Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska so most of the hairdressers and estheticians in Alaska live in Anchorage. To get your license you must either attend beauty school or an apprenticeship. If you take the beauty school path, in Alaska, it takes about 1,650 hours of beauty school training to get your hairdressing license and about 350 hours to get your esthetician license.

 

This position is also sometimes called hairstylist, hair designer, and many other names. In many states, a "cosmetology" license is the combination of these two skill sets. This is what it used to be in Alaska until it was broken into two different licenses, and the state board is now attempting to recombine them again into one license. I don't really get it, but there it is.

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It usually takes about 1 year to get your 1,650 hours in and about 2 1/2 months to get your 350 hours in. Some may accomplish this a little faster, but this is about the average.

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​We work indoors in a fun environment and get to hang out with fun people all day. There is no heavy lifting, no dangerous equipment to use, and each day is different. One of the most enjoyable things about our job is that we get to appreciate our accomplishments numerous times each day, unlike some professions where they work on a project for months or years before they get to see the finished product. We also enjoy being an important part of our client's lives as they usually see us just before every meaningful event.

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We make money in several ways, commission + tips is pretty common, or we are independent agents which mean that we are self-employed and simply pay rent for the space we use. Estheticians do this also, but instead of renting a station, a room is rented. The employment outlook for both hairdressers and estheticians is better than most other professions through the year 2020.

 

Alaska Board of Barbers and Hairdressers

cosmetologist esthetics esthetician hairdresser hairstylist vocational

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