Beauty School Owner Sees Growth at Four Campus Locations

The University of Arkansas continues to burst with unprecedented student enrollment numbers.

It is not the only college in Northwest Arkansas experiencing rapid growth.

Career Academy of Hair Design, a locally owned school with locations in Rogers, Springdale, Siloam Springs and Fayetteville, is growing steadily, as well.

Owner Jim Butenschoen said enrollment was about 40 students when he entered the ownership picture in 2006.

By the time its most recent enrollment period is complete later in September, nearly 400 students will be working toward a degree from CAHD.

And as more students become wary of being saddled to a mountain of student debt while obtaining a four-year degree, the fact many are turning to beauty school as a cheaper alternative isn’t so surprising.

The need for personal-services jobs hasn’t diminished, and experienced hairdressers, or cosmetologists, will be more desirable in the future.

By 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor projects employment in the cosmetology industry to grow by 15.7 percent, with nearly 98,400 new cosmetologist positions available.

The demand, Butenschoen said, will always be strong.

“I tell our students that get a license, they have a lifetime skill and can go to Buzzard Breath, Wyo., and there will be a job,” he joked. “Somebody there needs a haircut.”

Money Maker

Butenschoen had more than two decades of sales and marketing experience — working for companies including Electronic Data Systems Corp. and Systematics Inc. — when he tired of the corporate world and wanted to run his own business.

Looking for a money maker, his homework kept pointing to beauty schools.

In 2006, an opportunity arose to buy Career Academy of Cosmetology in Springdale from Roger and Sin Barnes. The school had just two locations.

Butenschoen moved the original schools to newer facilities, and two years later added two more locations to accommodate growth.

Butenschoen declined to talk income specifically, but did say the school’s revenue growth is reflected in the enrollment growth of 900 percent the last seven years.

In Arkansas, to receive a cosmetology license, students must clock 1,500 hours at a nationally accredited school. The time frame for that is 11 months for full-time students.

Tuition isn’t cheap, running a little more than $15,000 for the 11-month course at CAHD, the cheapest of the three accredited schools in Northwest Arkansas.

Graduates then must take a state board examination to receive their license.

Schools receive accreditation by the National Accrediting Commission of Career Arts and Sciences (NACCAS), recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a national agency for the institutional accreditation of postsecondary schools and departments of cosmetology arts and sciences.

National chains Paul Mitchell and Regency Beauty Institute each have an outpost in Fayetteville.

Tiffany Barnett, admissions director at Paul Mitchell, said enrollment there is about 70 students. She said a big selling point of cosmetology school is students can be ready to enter the job market in less than a year.

“When you look at a four-year education, not only are you talking about four years of debt, you’re talking about four years before you’re making money,” she said.

Butenschoen said another factor driving growth in enrollment at CAHD is a shrinking belief that beauty school is for those who can’t succeed at “real” colleges.

“I am not a cosmetologist; I’m a businessman,” he said. “Our focus is on financial success after school and how to make a living. It’s not just cutting hair. It’s a complicated curriculum.”