2/14/08
For high school hair cutters, it’s ‘snip snip here, snip snip there’
By Jerriod Grizzle

JERRIOD GRIZZLE/Manning Times

Oshariendai Wiggins, 5, smiles at the camera as she has her hair sprayed with a shiner after a “cut and curl” by East Clarendon Senior Kiara McFadden last Wednesday at the F.E. Dubose Cosmetology Lab.

“I found out through word of mouth and I like it,” said Helen McCray, former hairdresser and stay at home mom. “To get your hair cut here, you get good quality at a good price.”

McCray is talking about the cosmetology department at F.E. Dubose Career Center where aspiring professionals will treat you with a smile and snip of the scissors.

Students at the Center’s Cosmetology Department, open their shop up Wednesdays to the public to offer their services and gain experience.

Words like McCray’s is just what Carol Anne Brown, cosmetology instructor at F.E. Dubose, wants to hear.

“We don’t have any money for advertising so we have to go through word of mouth,” she said.

Brown said that the service does cost but the cost is for a good purpose.

“We charge $5 for most service and that money goes to paying for supplies for the students and the rest gets put into a pool for the students to take their state exam in April,” she said.

All cosmetology students must complete a comprehensive exam given by the state in order to practice cosmetology in South Carolina.

“Right now they practice under my license as an instructor and they have to complete 300 hours before working out in the public,” said Brown.

Brown is optimistic that this outreach to the public will result in 100 percent completion of the course and the state exam.

“It helps them with their communication skills and gives them more confidence working on people rather than mannequins,” she said. “We teach communication skills and how to adapt to their audience whether it be a young child or older person as part of their curriculum.”

Brown said that students have to learn how to style and cut hair and know all they can about the scalp.

“They are very versatile about hair and they have to know all the shapes, the styles and differences between all hair. We also teach about scalp diseases, the ones you can cure and the ones you can’t,” said Brown.

The program now has seven seniors and 16 juniors, a number than Brown would like to see grow.

“We have students from all over Clarendon County. We have students from Manning High, East Clarendon and Scott’s Branch High School. The program is small and we are still going through our growing pains but I would like to see 20 new juniors next year,” she said.

To make an appointment with these high school haircutters, call F.E. Dubose at 473-2531.