Jean Madeline Aveda Institute — Local services in Philadelphia

Future Students please do your due diligence before attending Jean Madeline Aveda University City. I’m not here to discourage, but to inform. I started as a student on May 25, 2021 and withdrew June 18, 2021 as I refused to spend $20,000 at an institution where I was not receiving proper education, surrounded by unprofessionalism and taught in an unsanitary environment. To provide some insight on my experience, I’ll add examples below.

Don’t expect your teacher to arrive on time ready to teach. Beginning day one, the teacher (Ms.Z) came in about 15 minutes late. Her lateness continued throughout my time at Aveda. She would come in 15-30 mins late every single day. Also, her lateness was not only at the start of the day. She would come in 10-25 minutes late after our 15 minute breaks and come in late after 30 minute lunches. Nice lady, but struggled with tardiness!

Secondly, at one point, prior to me speaking up. Students would learn a lesson and be required to take a graded quiz immediately after. In my opinion, it is absurd to be required to take a test soon after learning a lesson (what I explained to the teacher). The teachers reasoning for having students take a test right after learning a lesson was because “It will be fresh in short term memory”. Her reasoning made no sense to me because are we being taught to pass a test or to retain the information? She also explained, in summary, Students take so many test that it’s okay to fail a few because the ones that Students pass will outweigh the bad tests. What teacher encourages their students to settle for the bare minimum? Nonetheless, after I spoke up we did not have a graded quiz after a lesson we just learned.

In addition, this is a short and gross one. Don’t be startled if while in class you see a mouse run by. Apparently, that’s typical there and the school struggles with a rodent issue. (Jill explained that fact to me the day before I decided to withdraw)

Lastly, the icing on the cake for me was Jill’s rudeness. I’m not sure what Jill’s exact position is, but I believe she is an administrator. There was an instance where I left a bowl on top on my locker. I was not aware that we couldn’t have items on top of our lockers. Long story short, Jill threw my bowl in the trash. It was a cheap bowl so it didn’t bother me. What caused an issue of concern was prior to her trashing my bowl, my classmate explained to Jill it was my bowl and she would give it to me. She explained to Jill that she would let me know to be mindful of where I place my items. Jill told her “if she wanted her bowl, she would have put it in her locker” and proceeded to trash it… Those are the type of people that run Jean Madeline Aveda University City.

Please, if you do decide to to come here. Do a tour and really get to know your teachers and administrators! I wish I would have toured (I was not able to because of COVID). If I would have toured I may have potentially saved myself from...

1. I called JM Wednesday afternoon (yesterday) to schedule a 6:30 PM appointment for Thursday (today). I called twice on Wednesday to confirm the appointment time. Today, I arrived at JM at 6:30 PM to find that it is closed. JM never bothered to leave me a message telling me that they are closed. I now have to scramble to figure out what I am going to do with my hair, on my own, tonight. I wanted to get my hair done for an event I have to attend early Saturday morning, and I do not have time tomorrow for myself or anyone else to do my hair.

2. I did not want to get my hair done at JM anyway, but they were the only school that SEEMED OPEN during times that I was free. Unfortunately, this school does not educate students on how to properly do Black natural hair. They are taught to comb out natural hair the second the client walks in and while it is dry (this is not okay). They are also NOT taught to clean out the brushes they use on a client's dirty hair before using it again after their hair is washed (this is not okay either). And finally, the students do not even OWN wide-tooth combs. Brushes tend to be too rough on natural hair and do nothing but pull it out. I came to my scheduled appointment today with my own comb because not a single person in the entire school had one the first (and the only time) I visited. There is also a commonly used blow dryer attachment that is fashioned somewhat like a wide-toothed comb--my student-stylist (of at least 5 months) had never heard of it.

I have had my hair serviced at beauty schools for years, across different schools and states. This is the first time I have ever been compelled to write a negative review. If you are wondering how I know what the students are taught at JM, I simply asked my student-stylist during my visit.

Update: JM called me the next morning after I posted this review. They stated that my voice mailbox was full, and that's why I didn't get a message. My mailbox was not full. So, while I could have done without the lie, they did offer me a free hair service to remedy their mistake. Luckily, my Friday afternoon cleared up, and they accommodated me same-day for a wash, press, and curl. The stylist I had was very familiar with Black natural hair prior to starting school and did...

If I could give them 0 stars I would! So disappointed and disgusted. I recently graduated from my esthetics program there and lets just say your paying for the name to be on your resume! I went in so excited to learn and start my dream career and quickly realized this wasn’t gonna happen. The teacher wasn’t there to teach or be hands on. She would show slides and then tell use to do review, we were there teaching ourselves. The entire class would be frustrated and confused when doing the assignments because we literally had no clue what we were doing! She wouldnt even go over the smart note with us. We wouldn’t even know if we our answers were right. When we would ask her to show us things that was hands on it was like PULLING TEETH. she never really wanted to show us we would have to ask Multiple times. We also found out when we had another teacher fill in for that we were also taught and told a lot of things wrong!!! I’m guessing just from her lack of wanting to show us or knowledge herself. Almost ALL the equipment was faulty n didn’t work, Things we PAID to learn with (equipment)we couldn’t because it didn’t work! All of the massage tables were so old they peeled n left reside on our pants! The sheets, towels and small towels were Extremely discolored old and had a smell. Staff members were so unprofessional and unorganized we didn’t know that we weren’t getting our kits, supplies and books until orientation day! And they told use we need a iPad or laptop the first day! Which was news to us because we paid for books. I’ve graduated and still haven’t received my esthetics books which we paid for! I worked very hard to pay for this program out of pocket like all the other students it’s a slap in the face to still not receive our books thats paid in my our contract. My advice to anyone that wants to go here is, if you already know the skill and have a job or career and just need your hours for boards this is the place for you. If you actually need/want to learn and experience great quality teaching...