The growth of your salon begins in beauty schools. The skills new stylists are equipped with directly affect the quality of your salon and success of your team.

Candidates who come to you unprepared or lacking skills result in you spending more time and money on advanced education, an investment that may or may not be long term.

Traci Sakosits, new VP of education and creative direction for Aveda Arts & Sciences Institutes, is on a mission to deliver new stylists with strong technical skills right out of the gate to owners across the country.

Sakosits joined the leadership team at the institutes after more than a decade as the North American creative director at Vidal Sassoon. She’ll leverage her experience at Sassoon, where she led global seminars, styled editorial shoots and showcased her talent on runways, to elevate the education of Aveda Arts & Sciences students.

“At this point in my career, I have so much to share,” Sakosits says.

“In this new position, I can help them build a strong foundation.”

Spotlight on Fundamentals

Sakosits’ goal for students at the Aveda Arts & Sciences Institutes is for them to graduate with a higher level skill set.

“A student who comes out of one of the schools will be identifiable because of their technical skills,” she says.

Sakosits says the recent years’ trends of free hand color, sculptural styling and dressing of hair have resulted in stylists who are less proficient in technical skills.

“There’s nothing wrong with beachy waves and long hair, but we have stylists who are missing other skill sets,” she says.

Sakosits wants future generations of stylists to have a solid foundation to stand upon.

“Everyone needs a good understanding of basic principles in cutting and color to pass their state board,” she says. “And at our Institutes, they’ll also get product knowledge, financial literacy, soft skills and the other areas that come with the Aveda culture.”

Sakosits’ focus on foundation will also give students the ability to continue learning once they land in their salon and start advanced education.

“Hair is structural, so understanding the material you’re working with will help you be creative,” she says. “I want students to be aspirational and realize how much there is for them in the beauty industry—but they must have a strong foundation first. That’s not boring, that’s purism. There’s value in doing something really well.”

Meeting Learners Where They Are

In the past decade, technology has changed everything, and has empowered young people to believe they can do anything.

“This is amazing, but you have to reel it in,” Sakosits says. “When you want them to focus on one or two things, they want to learn 10. ‘Jack of all trades and master of none’ is a trend we don’t want our students to fall into.

An inspiring curriculum that can be molded to an individual’s learning style will help students do just that.

“Blending the face-to-face experience and technology is the most efficient way to teach,” she says. “Different tools touch on unique learning styles and enable us as educators to help all kinds of learners at a variety of levels go at their own pace and time.”

Sakosits believes it’s up to beauty schools to give students the start in the industry that they deserve.

“We need to give them the skill set they need to show up in a professional manner,” she says. “Ultimately this will better the industry as a whole, which is the end goal.”