Carolina College of Hair Design

I want to start this off by saying two things; the first being that i attended two cosmetology institutes and became a licensed cosmetologist in the state of Florida. The second is that I did not actually receive a hair service there, but rather walked in when I discovered the college next to the DMV I was visiting. I am reviewing not on the quality of the hair services preformed by the students, but rather my impression of the school itself.
Having lived in Asheville over a year now and not seen a beauty school, I was excited to stumble upon this place and wanted to see a brochure of service prices since I love supporting cosmetology students; I know what it’s like to be in their shoes. I was quite unimpressed. Here are some things that were unacceptable in my opinion:
1) upon walking in, I was not greeted nor was I greeted with a smile when I approached the girl at the front and said with a big smile and «hello! How are you?». (Because, c’mon it’s Asheville and we are friendly here! Smile!)
2) I politely asked the girl at the front desk for a brochure of services and prices and she stared at me blankly. After a few awkward seconds, another woman walked out from behind her and said «oh we don’t have any. I’d have to print you some…» And waited for my response like if change my mind or something. It is very surprising that they are not prepared to distribute price lists to walk-​ins, especially being directly next door to the DMV. Unprofessional. I waited about five minutes for her to print about 20 flyers. You’d think she would hand me the first one that printed, but I had to wait for them all to be printed before one was presented to me.
3) while waiting for my brochure, I took the opportunity to look at the «product bar». They had one dusty shelf with about 12 products on it. They were a horrible mixture of brands and products, no brand loyalty, no organization what so ever. Worst of all, they only had one of each of these products on display and they were clearly very old as the Paul Mitchell Curls crème was clearly very faded in color. On top of all this, the prices of these products were scribbled crudely with a large black sharpie directly onto the bottle. Ick.
4) students looked very unprofessional on the clinic floor. The students were all wearing different colored clothing, jeans (!) and sneakers (!) They were not well groomed nor did they look like they were professional stylists in training. A cosmetology school is supposed to prepare their students for success in the professional world, and not enforcing a dress code sets the mindset that it is okay to show up to work looking like a slob.
5) students who were not working on clients were seated in clear view playing games on their cellphones and rough housing with each other. I did not see any mannequin heads nor textbooks.
Over all, I do not blame the students for these occurrences, but rather the school and instructors. Again, it appears that the institution is failing these students by not setting the standards for success in the real world.