Beauty by the book and from the heart

Very few professions allow you to reap benefits in real time. And it's not always monetary.

For Janette Logan, it comes in the form of a student's first confident haircut. A trembling hand going steadily. A whisper doused with pride, "Miss Janette, did you see that?" A classroom full of aspiring hair artists becoming professionals in real time.

At 61, Logan is the heart behind Sumter's newest and only cosmetology school, Logan's Academy of Cosmetology, a dream she carried for decades and brought to life against all odds, including a global pandemic.

"I often thought to myself, 'Who does this?'" she said, her smile giving way to soft laughter. "I said to my friend, 'Who opens a school during a pandemic?' She said, 'Well, evidently, you do.'"

With more than 40 years in the beauty industry, Logan's journey began behind the chair in Clarendon County, transformed into barbering and eventually evolved into teaching. Her resume includes instructing at multiple schools across South Carolina before finally opening her dream school three years ago after Sumter Beauty College - the legacy institution where she once studied and taught - closed its doors.

Her face took on a warmer disposition as her mind drifted to the late Faye Smith. She reminisced on the impact the former Sumter Beauty College owner and instructor had on her and her life. How she poured into Logan and countless other students the knowledge and nurturing needed for this industry.

There are not many professions outside of medicine where you're licensed to care for someone through touch. In cosmetology, full-time students are licensed in 13 months while part-time can be in 18 months. It's a fast-growing industry, and Logan strives to keep educational entry into it affordable and inspiring.

Upon enrollment into Logan's Academy, whether novice or expert to cosmetology, everyone goes back to the basics. The curriculum blends old-school discipline, from finger waves and jheri curls to pressing combs, with modern trends, from bold fashion colors to less chemically processed styles and electric flat irons. Logan remembers the days of little girls shaking in the vinyl beauty school styling chairs, a hair shorter than the student stylist chosen to pull the piping hot pressing comb through their thick tresses. It was hard to tell whose shoulders were raised in fear the most: the child or the student.

Which is why Logan and instructors at the academy believe in teaching cosmetology front to back, from then until now. Whether it be hair, skin or nails, it all allows students to stare their fears in the face and realize "what you get is what you give," so give it your best. Many of the students, the majority just 17 when they enroll, arrive unsure and quiet, molded by a generation steeped in digital screens instead of face-to-face dialogue, Logan explained. Technology, though useful in keeping students up on trends in the beauty and fashion industry, sparking their creativity and allowing them to market their skills to build clientele, can handicap communication.

"This profession is a people-person profession, and we rely on communicating a lot of times. Many times, if the customer is not happy, it's because of lack of communication, so communication is key."

They may arrive quiet, but that's not how they leave, Logan assured.

In three years, 22 students have graduated from the local academy, boasting a 99% pass rate on the state boards. Logan sees many of her former students - loved as if they were her own - employed in salons, barbershops or running their own businesses. To see them prosper, both personally and professionally, emotionally and financially, to see folks around town sporting cuts, colors and smiles courtesy of her former pupil, it's priceless.

"It's a reward that money can't buy," she expressed. "This is the next generation of cosmetologists. Let's face it, we don't live forever. But what we can do is pay it forward."

Going from the pupil to the instructor, she knows the ins and outs of what her students face, what they endure, what they dream for and what it takes to achieve it. Cosmetology may not be for everyone, but it's for a lot of us, Logan expressed. This is her means of paying it forward - and encouraged those interested to reap the benefits of it.

"To me, it's the best job in the world. It is, in all aspects, whether I'm cutting someone's hair or whether I'm teaching you to cut hair. Whether I'm showing you how to paint a nail and not get it on the skin or I'm actually painting nails, it's the best profession in the world," she said, a knowing smile growing on her face. "But of course, I'm a little biased."