How YOU Can Make a Difference by Becoming a Beauty Professional

Read Time: 10 Minutes
Expertise Area: All Career Fields
Career Stage: Beauty School Students

Expert Career Advice ➜ Getting Licensed ➜ How YOU Can Make a Difference by Becoming a Beauty Professional

You might have landed on this article because you've been thinking about going to beauty school, but something is giving you pause. Maybe it's a Negative Nellie in your life who's telling you that the beauty profession isn't a serious career. Or maybe you're questioning whether a career in beauty will be rewarding enough.

Whatever your reason for landing here, we hope what we're about to say helps.

Below, we're going to:

Define what the beauty industry is
Provide a brief overview of beauty school
Discuss ways beauty professionals make a real and lasting impact on the world

What is the beauty industry anyway?

The beauty industry is exactly that—a real industry, one that brings in billions of dollars in revenue each year and is projected to grow even bigger over the next decade. The industry encompasses all beauty-related services (like hair and nails, for example) as well as products, like cosmetics and other personal care items.

As you can imagine, the types of professions you could go into are seemingly endless. Makeup artist on a movie set? Check. Product manager at a cosmetics company? Check. CEO of your own beauty brand? Check. Hairstylist or barber in your own salon? Check. Esthetician or massage therapist in a spa? Check. Instagram influencer in the world of nail art? Check.

And that's a SHORT list of possibilities.

So for any naysayer in your life who makes a snide comment about the beauty industry like, "Why would you want to do that for a living?" You can simply counter with this: "Why wouldn't I? This industry is thriving and fabulous!"

DID YOU KNOW: The overall employment of barbers, hair stylists, and cosmetologists is projected to grow 11 percent from 2021 to 2031, which is much faster than the average for all occupations. [Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor]

So what's beauty school all about?

Consider beauty school your starting point—your gateway to a career that you define and shape. It's the place where you learn theory and gain technical expertise for your chosen discipline—barbering, cosmetology, esthetics, nails, or massage therapy. Everything you learn prepares you for your state's licensing exam.

And from there? The choice is yours.

You could take your barbering license and rent a booth in a shop—and eventually open your own. Or you could take your esthetician license and work for a spa in a popular vacation destination. Or maybe you decide to do hair for fashion shoots. Or maybe in addition to working in a hair salon, you also freelance for a beauty publication where you review the latest trends.

Beauty school is just the first step. The next steps are up to you!

DID YOU KNOW: The most successful beauty pros will tell you that your beauty education shouldn’t end when you graduate. Lifelong learning is the key to ongoing success.

OK, that's fine. But how does being a beauty professional make a difference in people's lives—or the world?

At its simplest, being a beauty professional means you impact every client you come in contact with. You have the opportunity to help them feel great about themselves—and that's no small thing.

But a beauty professional's impact can go much deeper. It's not unusual for clients to confide in the beauty pros they work with, from joyful things, like weddings and births, to sad things, like job losses, deaths, and even domestic violence.

In fact, some states require licensed beauty pros to receive training in understanding the latter. And it's precisely why we created our Milady RISE Certification in Client Well-Being & Safety, which teaches beauty professionals not only what to look for in terms of domestic violence and human trafficking, but also what to do next.

DID YOU KNOW: Beauty pros are also able to spot things their clients literally can't see. Here's how one hairstylist identified skin cancer on a client's head.

All that said, we imagine what you’re looking for are stories about real beauty professionals making a real difference in their communities . . . and the world in general. The following stories should fit the bill, but again . . . they’re only a small sampling of all the awesome things that people are doing.

Meet Afolakemi Lawani and Lilian Anderson, the owners of The Natural Hair Care Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Business owners in their own right, they both recognized a need in the beauty and wellness industry for more hair braiding education. However, the road to opening The Natural Hair Care Institute wasn't easy. KEEP READING.
Meet Melanie Day, the owner of You've Got Curls and Hair Loss Center in Lexington, Kentucky. With her multicultural hair salon, Melanie is changing the game, spreading awareness, and helping people embrace and love their natural hair. In addition to regular salon services, You’ve Got Curls & Hair Loss Center offers consultations and resources for those experiencing hair loss due to COVID-19, postpartum pregnancies, medications, alopecia, and cancer. KEEP READING.
Meet Sean Casey, the founder of TwinCutZ barber shops in Southwest Florida. The shop gives back to the community each year with a back-to-school event, giving away free haircuts and backpacks to kids in the community, involving each location and barber for a total of over 1,000 haircuts. KEEP READING.

As you can see, beauty pros find all sorts of ways to use their skills to make an impact that goes well beyond beauty.

Wow! The beauty industry does sound like the right place for me. What should I do next?

Remember, beauty school is the first step. And we know you might have a ton of questions about it, which is why we've written several articles to help.

Welcome to the wonderful world of beauty! We can't wait to see what you do next.