Wearing black smocks and located on the north end of campus, EC’s Cosmetology Department offers students a quick path to a career via its two-and-a-half year certificate program.

The class is located in Room TA 152, and is open to students and faculty to get a hair cut for half the cost of a salon and a barbershop with a page-long menu of styling options.

“You can get a quality cut,” Anthony Griffin, 36, said.

“They don’t let us work on customers until we’re a senior in the program, and by then you know what you’re doing.”

Griffin plans on getting his certificate specializing in hair and coloring, and is currently pursuing job offers that are already available.

“There are a lot of opportunities if you stay with it,” Griffin said.

“I was an assistant in a salon, and I’m looking now for new work.”

Mina Abdulwahav didn’t know what she wanted to do when she began taking classes at EC.

She found cosmetology through a process of elimination.

“I tried everything,” Abdulwahav said.

“When I took respiratory, I woke up and was not motivated to go to class. But in cosmetology you get to do different things all the time.”

Abdulwahav hopes that cosmetology department certificate program will help her achieve her goals.

“I hope to have my own salon, and to one day open a salon in my country, Ethiopia.” Abdulwahav said.

Aneeka Gebert graduated from the program with a certificate and is currently seeking a teaching position at Dermalogica.

“My mom’s the instructor at EC, and the industry is my whole life. I got into it in high school going to SCROC, and followed it up by getting my certificate,” Gebert said.

The cosmetology students and advisers greet everyone with smiles, and are happy to answer questions for students interested in getting a hair cut, or for those who are curious about what the program can do for them.

“Definitely check it out,” Gebert said.

“Go in and talk to the teacher, maybe you’ll find out that it’s the right thing for you to do.”

The people in the Cosmetology Department spend a lot of time together and enjoy every minute.

“It’s a second home,” Abdulwahav said.

“It’s more of a home than my own home!”