While recently cutting her mother’s hair in the Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Cosmetology program classroom, student Carmen Mankouski said the experience helps with her goal of someday operating her own salon.
Each year, Herkimer BOCES Cosmetology seniors and adult students participate in a cosmetology clinic named Salon Illusions with salon and spa services for community members – to give students practice doing hands-on work and interacting with customers.
“I think it’s incredibly useful,” Mankouski said. “It gives us real-world experience.”
Salon Illusions is located at the Herkimer BOCES William E. Busacker Complex at 352 Gros Blvd. in Herkimer. The salon is open to the public by appointment only from 9-11 a.m. on Tuesday through Friday. Call 315-867-2043 to schedule your appointment.
Available services, which are provided at discounted rates, include cuts, coloring, perms, manicures, pedicures, waxing and more under the supervision of Cosmetology instructors Holly Fischer and Sarah Jacquays-Alberts. Payments for salon services are used to offset the costs of putting on the clinic.
The two-year Cosmetology program is open to juniors and seniors in the 10 Herkimer BOCES component school districts and local adults. Upon successful completion of the program, students can obtain their New York state cosmetologist license to work in a salon.
Working with customers during the clinic is an important part of the program, Fischer said.
“They just need that real life work experience to prepare them to go out and work in a salon,” Fischer said.
Mankouski, a senior from Herkimer Central School District, said the clinic provides practice not only with salon and spa skills but also with communicating and interacting with community members.
“Working with a person is very different than working with a mannequin,” Mankouski said.
On Tuesday, Dec. 9, the person Mankouski was interacting with in the salon was her mother, Herkimer resident Regina Biando.
“I think it is amazing – so practical,” Biando said, noting that students gain skills beyond what they do directly in the salon and spa. “They learn how to work the desk – they teach everything they need to run their own salon.”
Mankouski said her plans for after high school include going to a barber school, working in a salon and eventually operating her own salon out of her home.
Biando said she was happy to attend the clinic to receive the services and help her daughter under the guidance of caring teachers. She described her daughter as “gentle” when cutting hair and “driven” to succeed.
“I will do everything I can for my daughter to have her own salon when she gets older,” Biando said.
Biano is also a graduate of the Herkimer BOCES Building Construction program and said that experience led her to a well-paying job as a union electrician.
“I definitely encourage everybody to go to this school,” Biando said.
Nearby Biando and Mankouski, another student was cutting her mother’s hair as Frankfort-Schuyler Central School District senior Jillian McKernan worked with Frankfort resident Gina McKernan, who is also the district clerk and superintendent’s secretary at Herkimer Central School District.
Jillian McKernan is grateful for the opportunity the cosmetology clinic provides.
“I think it’s pretty cool that we get to experience doing people’s hair,” she said. “We get the feel of what it’s actually like working in a salon.”
After graduating high school, Jillian McKernan plans to work in a salon as a side job while going to college and pursuing her career goal of teaching special education.
“It’s pretty helpful – especially when paying for college – and it’s just something fun to do,” she said, noting that it’s a job she will enjoy because she has known since she was little that she has wanted to do something involving working with hair.
Gina McKernan said she’s happy her daughter and other students can participate in the cosmetology clinic.
“It’s a great experience for them,” she said. “They’re very meticulous with cutting hair. I’m very proud of her.”
In the classroom, not far from the McKernans, Central Valley Central School District senior Adalyn Merritt provided nail salon services to her grandmother, Mohawk resident Deby Hogeboom.
Family members are often some of the first supporters of the clinic each school year, and Merritt made sure that would be the case for her. When Merritt recently invited family members out to dinner, they didn’t know why until she revealed it was to ask them to visit the clinic, Hogeboom said.
“She called a family meeting and said, ‘I need clients,’ and of course, grandma obliges,” Hogeboom said. “And I’ll definitely be back.”
Merritt said her sister and mother would be visiting the next day as well. Hogeboom, meanwhile, was enjoying the visit.
“I’m loving it,” Hogeboom said, of Salon Illusions. “I didn’t realize until she was here that it was something that was available.”
Merritt said she appreciates being able to work in the clinic.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to build customer service skills and get to know people in the community,” Merritt said. “It’s a really great help for working after high school.”
Merritt’s long-term goal is to work in psychology, but she plans to work in a salon while going to college in New York City to study psychology.
Completing high school with the skills necessary to work in an always-changing industry gives her more options, Merritt said.
“It feels very comforting knowing that no matter what happens I’ll have a career path I can take,” she said. “It’s a very good way to make money.”
Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Cosmetology senior Carmen Mankouski (standing, center), from Herkimer Central School District, cuts the hair of her mother, Herkimer resident Regina Biando (sitting) on Tuesday, Dec. 9, during the Cosmetology program’s Salon Illusions clinic. Cosmetology seniors Kaitlyn Pierce (standing, left) and Jaylyn Gregory (standing, right), both of Herkimer Central School District, watch on.
Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Cosmetology senior Jillian McKernan, from Frankfort-Schuyler Central School District, cuts the hair of her mother, Frankfort resident Gina McKernan, on Tuesday, Dec. 9, during the Cosmetology program’s Salon Illusions clinic. Gina McKernan is also the district clerk and superintendent’s secretary at Herkimer Central School District.
Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Cosmetology senior Adalyn Merritt, from Central Valley Central School District, provides nail salon services to her grandmother, Mohawk resident Deby Hogeboom, on Tuesday, Dec. 9, during the Cosmetology program’s Salon Illusions clinic.
Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Cosmetology senior Carmen Mankouski (standing, center), from Herkimer Central School District, cuts the hair of her mother, Herkimer resident Regina Biando (sitting) on Tuesday, Dec. 9, during the Cosmetology program’s Salon Illusions clinic. Cosmetology seniors Kaitlyn Pierce (standing, left) and Jaylyn Gregory (standing, right), both of Herkimer Central School District, watch on.