Not all high school competitions take place on a field or court.
At Thomas Edison High School of Technology in Montgomery County, Maryland, students in various disciplines are elbow-deep in SkillsUSA competitions. Not only are students honing their skills, but they’re getting feedback, and once the judges have had a chance to watch them in action, the winners will take part in a pinning ceremony.
WTOP got a chance to watch as cosmetology students worked independently under the guidance of cosmetology teacher Toni Quan. She reminded them of what’s allowed and what’s not as she called out, “Bobby pins and hair ties are allowed in the hair, just hide it!”
Quan explained that, last week, the students had an opportunity to provide services to clients who walked in as part of a twice-yearly event that helps students hone their skills and raise funds. For just $20, people could walk in for services between 8:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. Services included haircuts, blow-dry, hot oil manicures, waxing, “fashion color” hair and hair styling.
Among those who took advantage of the chance to get a haircut from one of the students was Julieta Yost. But Yost didn’t want just any student doing her hair — she made sure that junior Lizabeth Funes Menendez would be available. That’s because Yost, a bus driver with the Montgomery County School System for the past 23 years, has known Funes Menendez since the student was a freshman in high school.
Yost teased Menendez, telling her if the haircut doesn’t go well, “I will cry a little, and remember: I drive you every day, so I’ll be looking at you.”
Yost beamed as Menendez sized up her work, and said the career programs provided by Edison are “a lifeline for the students — it’s hard out there.”
Yost said that many of the Edison students she drives provide extra financial support to their families.
“The parents depend on them,” Yost said.
And, sounding more like a parent than a bus driver, Yost bragged that Menendez had been offered a scholarship to one Maryland college already.
Menendez said she selected the cosmetology program because “it’s a very stable industry. Everybody’s always going to need a haircut.”
She also just likes making people happy.
“I cut my mom’s hair and she loved it and that made me feel happy,” she said.
That’s a common feeling among the cosmetology students. Tanisha Sawo, a senior at Edison, said, “I always liked doing hair when I was younger.”
Making people feel beautiful is the goal. And for Racheal Salgado, there’s a memory attached to working with hair.
“I remember my mom braiding my hair, teaching me how to braid, and that just inspired everything else,” Salgado said.
While playing with colors, textures and styles is all part of the fun and creativity of the process, all of the students who talked to WTOP said that there’s a real misconception about their studies.
“I feel like people tend to think we just come here and do dolls’ hair and do each other’s hair,” Sawo said.
Salgado chimed in, saying their studies include “a lot of chemistry. It involves a bunch of infection control.”
She went on, “A lot of the things that we learn are the things that the students upstairs, the health students, learn as well. It’s a lot more complicated than it seems.”
Quan said the career preparation the students get is so thorough that, by the time they graduate, they will have earned the 1,500 hours required to earn graduation credit and take the state’s licensing exam in cosmetology.
Quan feels the industry is a solid one going into the future. Artificial intelligence, she said, won’t be coming for these jobs.
“Because we need that human component, like even if a robot could do your hair and nails, would it have a gentle touch? Could it read your emotions?” Quan said.
Part of the job of anyone in the cosmetology field, said Quan, is being able to check in with a client, to make sure they feel good about the process and the end result.
“We’re not just your stylist,” she said. “We’re also your part-therapist.”
The SkillsUSA competition at Thomas Edison High School runs through the end of the week. The winners at the local level have a chance to go on to regionals, states, and if successful, move on to the national competition in Atlanta in June.
