The question as to just what, exactly, is taught in beauty school is quite a commonly asked one. The typical questioner will tend to be someone like a father, or an uncle, who is told by his daughter (or niece) that - after carefully weighing her options - she has decided that she will be going to a beauty school! Now the man understands what is taught in, say, a business school. He also understands what is taught in a medical school. What is taught in dentistry or a law schools are also things he can imagine. But beauty school? What is taught in beauty school? What is a beauty-school, in the first place?
Now in order to bring ourselves to a point where we can appreciate what is taught in a beauty school, it would be a good idea to appreciate the fact that beauty is an art, and a fine art at that. To the casual observer, the various things that are done in the pursuit of beauty seem to be very simple things: hair plaiting (or other hair treatment), nail painting, facial treatment, manicure, pedicure...these seem to be very simple things. But to the person involved in them, there is simply no telling the difficulty that is in involved in them. True, they may not be physically taxing things, but it is the finesse with which they have to be handled, and the rather delicate nature of the people on whom they are done, which makes them difficult. Such understanding gives us a vantage point from where we can get to appreciate what is taught in beauty schools.
One of the most fundamental things that are taught in beauty-schools is simply the appreciation of beauty. At this stage, the students are not even being told how to make their clients beautiful, but simply how to appreciate beauty. Unless you can appreciate beauty, there is no way you can give it to someone else.
Another fundamental thing that students in beauty-schools learn is how to make them beauty - having gained an appreciation of the beauty concept. People won't trust you with the task of making them beautiful when you happen to be quite a mess yourself. A beautician has to be beautiful in one or another, and the more it can be clear that her beauty is as a result of deliberate effort, the more confident would her clients be in entrusting her with their looks.
Yet another set of things that students in beauty-schools will learn are the various procedures through which beauty can be 'artificially created' or enhanced. We are talking about the whole range of technical skills here: from facial treatment skills, to hair treatment and styling skills, and onto procedures such as manicures and pedicures...which are the specific things that the beautician's clients will be looking for, in terms of services.
Refined people skills, sales and marketing as well as the fundamentals of psychology would be other things that students in beauty schools will be taught. The latter would be useful when you take into consideration the fact that most of the clients who seek a beauticians services not only want to be beautified, but also reassured about their beauty and general worth as human beings.
