Cosmetology and hair design programs prepare people to provide beauty services to customers. Students learn to cut and style hair, perform manicures and pedicures, and give facial treatments. They learn to perform spa treatments such as massages. They also learn how to manage a beauty salon.

Do you believe that looking and feeling beautiful requires work? Do you see a person's hair, nails, and face as canvases for individual and artistic expression? Do your friends come to you for beauty advice? If you answered yes to any of these questions, cosmetology and hair design may be the program of study for you.

As a student in this program, you learn to perform a variety of techniques to help a person look her best. You learn how to advise customers on hairstyles and beauty care. You learn skin therapy techniques and principles of makeup application. You could also study hair removal methods. These are just a few of the many techniques that you might learn in this program.

Cosmetologists can also play an important medical role. Because you work closely with a person's skin and nails, you might identify a disorder before a doctor does. Another thing you could study in this program is the cell composition of skin and how to recognize abnormalities or disorders. You could also learn to care for patients who have had or are about to have surgery, either for medical or cosmetic reasons.

There are many career paths you can follow after finishing a program in cosmetology and hair design. Besides working as a hairstylist or manicurist, you could also be an independent beauty consultant or work as an aesthetician in a spa. You could even work as a makeup artist for film and TV productions.

Many proprietary schools and community colleges offer certificate programs in cosmetology and hair design. These programs can take between several months to two years of full-time study after high school to complete.

Some community colleges also offer associate degrees if you combine course work for the program with general education courses. This option typically takes about two years of full-time study after high school.