There are several hair schools in Alaska, but choosing the best hair school for you can be a bit tricky.
Not all hair schools in Alaska are the same. In fact, each school has a nitche or they wouldn't survive. Find out what nitche the school you're interested is in.
Find out what they specialize in. Find out what they're good at. Find out if they have any problems.
Call a few salons you think that you might want to work for and ask them for advice.
"Hello. I'm thinking about going to a hair school in Alaska. Do you have any suggestions?"
Ask them which is the best hair school in Alaska. Ask them which school has the best instructors. Then visit all the schools you're interested in.
Call them on the phone and ask questions. Ask about their placement rate. Ask about their state board pass rate.
Then ask about their instructors. Where were they trained? What was their most recent training?
And before you sit down with the owner of a school and sign your contract...
find out if they have EVER gone to beauty school!
Really great schools don't usually accept transfer students so make your choice carefully.
Good luck in your search for the BEST Hair School in Alaska.
|
|
|
|
Franz Sigel Shroy owner of the MetrOasis® Advanced Training Center
in Anchorage, Alaska
Question - How did you get started in the beauty industry?
Answer - Well, actually I got started the wrong way. It was probably the most common way but it was very frustrating
and it took longer and cost more than it should have. I went to the largest beauty school in Seattle. Renon's Trendsetter School of Beauty.
It was a big grocery store that had been converted into a beauty school. It was what has become to be known as a "factory school".
To keep the clients from knowing my name I had to use a number. To keep me from knowing my client's names, they used client numbers.
Basically, it was a huge little old lady shampoo-set factory. It was terrible. About in the middle of my training I transfered to a different school
in West Seattle. This was called Crystal Levine's Trendsetter Academy of Beauty. I know, huh? It seems that all of the schools from back then
had the name "Trendsetter" in the title, some still do to this day. Anyway, this school was a lot smaller and I actually got some instruction at this school.
The reason I say that this was frustrating is because the main business of the school was putting out shampoo sets not in actually teaching me.
This was obvious in their communication with me which was abrupt, harsh, cold. There was a theory class in the morning but it was only
designed to get me on the "clinic floor" where the hands-on hair services were done. There was also some training done to make sure that I
passed the state board so they wouldn't get in trouble with the state. That's it! It was terrible.
They had this guy who worked in the back of the school in a little room with a split door with a little shelf on it.
I would walk back and hand them a little ticket with a number on the top (the client number)
and this guy would look his recipe box to find that client's color formula. He would then put a little strip of cotton on the tray and he would put a
squirt bottle with some kind of hair color in it and then I was off. I would simply squirt the color on the little old lady that I was booked with that day
and then I would schmoosh it through their hair and then I would hold my hand up. After a while the 70-something year old instructor would come
over and check to see if I missed any spots. That's it! No consultation, no technique, just gooey stuff on the head & put your hand up. They never
taught me how to formulate color, how to mix color, the color wheel, complimentary colors or even how to properly apply color, in fact...
I NEVER EVEN KNEW THE BRAND OF COLOR I WAS USING!
The next school I attended was the first time I ever saw a swatch chart. I didn't even know they existed. I would watch the instructor formulate
hair color for my clients but they never actually taught me how to. Whenever I would ask they would say "It takes a while to figure out
but you'll get it eventually." I didn't "get it" eventually I got it about 12 years later by going all over the place taking color classes! What I DID learn,
or at least I thought I had learned was haircutting & styling. I worked at a few different salons and tried to figure stuff out but it was a bit
like gambling. One haircut would work out fine and then another one would be terrible. I couldn't figure it out. Finally I found out about
Gene Juarez and went downtown to apply for a job. They asked me if I was licensed and I said yes, and I brought my license. They told me
that I would have to do a "test cut" as part of the interview.
At first I was miffed at this idea because Washington State had given me a license so I couldn't figure out why this salon wanted to test my haircutting skills.
It seemed a bit insulting, but I did it. The problem was that I thought that I actually knew how to cut hair when I actually knew next to nothing!
I showed up and they told me to cut a "zero elevation haircut and do a Denman airwave". I stood there quite a while and they came over and asked if everything was OK.
I told them I didn't know what that meant. They looked puzzled and asked me if I was sure that I was licensed. I assured them I was.
Finally they said "blunt", and I did remember that from school so I did that. Then they checked the haircut and said that I could start
on my airwave. I just looked at them. Then they said do a blow dry with a Denman. I knew what a blow dry was but I didn't know what
a "Denman" was. They said, use a Denman D-3 brush. I'd never heard of this so they lent me one. I did the blow dry and they hired me
as an apprentice and I made $25 per day for the next 15 months where they retrained me with the skills that I SHOULD have learned in school!
I had been ripped off by both of the beauty schools I had attended even though I had paid them thousand and thousands of dollars. I thought
that the state cosmetology license was some kind of magic piece of paper that would open doors for me. I was wrong! It was the skills that I would
learn at Gene Juarez that would open doors for me. From that time on I would go to every show I could find. When I couldn't find a show in
Seattle, I'd go to other cities. When I couldn't find a show in Washington I'd go to other states. Finally I started going to other countries so that
I could learn everything what I needed to be successful.
