While other high school seniors are memorizing formulas or writing essays in classrooms, Madyson Bell is braiding and cutting hair in a realistic, modern salon.
“My whole mindset before high school was, I don’t want to go to college. I want to go to trade school,” the 17-year-old Thornridge High School student said as she gently twisted a flat iron around a strand of the hair on a mannequin Wednesday afternoon. “I want to do cosmetology.”
Bell is about halfway through the program that will hopefully allow her and 11 other students to become licensed cosmetologists and barbers before graduating high school in the spring. She said even now, it feels surreal stepping into the open, brightly lit Studio 205, where she spends two hours each day doing hair, nails and facials for both real and plastic clients.
“I’ll still be shocked walking past it, seeing it in the hallway, being like, ‘Wow, I really do this, and I’m the first to do it,’” Bell said. “When people ask me (about the program), I’ll be like, ‘I don’t even know! It’s just crazy.’”
The studio officially opened last year, after about five years of leg work. Brett Fickes, District 205 assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said bringing cosmetology and barbering to Thornridge came from student demand and the district’s decade-long commitment to providing a variety of workforce development experiences.
Fickes said surveys done shortly before the COVID-19 about which courses students would like to see, cosmetology and barbering was at the top of the list.
District 205 partnered with South Suburban College to allow for dual enrollment, so by the time participating students have completed the 1,500 hours of required training and taken the cosmetology or barbering exam, they will also be well on their way to earning an associate’s degree in either trade.
“It’s a win-win for the kids,” Fickes said. “It’s going to save them a lot of money. When they graduate, they can start fresh with a skill set and find a job. Even if they go to college or something else, they can always do this on the side now.”
However, many of the students providing facials, haircuts and braids said they hope to start their own businesses soon after graduation, some following in the footsteps of family or other community members.
Ivan Walker, who was tasked with giving a ‘faux hawk’ to barbering instructor Ayana Goodwin’s mother, said he’s cut hair for about as long as he’s been able to hold clippers, practicing on his brother. He said he grew up watching his aunts and uncles run their own barber shops and felt “destined” to do the same.
“Before the program even came about, I was a sophomore thinking, ‘OK, how am I going to get into the industry?’” Walker said, as he held a comb to his client’s head. “It’s like a family thing. So when I got that email, I’m like, ‘oh I got to get down on this!’”
Walker was not the only one. District officials reported about 150 students applied for the program this year alone, requiring a rigorous application process as the size of the studio space only allows for 24 students in each cohort. By their junior year, interested students will be evaluated based on their history of behavior, attendance and GPA, as well as their long-term interest gauged through a required essay and a committee interview.
Studio 205 is one of several south suburban cosmetology programs to crop up in the past several years.
While South Suburban College’s barbering program was the first of its kind in the state when it began in 2021, the school recently expanded to include cosmetology starting this fall, and has already built up a waitlist, according to Anna Helwig, dean of the liberal arts and sciences department.
Helwig said she believes the success of barbering and cosmetology education in the south suburbs is partly due to the region’s demographics, as workforce development grants instituted in the past few years specifically target support toward economically disadvantaged communities.
She said South Suburban College has worked well with districts like Thornton Township 205 and nearby Thornton Fractional High School District 215 to promote its cosmetology programs and help students kickstart their careers. Helwig has begun to see students from the older District 215 program find success at the community college, including one now looking to become an instructor. She expects similar results from District 205.
“I’m just thankful that we’re able to provide the opportunity for those in the community, and they can take their business to the next level, out of their their kitchen or their basements and into a salon,” Helwig said.
In the meantime, Thornton Township District 205 students like Marlene Lopez say they’re grateful to be able serve others, including her mom and her sister who came in for facials.
“Especially my mom, she works so hard so like, to give her a facial and like a break, she was even sleeping while I was doing it,” Lopez said, laughing.
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
