School Start Date Change

I talked to Dynelle in admissions for Toni&Guy Academy Scottsdale the other day and she let me know that Corporate has decided to push back the April 1st start date to April 8th because there is five weeks in April. They wanted to make it an even 4 week month in April so everyone starts in better time frame I guess. But it works out and is an answer to prayers because my dad is finishing fixing my car so its more convenient in the long run. So my orientation is now on the 7th and I start on the 8th. More updates to come!

TONI&GUY Photographic Awards 2014: New Student Stylist Categories

Every year TONI&GUY stylists and student stylists have a chance to show their best work in a creative competition known as the TONI&GUY Photographic Awards. This company wide competition is a huge part of our culture that emphasizes continuing education and leading with innovation.

This year TONI&GUY is thrilled to be adding more 4 more student categories to the 14 existing categories including Student Cut, Student Color, Student Makeup & Student Men’s. We are excited to see how our student stylists will take on these new categories elevating the competition to a whole new level of inspiring creativity.

TONI&GUY Photographic Awards | How It Works

Stylists & student stylists work individually or with a group to create their most submit photos of their work by category. The entries are judged based on technical skill, aesthetic and photographic composure.

TONI&GUY Photographic Awards | Who Can Enter

• Entrants must be a licensed hairdresser or an Academy Instructor currently working for TONI&GUY.

• Non-licensed staff who are attending model night or are enrolled at a TONI&GUY Hairdressing Academy may enter the student categories ONLY.

• Customer Service Specialists with cosmetic training may enter the makeup category.

TONI&GUY Photographic Awards | Official Categories

CATEGORY

WHO MAY ENTER

ENTRY SPECIFICS

* NEW * STUDENT CUT	Academy Students, non-licensed Apprentices	Submit one image of one model that shows your talent for cutting and styling.  Female models only.
* NEW * STUDENT COLOR	Academy Students, non-licensed Apprentices	As subtle or as bold as you please- submit a before and after image of one model that makes a color statement. Photos must not be artificially enhanced. Models may be male or female .
* NEW * STUDENT MEN’S	Academy Students, non-licensed Apprentices	Submit one image of  one model, representing current men’s trends.
* NEW * STUDENT MAKEUP	Academy Students, non-licensed Apprentices	Show off your artistic talent by submitting one image of one model.
STUDENT FANTASY	Academy Students, non-licensed Apprentices	Design your own or re-create your favorite Avant-garde concept using any combination of natural or artificial hair.  Each entry = 1 image/model
BEST ACADEMY STUDENT TEAM	Academy Students, non-licensed Apprentices	Submit 5 different images using different models.  Images may not be entered into any other categories.  Images must be produced by at least three different team members.

STUDENT TOTAL LOOK

Academy Students, non-licensed Apprentices

Create a total look on your model with cut, color, and makeup.  Each entry = 1 model. Individual entries only.

- See more at: TONI&GUY Photographic Awards 2014: New Student Stylist Categories

Hairdressers DO Change Lives: A Beautiful Career

I love this video! It truly expresses how beautiful the cosmetology field is.

I Have a Start Date + More Info!

    Well the school finally got approved. Can I get a hooray!!! I have yet to get my approval from the Veterans Association but I am going to use grants until I get approved. But hopefully that will happen before I start school. So I go in tomorrow to Re-Contract and meet with Jessica in financial aid one last time and I'll be set to start! My official first day is April 1st and orientation will be the day before on the 31st this month. I'm so excited to finally get started! Once I get my student kit from the school I'm going to do a whats in my kit video showing all of my tools and goodies I get! Well that's about it for now I just wanted to give some updates until the exciting stuff starts!

+Also I now have a Tumblr and YouTube channel for school vlogs (no videos yet though). You can find the links in the right sidebar under "Check These Link's Out"

TONI&GUY HISTORY

    This video is the history of Toni and Guy and how it all started. I think that the history behind anything is fascinating but this especially is to me, its a craft and company that is very special to me.

Academy Video: Toni and Guy Endless Opportunities

    

Real quick I thought I would share the video that was played for me on my tour of the school, it gives you a good idea of the school, philosophy, and what to expect. Enjoy!!!

The School: A Tour Inside

    Hello again! Today's post is going to be a look at the inside of my school, because I am sure people are curious and I know I was. This post will be a virtual tour inside and hopefully you will enjoy it and get a taste of how awesome the environment is in this place!

*Click the images for a larger view!
**I got the screen captures from the Scottsdale, AZ Academy Google Maps Virtual Tour: Click Here
You can do a full pan look around through these areas.

Alright let's get this thing rolling and start the tour!

As you can see this is obviously the outside of the school. I love the window in this place, there's so much natural light that comes in which is great for the salon floor.

  Through the front doors we go!

 Here is front desk. We have the best reception, always super nice.

I love our waiting area!

I mean seriously look at those chairs. They are surprisingly comfy too. If you look to the left you can see TiGi's pet product line, yes I said pets. They have cool stuff for cats and dogs like shampoo, conditioner, deodorizers/fragrance, de-shedding stuff and even nail polish. I got a little bit too excited about that, but I get a kick out of that line.

