What did you expect when you started beauty school? More specifically, what promises did your school make about your earning potential and job placement? Would you have made a different career choice if you had access to more information before enrolling?
Having made a commitment to the beauty industry, we need to be open to discussing the multiple controversies that involve us.
Between data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and a report produced by the Institute for Justice about student debt, it’s no wonder beauty schools face increased scrutiny. The federal government, in particular, has taken actions to prevent abuse of students and taxpayers.
Did you know federal law prohibits vocational schools from making deceptive and fraudulent claims about career outcomes?
The Federal Trade Commission, the bipartisan federal agency tasked with protecting consumers and promoting competition, announced on October 6, 2021 that 70 “education institutions” received official notice:
“By sending a Notice of Penalty Offenses to the institutions, which represent the largest for-profit colleges and vocational schools across the country, the companies operating these colleges will be on notice that they could incur significant sanctions for engaging in certain unlawful practices. The notice outlines a number of practices that the FTC has previously found to be unfair or deceptive, and notes that these practices could lead to civil penalties of up to $43,792 per violation.”
“Many of the practices … relate to claims made by institutions about the career outcomes of their graduates, including whether a particular career field is in demand, the percentage of graduates who get jobs in their chosen field, whether the institution can help a graduate get a job, the amount of money a graduate can expect to earn and other related practices.”
Prefaced with a disclaimer, “The fact that a school is on this list is NOT an indication that it has done anything wrong,” the FTC’s list of institutions included beauty schools with a large, national presence, like Aveda, Empire, Milan and Paul Mitchell.
Do the current wages and job market justify investment in beauty school? Interestingly, beauty schools were exempted from new gainful employment regulations that take effect in July 2026. According to independent reporting from The Hechinger Report:
“The high cost of many for-profit cosmetology schools — tuition can be upward of $20,000, usually for a one-year program — can leave former students mired in debt. In May, the government released data showing 850 colleges where at least a third of borrowers haven’t made a loan payment for 90 days or more, putting them on track to default.”
Many beauty school students rely on taxpayer-funded financial aid expecting to have lucrative careers, but should they?
That’s a legitimate questioned raised by the federal government and reporters like Aarthi Swaminathan who writes extensively about these topics:
Student loans: Beauty schools lead to high levels of debt, study finds
For-profit college crackdown coming: FTC ‘is resurrecting a dormant authority to deter wrongdoing’
An earlier version was published by Beauty Cast Network.