Cosmetology at The Hair Academy LLC

The Hair Academy's cosmetology program has a serious earnings problem: graduates earn just $9,605 in their first year—less than half what cosmetology graduates typically make in Tennessee ($17,506) and barely half the national median. This places the program in the bottom 10% statewide and bottom 5% nationally. Even with 56% earnings growth by year four, graduates still only reach $15,023, which remains well below what peers at nearby schools achieve immediately after graduation.

The debt burden of $7,583 might seem manageable in isolation, but it becomes problematic when first-year earnings barely cover half the year's living expenses at minimum wage. Top Tennessee programs like The Salon Professional Academy-Nashville place graduates at $25,878—nearly triple what Hair Academy graduates earn initially. This gap suggests potential issues with the program's industry connections, placement support, or training quality that low debt can't offset.

For a parent considering this program, the math is stark: your child would likely struggle financially in those first years after graduation while servicing debt on poverty-level earnings. With 47 cosmetology programs in Tennessee and several nearby options producing graduates who immediately earn $20,000+, this represents a particularly weak choice in a crowded field. The moderate sample size gives reasonable confidence in these numbers, making them hard to dismiss as statistical noise.