Ashlbee
December 21st, 2013, 04:17 PM
Hi guys!
I am considering going to cosmetology school to become a hairdresser and would like some input.
My backstory:
I am 22 and just graduated this last June with a BA degree from the University of California Santa Barbara with a degree in Communication and a minor in English. I'm on the job market and have realized a few things: it really is as bad as people have been saying for recent college grads to find a job, I feel sorta stuck, and none of the jobs I look at appeal to me AT ALL. I do not want to sit behind a desk or work retail doing a 9-5 etc. etc. Perhaps I got spoiled while in school with the freedom (yeah, ok I did) but I want some degree of autonomy in my career and to actually enjoy going to work, not drew it and pray for Friday. Plus, being unemployed and living at home with my mom and grandma in a SENIOR community far away from 'town' I feel really stifled and bored. There are no careers here (everyone is retired), no people my age (I want to meet a husband, lol!) and I don't want to spend money on gas to go places or do things when I am unemployed.
My Plan:
To move in with my dad in San Diego (rent free, yes!) and go full-time to cosmetology school so I can finish it in under a year (there are many options there, anyone have suggestions or schools they warn against? Cheap is my priority. I got out of undergrad debt free and went to a 'prestigious' school and that prestige has helped not one whit. No one in the job world cares I went UC versus any junior college. I care not for prestige anymore, I want to go to school with the cheapest tuition possible so long as they are accredited and not sketchy.) I will work part time as I will be taking out a student loan for school and want to save up to pay it off as I go. Plus, working part-time and going to school I'm sure I'll meet people in my age group to get more friends and maybe meet 'someone special' ;)
One day I would like to open a salon that offer traditional as well as LHC-esk services such as vegetable dyes, henna, indigo, cassia, treatment, SD sessions, REAL dusting and trims (not 5" later trims…) and have a retail portion of the salon with regular products, but also oils, combs, boar bristle brushes, and HAIR TOYS!! Wooooo!
My Concerns:
I'm debt free right now, I would have to go into debt for the courses
I feel like I'm 'wasting' my degree since I don't need my 4 year for being a hairdresser
How much money do hair dressers really make? Enjoying my work is paramount, hence looking into a field I think I would like, but I also (guiltily and due to my parents insistence) think I could make more money in a job utilizing my degree. Money certainly isn't everything, but I do want to own a home one day, a horse, a dog, have a child, travel, etc. How realistic are these goals on a hair dressers wages? (maybe this mysterious husband I want can just be the breadwinner ;) lol ) I know wages vary a lot by state, but how comfortable do you feel you live on your wages? How is the job market for you? Do you like your work? Do you feel you struggle?
NOTE: Please don't read offense into the above about salary, I in no way mean it that way! I honestly don't know, especially in this economy and having never really been in the working world, what realistic living wages are/how much different occupations make. My father worked as an operating engineer and made between 80-100k in my childhood so he is concerned I will 'feel the difference' if I choose a career with significantly lower wages. I don't feel we lived extravagantly at all, I would consider us firmly in the middle class, but my father saved a lot instead of spending and my mom spent lots of his income (she only worked sporadically so she could be a stay at home mom with me, which I enjoyed greatly as a child) on various whims that I don't feel I would need in my life. (Who need a Jaguar? I like my VW just fine thanks. Why must we re-decorate the house again, it's pretty now. Etc.) Also, since Mom didn't work much, if you split 80k by 2 people, thats really like 40k each in income so for just me around that salary should feel the same right? Like I said, I don't need brand names (except for Ficcare! lol), am not into fancy cars, don't get into shoes, etc. I only really collect hair toys and want to be able to do a travel excursion every few years, have a pretty house, own a pleasure horse (not competitive), a dog, etc. I don't want to stay in Califonria and think I will settle in Orgeon, Washingtone/Seattle, Colorado, or maybe the east coast.
