My Experience with Paul Mitchell the School Fresno (and Max!)

My Experience with Paul Mitchell the School Fresno

So we all know I'm a Paul Mitchell Alumni. This is not a surprise to anyone.

And as alumni, I have a handful of privileges- one being that I'm allowed to come back if I want to take a class here and there, I'm finally allowed to be friends with my old teachers, and after I graduate (and when I get my first real cosmetology job), I get to come back to school for one day to get a bunch of services for free.

Yeah, being a Paul Mitchell alumni has perks.

So I called up one of the guys from the class I mentored in and basically told him the general idea of what I wanted to do, but I wanted him to be able to do anything he needed more practice in.

So although I'm a student, I still regularly hit up the school here and there to get my nails or hair done, and it never occurred to me until now-

I should review the experience!

And trust me, if you know anything about me by now- I'm brutally honest, pretty critical, and I do my best to remain completely unbiased.

SO LET'S ROCK AND ROLL:

The school is located at 5091 North Fresno St (kind of on the corner of Shaw and Fresno) and features a very normal looking salon in the front.

You can take a virtual tour of the salon on this website:

http://fresno.paulmitchell.edu/about/about-our-school

Behind all the salon fronts lies classrooms in the back for students to take scheduled classes:

See? Here's me assisting for Debra Dietrich. You can tell I'm assisting by the nervous weird way I'm standing and the 10 pounds I had lost in the process of being nervous.

In terms of the staff- everyone seems really helpful, and even the owners come though periodically to check things out.

See here? This is D'Ann, she owns the school and yet still comes into classes all the time.

And the students, of course, are hit and miss. Some are really active and others kind of mill around and look busy- which is normal at any school, university, or frankly any workplace I've ever been to.

So let's do a breakdown:

The salon in the front parts of the school seem very clean. Students clean up their stations after they've had a guest, and they even clean the front desks and product shelves- which to me says a lot. Coming into a clean environment, especially when it comes to a business where your hands and tools are going to be touching my head, is really important to me. 

The staff at the front desk are very accommodating. When I first called in to book my appointment, they were very cheerful and genuinely wanted to get me booked in and when I showed up on a busy Saturday they were still sure to say hi and that they'd be with my as soon as possible. AGAIN, that is something I really appreciate. You can't even believe the amount of times I've gone in a salon only to stand there while some high school kid files their nails or plays around with their phone- ignoring me in the process. (Meanwhile, there's like, no one else in the room so it makes it even MORE uncomfortable. Like, how much energy are you really devoting to ignoring me? That's insane.)

Cause let's face it- as a customer (and especially as a woman), I want to see a clean salon and a nice staff. Honestly. I could have left with a hole in my head and as long as someone greeted me kindly and said "thank you" on the way out, I wouldn't care.

So now let's talk about the "future professionals"/students/stylists:

In an effort to write this review, I looked up yelp reviews to see what other people were saying. (Counter productive? Maybe. Whatever. Shush.)

You know what comfused me the most?

Customers actually went into a SCHOOL thinking they were going to get the best damn haircut of their lives.

Seriously?

Did you miss the fact that this is a school? Generally, depending on who you get, you'll on average get a student who's been there a couple months. Did you think Paul Mitchell himself came down from the heavens and instilled his knowledge in their brains the minute they walk through the door?

I'm laughing, seriously. 

Would you go to a student dentist and expect the best crown on your tooth? Would you expect a kid who just learned to play basketball to get a slam dunk and make the backboard shatter glass? 

No.

So stop acting dumb.

You genuinely have to go into the school with a little bit of an iron stomach- and it's not because you're going to end up bald, or with green hair, or with anything crazy. You honestly need a stomach because they need you to. Those students are insanely worried every time you come in (I know because I asked and also because I was a student too). They want to give you the best experience they can on what little experience they know.

And don't panic, there's always a teacher 2 steps away quietly watching them work- ready to step in at any second. 

So anyway, I sat down in my chair and I had requested to get Max, a student I had formerly mentored while I was still there.

If you're seriously interested in getting a service done in the next 5 months while he's still at school- ask for Max. He is incredibly sweet and he's not afraid to ask for help when he needs it. I would definitely say he's one of those students who takes his job seriously (maybe too seriously, calm down Max! <3) and will bend over backwards for a guest. It also helps that he has that Disneyland- can-do attitude.

So we started with a basic facial and I have to say- it was awesome. It's sort of rare that I get to zone out and relax and Max was really awesome about making sure it was nice and quiet, that I didn't get overheated by the steam, and that generally I was comfortable and having a nice experience. Before the service, they have you fill out a questionnaire that helps them tailor their Dermologica products specifically to your needs.

I can't even tell you how nice my skin felt afterword. It was like baby's butt.

Then we moved onto my hair and honestly, I felt so bad for Max. I came in with dark roots and blonde hair that had basically turned yellow and although he seemed concerned the whole time- he did a fabulous job.

Before: Ugly, gross, crack addict blonde

After: super pretty, ash blonde that actually matched my natural coloring VERY well.

I got a lot of complements on my hair the last few days.

And the whole time my hair was being colored, treated and played with, there were teachers coming in and out to check on what we were doing and I had students ask if I needed water, magazines, and frankly just hung around to talk. (I'm alumni and Max is popular, you understand. *hair flip*)

So really, I had an awesome experience. Paul Mitchell really has a way of encouraging its students to be kind, helpful, and positive- even if you can tell they're panicking on the inside.

BUT HERE'S SOME THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:

These are people who are extremely new to the cosmetology world- and therefore they are going to look like you've ran over their dog pretty much 99% of the time. And they are going to go slow. Your highlights will probably be a 3 hour appointment. Your haircut will go painfully slow. It's normal. Just budget your time and bring in a magazine.

You are totally allowed to request a particular person. You not doomed to have a stranger every single time. If your friends' kid is a student, or you just know someone there, or you went once and want the same person again- you can ask for them. The front desk is really good about that. And on the flip-side, if you had someone you didn't really gel with, you can ask for a new student for next time. Again, the front desk is really good about that. (But I will say this, give them a chance. You never know that they're gonna learn in a month.)

When you're doing your consultation, the student and teacher who are assigned to you will at one point turn to each other and start talking crazy Paul Mitchell jargon like "diagonal slices" and "triangular layers with a square one length". I promise as much as it sounds like nonsense to you, it makes perfect sense to them. It's just how they learn to do their cuts and colors. 

They don't know what you want unless you tell them. They are not nearly experienced enough to ask you the right questions and frankly, they aren't mind readers. Bring in pictures, tell them how much time you actually spend doing your hair, and try to be nice about the experience. They're doing their best and they want you to be happy. If you don't like something, tell them so they have time to fix it. There's nothing they can do at 5pm when the doors are about to close and they've already finished your appointment.

So really, just keep in mind it's a school. These are kids who are excited and new, and there's always teachers there who ARE experienced to help and to guide them. As a customer you kind of just have to go along for the ride, but I promise you'll end up with something you love.

-SamanthaK