7 Questions From Beauty School Students
Welcome to the Aspiring Stylists Podcast with Tracey Franklin. Where to begin, grow and aspire to become the best stylist you can be. Whether you're thinking about becoming a stylist opening a salon, or developing your skills as an experienced stylist the next step of your beauty career starts here. Each week we'll discuss strategic ways to design, plan and execute on becoming a stylist that excels behind the chair and above the bottom line. Here's your host, Tracey Franklin.
Okay, so this episode is gonna be a little bit different, but I'm super excited. So most of you probably know that I just opened up Aspire Barber and Beauty Academy, and we just wrapped up our first week and can I just say, Oh, my gosh, it was more than I thought it could be like expectations completely smashed.
I am so in love with being able to share my knowledge with the students with spending time with them seeing the excitement on their face. It has just been an absolutely wonderful week. And something that we did throughout the week was ask them questions like What do you want to know?
The sky's the limit? You know, industry related, nothing is off limits. What would you like to know? So we're gonna go over those today. And the first question is, what will I learn in barber school other than cutting hair? So much? Okay, let me just start by saying so much.
So what we've already studied this week is the history of barbering, professional image, how you dress things that are super important that you don't even think about, like how you present yourself, like how's your posture? Are you smiling, things like that. We're gonna study anatomy and physiology, we're gonna go over things like nails and non invasive skincare, shaving, waxing, I mean, there's just so much. And then there's other really important things that you also don't ever think about, like sanitation and infection control, it's really important that all of our implements stay clean and sanitized, as well as our workstation, chemistry and geometry, I think that's something that nobody really expects to be in the curriculum.
But it's really important, especially when it comes to the chemistry of hair color, and how many layers of keratin and cortex and Cuticle that the hair has, because it's all really impacted by hair color. And then geometry, hair cutting is geometry, everything about hair cutting is angles, and shapes and things like that. Some stuff that some schools may not offer, but I think is really important and we intend to offer is consultations and client relationships. If you ever listened to any of my other episodes, than you've probably heard something about the relationships with your client, and how to have an effective consultation. It is really, really important. The business of beauty. A lot of students want to open their own salon today, out of all the students that we had every single one of them raise their hands when we asked them if someday they wanted to own their own salon, product knowledge, how is it not important to know about the products that you're using, the brand that you're representing?
And then of course, social media? That is something that has to be in today's curriculum, because you're not getting out of this industry live without it. The second question was of the 1500 hours required. So if you didn't know, the barber program is 1500 hours, they wanted to know how those hours are divided. How we break it up at a spire is we have an eight hour day, one hour is lunch. So now we have seven hours, two of those hours are going to be spent in the classroom, doing group activities reading, they're going to have assignments, they're going to take their test. And sometimes we may run over on those hours, if we have special projects that we're working on, or guest educators come into the salon, the other five to six hours are going to be spent on the floor.
They're going to be learning on mannequin heads in the beginning, because, you know, those first set of mistakes need to be made on a mannequin head, right? Not a person, they're going to work on each other and get tons of experience that way.
And then eventually they're going to start serving the public and they're all very excited about that. One of the students wanted to know if they would be learning how to do all hair textures. So I'm going to say when I went to barber school 23 years ago, we really didn't learn about all the different hair types. We focused mostly on straighter hair, not super coyly or curly hair. And I just don't think this industry has enough diversity. And I'd like to see that change. I would like to see different types of hair textures included in your baseline curriculum. Some states do that but not all states do. Tennessee is one state that doesn't necessarily require that but it's definitely something that I think is missing. You know, you need to be prepared for whatever walks through the door. Worst case scenario somebody comes in with really curly hair and you have absolutely no idea how to handle that. What are you going to do send that guessed away, that's not a great situation, right? And then you're going to attempt a service on here that you don't understand also not a great situation, right? So being prepared is definitely the solution. Schools need to be prepared to bring in bonus courses and guest educators if necessary. As an educator, I do not have enough skill or education in textured hair. So for me, that means I'm going to bring another educator in to take care of this for me. And then as I do that, I also learned right, the teacher becomes the student, and then I get to learn more. And then I can be more helpful as we work through the curriculum. So here's the fourth question, one of the students wanted to know what tools or supplies they would be required to purchase.
