About the academy
A licensed academy, accredited since 2006.
Two campuses in the same city, one focused on full-program students and one focused on the night and weekend schedule for working adults. Class sizes capped at 18. The point is to graduate licensed cosmetologists, estheticians, and barbers — not to sell a brochure.
Outcomes that matter
The numbers we share before enrollment, not after.
87 percent of our graduates pass the state board on the first attempt. 78 percent are working in the industry within four months of graduation. Average starting wage in the city is $19.40 per hour, with tips bringing total compensation to $29–$35 per hour after the first 18 months. The placement data lives at the top of every admissions packet — not buried on page nine.
- State board pass rate87% on first attempt
- Employed within 4 months78% of graduates
- Starting wage$19.40/hr base in this market
- Total comp after 18 months$29–$35/hr with tips
- AccreditationNACCAS, in good standing since 2008
The student salon
Where 1,120 of the 1,500 hours actually happen.
Theory hours are in the classroom upstairs. Everything else happens here — at the chair, with a real client, with the instructor a few steps away. Tuesdays and Thursdays the floor is open to the public at reduced prices, which is how students rack up the live-client hours the state board wants to see.
Who teaches
Eleven instructors. Most still work behind the chair.
Every instructor is a licensed cosmetologist with at least seven years on the floor before they started teaching. Most still work behind the chair part-time so the curriculum stays anchored in what salons actually need that month, not what the textbook said in 2019. The instructor-to-student ratio averages 1:9 in clinical hours.
Renee O.
14 years behind the chair at two color-led salons before she came on full-time. Runs the chemistry block and the first ten haircuts on the floor.
Master cosmetologist · color specialist
Mariela V.
Nine years in med-spa work, four years on faculty. Runs the chemical-peel block and the treatment-room rotations.
Licensed esthetician · CIDESCO
Dontay R.
Twelve years in two of the busiest barbershops in the city before he started teaching the fade block here. Still cuts at his shop on Saturdays.
Licensed barber · straight-razor cert
What we won’t do
The honest list.
We don’t run “introductory rates” that are really just discounts everybody gets. We don’t push students into kits they don’t need. We don’t keep cohorts open past capacity to chase tuition revenue. And we don’t dress up the placement numbers — the floor of the funnel is the same number on the website, the brochure, and the state board paperwork.