Potential Jobs with a Cosmetology License!

Where Can You Go with a Career in Cosmetology?

After graduating from cosmetology school, there are endless options for jobs! Indeed—even if you started school with an idea of where you wanted your career to take you, hopefully your schooling provided the change to work in different arenas and open some doors you hadn’t considered! Here are some options you might not have thought of!

Stylist Assistant

A stylist assistant is an entry-level cosmetology job. As an assistant, you’re mostly going to be learning. While it can feel like you aren’t actually getting to do much hairstyling in this role and in fact, it can sometimes feel menial and clerical, the skills you can acquire as you make your way up to a bonafide hairstylist are invaluable. The best stylists in the world often say that their time assisting made them into the hairdresser they are today!

Stylist 

After assisting in a high-end salon, you may be offered a position as a stylist. Stylists typically earn more pay and take their own clients. This is the role most often considered when people think of job in a salon

Colorist 

Some salons, particularly large salons in large cities, employ specialists, including those who only cut hair and colorists. A colorist specializes in various techniques to color hair including color formulation, highlights, balayage and color blocking color placement. In smaller salons, stylists often color hair and cut hair. Either way, you may want to become the in-house color specialist when you graduate.

Barber 

A barber generally works specifically in men’s grooming techniques. As a barber, you’ll work to cut, care for, and style hair in men’s styles, even if your clients include both men and women.  Some barbers may work in barbershops that cater to mostly men, but some barbers also work in salons. For more information about the difference between a barber and cosmetologist, see our other blog on this topic!

Nail Technician 

A nail technician (or nail tech or manicurist) is a specialized job. While some hair salons offer nail services, often a manicurist will work in a salon specifically catering to manicures and pedicures. A cosmetology license will legally allow you to do all services offered by nail techs, including manicures, pedicures, nail enhancements (like acrylic nails and gel nails and contemporary dip services like SNS!), and hand and foot treatments.

Waxing Specialist 

Some salons offer specific jobs in hair removal. Waxing specialists are familiar with the cycles of hair growth, hair growth patterns, the waxing process itself, and the skin, which is why most states require that you go through an esthetician program to become a waxing specialist. Again, a cosmetology license will encompass all of the things an esthetics license allows a person to do, including skin care therapy, waxing, makeup and advanced skin treatments like microdermabrasion and galvanic and high-frequency treatments.

Salon Manager 

There are lots of opportunities for hairdressers who are business inclined!  While a salon manager position sometimes doesn’t require a cosmetology license, salons often require the position to be someone who can do stylist work. There is often management duties off the salon floor too, including scheduling, ordering and inventory management.

Make Up Artist

Making someone look good on camera with intense lighting is a job in and of itself.  Some cosmetology graduates work behind the scenes on TV, in theaters, and on movie sets. It’s a fast-paced job that requires a high tolerance for stress, but rewards that include potentially working with celebrities make it all exciting.

Platform Artist

A platform artist is part educator, part salesperson and part entertainer. The platform artist performs on stage, mostly at industry trade shows, to promote styling techniques, tools or products.

Cosmetology Teacher

Particularly if you’ve been inspired by your educator, you may want a career in teaching! In North Carolina there are 2 paths to becoming an educator: you can challenge the North Carolina State Board licensing exam after you’ve been working in the field for at least 5 years, or you can take a class at a licensed school. Call our admissions department if you think this is the career path for you!

Conclusion

As you can see, a cosmetology license opens you to a wide variety of jobs. As a cosmetologist or esthetician, you’ll be able to many things, including working in some of these jobs! Whether you already have a specific job in mind or you just want to learn more about your options, you can request more information here!