I have been going to Paul Mitchell The School now for about 6 months. My tour was amazing. They talked it up so much & made me think I was going to be making an a$$ ton of money as soon as I was out of school. This is not true. At Paul Mitchell they only teach you their system & with their products. This is not what salons are looking for. Every salon has multiple brands & products. No salon is looking to reteach everything out of school. There was also sooo much drama & cattiness & favoritism. If you aren't what is considered a "visionary" & constantly doing charity work for them, running clubs, & kissing the learning leader's a$$es learning leaders were not nice to you, at all. I went part time, & they never gave part time as many opportunities as full time & gave full time so much compliments & recognition, but could care less about part time students. I'm half way through the program & I barely know anything. Core was a joke, & we did the same few color applications over & over & only a couple basic non tendy haircuts that people wouldn't even ask for now a days. I was supposed to start on the floor, but with little knowledge I have & seeing only 2 learning leaders out there to help multiple students, you barely get any help & are left guessing hoping you don't f*ck someone's hair up. I also paid over $3,000 for my kit, & we barely got the basics. I would still of had to go out & purchase so many other things, which is ridiculous. Between all the catiness, the school mainly focusing on fundraising & charity all the time & not teaching as much as they should, & nor preparing us for salon reality, & lying making us think we're going to make tons of money straight out of school, is a lie. They literally took all over my college money my parents saved up for me. I didn't even finish school & they still took my parent's full $10,000 they paid for me to go. I'm so disappointed & wish I looked at other cosmetology schools, or decided to maybe pursue something else. I feel so bad that I made my parents waste all this money & not get it back when they were already nervous about me going to cosmetology to begin with. I don't suggest wasting your time or money here, unless you want an education that is unrealistic with no salon reality experience & leaves you clueless on many products & what to do. Everyone else also mentioned how phony everyone is, & thats 100% true. We have a book our school goes by called, "Be Nice or Else" & people treat it like complete bs. Everyone is so phony, kisses a$$ to get what they want, & doesn't go by any of the logic in the book. & it's sad because it's actually a very helpful inspiring book. This place it just money hungry & unrealistic. I wish I never paid a full $20,000+ to go here. Don't waste your time.

I toured this school feeling so excited. Everyone in financial aid was so sweet and assuring me that I’d love it. I decided to take night classes (because I work during the day) only after they ASSURED me we got everything they did. Well this was not true whatsoever. I quickly realized how big of a mess this school was when my core classes and my protege classes got cut short 2 weeks EACH. I was then thrown onto the floor with the ONE teacher we have a night (to help about 25-30 girls) Hmm. I had never spoken to her, with girls I had never spoken to either, and asked to do things on clients hair that I had never even been taught. I was supposed to feel comfortable coming to this woman for help when we have established no type of relationship and she doesn’t even know my name?? We learned from VIDEOS. Sometimes the teacher would even leave in the middle of the haircuts and tell us to finish it from the video. I didn’t come to “college” to watch VIDEOS. I’m not paying thousands of dollars to do something I can do at home. People get their things stolen everyday, teachers included. No one cares about the students, they only care about the money and selling product. It makes me sick. It all feels so phony and so fake and I couldn’t stand to be there anymore. I dreaded going every single day to the point where I just stopped. I went in one night after a week of being gone just to see how it would go. I told myself it was a trial night. Immediately upon getting there I am made to stand outside the classroom in single file and hold my arms up so that our learning leader can “inspect” our dress code. I was told my long sleeve buttoned up black shirt was inappropriate because the front of the shirt didn’t come down to my fingertips when my hands were at my side. That’s never been a rule??? There are girls that showed up in see through lace, crop tops, leggings and tanks. It blew my mind. It’s all about favoritism. If you don’t kiss their butt, they don’t like you. And they will pick on you for it. I then got my things thrown out of my classroom and onto a table out in the hallway for any and everyone to walk past and steal if they wanted. A $400 purse actually. Thrown out without telling me. Inside being my wallet, car keys, personal things no one else has any business touching without my permission. So after this finally, in the same night, I get a client. My first client actually on the floor. Never taken a random walk in, only family. So I was nervous, obviously. I have terrible anxiety and they just don’t seem to get that. They told me I might need to just cry and throw up then get over it. My first client was a color CORRECTION. I haven’t worked with color that often, I’ve never taken a walk in, and they want me to CORRECT this woman’s botched hair when all of the other more experienced girls on the floor are sitting and doing nothing? I freak out, break down, start crying. Finally pull myself together enough to where I’m just going to do it and get it over with. Have my first client under my belt. So I set up my station. Took a few minutes, yes. Then I go to grab my client. Right before I get to her the learning leader steps in between me and her and screams “DID YOU JUST GET THAT TICKET?!?!” Well I’m confused now because SHES the one that handed it to me 10 minutes ago. Sorry the guest had to wait 10 minutes when coming to a SCHOOL to get their hair done. Get over yourself. So right when I thought I built my confidence up to do this woman’s hair, it immediately gets shot right back down. In FRONT of this woman who is supposed to be my client. She now thinks I’m an idiot and I could see the hesitation on her face as I went to shake her hand and introduce myself. After I sit her in my chair I draw a blank. I panic. I had to leave to go to the back and I cried. I paced up and down the hallway crying until finally someone (a student) asked what was going on. I broke down and ended up going to the financial aid office and told this lady everything that has been happening. We DONT have the teachers we need. We ARENT getting the education or support we need. I DONT feel comfortable doing practically anything because I feel I wasn’t taught enough. After telling all of them this and recomposing myself enough to go back out there, they ask me to go home because I “refused” a client and someone else had taken over my ticket. So I left. No problem, I didn’t want to be there that night anyway after that. Next day, my dad comes in to speak to them. They basically refuse to talk to him even though he left his job early to come see them. They tell me the owner can’t talk right now because he’s in a conference call but will gladly take his name and number and contact him about the situation. Never got a call. Haven’t been back since. Just got a message saying I need to return all of my stuff if I’m withdrawing. That’s all they care about. Not WHY I’m leaving. Not IF I’m okay. Just the money. Just want their stuff back. This school is a JOKE. Most every single girl that attends this school hates it so much. Shouldn’t that mean that there’s something wrong and something should be done to fix it??? DO NOT GO HERE. SAVE YOURSELF AND YOUR MONEY. JUST THREW THOUSANDS DOWN THE DRAIN FOR NO EDUCATION AND NO SUPPORT. THIS SCHOOL IS A JOKE.

