The Villages Daily Sun

THE VILLAGES — You might say Patricia Kramer is late for school. Some 40 years late.

“Coming out of high school, Patricia wanted to go to cosmetology school, but her father wouldn’t let her,” said Tanya Balyeat, basics educator at The Salon Professional Academy, newly opened in The Villages. “Now, she’s doing it.”

Kramer, 60, is the oldest student taking nine months of courses in cutting, coloring and styling hair, skin care, nails and facials, and salon management. Better late than never, she figures.

“I guess I’m not real good at slowing down,” said Kramer, who moved to the Village of Summerhill with her husband in April. “And I love people, so I thought this would be a good way to combine the two.”

Embarking on a new career when most of her peers are looking back at careers concluded is both exciting and daunting. But for Kramer, it’s all upside. Even if she later decides cosmetology isn’t for her, she still will have a wealth of knowledge she’ll put to good use.

“I’m 60, so I’m at the age where everything falls apart,” Kramer said. “By attending the academy, I will be able to figure out how to put it all back together.”

Her sense of humor will come in handy. The academy is very much a real school.

“It’s not just about cutting hair,” Balyeat said. “I don’t think the public realizes what’s involved. People think you go to school for two weeks, and then someone hands you a pair of shears and says, ‘Go cut hair.’ There’s a lot involved. We teach chemistry, anatomy, ecology, even electricity.”

Students must attend 1,200 hours of classes to gain a license from the state of Florida. To get those hours, Patricia and other students must be in class from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday-Friday. Students too ill to attend class must present a doctor’s note when they return. Also, classes missed for illness, special situations and emergencies must be rescheduled. And missing class can’t be risked: The Salon Professional Academy won’t pass a student with a grade average under 85 percent.

But Kramer is up for the challenge. Unlike the 20-somethings enrolled in the academy, Kramer’s already had a challenging career. In fact, she’s had two. After teaching modeling, she worked for her husband, an orthopedic surgeon.

“I think if you can learn orthopedics, you can learn anything,” Kramer said. “I just always have to have something new to learn. I have to have my mind challenged.”

Kramer is exactly the kind of student Shear Express owner Janet West hoped for when she began considering opening an academy to train cosmetologists four years ago.

“I’m very excited,” West said. “The Salon Professional Academy is a Redken-endorsed school. There’s one in Tampa, one in Inverness, one in The Villages, one will be opening in Gainesville, and another in Fort Myers in March. There will eventually be 175 Redken academies in the United States.”

West can’t imagine a better place for a cosmetology school.

“We have people in school whose parents actually live in The Villages, or their grandparents live in The Villages,” West said. “And we’re really looking forward to training service providers for salons in the area. There have to be 100 salons in the area that are in need of licensed service providers.”

There’ll be no shortage of heads for hands-on training.

“We’ve already had phone calls from groups that want to come into The Villages, go to lunch and then come to us,” said Diane Aust, admissions specialist for the academy. “A lot of people told me they supported the cosmetology school in their hometown.”

“People don’t realize that The Villages will support something like this, but it will,” Balyeat said. “I was telling our students this morning that they won’t have to be begging for clients.”

West and her staff won’t have to beg for students either. Six students have already signed up for classes that begin in January. The Salon Professional Academy will be able to accommodate 20 times that number when the academy opens at Lake Sumter Landing in mid-January. Until then, students are using a conference room at the Shear Express headquarters.

“We will eventually have a full roster. We’ll hold up to 110 to 120 students at different stages of training,” West said.

Prospective students should call Aust at 753-5511. Anyone with experience as a cosmetology instructor also is invited to call.

Gary Corsair is a senior writer with the Daily Sun. He can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 7907, or gary.corsair@thevillagesmedia.com.