Cosmetology: Is a Career as a Cosmetologist for me?

Cosmetology questions are often asked of me, especially from my teen clients who may have a future interest in the beauty field. This week, a reader posed the same query and I promised her an answer for today’s Q&A.

Happy Hump Day beauty lovers and hair aficionados and welcome to another edition of Wednesday’s Q&A, where I answer a reader’s beauty question. Today we hear from Halifu, who has an interest in cosmetology.

I saw your website and you seem so passionate about hair. I’m considering a second career as a cosmetologist. I often hear people say that it’s something you have to love in order to do. But I don’t know if I love it. I think if I had the training and felt confident in my knowledge to cut and style etc., then I would really enjoy making people look and feel good. Do you think that’s reason to go into cosmetology though?? Also right now I have an office job and I’d really like to do work that let’s me use my hands and be creative!

Thanks for writing in Halifu. It is you, the inquisitive reader, who helps make everyone of my workdays worth it. Loving what you do makes work easier, and then it isn’t a job anymore, it becomes a livelihood, a passion and is very fulfilling. Not many people can say that. Do I love what I do all of the time? No, dealing with the public can be difficult, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love my occupation, of which I have turned into something I am extremely happy with and proud of, nor does that mean I loved it from the get-go.

I took beauty culture in high school, with the thought that it would be an easy way out of taking the mandatory 3-year sequence required by my district. Back in the dark ages, my cosmetology course was only a 2-year program. As I learned to manage my own unruly hair, I began to love cosmetology. I became a kid in a candy store with all of the beauty products that surrounded me. As I went on, I learned I was actually quite good at styling hair and discovered the beauty world has so much to offer for creative minds and hands.

If you feel you would enjoy making people look and feel good, then yes, do it, enroll in cosmetology. As you learn the craft and practice you will gain confidence. Good hairstylists are confident. Great hairstylists never stop learning. Even after you complete your cosmetology training, continue to learn new techniques, take classes and attend trade shows and seminars.

As I have mentioned a few times, one of the best things I have ever done for myself was taking the cosmetology licensing exam and consistently renewing it. Even during those years when I was strictly a mother or ran a business outside of hairstyling, beauty culture was always a part of my world in one way or another.

Cosmetology became my vocation; it is who I am. The beauty world defines me as having children defines motherhood. I would never give up what I do, and if I did, I would feel as if I had lost a limb. My tomb should have a pair of scissors etched on the stone next to words beloved wife, mother, daughter and friend.

If you too have a beauty question similar to Halifu’s cosmetology query, please email me at DeirdreAHaggerty@gmail.com.