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Nail Artist • Pedicurist
Content Educator
Biz Developer | Advocate
📧: [email protected]
10/02/2026
What are your thoughts?
10/01/2026
Cosmetology was built differently because women had to survive differently. Now, the same systems they had to build outside of are determining access to the education they created.
Before cosmetology had the educational infrastructure we recognize today, women had to build it.
Annie Turnbo Malone created Poro College during an era when Black women were navigating both racism and sexism, helping turn beauty into something that could be taught, studied, and built into a career.
So when federal financial aid becomes tied to earnings data that may not fully capture how this industry makes money, we have to consider what’s actually being measured. Cosmetology was built differently because the women who built it had to survive differently.
They fought to legitimize the education. Now the numbers used to measure the profession can determine access to it.
All women in this profession, regardless of race, are connected to a history shaped by oppression and limited access to traditional careers. So it makes little sense to measure cosmetology against government earnings standards that the profession was never constructed around in the first place.
Martha Matilda Harper helped pioneer the modern salon franchise model, creating a pathway for women to own businesses and build financial independence. Fun fact: she’s also credited with developing the reclining shampoo chair and washbasin concept that helped shape the modern salon.
And that pathway is still needed. Women are still fighting for equal footing in the workplace, equal pay, advancement, and the flexibility to balance work and family. Cutting financial aid restricts access to an economic pathway women had to create because traditional ones historically restricted them.
09/30/2026
Cutting funding for cosmetology is an insult to the women who had to build this profession in the first place.
White women helped pioneer early systems of professional cosmetology at a time when sexism severely limited their economic opportunities. Black women then built within and beyond those systems while facing both racism and sexism, creating schools, businesses, products, jobs, and entire economic networks when traditional America offered them very few places to go.
They did not just do hair and nails. They built a system where one did not exist for them, and that system became a legitimate pathway to education, entrepreneurship, and financial independence for generations of women.
That history deserves investment, not reduction.
My latest article explores cosmetology’s roots in racism, oppression, and sexism, how those roots still shape the economics of the industry today, and why the current funding conversation is much bigger than beauty.
Read Full Article Linked in My Bio!
09/29/2026
Cosmetology isn’t the only profession facing these challenges, and many of the same principles extend far beyond the beauty industry. When certain spaces weren’t created for us, we created our own pathways. But what happens when those pathways aren’t built for long-term sustainability—and the resources that help educate and sustain the people entering them begin disappearing?
And this isn’t hypothetical. This series is rooted in new federal higher-education rules from the U.S. Department of Education, with a new earnings-accountability framework taking effect July 1, 2027. In the Department’s own analysis, cosmetology and related personal-grooming certificate programs were identified among the programs most likely to be affected.
Over the next five posts, we’re getting into The Foundation, The Trim, The Price Tag, The Makeover, and The Final Set.
We’re talking history. We’re talking school closures. We’re talking funding. We’re talking policy. And finally, we’re talking about the ballot.
Because some of the prettiest professions have some very real issues. Welcome to The Pretty Issues. 💅🏽
Life lately, as a Nail Tech in Law School .
09/22/2026
Nail techs, your work can be good and still look bad on camera. A few small changes can make a BIG difference in your content. Save this before you record your next set.
Nail techs, your content quality matters. 💅🏾 These 4 quick fixes will instantly make your nail content look better. Save this for your next content day!
Some days you just gotta focus to lock in.
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