Beauty schools

The first turnkey wellness curriculum for beauty schools

  • Reduce burnout
  • Improve retention & culture
  • A standout recruitment tool
  • Protect mental health
  • Extend career longevity
  • Support your teachers
Six beauty pros laughing together in Vitality Project jackets
for Beauty Schools
12,000+Students supported
Made for schools with programs teaching
Two stylists with finished blowoutsCosmetology
A barber cutting a client's hairBarber
An esthetician performing a facial treatmentAesthetics
A nail tech holding polishNail tech
A massage therapist at workMassage therapy
Cosmetology
Barber
Aesthetics
Nail tech
Massage therapy

Trusted by

Beauty Gives Back Pivot Point Beauty Changes Lives Professional Beauty Association American Association of Cosmetology Schools
Set the standard

Become the most sought-after beauty school to attend and work for.

Set the standard at your academy. Equip teachers, students and staff with the tools needed to navigate and thrive in today’s industry.

World-class education isn’t just about technical skill alone. It’s about developing regulated, resilient, emotionally intelligent professionals ready for the realities of a professional beauty and wellness career.

Elizabeth Faye teaching at a whiteboard beside a Vitality Project banner
Pages from The Vitality Project workbook The Vitality Project lessons inside Pivot Point LAB The Vitality Project workbook Official Vitality Project School crest
Why wellness matters

Are you investing in your greatest asset? Your students & educators!

88%

of beauty school students are dealing with one or more wellness issues: mental and social health, financial worries and physical wellness.

97%
of instructors agree, and see their students struggle, primarily with anxiety, financial stress and family or relationship issues.
94%
of instructors have seen mental and social health challenges hurt student performance: less participation, less interest in finishing school or the state board.
87%
of instructors face personal wellness challenges of their own: mental wellness, work-life balance, health and finances.
43%
of students face social challenges at school, and 83% of them say it negatively affects their performance.
Pivot Point Research by 700+ beauty school students and 200+ instructors, in partnership with The Vitality Project

Schools that prioritize wellness don’t just enroll students. They graduate them.

The Vitality Method

Taking care of the professional behind the profession.

Every lesson, challenge and check-in is built around six dimensions of Vitality, the foundation for healthier students, stronger educators and a school people want to stay in.

The Vitality Wheel, six core areas of human vitality
Mental healthFocus, resilience and tools for mental health that hold up in a full classroom.
Physical vitalityEnergy and healthy habits that survive long clinic days on your feet.
Spiritual growthValues, purpose and meaning, so the work connects to something bigger.
Emotional resilienceEmotional intelligence and practical tools to regulate stress and navigate hard days.
LeadershipCommunication, conflict resolution and the soft skills a professional career runs on.
Career longevityA sustainable career, planned for from the first day of school rather than the fifth year.

Dream schools don’t happen by accident, they’re developed.

Stand out in the marketplace. The Vitality Project provides the wellness curriculum & culture systems. You cultivate the environment and champion the culture. Together your school thrives through experiencing…

IncreasedStudent & Employee Retention & Recruitment
ImprovedCommunication Skills & Emotional Intelligence
IncreasedStudent & Teacher Productivity
ImprovedStress Management & Overall Mental and Emotional Wellbeing
IncreasedMotivation & Inspiration
IncreasedStudent & Teacher Career Satisfaction & Longevity
ImprovedLeadership & Trauma-Informed Facilitation Skills
Create a cultureOf Wellness & Heart-Centered Coaching
The problem we solve

You can’t assume it’s common sense. You must make this common knowledge.

Nine of the challenges schools carry every term, addressed by one curriculum that arrives classroom ready.

Retention
Recruitment
Mental, emotional & physical health longevity
Engagement, all generations & neuro diversities
Conflict resolution
Trauma informed coaching training
Stress management
Burnout prevention
Social emotional learning
How we plug & play

A wellness curriculum that addresses the challenges you face daily.

