Most Popular Beauty Schools in NYC Metro Area

WRITTEN BY Beauty Schools Directory Editorial Staff | EDITED BY Sarah Mattie | UPDATED ON 03/29/2024

NYC Most Popular Beauty Schools

#1: Mildred Elley — New York

2,085 students enrolled

#2: Christine Valmy International School for Esthetics, Skin Care and Makeup — New York

1,215 students enrolled

#3: Brittany Beauty Academy — Bronx

903 students enrolled

#4: Parisian Beauty School — Hackensack

750 students enrolled

#5: Total Image Beauty Academy — Union City

701 students enrolled

Total Image Beauty Academy in Union City boasts a 100 percent licensure rate for its cosmetology and hairstyling students and a 79.4 percent job placement rate. It offers cosmetology training in English and Spanish, and students can attend courses full-time or part-time, in either daytime or nighttime hours. Its aggressive job-placement program prepares students for the workplace with employment skills training and counseling in addition to its cosmetology instruction.

Students can begin the 1,200-hour cosmetology program on the first Monday of every month. After mastering the basics taught during the first 600 hours, students obtain a doctor's certification and recommendation to proceed, then they can practice their skills on real clients.

One Yelp reviewer, a former cosmetology/hairstylist student, said, "Joining Total Image Beauty Academy was probably the best decision I have ever made. This school/the staff by far exceeded my expectations… With the help of the amazing teachers at Total Image, I was able to build my confidence, learn new techniques, and get my cosmetology-hairstylist license."

#6: Empire Beauty School — New York

606 students enrolled

#7: Capri Cosmetology Learning Center — Nanuet

546 students enrolled

#8: Christine Valmy International School for Esthetics and Cosmetology — Pine Brook

511 students enrolled

#9: Long Island Nail & Skin Care Institute — Levittown

510 students enrolled

#10: Atelier Esthetique Institute of Esthetics — New York

455 students enrolled

#11: New York Institute of Beauty — Islandia

433 students enrolled

#12: Aveda Arts & Sciences Institute New York — New York

382 students enrolled

#13: Robert Fiance Beauty Schools — West New York

378 students enrolled

#14: Innovate Salon Academy — South Plainfield

324 students enrolled

#15: Pro Beauty Academy — Edison

283 students enrolled

#16: Long Island Beauty School — Hauppauge

268 students enrolled

#17: New York School of Esthetics & Day Spa — White Plains

248 students enrolled

#18: Empire Beauty School — Brooklyn

243 students enrolled

#19: Long Island Beauty School — Bay Shore

238 students enrolled

#20: Empire Beauty School — Queens

210 students enrolled

#21: Artistic Academy of Hair Design — Morris Plains

196 students enrolled

#22: Empire Beauty School — Union

176 students enrolled

#23: Empire Beauty School — Bloomfield

170 students enrolled

#24: American Beauty School — Bronx

165 students enrolled

#25: Robert Fiance Beauty Schools — North Plainfield

156 students enrolled

#26: Berkowits School of Esthetics — Forest Hills

146 students enrolled

#27: Arrojo Cosmetology School — New York

144 students enrolled

#28: Cutting Edge Academy — Succasunna

123 students enrolled

#29: Grace International Beauty School — Queens

117 students enrolled

#30: The Lia Schorr Institute — New York

116 students enrolled

#31: Westchester School of Beauty Culture — Mount Vernon

95 students enrolled

#32: Paul Mitchell The School NYC — Staten Island

84 students enrolled

#33: Empire Beauty School — Peekskill

78 students enrolled

#34: Barber and Beauty Institute of New York — Hempstead

71 students enrolled

More NYC-Area Beauty School Rankings

Methodology and Editor’s Notes

We compared educational institutions from the Beauty Schools Directory database of beauty programs across the U.S. Those analyzed for these rankings were educational institutions that:

Report into the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)—predominantly institutions with programmatic accreditation
Had 50 or more students over the course of 12 months as of 2022
Were not a vocational/technical high school, community college, or postsecondary school that mainly offered programs outside of beauty training. We also excluded institutions offering massage therapy programs exclusively. These types of institutions were omitted for various reasons that make key data points difficult or irrelevant to compare apples to apples. We intended to compare standalone beauty schools or schools that mainly train beauty students.

Data was sourced from 2022, the latest available as of publication date.