And the answer to that is really nothing. The school kit will have everything that you need to get started and everything that you will need to perform services at school, the schools will always provide all of what I like to call the wet products.
So what wet products are are your back bar products that you're going to be using to shampoo and conditioner, hair, the color that you're going to be using to perform all of your color services, and then the products that you're going to be using to style the hair. So all of that is going to be already there at the school for you.
With that being said, you're going to be discovering new things along the way. And if you like goodies and swag like I do, then you're definitely going to be wanting to keep up with the trends. And you're going to find companies that are always releasing some new gadget to play with and you're probably going to end up purchasing some of those and having some fun with those two, outside of that the school and the student kit provides everything you need for success while in school. So I think that sparked some interest into the next question, which is what actually comes in my kit.
Now again, this is going to vary. All the answers that I'm giving you are not reflected for all schools. I cannot speak for all schools. But this is my general understanding of how schools operate. And then, of course, my personal experience at Aspire. So what comes in the student kit for us is iPads. We use a digital learning platform called Sima. And so all of their reading material, all of their assignments, all of the tests that they are going to take, they're actually going to take on the iPad within the SEMA curriculum. It's also going to include everything they need to serve their guests. So it's going to include a cape for their guest color bowls, color brushes, along with all the brushes and combs that you need for styling and cutting your shears even little things like manicure bowls, blow dryers curling irons are going to be included in your kit. One of the questions we got asked by the students last week and that I get asked a lot in general is how is barber school and cosmetology school different and the answer is very short and sweet and it's really the straight razor shaving. Now I will say that barbers focus a little bit more on like the history of barbering, like some of you may not know that they actually used to pull teeth and do bloodletting as well, which they don't do that anymore, as you already know, but I found that to be incredibly interesting and like have absolutely nothing to do with hair or male grooming in any capacity. But they do go over that and then they also I think focus more on precision and male grooming than cosmetologist do.
Cosmetology focus way more on you know nails and the actual overall styling of the hair. But if you want me to break it down in black and white terms for me, the straight razor is the main point of difference between barbers and cosmetologists. I'm not here to tell you that one is better than the other. They both are so much alike, and they are both governed by the same board.
And if you go to a great school, you're going to get a great education, whether it's a barber degree or a cosmetology degree.
Either way, a good school is going to make sure you're fully equipped to handle any of these services. So at the end of the day, being a barber or a cosmetologist, there's really not a lot of difference. I actually am a Master Barber. I did my 1500 hours at a barber school and I am a licensed Barber, but I do very little male grooming. And I think male grooming is mostly associated with barbering, and it just it's not necessarily true. I mostly focus on longer hair, I mostly focus on high end colors and hair extensions. So at the end of the day, there's not much that one can do that the other can't. The last question that we were asked is when will I be able to take additional classes such as hair extensions, I know that not all schools offer these extra certifications. But I think if you're looking for a school, you might want to make sure that you're able to pinpoint exactly what that school offers. at Aspire we do include as an extra or added certification here extensions.
Now the reason it's not incorporated in your baseline curriculum is because not every student that walks through the door is going to want to know how to do extensions. So schools will offer additional certifications at an additional price if that's important to you, then you're going to want to make sure you're shopping for a school that's going to be able to provide that for you. Another way you can get extra education outside of your baseline curriculum at your school is to see what the beauty supply houses are offering. A lot of them will host classes. Some of the product companies that beauty schools partner with will also offer additional education.
We are innovative concept school and so our students are able and allowed to go to any education that they can that Aveda puts on, I will caution you there is so much to learn. So make sure that you are really grasping what the board requires you to grasp before you go taking in a lot of extra information. Some people are really good at processing extra information, and for some people, it really muddies the water. So in my opinion, learn the basics and get really really good at them.
And then once you're comfortable with that, then you can start adding in other things. If you live in Tennessee or even if you don't, and you're interested in more information on Aspire barber and Beauty Academy, or how you can join the aspiring stylist private Facebook group, then you can find all that information in the show notes.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Aspiring Stylist Podcast with Tracey Franklin. If you enjoyed listening and you want to hear more, make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts. The Aspiring Stylist Podcast with Tracey Franklin is a Morgan Franklin Production. Today's episode was written and produced by Morgan Franklin editing and post production by Mike Franklin.
Want to find out more about Tracey and the Aspiring Barber and Beauty Academy go to aspirebarberandbeauty.com