Through simple, consistent education, The Vitality Project naturally becomes part of your education and your culture.

Wellness curriculum

Easy to use, built-in wellness curriculum for students’ and teachers’ growth. Prevent burnout. Comes classroom ready.

On-demand wellness tools

Meditations, movement practices, breathwork. All readily available with instant access for staff, teachers or students anytime, anywhere.

Teacher & staff training and ongoing support

Easy onboarding, ready to teach in one hour, and hands-on support to implement in the classroom, clinic floor and across your whole staff.

Trauma informed teacher training

Specific trauma-informed leadership and teacher trainings for anyone on your team who deals with people daily.

A peek into our curriculum

Built for schools.

Nervous system education, emotional intelligence, burnout prevention, boundaries and communication, career sustainability, and leadership foundations, woven into an easy-to-teach system your educators will love.

01

Social emotional learning for beauty pros

02

Emotional intelligence & communication

03

Nervous system education & regulation

04

Burnout prevention & career sustainability

05

Leadership foundations & conflict resolution

The Vitality Project printed workbook The Vitality Project curriculum on tablet and screens A student pinning up The Vitality Equation poster
What this looks like in action

The whole thing lives in one simple platform.

Educators open a lesson and teach it. Students open the app and practise. Everything your school needs sits behind one login, on a laptop in the classroom or a phone on the clinic floor.

The Vitality Project lesson library open on a laptop
For educators

Ready-to-teach lessons, slides and prompts. Open it and go, no prep night before.

For students

Meditations, breathwork and movement on demand, between clients and between classes.

For your school

Printed textbooks are available too, so the curriculum works on paper as well as on screen.

What your school actually gets

A signature wellness curriculum, and everything around it.

Wellness curriculum

Fourteen core lessons, hosted, with videos and lesson plans ready to teach.

On-demand wellness tools

The Vitality app for every student and teacher, with the on-demand library.

Train-the-trainer

Your Vitality Ambassadors and every teacher trained, on their own or as a staff mini retreat.

Ongoing support

Train-the-trainer sessions on Zoom with our lead education team, scaled to your school.

A peek inside

Wellness at every touchpoint.

From the first tour to the last day, here is where the program lives in a school.

The Official Vitality Project School Trust badge

Recruitment

Give future students a reason to choose your school over your competitors. When prospective students are comparing schools, show them something bigger than curriculum and licensure: a school that invests in the person behind the professional.

The Vitality Project table at a school open house

Admissions

Give your admissions team something meaningful to sell. When a prospective student is deciding where to invest their time, money and future, every school has a curriculum to point to.

A Why Wellness Matters board covered in student sticky notes

Orientation

Set the energy on day one. Orientation is where students decide how they feel about your school, so make it the moment they get excited and motivated.

Elizabeth Faye teaching at a whiteboard beside the Vitality Project banner

Classroom

Fourteen core lessons, right at the start. We recommend teaching the fourteen core Vitality lessons in Phase 1, the foundational period for new learners.

Students on the clinic floor adding sticky notes to a Why Wellness Matters board

Clinic floor

See the soft skills in action. The clinic floor is where students meet real clients, and where what they learn in Vitality becomes what they do every day: holding a conversation, handling a hard client, resetting between appointments.

A student pinning The Vitality Equation poster on the wall of a Vitality Pod

Wellness as a culture

Give the program a room of its own: a Vitality Pod. Think of it as a zen den, the kind of small space lots of companies now have, where a student or educator can step in, breathe, reset and go back in.

A school team making hearts with their hands beside a Vitality Project banner

Teacher support

Teachers are the heart of a school, so we pour into them. Every teacher gets the program for themselves, not only your Vitality Ambassadors, so it becomes part of your culture and your training.

Vitality Project team members laughing together in the studio

Career readiness

The last months of school are about life after the license. Students graduate with boundaries, a way to reset between clients and habits that hold up in a salon, a spa, a barbershop, a lash studio, wherever their career takes them.

