foreign welcome back to my channel as you can tell by the title I'm going to be letting you know what you need to know before going to cosmetology school I graduated cosmetology school I think back in 2014 the end of 2014 or it was the beginning of 2015. I can't remember because it was almost 10 years ago but I wish there were videos like this when I went to cosmetology school I did not find any I wish I had someone to tell me these things before even thinking about going to school because I had made so many mistakes and there were so many things that could have been avoided if I had someone telling me these things almost like a big sister or just someone that went to cosmetology school and have those experiences that I could share with someone so if this even helps one person that would make me happy because I wish I had this before going to cosmetology school I wrote some notes for you girlies and guys because I know guys go to cosmetology school too so before I get started in this video If you haven't seen my cosmetology Vlog shout out to my ogs that have been here since I was in cosmetology school if you haven't seen those Vlogs I do have a playlist on my channel of all of my cosmetology Vlogs all the behind the scenes of the school that I went to and my experiences and I did some q and A's back then and sometimes I look back on it because you guys might not know this but I was in a really deep dark bad place in my life during those videos and that was actually the reason why I made a YouTube channel is because it was my way to kind of Escape all of the chaos that was going on in my life and it made me really happy that I had my little YouTube friends and my YouTube Besties kind of going along that Journey with me and I got to share my graduation video with you all so anyways with that being said let's go ahead and get started with today's video my first tip that I want to share is choose your school wisely now when you go tour cosmetology schools this is my experience this is just what I went through personally they are going to butter you up they're going to make it seem like this is the most perfect school for you oh my gosh you are a queen you deserve to be here we want you here I mean they're going to tell you everything you want to hear they want your money they want you to go to their school obviously so you have to keep that in mind don't go with the first school that you tour tour a few schools don't just tour one because that was like the first on your list make sure to tour multiple schools because if you have one school in mind on your list and you go tour it and you're kind of like I don't like this place make sure to have other options if you have those options available for me I was 18 right out of high school going into cosmetology school and the first school that I toured it was the first school that I signed up with I wish I did not do that I wish I had someone telling me not to do that but that is what happened that's what I did I was so excited to go to cosmetology school and ask them if you can attend a class even if it's just for half a half of a day or a few hours make sure to attend a class that way you can ask the students what's their experience been like you know kind of pull them aside when they're on their lunch break and ask them like hey girl like what's a t you know you want to know what's their perspective on being in that school because they could tell you oh my gosh do not go here I hate it the teachers are awful so keep that in mind make sure to tour your school and attend a class and ask the students what's their experience been at the school secondly is cosmetology specifically what you want to do now if if you're a type of person that you want to focus on Barber you go to barber school you don't need to go to full-on Cosmetology School unless you're trying to get into color or perms and stuff like that because I know a lot of Barbers end up just going back to Cosmetology School anyways um or if you're more into Aesthetics if you want to be a makeup artist or if you want to work at a med spa doing those like extravagant facials just go to esthetician school you don't have to go to Cosmetology School unless you want to do all of the things there's also nail tech school so if you want to strictly focus on nails if you're super passionate about Nails you can go to Nail Tech School uh there's no point of going into cosmetology school if you don't care for the hair or if you don't care for the nails or the aesthetic part of it um there is other options unless you want to do all of it for me I do not regret going to cosmetology school at all because throughout my career Journey I've done everything I've done Nails I've done hair I've done makeup I've done Aesthetics you know so I've done it all and I am personally really happy that I went to cosmetology school I also do want to mention going to cosmetology school it's not going to go straight into working on clients and all of the fun stuff uh it's going to be Theory first in the two schools that I went to and other cosmetology Vlogs that I've watched It's always Theory first and Salon floor second Salon floor is where you work on clients that come to the school and pay to get their hair nails or facials done by a student supervised by the instructor so a lot of people do this because it's a lot more affordable and obviously you learn a lot before working on clients so it's much cheaper I have gotten a facial at the Aveda Institute in Charlotte and it was amazing and it was like a quarter of the price if I were to pay like 150 to get the same facial somewhere else I paid 30. so I do want to mention that obviously you're going to have to learn