Gallery • 4 Photos

Cosmetology Student Gabby Goodman at work.

A new opportunity for Central Hardin, John Hardin, North Hardin, and Elizabethtown High School students has recently been offered to all senior students at the aforementioned schools. LaRue County seniors have had this opportunity for the past five years. 

This new pathway helps students interested in the Cosmetology field make significant progress in their future careers. 

“I’ve always wanted to do hair, but I haven’t really found anything else that interests me,” said CHHS senior Gabriella Goodman.

This class takes place during first through third block, lasting all three trimesters at the Campbellsville University Cosmetology School, located in Hodgenville. 

Central Hardin has six seniors enrolled in the program this year. John Hardin has two, North has four.

Elizabethtown High School has four seniors in the program, and LaRue has two. These students come to the school during the second half of the school day. 

In total, the school has 18 seniors from all across Hardin County and LaRue County High School. 

This is Morgan Morehouse’s first year of teaching this course. Before this opportunity, she worked in a salon. Her best friend and coworker bought an old house in Bardstown; they renovated it for six months before turning it into a salon where Morehouse worked guest services.

An average day for Morehouse’s students begins with an instructional video on what they’ll be doing that day. Then, all students put on their smocks and clock in for the day. It’s important for the students to clock in and out. 

“Those hours go directly to the state board, we are governed by the Kentucky State Board of Cosmetology. In order to keep track of their hours, they have a barcode on their ID that they can scan, and it’s almost like a scanner at a grocery store, and it’ll go into the system and take their picture so the board knows that the student was here today from this time to this time in order to get the hours,” Morehouse explained. 

Cosmetology students will leave this school with 250 hours which goes towards their ultimate goal of 1500 hours in order to be cosmetology certified in the state of Kentucky. This class helps aspiring cosmetologists obtain some of their hours early on. 

“They’re going to spend 250 hours here to decide if they want to come back full-time and spend more money. They get a break from paying for the program where they each have $1,000 to do the high school program. We can refund that towards their full tuition if they choose to come back,” Morehouse said.

After watching their instructional video for the day, they begin their hands-on work. On this particular day, students were working on their perming skills using their “Deluxe Debra” mannequin heads full of real human hair to practice their perm skills. 

“We’re in perms right now, and then we’ll go on to relaxers, and then we’ll go into color theory. They’ll do color, highlighting, fashion colors, color retouch, and then haircutting,” Morehouse said about their upcoming topics. 

This course is about more than just hair, skin, and nails. 

“You learn a lot in this course, not even just about cosmetology, we just finished a month and a half of business which is beneficial for anybody. We did resumes, and mock interviews, we made referral programs, and we made our own business cards. There are skills that you’ll learn that you don’t just need for cosmetology, but you could use in the real world and in the future,” Morehouse said. 

Upon entering the building, the spectrum of students is particularly diverse. Imagining these students being friends outside of this class is a peculiar thought. However, their interactions and relationships are strong and warming. 

“My favorite thing about this cosmo program is the opportunity to bring so many different personalities and people together- these students have formed friendships that would have never happened due to being involved in this cosmetology class- everyone gets along and they genuinely love each other; some of these students have made lifelong friendships…and I love that!” Morehouse said. 

Though the students all clearly have fondness and appreciation for one another, they also share these same feelings with Morehouse.

“It’s been amazing. They’re all family to me and I feel like Morgan is an extra mom; we can talk to her about anything. She definitely makes you see the passion whether it’s there or not,” Central Hardin senior Kadance Young said. 

The ambition that Young and other students have and the love they have for cosmetology is admirable. 

“There’s probably 10 out of 12 in this class that genuinely want to come back. Kadance wants to come back two weeks after she graduates high school and start the program. She wants to skip her family vacation to start the program so she can finish cosmetology school. She wants to get it done, and I love that.” Morehouse said. 

Learning in an environment with strong relationships and loving people makes it so much easier and enjoyable to receive the information and education that you need. For John Hardin senior DJ Quiros, this class brings her just that.

“Oh my God, I love it so much. I’m not really big on friendships and stuff like that, and I’m usually by myself when I’m at school, but when I joined here, we literally all got super close. It’s really friendly here and it’s really hands-on. Everything you learn you end up doing it yourself and that’s probably my favorite part [of this class],” Quiros said.

Quiros is not the only one in this class that believes it is enjoyable.

North Hardin Senior, DJ Wilburn, feels that this class has given him lots of insight into the cosmetology industry. 

“A+,” he said. “I’ve had multiple different people teach me multiple different things.”

This course has even made the idea of going to school exciting for some students. 

“My experience in this class has been beyond compare. Every day I am so excited to attend school. Since COVID, school hasn’t been the same, so I haven’t been as excited to go to school. Ever since I joined this Cosmetology class I have met some of my best friends and have had some of the sweetest teachers!” CHHS senior Presleigh Scott said. 

“Last year when we went to homeroom to do our Tassel, they made an announcement about it, and I was like, ‘this is for me,’” CHHS senior Dillan Baird said. “There hasn’t been a part of this class that I’m like, ‘I hate this.’ I’m in love. I knew the first day coming in that I was going to come back after summer. I just felt it in my soul.”

For some students in this course, they’ve known this skill was in their blood for years. 

“Whenever I was little I was getting into my mom’s makeup drawers, like makeup is my favorite, and I want to pursue special effects makeup. My plan is to do cosmetology, get all of my beauty work done, and then also go to school for esthetician work because I love skincare, that’s my retirement plan,” NHHS senior Gwyn Whitesell said. 

For Persephone Bealmear, Cosmetology hadn’t always been in the picture. 

“I didn’t know what I could do to match my abilities, but then I heard about this class on the announcements one day that they were starting this program, and that’s when I changed my [fine arts] career path,” she said. “I really do enjoy makeup, I always have.” 

This pathway has offered many opportunities for students who have even the slightest interest in the cosmetology world to students who were thinking of cosmetology from the beginning. This class has been so influential for these students. 

They encourage any rising senior with the slightest interest in skin, hair, and nails, to sign up for this class next year.