See every touchpoint
Client love

Real results from real schools.

Foster a people-centered culture, built on continued growth, wellness and health. Because what’s good for people is good for business.

Jillian de la Rosa Tully
“Their anxiety is so bad that they keep wanting to quit. But knowing that their teacher has that same anxiety and talks about realigning with their own values made them not quit. And that feels like such a win for me.”
Jillian de la Rosa TullyPhase One Cosmetology Instructor · Ogle School, San Antonio
Megan Simonneau
“They need that hour. They look forward to that hour. They know that’s an hour where they can solely shut off everything and be present in the classroom.”
Megan SimonneauCosmetology Instructor · Bellus Academy, Manhattan campus
Mimi Hawkins
“Educators try to pour while their cup is empty, while they’re in pain, while they’re grieving, while they’re going through all the things, but they’re still showing up.”
Mimi HawkinsEducation Support Manager · Ogle School, Central Dallas
Journei Bales
“My mom and I sat down one day and did the journaling activity from one of the lessons together. We ended up having a really meaningful conversation, and she cried. It was good.”
Journei BalesAdvanced Esthetics Educator · Crave Beauty Academy
Crystal Marrero
“I even talk about, 'I have access to this stuff too. It helps me. I've been in the industry for 12 years. Trust me, take advantage of it.'”
Crystal MarreroAdmissions Director · Ogle School
Kristen Bagley
“Your stuff resonated so much when you said 'we're not their therapist.' It's something our educators struggle with.”
Kristen BagleyRegistrar · The Elaine Sterling Institute
Rachel Graves
“Let's give each other grace. Let's motivate each other. Let's pat each other on the back and support each other and celebrate the small wins.”
Rachel GravesEducator · Tricoci University
Janae Goings
“I have coached a couple of our students that were just more comfortable with having somebody face to face on campus, just making sure that they know what tools and resources that they have as well.”
Janae GoingsCosmetology Instructor · Ogle School, North Dallas campus
Tracie Page
“I appreciate Ogle Nation as a whole for having the Vitality Project and being concerned with the well-being of students and staff alike.”
Tracie PageCurriculum Development Specialist · Ogle School
Zach Schneider
“Honestly I just love the magic that this program brings to our school.”
Zach SchneiderInstructor · Tricoci University
Highlighting the Vitality Project has been a very big win for us. It’s definitely one of the highlights of my interviews that I get to implement, and I get a lot of positive feedback. They’re really excited to dive into that side.
Lisa ConwayAdmissions, Ogle Schools
I think it has brought us closer as a team. It allowed for us to really be able to come together as a team to build each other up, as well as stand in for the students.
Rachel GravesEducator, Tricoci University
I know it’s working. I’ve seen it firsthand, not just talking about the admission side, but being on campus. I have had students logging into the Vitality Project in real time sitting side by side with me.
Crystal MarreroAdmissions, Ogle Schools
A whole school cohort making heart hands together
A school, all in
The Vitality Project table set up at a beauty school
On campus
Educators in front of a wall of Why Wellness Matters notes
Why wellness matters
Book a school demo

See it for your school.

Tell us about your school and we will set up a demo: the curriculum, the platform and the rollout, walked through with you.

Pricing is customized based on student count, educator access and integration level, so we will bring that to the call too.

Elizabeth Faye with a school educator in front of the Why Wellness Matters wall

Tell us about your school

Elizabeth Faye laughing against a wall of sticky notes naming how beauty professionals feel at work

A voice for the beauty industry. Hairdresser turned industry thought leader.

Helping beauty entrepreneurs with big missions change more lives. Helping human centric beauty organizations change the world.

Before launching The Vitality Project, Elizabeth Faye spent more than a decade coaching and helping change the lives of more than 30,000 paying clients. Her retreats, coaching programs, and communities created the foundation this work was built upon. She has worked alongside some of the beauty industry’s most recognized names and is now bringing everything she has learned into one connected experience.