about chemistry anatomy massage you're gonna have to take an electricity class before you start working on clients you're going to have to learn color theory and all of that good stuff you're going to have a really thick textbook that's like with anything if you go to school to if you go to school to be a lawyer they're not just going to put you in like mock trial expecting you to know everything you know so you have to learn things before you work on clients so basically what I'm trying to say is it's not fun right away it will get fun eventually once you go to Solana floor but in the beginning you're going to be doing textbook work homework exams and all of that and working on a mannequin head so I do not miss those sign offs and the roller sets and the perms um trying to get you know sign off so I can go on Salon floor I don't miss that but you know at the end of the day it was fun and I really enjoyed it before going to cosmetology school have a goal what is your end goal what do you want to do after you graduate because the reason why I say this is you need to have a goal because when you're in cosmetology school when things get harder where things get boring you're thinking to yourself what am I here for like what am I doing this for you know so that's why I recommend having a goal whether it's you want to own a salon or you want to be a freelance artist and be an entrepreneur if you want to work for yourself if you want to Shadow somebody or Booth rent whatever it may be have your goal before even signing up for school because that is going to be your motivation when things get hard for me even when I was in high school doing girls makeup for prom my goal was to be a freelance makeup artist Be My Own Boss I want to work for anyone I just wanted to be my own boss and be a really well-known makeup artist in my area I want it to be a nail tag like I just wanted to do it all I wanted to be a jack of mini trades and that was my goal so make sure to have a end goal before going into cosmetology school now speaking of your end goal and what you want to do with your career after you graduate I cannot preface this enough do not settle for any job you are in control of your own success and that's what's so amazing about cosmetology school is you can go so far with it now when I was in school there would be salons that would come to the school and try to get you to work for them when you graduate because they're hiring or they're low staffed or whatever it may be Kwanza came to my school were Great Clips Hair Club Sport Clips mainly chain salons or franchise salons that would come to the school and get you to work for them after you graduate now if that's not your goal and you're like oh my gosh I don't have a job lined up out of Cosmetology School what am I gonna do don't settle if you want to work at this fancy bougie salon right out of Cosmetology School go to the salon when you're not in school ask to Shadow them like once or twice a week they may pay you they may not so if you want to work their go Shadow for them Shadow over a hair stylist for a few hours or like you know for one client you don't have to be there all day especially if you're not getting paid girl so do that you are in control of your own success if you want to be self-employed do whatever your goals are you can do it I'm telling you it is so achievable you got this no matter what state you're living in that's another thing about cosmetology school if there's reciprocity you can transfer your license you will always have a career no matter where you go so just stay in control of your life and don't settle for any job unless you want to work at Great Clips that's fine but personally that was not my goal and that was like not a lot of girls goals um that I went to school with so yeah just there's a line at the end of the tunnel I know there can be times where you get really discouraged and you feel like your goals are really far from you but they're not so remember you're in control of your success so going into my next tip this was a mistake that I personally did not make but a lot of the girls that I went to school with made this mistake do not Booth rent right out of cosmetology school and I'm gonna tell you why the only way you're going to be successful with Booth renting is if you have a boss that will gate clients for you and send clients your way or if you already have a clientele a large clientele I have never Booth rented but in Myrtle Beach South Carolina where I used to live the booth rent was like 400 a week 300 a week 250 a week it's not cheap Booth front is not cheap unless you get lucky and you find a good spot in your area but personally where I live I currently live in Charlotte now I can't even imagine running here I don't even want to know how much it is uh I'm more of a freelancer I travel a lot to do hair and makeup so there's no point of me having a booth but same with nail tech Barber like do not Booth rent right away unless you have a boss a really nice boss that is gonna bring you business some of them do because they obviously want you to keep paying them Booth rent because it's a lot of money for them and there they will help you sometimes but for the most part it's really cut through especially if you're in a big city if you don't have a large clientele it's going to be hard for you to pay your booth rent every week because if you're not making money from clients then you're not going to be able to pay your booth rent so I don't recommend Booth running right out of school that is a big No-No um 99.9 of the time the clients that you have from school that come to see you at your school are not going to follow you to your salon they might say