If you’ve ever woken up with a bad hair day, you know the frustration that comes with not being able to fix that jungle you roll out of bed with.
At Bryan High, the cosmetology program helps prepare students to deal with these ‘jungles’ as a professional career.
The program’s higher level class is a three period block, where the students study to obtain their cosmetology license, which will allow the students to work as professional cosmetologists after graduation.
“This is actually a career, it isn’t just a job so when they get done they are licensed cosmetologists,” cosmetology teacher Sharonda Williams said. “They come straight out of high school at the age of eighteen and have their license.”
In order to earn their license, though, students must meet certain criteria, like completing a certain number of hours spent working and practicing the skills learned in class.
“We have to have our one thousand clock hours plus the five hundred we get from graduating so it’s one thousand five hundred hours,” senior Rosio Gonzales said. “We take a test on everything we learn and then there’s TTLR (a test) which is divided into two sections. First is the reading questions, and if you pass that, you go on to the next [section of the test], where you have to [do different processes] in front of the judges.”
Gonzales says she enjoys cutting hair, but before she could style anyone’s hair she had to become familiar with the routine of the class.
“First we clock in and dress out in our uniform if we have a uniform day,” Gonzales said. “Then we go into the classroom and work on whatever we’re assigned.”
Senior Veronica Martinez says it’s worth the work to be in the cosmetology program.
“Whenever you’re in the eleventh grade, you miss out on a lot of stuff, but by senior year, if you’re caught up in all your classes, you have two extra class [periods]. You can take whatever you wanted to take earlier,” said Martinez.
With teaching cosmetology, Williams finds joy in not only competitions and preparing students for careers, but also in seeing each of her students grow and develop.
“I enjoy seeing the different creativity of each student and their potential and pulling that out of them is exciting,” said Williams.
