Education & Classes in Midvale

Part of the venerable Paul Mitchell network, the Salt Lake City school channels its doctrines of style and technique through a squad of students supervised by professional instructors. Inside the school’s 22,000-square-foot facility, beauty-gurus-to-be assuredly snip away during haircuts, each of which includes a five-minute scalp massage, and slather on lactic-acid peels, each of which includes a five-minute memoriam to dead skin cells. Tresses can be smoothed into submission with a flatiron, curled into a hirsute coil, or stylishly swept into an updo. Students complement these many shapes with bold or subtle coloring treatments, sometimes relying on block or dimensional color to add depth.

Paul Mitchell the School trains its students to be citizens of the world as well as ambassadors of beauty. The school sets an example worth following with its eco-friendly practices and support for charitable causes that give back to the local community.

A hub for sociable quilters, Elaine's Quilt Block hosts classes and get-togethers alongside a stock of more than 5,000 bolts of fabric and armfuls of notions, patterns, and books. Inside the homey space, which Quilt Sampler magazine lauded as "a beautiful setting for inspiring quilters" thanks to its 19th-century style and scenic location near the Wasatch Mountains, a massive baby room mingles bright hues among pale pink and blue fabrics. Books and patterns teach sewers to arrange geometric strips of fabric into trees, birds, or mime outfits using various stitching styles, such as appliqué and strip piecing. Sociable events including Sew & Tell gather quilters to show off ongoing projects and glean inspiration and information from others. During Civil War–themed classes, history-minded staffers and crafty time-travelers celebrate the heritage of their hobby with patterns that showcase old-timey arrangements and commemorate women's struggles during the war.

Through Abrakadoodle's classes, camps, and parties, youngsters develop problem-solving skills and boost their confidence as they express themselves through art projects. Media including easy-to-use Crayola products, oil pastels, and markers form vibrant paintings and drawings that may represent a new take on a Monet masterwork, a storybook scene, or the universal struggle over eating one's vegetables.

FranklinCovey—a company that focuses on improving performance through changes in human behavior—is the product of a 1997 convergence of two different lines of thought regarding time management—Hyrum Smith’s Franklin Day Planners and the philosophy behind Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. FranklinCovey has been expanding its multidisciplinary approach ever since then to generate new modes of thinking about the meaning and nature of effectiveness. Nowadays, this approach includes their On Demand interactive online courses, live workshops, and the same books that brought them recognition in the first place. The philosophies guiding these products has also expanded from the core imperatives of Stephen’s 7 Habits to include trust-building concepts from The Speed of Trust by Stephen’s son, Stephen M. R. Covey.

Kathleen King of King Studio believes that fitness and nutritional training alone cannot transform a person’s life—that training must be complemented by a change in everyday behaviors. That’s why her studio focuses not only on exercise and healthy eating but also on teaching clients how to change their negative lifestyle habits, such as failing to get enough sleep, being a couch potato, and recreationally contracting common colds.

In addition to the rows of Pilates reformers and free weights, King stocks her studio with revolutionary TRX suspension bands that hang from the ceilings, earning herself a feature on ABC 4's Good Things Utah. With these dangling straps, she lets gravity and natural body weight do the work during functional workouts that aim to bolster core muscles, stability, and flexibility. She also captains a team of instructors, who help lead personal-training sessions, women’s karate classes, ballroom-dance lessons, and open dance parties within the hardwood-floored studio.

The curriculum at Elase Academy is a well-rounded look at what it takes to be a salon professional—maybe because cofounder Carrie Brinton isn’t just a skincare expert but also a business owner who employs more than 20 master aestheticians herself. Thanks to her influence, students learn the principles of customer service, business operations, and sales at the same time as they practice their aesthetics skills at the school’s onsite spa. Brinton’s staff of experienced instructors supervises students as they treat clients to spa services both traditional and trendy. Students perform facials, chemical peels, nail services, and waxing to cover their classic treatment bases, and man ultramodern lasers to oust unwanted hair, moles, and tracking devices from the skin.