Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal Carson City Beauty Academy students practice their waxing skills on classmates Gill Landis, rear, and Nick Tremel on Thursday afternoon. The school, which has operated in Carson City since 1988, recently moved into a new 11,000 square foot facility at Roop Street and Fairview Drive.
Staff Report
Carson City Beauty Academy's old building in Northgate Plaza didn't give the school's 100 students the space they needed, said Sandy Escover, owner of the school.
"We used to eat at my desk," she said.
But since the school moved to 1851 S. Roop St., in August, that doubled the building size to 11,000 square feet, teaching how to style hair, give facials and airbrush nails has been easier, she said.
Escover, who has owned the academy for 20 years, said professional schools like hers are important for the city because college isn't for all students.
The school is set up as a two-year program, though many students finish sooner, and it prepares students for the state board of cosmetology licensing test.
Students can work for a salon, rent a booth to do their work or start their own business after that. Whatever they choose, they get to be their "own boss," Escover said.
"They can make good money or they can make no money," she said.
Dawn Muscott, who graduated last week, said she's always liked doing nails, but some of the hair styling, color theory and lectures on anatomy and diseases were challenging.
"All that was like, 'What, really? We have to learn all this?'"
Muscott, who lives in Silver Springs, already has a job styling hair and nails and said she is excited by all the different things that she can now do with nail design, like incorporating money.
"You can do dollar bill nails," she said.
Rodney Moore, director of education for the academy, said students learn a lot even in the first 300 hours of education, including skin treatment and scalp analysis.
The hardest thing for most of the students, however, he said, is adjusting to life as a cosmologist.
"This is a business where one day you might be bam bam bam bam bam all day with a client and then one day, you might get one in the morning and might not get another for the remainder of the day," he said.
Donna Banks, another teacher, said the hardest style for many students to learn in perming long hair.
It gets easier with time, however, she said, "especially when I tell them how much they can make."