Education & Classes in Muscatine

Founded by a seasoned sextet of industry executives, The Salon Professional Academy pairs pupils with instructors trained at the lauded Redken 5th Avenue NYC for classroom, private, and on-the-floor training in the prettification arts. The newest techniques and trends bloom students' repertoires in cosmetology, aesthetics, or nail technology during small classes that foster student and teacher interaction and one-on-one time. While honing their crafts during instructor-supervised sessions with paying customers, enrollees get a leg up on business acumen in lessons that cover scheduling, manning a front desk, and delegating photocopying tasks to the most responsible photocopier. After completing the program, students may follow in the footsteps of past graduates that have gone on to decorate famous faces as movie stylists, or become salon owners, cosmetology educators, and beauty-magazine editors.

When licensed cosmetologist Chuck Fiegen founded Capri College in 1966, he knew that the best way to prepare students for the work force was to start at the top—with the educators. By sending his instructors all around the world to learn the latest trends and techniques, he was giving his students access to information they couldn't find in any textbook. More than 45 years have passed, but Fiegen—who continues to run the beauty school with the help of his six children—remains a stickler for teaching excellence. He can occasionally be found observing teaching methods and offering his two-cents on the clinic floor.

Inside the ACCSC-accredited college, instructors with at least three years of experience bolster students’ employability with training in cosmetology, massage therapy, aesthetics, and nail technology. Students put their training into action in the student-staffed salon and spa, where they paint and snip dull strands, and soften extremities with paraffin treatments. In the spa, students dole out five types of massage modalities, from relaxing Swedish strokes to Thai massage, which addresses tension with yoga-like stretches and the pressing of eject buttons. Their panoply of facials help counteract skin woes, such as fine lines or acne, whereas microdermabrasion buffs away dead skin, sunspots, and other facial imperfections with an onslaught of sodium-bicarbonate crystals.