special.”