Anyway, I would love some input from you guys in the industry! Any information would be so helpful!
I am considering going to cosmetology school to become a hairdresser and would like some input.
My backstory:
I am 22 and just graduated this last June with a BA degree from the University of California Santa Barbara with a degree in Communication and a minor in English. I'm on the job market and have realized a few things: it really is as bad as people have been saying for recent college grads to find a job, I feel sorta stuck, and none of the jobs I look at appeal to me AT ALL. I do not want to sit behind a desk or work retail doing a 9-5 etc. etc. Perhaps I got spoiled while in school with the freedom (yeah, ok I did) but I want some degree of autonomy in my career and to actually enjoy going to work, not drew it and pray for Friday. Plus, being unemployed and living at home with my mom and grandma in a SENIOR community far away from 'town' I feel really stifled and bored. There are no careers here (everyone is retired), no people my age (I want to meet a husband, lol!) and I don't want to spend money on gas to go places or do things when I am unemployed.
My Plan:
To move in with my dad in San Diego (rent free, yes!) and go full-time to cosmetology school so I can finish it in under a year (there are many options there, anyone have suggestions or schools they warn against? Cheap is my priority. I got out of undergrad debt free and went to a 'prestigious' school and that prestige has helped not one whit. No one in the job world cares I went UC versus any junior college. I care not for prestige anymore, I want to go to school with the cheapest tuition possible so long as they are accredited and not sketchy.) I will work part time as I will be taking out a student loan for school and want to save up to pay it off as I go. Plus, working part-time and going to school I'm sure I'll meet people in my age group to get more friends and maybe meet 'someone special' ;)
One day I would like to open a salon that offer traditional as well as LHC-esk services such as vegetable dyes, henna, indigo, cassia, treatment, SD sessions, REAL dusting and trims (not 5" later trims…) and have a retail portion of the salon with regular products, but also oils, combs, boar bristle brushes, and HAIR TOYS!! Wooooo!
My Concerns:
I'm debt free right now, I would have to go into debt for the courses
I feel like I'm 'wasting' my degree since I don't need my 4 year for being a hairdresser
How much money do hair dressers really make? Enjoying my work is paramount, hence looking into a field I think I would like, but I also (guiltily and due to my parents insistence) think I could make more money in a job utilizing my degree. Money certainly isn't everything, but I do want to own a home one day, a horse, a dog, have a child, travel, etc. How realistic are these goals on a hair dressers wages? (maybe this mysterious husband I want can just be the breadwinner ;) lol ) I know wages vary a lot by state, but how comfortable do you feel you live on your wages? How is the job market for you? Do you like your work? Do you feel you struggle?
NOTE: Please don't read offense into the above about salary, I in no way mean it that way! I honestly don't know, especially in this economy and having never really been in the working world, what realistic living wages are/how much different occupations make. My father worked as an operating engineer and made between 80-100k in my childhood so he is concerned I will 'feel the difference' if I choose a career with significantly lower wages. I don't feel we lived extravagantly at all, I would consider us firmly in the middle class, but my father saved a lot instead of spending and my mom spent lots of his income (she only worked sporadically so she could be a stay at home mom with me, which I enjoyed greatly as a child) on various whims that I don't feel I would need in my life. (Who need a Jaguar? I like my VW just fine thanks. Why must we re-decorate the house again, it's pretty now. Etc.) Also, since Mom didn't work much, if you split 80k by 2 people, thats really like 40k each in income so for just me around that salary should feel the same right? Like I said, I don't need brand names (except for Ficcare! lol), am not into fancy cars, don't get into shoes, etc. I only really collect hair toys and want to be able to do a travel excursion every few years, have a pretty house, own a pleasure horse (not competitive), a dog, etc. I don't want to stay in Califonria and think I will settle in Orgeon, Washingtone/Seattle, Colorado, or maybe the east coast.
Anyway, I would love some input from you guys in the industry! Any information would be so helpful!