I started at Regency Beauty Institute because I was impressed by the modern look and feel of the building. I liked the formal atmosphere. It was in a great location and I was able to get there easily every single day. I made some great friends there and the staff really seemed to know everyone because the school was so small.
But, my experience ended up being more negative than positive. Shortly after I started the hours changed from 20 to 24. I thought this would be a great opportunity to graduate faster, but soon found out that it just wore me out. Along with the full time hours on every Saturday, I just couldn't keep up with the schedule and remain healthy.
My kit and the school's equipment started breaking and no one seemed to care. Pipes would leak and the toilet was broken for over a month. You can only run 2 shampoo bowls at once without it effecting the water temperature and pressure. I lost my break many times because I had to wait to wash my mannequin head.
The rules changed every other week I was there. I started getting very confused and nothing was ever explained. Sometimes they would enforce the rules and sometimes they wouldn't. Some people were sent home for wearing the wrong thing and others were not. Randomly one day we were told we were not allowed to leave the building on our 15 minute breaks, even to get something to eat. We could only smoke. One teacher said it was because people were getting drunk and high at their cars and another said it was because they had to show an inspector every student at any given moment. Which explanation was the truth? I never found out.
Now I love makeup and I hate to use anything that is too old. Regency's makeup was very old, it was clearly past it's expiration date. Someone told us some of it had been there for over a year. It was very dusty and hard to work with. Most of the labels had come off. I didn't want to go near it.
The last straw came when the staff clearly started to play favorites. I was yelled at on several occasions because the staff had heard from someone else that I had said something. This was so unprofessional. A teacher randomly disappeared one day and we were told not to react to her disappearance. This wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been the assistant administrator and my favorite teacher. I was also frustrated by the fact that there was no financial aid advisors or anyone else on staff in our campus. They were all up in MN.
Although Regency has a few good qualities, they ARE one of the top 3 beauty schools in the nation (along with Aveda and Paul Mitchell), the cons highly outweigh the pros. If you want to go to beauty school, think twice about attending Regency. I've left the school and am now going elsewhere even though I owe Regency money, I don't care.
0 comments