Why Gen Z Is Choosing Trade School Over College

Zoe Chen has her own salon suite in downtown Portland and nearly 50,000 Instagram followers. She makes more than her parents were pulling in at her age.

And here’s the thing—she’s not unusual. A lot of young Americans are rethinking what success actually looks like.

 The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center put out a report last year showing that enrollment at traditional four-year colleges has fallen 8% since 2020. Meanwhile, vocational programs—beauty schools included—have jumped 16%.

The beauty industry is having a moment. A whole new generation of creative, business-minded young people are looking at it and seeing real opportunity, not just “a trade.”

What Today’s Beauty School Actually Looks Like

The old stereotypes don’t hold up anymore. Walk into a beauty school today and you’ll see students who are younger—average age dropped from 27 to 23 since 2019. A lot of them already have some college under their belt. About a third do. And pretty much all of them are on social media. Most of them, like 68%, want to own their own business in the next five years. The industry’s also got one of the best rates for minority-owned businesses.

“My sister came out of college $80,000 in debt and couldn’t even find a job in her field,” Zoe says. “I paid $15,000 for cosmetology school, was making money in less than a year, and I’m my own boss. Wasn’t a tough call.”

The Money Actually Makes Sense

Gen Z watched what happened to millennials with student loans. They saw that trainwreck. So now they’re doing the math before they commit to anything.

Go the traditional college route and you’re looking at around $104,000 for four years at a public university. Most people finish college with something like $37,000 hanging over their heads. They get a job making $55,000 or so, and then they spend the next decade—maybe longer—just trying to dig themselves out.

Beauty school costs you maybe $10,000, could be $20,000 depending where you go. You’re in and out in less than a year and a half. Yeah, you might owe some money when you’re done—$7,000, maybe $15,000—but you start bringing in $30,000 to $45,000 pretty quick, especially with tips. And you’re square in a couple years.

Marcus Williams cuts hair in Atlanta. He’s 25. “My buddies from high school just graduated,” he says. “I’ve been working for four years. I’ve made over a hundred grand and I own my shop. They’re still writing checks every month for those loans.”

It’s Not Just About Cutting Hair

Here’s what really separates the new generation of beauty professionals from the old guard: they’re not relying on one income stream.

You’ve got your basic service income from clients—that might be $40,000 to $70,000. But then there’s social media. Sponsored posts and affiliate links can bring in another five to thirty grand. Some stylists teach workshops or do online tutorials—that’s a few thousand more, maybe fifteen if they’re good at it. A bunch of them end up creating their own product lines. That could be ten thousand, could be a hundred thousand or more if it takes off. Own a salon or rent out chairs to other stylists? Add another twenty to sixty thousand.

Last year the Professional Beauty Association looked into this and found something interesting: beauty pros with a decent social media following make about 34% more than the ones who aren’t online.

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Getting Really Good at One Thing

Stylists used to try to do a little bit of everything. Now? People pick one thing early and get really damn good at it.

Color specialists focus on advanced stuff—balayage, color correction, custom formulation. They charge $200 to $500 per service instead of the $80 to $150 you’d pay for standard color work. Texture experts have blown up alongside the natural hair movement, serving clients with curly and coily hair who need someone who actually knows what they’re doing. Medical estheticians work with plastic surgeons and dermatologists. They can pull in $50,000 to $75,000, sometimes more, and they usually get benefits. Men’s grooming is blowing up too—there’s research saying that market’s going to be worth over $81 billion this year.

The Life You Actually Get to Live

Talk to younger people in beauty about why they chose it, and the money’s usually not what they bring up first. It’s the lifestyle.

“I work when I want. I work with who I want. I take off when I feel like it,” says Priya Patel, who’s 24 and does skincare. “My friends in corporate? They literally have to get approval from their manager to take a vacation. It’s like being back in school asking for a hall pass.”

Last year there was a survey—67% of beauty professionals said they set their own hours. Seventy-one percent were actually happy with their jobs. Sixty-three percent said they wouldn’t trade it for a regular career. And 84% said they get to be creative.

Gallup did a survey too. Only about a third of American workers feel engaged at their jobs. It’s not even close.

How Social Media Changed Everything

Instagram, TikTok, YouTube—these platforms didn’t just tweak the beauty industry. They flipped it completely upside down. Beauty professionals stopped being just service providers and became their own brands. Some of them are straight-up influencers now.

Emma Rodriguez is 23. She got her license right when COVID hit and salons everywhere were closing. “But I’d been posting TikTok tutorials for months before that,” she says. “By the time I could actually take clients, I had like 15,000 followers already. People were waiting to book with me.”

Beauty schools figured this out pretty quick. Now a lot of them teach you photography, how to use social media, how to make content, personal branding—all that stuff. It’s just part of what you learn now because it has to be.

You’re Not Stuck Doing One Thing

Here’s something people don’t always get: once you have a cosmetology license, you’ve got options. You can switch directions without starting completely over.

Want to do hair in a salon? Cool. Want to go freelance? Do that. Editorial work? Sure. You can shift into makeup—weddings, movies, fashion. Or nails. Or open your own place. Or develop products. Or teach. Or create content.

Jordan Lee’s 26 now. Started doing hair, then got into bridal makeup, and now has a product line launching. “The license gave me the foundation,” Jordan says. “I didn’t have to go back to square one every time I wanted to try something different.”

This Isn’t Your Mom’s Beauty Industry

Twenty years ago, the beauty industry was different. Today’s professionals are using booking apps and payment processors, caring about clean and sustainable products, constantly training on new techniques, and actually understanding their business finances—P&L statements, tax strategy, marketing ROI.

“People think this is just about making people look good,” Zoe says. “But I’m running a business. I’m doing marketing campaigns, tracking data, constantly learning. It’s entrepreneurship. I just happen to be holding scissors.”

Where Things Are Headed

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says beauty industry jobs will grow 8% through 2031—faster than average. And the industry tends to hold up even when the economy doesn’t. People keep investing in self-care and how they look, recession or not.

For Gen Z, beauty school is a shot at running your own thing, doing work you actually care about, and making real money without spending the next decade paying off loans.

“I’m not trapped in some office job, drowning in debt, doing stuff that bores me to tears,” Zoe says. “This is mine. I built it. That’s what the American Dream was supposed to mean, right?”