ECC Cosmetic Arts Salon Offers Services to the Public

Edgecombe Community College President Dr. Greg McLeod receives a facial from esthetics student Ny’Tasia Bradley. Cosmetic Arts and Barbering students provide professional-quality beauty and grooming services to the public.

Feeling pretty needn’t cost a pretty penny, and a handsome look doesn’t have to cost a handsome sum.

In Edgecombe Community College’s departments of Cosmetic Arts on the Tarboro campus and Barbering on its Rocky Mount campus, students provide professional-quality beauty and grooming services to the public in updated, state-of-the-art facilities – at a fraction of the cost you’re going to pay at the corner barbershop or the downtown salon.

ECC’s student cosmetologists “do great work,” said client Margaret Etheridge of Tarboro, herself an ECC cosmetology graduate who said she’s been coming back for decades for haircuts, blow-drying, and highlighting. “And it’s convenient, since I live only minutes away.”

More than 100 students are currently enrolled in the college’s Cosmetic Arts and Barbering program, said Carolyn Sherrill, program chair. Graduates go on to sit for state licensing exams and upon passing, qualify for careers in their chosen field.

Before stepping up to work on outside clients, students undertake rigorous early training, practicing on mannequins and each other. Students in the Natural Hair Care program must complete a minimum of 60 hours of hands-on training before seeing clients; for Esthetics (skin care) students, it’s 80; and 300 for Cosmetology. For Barbering, the requirement is 250.

All that togetherness spawns a spirit “like a family,” said Tangala Tyler, an ECC Cosmetology instructor since 2011. “I love to see the passion that’s in the students and helping motivate them to meet their goals. I get great joy out of that.”

Working with paying clients helps students understand that “these are the kinds of people [they’ll] be meeting in the real world,” Tyler said.

Second-semester student Yahayra Barrientos agreed. “Some clients are so sweet, some are sour, but we are prepared for all kinds of clients,” she said. She’s hoping to open a salon in her hometown of Pinetops after graduating.

Another cosmetology student, Keagan Roberson of Robersonville, said she’d also like to own her own salon someday. “That’s my five-year goal,” she said. After graduating, she hopes to gain experience toward that goal by renting a booth at a local salon.

“I love doing makeup and making people feel confident,” she added. “Making people feel beautiful is what drew me to the field.”

The salon at Tarboro’s Cosmetic Arts Building has seven beds for esthetics, eight stations for manicuring, and 36 stations for cosmetology and natural hair care, according to Sherrill, and on a recent Thursday morning it was humming with student cosmetologists and customers. One client, Gloria Jones, had driven roughly 15 miles from her Rocky Mount home.

“I just take the trip because I like their work,” said Jones, who said she’s been coming to the salon for more than two years for pedicures, manicures, hair braiding, and blowouts. “I like the service and the price is so great. If I didn’t like the service, I wouldn’t come.”

Another client, Christina Arnold of Tarboro, said she gets blowouts, shampooing, and hair straightening at the salon. “I like the atmosphere,” said Arnold, herself a former cosmetology student at ECC. “I like being a support system, I support them and they support me.

“They’re great people,” Arnold said. “It’s inexpensive, and they get you in and out.”

How inexpensive?

In Tarboro, the many services include haircuts at $10; regular manicures, $10; pedicures, $20; basic facial, $10; eyebrow wax, $5; and blowouts, $15. See a full list of services and pricing. To make an appointment, call (252) 618-6604.

At the Barbering facility in Rocky Mount, haircuts run as low as $5. Razor shaves are $6, beard trims are $4, and mustache trims are $3. See a full list of services and pricing. To make an appointment, call (252) 618-6754.

Hours vary. Walk-ins are welcome, but Sherrill advises, “It’s better to call first to check on availability.”