I attend a PMTS and this is mostly attention (TEMECULA GIRL). Not everyone can be a spoiled little brat like you who's mother probably funded a new office for the director. I am 200 hours from graduating and currently living with lung cancer early stages but have been fighting it for the past 2 years I have been attending. I do miss a lot of school because of the illness. But I do not like to be negative and talk about poor me feel sorry for me therefore I do not tell everyone the severity of my illness just that I'm sick. Whenever I am at school I am constantly asking if I can help. Passing out forms doing any of the teachers lazy work. Or working on my doll heads because the rude a$$ self involved teachers don't give me clients because I'm always late or because I miss to much I only get constant lectures about how I'm not a visionary and I will only get out what I put in well guess what I put in 23000 bucks and I'm the only dam n student in there is always trying to be productive by working on my dollheads or asking to help anyone. I was actually wrongfully terminated for missing too much (even though I was still good according to contract) had filed a complaint with the state board hey then fired their director and let me return yet still they treat me the same even now knowing that I have cancer and am constantly trying to do work. The other horrible part is paying 23000 dollars if you don't get clients to practice color you have to pay 5 bucks a bowl of color to practice on a doll head what kind of sh1t is that. And I can't work since I'm also attending school full time it is too much damag on my body's conditionThis may be a very negative post about them but it's because I'm remaining nameless and not saying what city I'm in. But I am the most positve person in that dam n school but still treated like I don't care about it. This is only the fairytale version if the story being I left out most of bullying from teachers and students. So much that whenever I was there I was forced to sit in the very back corner of the clinic floor or people would constantly bump into me when cutting or coloring my doll head, on accident they would say but funny they don't run into everybody else. The few times I do get clients the teachers avoid me like the plague so my client is then forced to sit there for hours trying to leave when I am already finished but no one will sign off on it. I can't wait to be done with this bullsh1t what's really sad is I have wanted to do this my whole life which is why I'm fighting so hard for it every day for over 2 years now and after all this I don't even really want to do it anymore because they have made me hate them so much I lost all my love of hair. I can't even honestly say I've learned a single thing from them I usually watch YouTube vids or other vids to learn and then test them out while I'm at school on a dollhead that is if I can afford the color. I would love nothing more than to sue them for all they are worth for discrimination being protected under ada but that is not worth all the negative energy so I just want to finish and never give them another thought. But just remember Temecula brat that not everyone will suck a D for an a and some of us work harder than your rotten brain can probably even fathom but will still be treated like shit.

Hi there,

I just want to respond to the rip off complaint about Paul Mitchell the School San Diego. I was bullied at this school relentlessly.
My experience as a student here was nothing short of totally horrible. I actually ended up graduating from Vidal Sassoon in Santa Monica Ca. I got into a shouting match with the director of Paul Mitchell the School San Diego and ended up breaking my student contract with PMS. I could get into the ugly details of what went on, but it was a nightmare for me and I am glad not to be associated at all with this school now. All my hairdressing friends are graduates of Vidal Sassoon. Vidal Sassoon has been great to me. Also for all my Jewish Brothers and Sisters out there, investing with Vidal Sassoon for your cosmetology education always is a good safe decision.

