Pampering for Pennies

Perhaps it is my construction background and growing up with a brother that made me less like a girl and more the tomboy type. I could never see spending a lot of money on beauty services, but now I'm beginning to see why many people enjoy getting manicures, pedicures, and other beauty salon treatments. In April I visited the Empire Beauty School in Aurora, Colorado on my mother's recommendation. Given our recent family struggles she felt it was necessary to pamper ourselves, but given our tight budget a beauty school with discounted services was the only affordable option.

There are advantages and disadvantage to using a beauty school like Empire. We booked same day appointments, which may have produced a few of the disadvantages we found on our first day. Despite some of these issues my mother and I still had a lot of fun. The first day we had manicures only even though we booked manicures and pedicures. They were late getting me started because my service card got lost in the shuffle. Even though this occurred the girl working on my hands was knowledgeable and friendly. She asked questions and answered mine regarding our personal lives. It was everything you would normally find in a regular salon, but with teachers double checking on the services to make certain you are happy. With this checks and balances system you definitely get what you pay for. The service on that day was $6.

We were able to get in the very next day for our pedicures through one very dedicated student. This student informed us about the 360 program. Every 8 or 12 weeks, she was not sure which, there are new students added to the school. These new students need to get experience with various aspects of cosmetology, so they can be booked for completely free services!

It made having to come back to get our pedicures on the second day worth it. My mother was with the same student, but I was given a new person. These two students were obviously friends because they made the experience even better. The entire time we were laughing and sharing personal stories. Both women working on us made sure that we were comfortable, enjoying the service and going away happy.

A few days later we returned for additional services to take advantage of the 360 program. The 360 program lasts for three weeks each time it begins. This provides a guest with plenty of time to get free services like a perm or hair repair. My mother's perm lasted for over three hours, which was a major disadvantage for us given our time constraints. Understanding that the women are learning is something you must do when visiting because otherwise you may get a little irritated over a perm that normally takes 1.5 hours taking 3 hours.

I elected to have hair repair followed by a styling. At the end of the styling I was amazed at the curls my hair had from a Marcel curling iron. I have very long hair and swim so the repair was to eliminate damage from chlorine and the styling was mostly for fun. I wanted to get an idea about styles for an upcoming wedding. The fact that they spent close to 2.5 hours on my hair for free just adds to the experience. In a normal beauty salon you would be done in under an hour and shipped off for quite a bit of money.

That's why I call it Pampering for Pennies because even without the 360 program you can obtain affordable services albeit the time may be a lot longer than regular salon care.