Students get handle on nails, hair

Rogers High School senior Nicholas Paneiro needed some clarification on manicures and nail polish.

“Should I brush the nail middle-edge-edge or edge-edge middle?” Paneiro asked, while holding the hand of another Rogers senior.

For the first time in several years, students in most Spokane County districts this fall could sign up at the Spokane Skills Center for vocational training in cosmetology. Under contract with the Skills Center, Hillyard-based Total Cosmetology Training Center is taking in 80 high school students for the yearlong session.

Originally, the Skills Center program taught both adults and high school students to meet the 1,600 training hours that must be offered per year to qualify as a vocational center in cosmetology. The center’s board voted in 1996 to stop competing with other adult training centers like private companies and Spokane Community College’s program, said Skills Center director Don Howell. Without adults, the program couldn’t meet state requirements and phased out in 2000.

To relaunch the program this year, Howell got around the hours requirement by contracting with an existing private school.

Coincidentally, Total Cosmetology was started by workers who were laid off when the Spokane Skills Center ended its program.

So now, on top of automotive, culinary arts and aluminum welding classes at the Spokane Skills Center, students can learn nails, hair and makeup. The program is full, even though the daily class requires students to provide their own transportation to and from the school.

This past week, students came in from Lewis and Clark, Shadle Park, Rogers and University high schools. Dressed in red smocks, they were given detailed lessons on how to properly conduct a manicure on the second day of classes Wednesday.

Becky Hattenburg, co-owner of Total Cosmetology Training, showed 32 students how to roll an orangewood stick in cotton cloth to make a swab for pushing back the cuticle.

As the only male student in the afternoon session, Paneiro said the classes were a great start on his ambitions of eventually becoming a salon color specialist. This year, high school students will get complete training in hair styling, coloring and nail care. But first, Paneiro must master the manicure.

Students learned not to push too hard on the cuticle and to keep a hand firmly under the client’s hand.

“That way you’re in control,” Hattenburg said. “You’re the boss.”

For a license, Paneiro will need 1,650 hours of training. Because of the Skills Center program, he’ll collect 450 hours during the school year. Students who stay with the program for two years can complete more than half of the required hours for a license.

Christina Schumacher, 17, a Rogers senior, has wanted to be a beautician since she was 6 years old.

“I love doing hair, nails, color and stuff,” Schumacher said.

She watched as Paneiro learned how to file her acrylic French-manicured nails – in one direction, not back and forth like sawing a limb off a tree.

A manicure should take 30 minutes, including a hand massage. Students laughed a little as they practiced slow and firm rubbing while massaging lotion into each other’s hands.

“Legally we can massage up to a client’s elbow,” Hattenburg said, which brought a couple of snorts from the students. Schumacher tried not to smile as Paneiro pinched her fingers at the tip and then let his fingers slide off just as he was instructed to do. She plans to practice on her mom and boyfriend. She was still unsure what to say to her future clients, some of whom she could be seeing at the training center as soon as December.

“What do we talk about?” Schumacher said.

The instructor said they can talk about anything except for the two deadly topics – politics and religion.

Paneiro practiced.

“So are you a Christian? No?” Paneiro asked.

The Spokane Skills Center serves Central Valley, Cheney, Deer Park, East Valley, Mead, Medical Lake, Nine Mile Falls, Spokane and West Valley school districts. Students from some schools, like Gonzaga Preparatory School, attend on a space-available basis.