A hairdresser turned trauma-informed life and health coach, somatic facilitator and workplace wellness expert, she brings mental health, healing and leadership into beauty in a way that is practical, critically needed and deeply human. She is a TEDx speaker, podcast host, author, and co-director of an award-winning documentary on Amazon Prime.

At the center of her work is The Vitality Project, the beauty industry’s first true workplace wellness program, built to integrate directly into salon systems and beauty school curriculums so professionals are protected and people first cultures actually get built. It is rooted in one belief: that each person has the power to create meaningful change.

Burnout shouldn’t be the cost of success.

Elizabeth Faye, Founder of The Vitality Project and Hair Love University

The story behind the mission

Elizabeth Faye on the TEDx stage
TEDx talk Watch the viral TEDx talk The talk that put burnout in this industry on a main stage.
A still from the documentary A Change Is Coming Documentary · on Amazon Prime Watch A Change Is Coming The award-winning documentary she co-directed.
Questions, answered

What schools ask us first.

How flexible is the program?

Very. It plugs into your existing learning pathway and can be taught live, digitally or hybrid. Every lesson stands on its own, so follow our recommended path or reorder it to fit.

All onboarding is digital and takes about 45 minutes. Schools do it themselves all the time, and we still give hands-on help with the kickoff for new clients to get things rolling. We are experts at making this program fit your school’s cadence. See The Vitality Project in Schools for a layout of every touchpoint: how to make wellness part of your school’s culture and curriculum from recruitment to the clinic floor.

How many student lessons are there and what comes with them?

14 core lessons. Each comes with a guided video, a workbook, a done-for-you lesson plan and an automatically graded assessment in your portal. Everything is digital, so you can go green or keep costs lean, and for an additional cost you can add beautiful printed textbooks. Students and staff also get The Vitality Project On Demand audio tool.

How long do lessons take to teach?

About an hour live, including all activities and time for shares. Roughly half that digitally, so plan on 30 to 45 minutes for a hybrid lesson.

How does it work?

Honestly, we have cadences we recommend across the board, and we have also created custom cadences for schools that needed something unique or different, and they have worked incredibly well. If our suggestions do not fit your school’s setup, we will customize them. In general, what follows is what 80% of our schools do.

The Vitality Project runs through every touchpoint of your school: recruitment and orientation, the classroom, the clinic floor, teacher moments and the culture and lifestyle of the school itself. The 14 core lessons are taught in the first 90 days, at 1 to 2 lessons a week (3 in a week is fine at the start).

After that, a monthly cadence keeps it alive. Each month one of the 14 lessons becomes the wellness theme of the month: the whole school does a mini Vitality Retreat together, playing that lesson’s video, once a month, school-wide. Between retreats, 10 to 15 minute Wellness Wednesday huddles keep the theme going with actionable ways to bring it into teaching and learning, and teachers even make wellness boards. It is very easy. See The Vitality Project in Schools: How It Works.

What support do you offer teachers?

Three teacher trainings at no extra cost, Elizabeth’s signature corporate wellness sessions: Heart-Centered Leadership, The Power of Language and Trauma-Informed Facilitation, each with its own lesson plan and activities. We recommend teachers complete them within the first 12 months and revisit them yearly.

They work asynchronously or synchronously, so teachers can go through them on their own or as a team. Companies love to run them as a mini retreat together, and they are a great tool for new hires in their first 90 days. It will create the best teachers you have ever had.

We are also hands-on as a company. Depending on your school size, we work with you over Zoom to train the trainers, develop your Vitality Ambassadors and support your team with workplace wellness.

How does teacher training and onboarding work?

Fully digital. A 45-minute video series, plus a Look At A Glance guide, walks teachers through the tools and lessons before they teach. New hires go through the same system. We suggest naming one or two Vitality Ambassadors to own the curriculum.

Official Vitality Project School badge

The first wellness curriculum built specifically for beauty education.

Setting the Gold Standard