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Beauty School Standout

APPEARANCES RUN SKIN-DEEP. Tucked away in a modest Poway strip mall between Kragen Auto Parts and Carpet Country, the Poway Academy of Hair Design boasts a recent $2.5 million renovation and a growing reputation as the “Harvard of beauty schools.” At 20,000 square feet, the academy is among the country’s largest beauty schools. But president Lynelle Lynch will tell you it’s quality, not size, that matters most to her.

“We’re setting the bar for beauty schools on a national level,” says Lynch, who oversees a comprehensive curriculum that caters to the high-end salon and spa consumer. The academy received the 2008 School of the Year Award from national cosmetology publisher Modern Salon Media for pioneering five-star standards in beauty education. “We prepare our students to walk into a place like La Costa Resort & Spa and get a job,” says Lynch, who is also president of Je Boutique College of Beauty in El Cajon and Bay Vista College of Beauty in National City.

At first glance, the academy resembles an upscale salon-spa: A reception area imbues a Zenminimal aesthetic; shelves display numerous high-end makeup and skin-care lines; stylists wielding scissors and blowers work busily in a cluster of hair stations. But most of the learning happens behind the scenes, in a maze of classrooms and treatment rooms. In one room, freshman students practice styling hair on wigs resting atop mannequin heads. In another classroom, makeup artistry students learn the secrets to luscious lips.

“Our curriculum offers the most comprehensive professional training in all aspects of the beauty industry,” says Lynch. In addition to schooling in hair design and sculpting, makeup artistry, esthetics, holistic health, massage and spa manicuring, the academy also offers a business and marketing program. Lynch hopes that by raising the standard of beauty education——the academy is the only beauty school in the nation to employ an artistic director, as well as the first in the state to offer a master esthetics training program——the industry will benefit from an image boost. “It’s our mission to elevate the perception of cosmetology licensing and demonstrate that it is as advantageous as a degree from a four-year university,” she says.

With San Diego ranked as one of the top cities for spa-going, Lynch says the job market and earning potential looks rosy. “Making six figures in this industry is very attainable,” she says. “Students who receive proper technical and business training addressing the needs of today’s high-end salon and spa consumer can create a recession-proof career.”

Lynch is also proud of the academy’s affiliation with Cut It Out, an organization that builds awareness of domestic abuse and trains salon professionals to recognize warning signs and safely refer client to local resources. To learn more about the academy, go to sandiegobeautyacademy.com. ——J.B.P.

A Different High School Musical

TWO PAINTERS WORK, together and separately, on a canvas made of square panels. Musicians jam nearby, creating a soundtrack for the painters. An hour later, audience members can take home a freshly painted panel——packed in a pizza box——that’s not just an original work of art but a conversation piece.

Sounds like an avant-garde performance piece you’d see at a gallery or cutting-edge club. But this is Art Wars, and the performers are students or recent graduates of San Dieguito Academy, a high school in Encinitas.

“I’ve been at concerts with a guy in the background doing graffiti and the band up front,” says Jeremy Wright, the San Dieguito art instructor who heads up the Art Wars club. “I wanted to take what I saw and flip it——have the artist in front and the musicians off to the side. Instead of painting something formulaic, this would be very spontaneous, very jazz-like.”

Since the first event two years ago, the Arts Wars students have built a following, performed as far away as Palm Desert and created a mural on a Leucadia 7-Eleven. The club, which meets once a week, is democratic: Students give the go-ahead on all performances and vote on who paints in the shows. There are plenty of jobs behind the scenes, too, making fliers and producing individually silk-screened T-shirts. Money raised from the panel paintings goes toward community projects. The club donated an art cart to a needy school, and the students have beautified the San Dieguito campus with painted murals. Information: artwars.org. ——ANASTACIA GRENDA

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