A word of encouragement

Although many, many Barber Schools are now ran, and tought as cosmotology schools, I have found my place in Barbering now after attending one of these very schools for a year.

The school I attended is Academy of Hair, Skin, and Nails, in Billings, Montana.. It is the only school in the state of Montana offering a Barbers program. The only bummer I saw was that I would need to be away from my family for that year.. (which was a very big bummer for me)

Many more "bummers" were right around the corner that I was unaware of till I actually got there..

It is a school for cosmotologists that provided a Barbers program also.. We were not a seperate group..

While at school I rolled more perms on my manaquin than I did clipper cuts on clients..

By far..

I must say at this point that it was not the schools fault, but the fault and lack of knowledge of the State Board here. They really did, and do see it as the same thing, as in cutting hair is cutting hair.

There was one Traditional Barber instructor there when I arrived, but she was fired because she believed, (rightfully so) that the two professions were deffinately seperate professions.

The attitude there was, "hey Kelly. After you learn these other services you will be able to open a mens spa if you want."

That would have been a fine option up front. Offering Barbering for those who want Barbering, and then if the student wanted additional training they could add that to their "individual" curriculum..

Again, I want to point out that this was not a school decision but a State Mandate.. I needed to spend this many ours doing chemical services, this many hours doing manicures, ect.

It would have been VERY, VERY benificial to me as a Barber, and to EVERYONE, including the customers in Montana wanting a haircut, if the training was seperate..

Well.. As my daddy always used to tell me, "want in one hand and toot in the other. See which one fills up first.."

Moral of the story is, I didn't change the school, and I spent alot of energy being bitter about how my tuition was spent..

Now, present time.....

I've been out of school for better than a year now. I had, and still have an extremely qualified Barber who continues to teach me how to clipper cut mens hair. At first it was really hard on my pride to accept that I didn't know enough.. I had thought that I did.

Now I love Barbering.. I'm not bitter about the schooling aspect of it any more..

That is ALL A DISTANT MEMORY !!!!!!!

The school is just a stepping stone to get the lisence.. Now I can cut hair with clippers, and B.S. with anybody in town.

I guess that after all this rambeling on, I'm simply trying to get accross to the students, or anyone thinking of being a Barber student, is to ""GO GIT-ER DONE ""....

The schooling might suck, but big deal....... If you want to be a Barber, you need to go thru the schools to get a lisence, and you need the lisence to get out and start Barberin'...

Becomming a Barber in my home town is one of the best choices of made in life,,, and I've made alot of them.. (shut-up Audi)

It's probably like being pregnant for XX amount of months.... I'm sure parts of that experience are a real bummer, and seems like a really long time...

BUTTTT ...........

After that's over, LOOK WHAT YOU'VE GOT..............

Absolutely AMAZING.........

FOREVER.............

If ya want to be a Barber, I relate to that feeling...

Just go out and do whatever it takes to get that.................

10,000 - 15,000 hours aint nothin'.........

I'll be a Barber for the rest of my life now...

For me, that's worth talkin' about, right there.........

Your friend, Toot

Very, Very True, and well said, There are true barbers on this forum

Well said, Toot. Well said, indeed!

I haven't been out but half a year, so maybe in the next few months I'll loose some of the bitterness you speak of. I do think that at some point in time I may somehow try to get things changed on the state level. It seems that if all the true barbers out here feel the same way, we should be able to make some kind of difference. Out of the 125 questions on our state board exam, there probably weren't 30 that relate to what we do day in and day out as barbers.

I won't get on my soap box here, i just really appreciate seeing what you wrote so well.

Happy New Year!

LD

LD.... Unification (not unionization) is part of that. Pretty much what this forum is all about. I would eventually like to start reaching out to the schools (and have already started in MO) to become members on this forum, and eventually people of importance affiliated with constructing the rules, laws and guidelines to enter this profession, but to do so on a national scale. As much as I am for States Rights, what they have done to this profession has gone to far.

There is already one such movement out there... I just need to feel where they are truly coming from. I really don't want this to go the opposite direction when it comes to barbering as a separate trade from cosmetology... (don't want us all to become beauticians!)

It is actually the same Organization of Barbers that provided the list of State Boards I copied and posted in this Forum here. I know one of them... Charles Kirkpatrick (spell check on that). Or met him once. It's his signature required to validate the licenses of the AR Barbers. I truly think highly of him and carry alot of respect for him. He is a good man. It is my understanding that they currently are trying to get all states to require the use of the same text (Miladys). This would be a good start.

It took baby steps to get the situation this far out of control... it will take baby steps to get this profession unified under it's own set of rules separate from cosmetology. That State's Rights thing is the biggest hurdle to overcome without it being used as an example of how we need to be a socialist society. I believe in State's Rights as much as I believe in this Profession being under identical rules and regulations through every state.

Toot, you are speaking my language. I've been saying for years now that the key to preserving barbering is political activism and school reform.

I don't mean that barbers need to become politicos, but we should at least take enough interest to learn whether or not the state we're in has separate boards and, if not, seek to separate them. If they are separate, try to keep them that way.

Barber school also need to be reformed. Too many of them are simply cosmo school masquerading as barber schools. School owners often have the ear (and the pocketbooks) of legislators and they can have a positive or negative influence on barber laws and school curriculum by extension.

I've found that in my state there is a size requirement for barber schools that effectively eliminates the possiblity for a small school to open up that would focus more on traditional barbering. In Tennessee, schools are required to have at least 15 stations. Fifteen stations costs alot of money, which means that schools must keep those seats filled to pay the bills. This means that they must market to the stylist side of the industry because you just don't need as many regular barbers as you do stylists (a barber can service some 500 per month. A stylist cannot.)

The need for more traditional barber schools is great here in NC. There are only two real barber schools here that I know of. We have a lot of small barber schools popping up all over the state. The problem with the smaller schools is most of the instructors are only out for your money. Very little if anything is being taught. Most of these schools are no more than a shop who's owner passed the instructors exam. I've seen quite a few students who have attended these types of schools and they don't know anymore about barbering than when they started. I think a big part of our problem as barbers all over the country, is a very lazy and inactive state barber board. just my opinion.