After I learned something I would go for more training to learn different ways of doing that. Sometimes I would go to additional advanced training
classes just to keep myself excited and current. THIS is why I started the MetrOasis® Advanced Training Center in Anchorage,
Alaska so that nobody would have to go through what I went through. But there is a factory school in my town.
There is a school that doesn't teach color formulating in my town. I don't know if they have a guy in a small room
at the back of the school, but I know that there are people in my own town that are not getting properly trained simply because they didn't
research all of the schools in town whether you call them hair schools, cosmetology schools, hairdressing schools or beauty schools.
CHECK OUT ALL OF THE SCHOOLS IN TOWN!
Question - How did you get started in the beauty industry?
Answer - Well, actually I got started the wrong way. It was probably the most common way but it was very frustrating
and it took longer and cost more than it should have. I went to the largest beauty school in Seattle. Renon's Trendsetter School of Beauty.
It was a big grocery store that had been converted into a beauty school. It was what has become to be known as a "factory school".
To keep the clients from knowing my name I had to use a number. To keep me from knowing my client's names, they used client numbers.
Basically, it was a huge little old lady shampoo-set factory. It was terrible. About in the middle of my training I transfered to a different school
in West Seattle. This was called Crystal Levine's Trendsetter Academy of Beauty. I know, huh? It seems that all of the schools from back then
had the name "Trendsetter" in the title, some still do to this day. Anyway, this school was a lot smaller and I actually got some instruction at this school.
The reason I say that this was frustrating is because the main business of the school was putting out shampoo sets not in actually teaching me.
This was obvious in their communication with me which was abrupt, harsh, cold. There was a theory class in the morning but it was only
designed to get me on the "clinic floor" where the hands-on hair services were done. There was also some training done to make sure that I
passed the state board so they wouldn't get in trouble with the state. That's it! It was terrible.
They had this guy who worked in the back of the school in a little room with a split door with a little shelf on it.
I would walk back and hand them a little ticket with a number on the top (the client number)
and this guy would look his recipe box to find that client's color formula. He would then put a little strip of cotton on the tray and he would put a
squirt bottle with some kind of hair color in it and then I was off. I would simply squirt the color on the little old lady that I was booked with that day
and then I would schmoosh it through their hair and then I would hold my hand up. After a while the 70-something year old instructor would come
over and check to see if I missed any spots. That's it! No consultation, no technique, just gooey stuff on the head & put your hand up. They never
taught me how to formulate color, how to mix color, the color wheel, complimentary colors or even how to properly apply color, in fact...
I NEVER EVEN KNEW THE BRAND OF COLOR I WAS USING!
The next school I attended was the first time I ever saw a swatch chart. I didn't even know they existed. I would watch the instructor formulate
hair color for my clients but they never actually taught me how to. Whenever I would ask they would say "It takes a while to figure out
but you'll get it eventually." I didn't "get it" eventually I got it about 12 years later by going all over the place taking color classes! What I DID learn,
or at least I thought I had learned was haircutting & styling. I worked at a few different salons and tried to figure stuff out but it was a bit
like gambling. One haircut would work out fine and then another one would be terrible. I couldn't figure it out. Finally I found out about
Gene Juarez and went downtown to apply for a job. They asked me if I was licensed and I said yes, and I brought my license. They told me
that I would have to do a "test cut" as part of the interview.
At first I was miffed at this idea because Washington State had given me a license so I couldn't figure out why this salon wanted to test my haircutting skills.
It seemed a bit insulting, but I did it. The problem was that I thought that I actually knew how to cut hair when I actually knew next to nothing!
I showed up and they told me to cut a "zero elevation haircut and do a Denman airwave". I stood there quite a while and they came over and asked if everything was OK.
I told them I didn't know what that meant. They looked puzzled and asked me if I was sure that I was licensed. I assured them I was.
Finally they said "blunt", and I did remember that from school so I did that. Then they checked the haircut and said that I could start
on my airwave. I just looked at them. Then they said do a blow dry with a Denman. I knew what a blow dry was but I didn't know what
a "Denman" was. They said, use a Denman D-3 brush. I'd never heard of this so they lent me one. I did the blow dry and they hired me
as an apprentice and I made $25 per day for the next 15 months where they retrained me with the skills that I SHOULD have learned in school!
I had been ripped off by both of the beauty schools I had attended even though I had paid them thousand and thousands of dollars. I thought
that the state cosmetology license was some kind of magic piece of paper that would open doors for me. I was wrong! It was the skills that I would
learn at Gene Juarez that would open doors for me. From that time on I would go to every show I could find. When I couldn't find a show in
Seattle, I'd go to other cities. When I couldn't find a show in Washington I'd go to other states. Finally I started going to other countries so that
I could learn everything what I needed to be successful.
After I learned something I would go for more training to learn different ways of doing that. Sometimes I would go to additional advanced training
classes just to keep myself excited and current. THIS is why I started the MetrOasis® Advanced Training Center in Anchorage,
Alaska so that nobody would have to go through what I went through. But there is a factory school in my town.
There is a school that doesn't teach color formulating in my town. I don't know if they have a guy in a small room
at the back of the school, but I know that there are people in my own town that are not getting properly trained simply because they didn't
research all of the schools in town whether you call them hair schools, cosmetology schools, hairdressing schools or beauty schools.
CHECK OUT ALL OF THE SCHOOLS IN TOWN!
 Print your own Hair Schools in Alaska Comparison Form  |