TiGi products galore! S-Factor, Catwalk, Bed Head etc. 

Here is the timeline of Toni and Guy's history from its birth in London in the 1960's to present day.

Here is the salon floor where you take clients once you get to a certain level. You get an assigned station that is your own. Super cool side note, you get to accept and keep tips from clients once you get to the floor. Once you graduate you are also allowed to take your clients with you, so cool right?!

Another view of the salon floor.

Again another view

Entering the shampoo room.

And inside the shampoo room and along the back are all the different TiGi shampoos, conditioners, and treatments.

This is the color bar or hair color dispensary. Every student gets a period of time here during your time on the salon floor where you are a "mix master". Instead of having a bunch of stylists behind the counter at once trying to mix hair color, you have one person that serves as a bartender of sorts. Students come up with a formula for color and the "mix master" well... mixes the color up. They do this to make sure you get plenty of practice formulating and mixing color.

This is like a lecture/possibly theory/presentation room

Here is one of 2 classrooms where you learn what you need to know before you hit the salon floor. Each of the classrooms are split by course level. You receive your own assigned station to work at.

The 2nd classroom.

In here is the nice big break room with table, fridge and microwave. 

    I hope everyone found this as interesting as I did. You can explain something until your blue in the face, but nothing beats actual pictures. Thanks for reading and see you next time!

So I'm Starting Cosmetology School . . . . . .

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog!

My goal with this blog is to share my experience with Toni & Guy Hairdressing Academy in Scottsdale, AZ (24 locations total in the USA, plus more world wide) and give people more info about it. Hopefully along the way I can inspire others in pursuing a career in cosmetology.

Decisions . . . Decisions . . . Decisions . . . 

    Hello my name is Tia, I graduated from an online high school in May 2013 and like most high schoolers it was a day that I was waiting for for a long time. So after graduation I took a well deserved break for a few months and didn't really put a whole ton of thought into what I wanted to do as far as school, but it was always in the back of my mind. While out with my wonderful dad one day for lunch, he asked me "What do you think you want to go to school for?" and I thought well crap I'm not too sure. I always hated school because I was never interested in what was being taught, I was smart don't get me wrong, but I am a creative person and I knew that traditional academics and college wasn't for me. We talked for a while and I realized that I should pursue cosmetology. It was something that I was always interested in and kept coming back to through high school when I was floating around with different career paths. It is a creative and hands on career/education and it's something that I know I would love. What's that saying, "If you do what you love you never work a day in your life." Most importantly it is a field that cannot be automated or outsourced, the world will always need hairdressers. Ultimately I want a family one day and this is something I can do out of my home and stop and start easily. Luckily I have the most amazing supportive parents ever and they support me 100% and they know what an amazing career cosmetology is.

The Search Begins

    So with the support of my parents I started looking into different cosmetology schools in my area. Unfortunately the closest one to me was about 45 minutes away so doing this was going to be a heavy daily commitment. I started looking into the school closest to me and it was OK but then I uncovered the holy grail (in my opinion) of cosmetology schools, Toni and Guy Hairdressing Academy specifically the Scottsdale, AZ Academy. This school was about 15 minutes farther, but I knew if I am going to commit so much of my time and money, I wasn't going to settle because I wanted the best. I will have a separate post on why I chose this school but I just want to get you up to speed at where I am at now in the mean time. This place was everything and even more than I knew I wanted. I took a tour of the school in the beginning of November last year and fell in love as soon as I walked in, it's all white, so high end and glamorous, and had super upbeat music playing. All the students wear solid black and the entire environment just screamed high end modern education. I toured the school and decided that day that it was the school for me. One thing I loved was that the admissions administrator actually encouraged me to check out other schools because they are so confident in their quality of education, and that you would see the difference in quality with Toni and Guy being the winner. She could not have been more right!

I Enrolled!

    So a few days later I came in, took the entrance exam (the Wonderlic Basic Skills Test to determine the student’s ability to be trained in the courses offered), met with financial aid and contracted for enrollment. My original start date was for January 2014 but I am now starting in April, now let me tell you why. My case was a unique instance so you shouldn't have trouble with this. My dad is a disabled Navy Veteran so he has full Veterans Association disability coverage and since I am his kid, I receive benefits as well. One of those benefits is that I can get education financial assistance as a dependent, which means with grants included, our only out of pocket expense so far was like $350 for enrollment deposit + application fee. I can pretty much go to school for free right now and I give all the thanks to God and I feel so blessed. When I originally enrolled, the school was in the process of applying with the Veterans Association to be able to receive education benefits from people like me. If you're familiar with the VA they take forever to process applications for anything, so the school finally got approved this February and I just had to resubmit my application with the VA for financial aid. So I should be set to start in April. After i'm approved I have to re-contract for my new start date and it's all a go!

What's Next?

     I plan on doing posts on specific things like what the school is like, my schedule, what I get in my kit etc, and weekly updates on what we covered that week in class. Post might be more frequent depending if we have an event or something big in class. I hope that my experience can help others whether your considering this career, school or both. Feel free to ask questions, I would love to help anyone!