After leaving college early, Luna Rogers wasn’t planning on working in the beauty industry.
She was going to work full-time, saving for three years to pay for cosmetology school. That was until Alchemy Salon and Beautique accepted her as an apprentice.
“You aren't going into debt for it,” Rogers said. “They are paying you for your time here.”
There are still textbooks and exams like a typical cosmetology school, but Rogers’ day-to-day experience is completely different.
“You're working one-on-one with a stylist, and you get to see how the salon business works,” Rogers said. “You get to form great bonds with the clients and the staff here. It really just pushes you towards success.”
There are more than 60,000 licensed cosmetologists in Indiana. Many of them are educated only in cosmetology schools, taking typical pathways to becoming hairstylists, barbers, or manicurists and more.
But for apprentices like Rogers, reimagining education is literally paying off.
“I think that it's something really out of the ordinary, and it's great,” Rogers said. “I love it so much.”
Margaret Ferguson, executive director of nonprofit Beyond the Chair, wants to take apprenticeships one step further. Beyond the Chair advocates for pathways to higher education and union protections, similar to other skilled trades. Ferguson and other professionals believe these changes could make the industry more sustainable.
“It’s actually more about creating economic stability and financial stability for young stylists, instead of burning them out and causing them to leave,” Ferguson said.
Apprenticeships vs. cosmetology school
Rogers and another apprentice will work with Alchemy owner Marta Robinson for a year before becoming licensed.
For Robinson, apprentices are a better option than stylists fresh out of beauty school.
“They weren't prepared,” Robinson said. “And their lack of education was cutting into a lot of the business development time that I needed for them when they were coming into my salon.”
Indiana legalized this pathway last year, and Robinson has already graduated two apprentices through the Department of Labor.
Apprenticeships did get pushback in the General Assembly. Before the law changed, some industry professionals shared concerns about federal oversight and protections for clients in 2024.
Licensed cosmetologist Alex Harrold, whose family runs two beauty schools in Indiana, testified to the senate committee.
“We are not opposed to an apprenticeship program, however we do believe more time and attention is needed to protect the integrity of the industry along with Hoosiers on the state level," Harrold said.
But supporters such as Robinson believe apprenticeships are a solution to a glaring issue in the industry.
“There is a saying in our industry that you go to cosmetology school to get your license, but you learn everything you know when you start your career,” Robinson said.
Alchemy salon apprentices learn through Atarashii, a federally approved program with more than 750 apprentices around the country.
Atarashii trains salon owners and journeymen, focusing on practical skills, said Atarashii founder and program coordinator Jessee Skittrall. Apprentices track their work every day, and they still complete assignments on required theoretical subjects through Atarashii. At the end of the program, apprentices prepare for state board certification.
“Basically, we keep them on track, provide the structure and the accountability,” Skittrall said.
Skitrall said 96 percent of apprentices pass the state board licensure test the first time, and 75 percent of their clientele is established.
“The naysayers that are out there, I'm like, ‘Well, my people are employed,’” Skittrall said. “They're paying taxes. They got full-time jobs.”
Skittrall said he was literally raised in a cosmetology school, coming from six generations of hairdressers. He has 36 years of experience in the industry, including teaching. Many schools do great things with their students, he said.
But Skittrall saw first-hand how difficult traditional cosmetology school can be — particularly for rural students or immigrants with previous experience. Then after graduation, he saw incompetent graduates.
“Proficiency comes only with repetition and time,” Skittrall said.
To Skittrall there can be two pathways to licensure. Apprenticeships are an “and,” he said, not an “or.”
“Some people want the academic experience, and that's fine,” Skittrall said. “There's no issue whatsoever with the two of them coexisting.”
From apprenticeships to college degrees
Ferguson is familiar with recurring issues in cosmetology: taking on debt for school, lacking real-world training, trying to build up clientele, feeling disrespected by society in a female-dominated industry.
Ferguson spent a decade in the industry. She said she was privileged. Unlike other stylists, she had scholarships to pay for school and a job she loved. But Ferguson was eventually diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a genetic condition that often impacts a person’s joints and skin.
Without unemployment benefits or paid absences through the Family and Medical Leave Act, Ferguson was forced to leave the industry at 29 years old.
“It really made me recognize how at a disadvantage you are whenever you just go into a vocational profession and you don't have any higher education to fall back on, just in case you may need it,” Ferguson said.
Robinson recognizes that need too.
“It's very difficult without a higher education for us to be able to work ourselves into something else, when physically we can't stand behind the chair for 40 hours a week any longer,” Robinson said.
Skittrall has said stylists and salon owners often think about how to move into another career, instead of staying in cosmetology.
“Oftentimes, we have to put this away, and then go and start a whole other world in college,” Skittrall said. “What Margaret's trying to say is, there's a bridge here somewhere. What is that bridge?”
Ferguson went on to get a college degree from Indiana University, and she’s currently working toward a master’s degree.
Conducting research with IU and Beyond the Chair, she found just 5 percent of cosmetologists she surveyed had a bachelor’s degree, though many wanted to go to college.
Ferguson’s surveys also found some cosmetologists had significant debt — another barrier pushing them out of the industry and keeping them away from higher education.
“We found that 25 percent of cosmetology students had up to $20 to $25,000 in student loan debt,” Ferguson said. “The average cost of cosmetology school is anywhere between $15- 30,000 now, which is more than an associate's degree program even in Indiana's local community colleges.”
That’s where apprenticeships come in. Ferguson and Beyond the Chair want to see Indiana’s salon owners and apprentices partner with local colleges, like other trade industries in Indiana.
She’s advocating for colleges to award credit for cosmetology licenses, serving as a launchpad to a degree. It’s not completely unheard of, Ferguson said.
Indiana’s Commission for Higher Education wants to expand Credit for Prior Learning, which recognizes college-level skills and knowledge learned outside the classroom.
And today, Ivy Tech Community College already trains apprentices. These trade apprentices have benefits, union representation and wages while working toward an associate’s degree.
Ferguson, Robinson and Skittrall said many skills cosmetologists have lend themselves to degrees in areas such as business, chemistry, and psychology.
“It's just about creating the pathways,” Ferguson said. “It's about creating the opportunities, because right now, it is not accessible.”
