A day in the life of a beauty student
People young and old require a little beauty maintenance once in a while. Whether it’s a trim, perm or wax, sitting in the salon chair requires some trust in the person with the scissors. Yet how often do people question the abilities their stylist has mastered in order to cut, manage and beautify? For students at New Horizons Beauty College, glamour is more than in the eye of the beholder; it is all in a day’s work.
As Hailee Richins, a senior in the college, said, her day begins at precisely 8:30 a.m. with an hour of class time. The students come prepared for the day and check in on the clock, yet waiting even fifteen seconds after the minute is enough to lose the credit for the hour. In this time period, students discuss the current chapter out of the many subjects they have to master in order to get their cosmetology license. Contrary to what Richins calls “the ditzy beauty school stereotype,” the students study subjects which include anatomy, electricity, bacteria and chemistry among other topics.
After class time has completed at 9:30 a.m., the students begin applying their techniques in a hands-on environment. Before beauty students are allowed to work with customers, they are required to complete two months of orientation and then practice their techniques on mannequins, each other and people they know.
As they improve, students are selected by the instructors to move onto the floor and work with the beauty school’s paying customers. Richins explained that this time period is critical and has the highest rate of drop-outs, since there is no set schedule for advancement.
Each day after class, these more-experienced students move out onto the floor, each claiming a different chair and preparing for the rest of an eight-hour day. They then take on the challenge that any randomly assigned customers bring to them, including the services of perms, coloring, cuts, makeup, pedicures, manicures, facials and waxing.
“I was scared for the first haircut out on the floor, but every haircut you do, you have an instructor check it. The instructors back you up and teach you as they fix it,” Richins said.
Beauty students have found another challenge of the day is the customers’ reactions to their services. A pleased reaction is very satisfying for the students, and yet those who complain can be hard to take at times. For this reason, the beauty college displays signs reminding customers that all services are performed by students. Professionals in the making are not professionals yet and will make mistakes on occasion. But for a reasonable price, the customers are willing to take that risk.
However, customers sometimes present a different type of challenge for beauty students. For some customers, a pedicure or eyebrow wax is a time to release stress or talk to someone who will listen. The students are encouraged, in these cases, to be social but keep the conversation on a professional level. Specifically, they try to stay away from politics, religion, and other controversial subjects, but sometimes it is difficult to refrain from counseling or commenting on the personal nature of conversation.
“I even had someone tell me about their attempts to commit suicide. But on the other hand, some people won’t want to talk at all and they’ll bring a book or just relax,” Richins said.
Still, conversation can be a highlight for many of the students on the floor. “You meet people from everywhere, every kind of people,” said Bonnie Griffiths, a junior at New Horizons.
Beyond the customers, the beauty school also provides a social atmosphere for the predominantly female class. Unlike the expectation that a beauty school would be filled with drama, Richins said she was surprised to find how easy it was to get along with the other students. As several students explained, they realize that they have to get along since they spend so much time together every day.
Excluding a half-hour lunch break, the students spend their whole day preparing to take their state boards for certification. After 2,000 hours of different services and several written and hands-on tests, they can graduate with a professional license.
“Some days I feel like I can’t do this. It’s hard work and a kick in the face,” Richins said. “Other days I feel like I can be a cosmetologist.”
The end of the school day is not the end of the workload for many of the students at the college. Like many students at USU, many of the New Horizons beauty students work outside of school in order to pay for tuition. With the stress of work and school, the students have to find enjoyment in their work.
-cynthiadiane@cc.usu.edu