I haven't been this excited to write in a long time. Since getting DOGE'd in February, between the job market for anything training being dead and the market for anything tech being bullshit (thanks to AI), I have been planning my career pivot. I haven't had a new life puzzle to figure out like this since high school. Where to go to barber school?
A LOT has happened in the last two weeks. I'm going through a process now with the American Jobs Center to tap into federal money for displaced workers – a Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) grant for people (like me, categorically laid off) to train in a new career and get back to work.
This week, I visited with my two options for a WIOA-grant approach to barber school: Truman College and Erskine Reeves Barber Academy. You may have noticed the URL and branding changed on the website/newsletter/whatever to cut.buzz. Reader, I can't tell you how tickled I am (still) that such a domain name was completely available for the taking.
Anyway, now I'm in the position of having to choose between two different approaches to programs, with different timetables – which as a result present different pros and cons.
Classes begin for Truman on August 21, which is not even two weeks away. I registered and even paid tuition for the one class I'm enrolled in, not waitlisted for. At Reeves, the next cohort would begin October 1. It's not super far away but I admittedly was looking forward to starting sooner.
Typical class size for Truman is at 15, if enrollment (and caps) are to be believed. At Reeves, a cohort is about 10 students. It takes 1500 hours in Illinois to earn your barbering license. With rigid scheduling rules, that means at Truman it will take a minimum of a year and a half to get all 1500 hours. At Reeves, they operate 9-3:30, Monday-Friday, but they also host a High School-level barbering program that runs until 5:30. As a result of accommodating student needs, Reeves appears quite flexible about how one gets their 1500 hours.
The structure of each program is pretty distinct. Truman offers 6 credit-hour courses. A student is capped at a maximum of 18 credits, or 3 such classes, per semester. There are 8 classes to the barbering program. Everyone going through barbering or cosmetology must go through the same first four classes, and they are (unfortunately) all waitlisted or gated by academic advisors. It is very much a school.
Reeves runs very much like a guild, master/apprenticeship model. Masters work with adult students and high school students, all in an environment that is very much a barber shop.
The cost of each program is similar, with Reeves coming in as less expensive and, frankly, more reliable in terms of the cost being the actual cost when all is said and done. It was clear from talking with him that he was quite familiar with the WIOA process and timetable; that was absent from most conversations I've had with Truman, save for the first one.
In either program, in a field where there are no real traditional students, I'm really not a traditional student. It's pretty clear from my conversations not many people in the white-collar professional class pivot to barbering. I was really impressed with Erskine Reeves. I think he can teach me a lot about how to be a great barber, and I can see an opportunity to grow with him.
Next week will see me unenrolling from Truman, refunding my tuition and knocking out my next steps (all the forms) to get cutting and buzzing :D.
