In a Lompoc strip mall next to a pizza shop and a vacant Chinese buffet is the Cosmoton Academy.
It’s a starting point for people who want careers in hair styles geared toward men. But the school run by Michael and Laura Funkhauser recently added a new program to broaden the student base of their fledgling barber school, located at 1013 North H St.
They’re now inviting in recent cosmetology school graduates for a 200-hour, straight-shaving course. It’s a $2,500 expense, but the Funkhausers said it’s an extra skill that a cosmetologist could immediately monetize.
The pair brings years of experience styling hair for men and women, including years as teachers themselves. The two, who live in Santa Barbara, also ply their trade professionally at their shop there called Napoleon Blonde.
The essence of the profession is in layering skill sets. If you can cut hair, why not also color, wash, and rinse it?
“If you just cut hair, you’re going to be in for some hurt,” Michael said.
He’s known hairstylists and barbers who have been crippled with arthritis or carpel tunnel pain. Even surgery to repair carpel tunnel problems, Michael said, doesn’t always clear it up. Sometimes, it forces an early retirement.
That’s one reason why Michael and Laura give their students a complete skill set. The other reason is time. The state of California requires 1,500 hours of training for barbers. Another reason is the cost: The school runs $15,000 for the one-year program.
But after that, Michael estimates barbers who do little more than cut hair earn $30,000 to $35,000. That’s why his students all learn shaving and basic coloring.
“A lot of the time people think barbers don’t do color,” he said. “But everyone goes gray.”
Doing color may be as small as touching up a beard or some gray at the temples, but Michael said that could easily add $15 to a bill. If it’s a permanent color, even more. It’s also about hairstyles. A rapidly rising new trend is the perm-fade—a perm up top and a fade at the bottom.
“We call it the broccoli head,” Michael said.
All of his students learn how to cut long hair, too, on $45 mannequins equipped with real hair from a human or sometimes even the course bovine strands of a yak.
“I tell people before they start, you’re going to have to do long hair,” he said.
It’s one of the reasons Michael and Laura want to bring in recent cosmetology graduates. Michael said it would bring in new blood with a different skill set that his students could learn from. It’s also a way to make even more use of the space. The school will see 16 students this year—its full-time capacity. Those students attend three days a week, which Michael said allows many of them to work. But the two still have space for extra part-time students who are just looking for another certification.
This diversification is a step toward the future.
“We want to expand and maybe at some point add another location,” Laura said.
That could mean either growing the space they have now, or moving to another larger space nearby. She envisions a space big enough for 90 students—both full- and part-time.
“It’s really cool as a teacher to see students at the beginning when they’re learning, then see where they’re at now,” she said.
Highlight:
• Leaders of the Santa Ynez Valley will be presenting an update on a new community aquatics facility on Nov. 15. SYV Community Aquatics Foundation President Lisa Palmer and Buellton Mayor Holly Sierra will attend the forum, which will take place from 4 to 5:50 p.m. at 2975 East Highway 246 in Santa Ynez.
Staff Writer William D’Urso wrote this week’s Spotlight. Send news tips to spotlight@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 14-21, 2019.