or they're going to follow you but they're paying 35 for a blowout and a haircut and half a head of highlights at school but at your salon but you're not Booth running at you're gonna have to charge 250 because you have Booth rent to pay where do you think they're gonna go They're Gonna keep going to the school because it's affordable and they're gonna find someone else to do their hair so yeah I'm sorry that's kind of harsh to say maybe you'll have a client that follows you and that's great but in my experience your clients aren't going to follow you girly sorry last but not least speaking of building your clientele social media social media social media I mean you need tick tock Twitter Snapchat Instagram Facebook like whatever else there is I personally only advertise on Instagram and it has done great for me and Word of Mouth for me social media has been a game changer especially Instagram because I had a pretty large clientele in Myrtle Beach and when I moved to Charlotte I had to start from scratch and start all over my clientele did not happen overnight um it did take a long time I was working a full-time job when I first moved here so I didn't really have the time it was when I think I was already graduated for like three and a half years that I started to build a clientele that could possibly have me quit my job and then once I met my now husband he recommended me to someone that really really helped me out and recommended me a lot I feel like in this industry or really any industry that you are in it's all about who you know you're gonna meet the right people it just takes that one person to start recommending you and then your career is going to take off and I feel like that's what happened with me she really helped me out a lot she recommends people to me till this day I've been working with her for almost four years now doing makeup and being my own boss is my main income there have been times where I would go do nails you know because I don't get clients every single day it's not like I'm gonna make money every single day but I'm getting off track make sure to advertise your work your social media is your portfolio make sure to use hashtags personally what I do is Charlotte North Carolina makeup artist Charlotte North Carolina mua Charlotte North Carolina hmua um that way people can find you through hashtags you can pay for Google advertising I've never had to do that and I have gotten a bunch of clients just fine through Instagram and Word of Mouth honestly when I get a client I always ask them like oh how'd you find me and they either tell me so and so recommended you or through Instagram I've never had anyone say oh I found you on Google never once haven't heard that so for the most part people will go to your social media mainly Instagram to look at your work that's your portfolio is your main source of advertising is your social media now Tick Tock is a really big thing I don't have a tick tock I don't have a personal Tick Tock I don't know why I'm just not into Tick Tock I'm not into Snapchat I'm not into advertising on Facebook but for me Instagram is detrimental to advertising your business now make sure you have a decent camera on your phone or a nice camera because you want your work to look as crisp and beautiful as possible you don't want the colors to look washed out you want it to look really vibrant now when people look at your Instagram and they see grainy um colors are washed out bad quality photos versus uh makeup artists or hair stylist that has a better camera or a better phone to take pictures and videos and their pictures look amazing who do you think they're gonna go to the person that has a nicer camera or a nicer phone now I'm not saying you need an iPhone 14 pro Max I had an iPhone 11 for years I just now upgraded to iPhone 14 pro um like two weeks ago it hasn't even been a month so I had an 11 for the longest time and that Cameron did me just fine I also have a Canon PowerShot it's an older version that one I used that one for a while as well on clients so just make sure you have a good quality camera you don't have to spend lots of money on that and also have good lighting I have a whole lighting set up when I work on my clients and that has been a game changer as well you don't have to get those expensive Glam core lights um you can even get a ring light that Clips to your phone those are really bright as well you just need to make sure your photos have good lighting and they're true to color and you have a good camera that is it for me today thank you all so much for watching if you like content like this please make sure to like comment and subscribe I definitely want to be posting more uh Cosmetology School related videos obviously I've been out of school for a very long time but I want to do a day in my life as a professional makeup artist I have a bunch of clients coming up which I am so excited about I am still so giddy and excited about doing hair and makeup for people from since I was like 16 you know I'm still so passionate about it and I just love it so yeah have fun enjoy yourself cosmetology school was such an amazing part of my life and I will never forget that part of my life till this day I love it I've had thoughts of being an instructor like cosmetology instructor but I just feel like they don't make that much money and I also don't want to go back to school and pay student loans and stuff like that so yeah um but yeah my baby boy is now waking up I think I have the monitor right here I've been watching him but I think he's up now I'm gonna go ahead and grab my baby and make him some lunch but thank you all so much for watching I will see you in my next video bye [Music]