Paul Mitchell the school San Diego.is such a rip off and they do not care

Paul Mitchell the school Chicago . . . Such a waste of my 23 grand. I was surrounded by the lust for money and the ongoing desire for fame. That was the most backwards place I've ever been apart of. I would talk to students from the school your thinking about before signing anything.

I suppose if you're the favourite of these people, you would say this. If you're not kissing a$$ constantly though, you don't get clients. The majority of the attendees of this school act like they are still in high school. And some are even as bad as middle school. Educators & administrators included. Sure, there might actually be a few good Paul Mitchell Schools out there, but there are pages & pages & pages of complaints from all over the country for a reason. People don't warn others just for fun. I went in with such a positive attitude, excited to go to school for the first time in a few years. I hardly enjoyed my high school or the experience there. I was excited to finally be out & do something I love to do. It started out okay. It then just went downhill. Educators change regularly. They just "wing it" most of the time with class. There is no structure. Plenty of them leave the room & disappear regularly. Might I add, the core teacher was only in the room 15% of the time. The other 85%, who knew. Students get "oopsed" for sitting in the only semi-quiet place there is to try & study. I've done more hair on my own in a month than I did in the 8 months I attended this "school." It's drama-filled. I understand with a school full of mostly girls that can happen. But when the educators & administrators play a huge part in the drama, & cause so much of it, I find that to be unacceptable. I know that the experience is supposed to be "what you make of it, " but I've spent my entire time there trying to make something good out of it, but when there is all the drama, the lack of education, & all the just plain bullsh!t, this is not a good school. In the Be Nice Or Else book, there is a section where it talks about how you should be nice, but don't fake being nice, because it's just as bad if not worse as not being nice at all. This is most of what I see; fake attitudes, false people, hurtful intentions. The theory behind the Paul Mitchell Schools is wonderful, but unfortunately that is far from what goes on.

Omg I completely agree with everyone who says pm schools are a cult I glad to find I'm not the only one who feels this way. And to the people saying that everyone who dislikes theses schools is a slacker is false. I have works two full time jobs and studied part time for a year before and never had a complaint working in my life however I do have a problem with kissing a$$ and being a phony two faced fake that talks in a creepy low calm voice saying crazy things like " I just want to face so and so for doing highlights. I just wanna say I love you and I love all of my learning leaders. You all just inspire me so much and have changed my life." at this piont the phony learning leaders reply with the fakest voice ever in return to what this fake a$$ kissing student has just said and they say something like " Awwww thank you so and so it just such I pleasure teaching all of you you have all changed my life and i love all of you" at this piont both phony learning leader and future professional hug each other. Ohhhh please give me break. To any future professional who says they loveThat's it and now I'm upset more because the car paint got on my sweater :( I'm telling you this weekend has been nothing but spilling paint everywhere lol this school. Your experience being easier has nothing to do with hard work. It had to do with fake I love yous and free hugs. Since when did a hug ever cost money. And since when did people start throwing out the words I love you so freely. The answer is it is all fake. And the people who follow it are fake. Honestly it doesn't even take much of accomplishment to work as a future professional at these schools. As long as you where a phony student while you were there and you work at the 5 dollar haircut place around the corner for 6 months you can come back and teach how unbelievable is that. There is actually a student who was graduating around the time I started and now shes a learning leader That's like the blind leading the blind The saying those that cannot do teach completely rings true at these schools I could go on and on forever but just a few things that has happened to me is girls starting fights multiple times for no good reason my car getting keyed and learning leaders being very smug with you and treating you like your 5 when they are the same age as you. Expecially of you are even remotely attractive you are screwed right away. The first day I walked in with smiles and excitement I got nothing but glares from many of the learning leaders and I was automatically disliked from day one. That's what happens when you key some one with absolutely no real requirements other thatn being fake hold the job as authority. They abuse the power and favorite they friends and hate and make the lives miserable of the people they dislike or feel threatened by. It's basically equivalent to taking the most immature girls in a high school and saying hey now your a teacher and leaving them I charge of the rest of the class. Expect there to be catty ess and never expect for there to ever be an ounce of professionalism at a Paul mitchel school

I am two years into hairdressing and work with like freshman that came out of PM Schools. All of them are pompous a$$-you-know-whats and can't do hair any better than someone out of an affordable government funded school. Puleeeese take my advice: Don't spend the $$ now. Get your affordable, basic cosmo education JUST to get your license and THEN, after you've had a few haircuts under your belt, if you have the dough, spend money with advanced education at a Vidal Sassoon or Toni & Guy studio. It was advice given to me after almost signing into a PM School and I am eternally grateful! I currently take inexpensive COSMOPROF classes every month and joined PBA in order to attend the big trade shows and many classes for free or at a discount. I am learning and getting better rapidly. Always continue your education and fore-go this nonsense! ;-) Good luck and GREAT hair to whomever reads this!!