How Beautician Courses Help Inmates Turn Their Lives Around
The Beauty Therapy course at Central California Women's Facility gives the women something to look forward to while serving out their sentence.
Elsa Lumsden wants to empower women in prison and give them the opportunity to live a different life than before their incarceration. For the past 13 years, Lumsden has run the Beauty Therapy course at Central California Women's Facility, where women are able to take cosmetology courses and eventually, become licensed cosmetologists after taking the state exam.
She fully believes in helping the women achieve fresh starts, and she feels satisfied as she sees her students progress. “You can see the changes in many of them once they’re in the class,” she said.
In an interview with Barcroft TV, inmate Barbara Chavez said that before the course, she had no confidence, and Lumsden’s class and the life skills she has learned has given her hope. Women in the program perform beauty services on one another.
The course gives the women something to look forward to while serving out their sentence, and course participants told their teacher that they’re grateful for the opportunity. The Beauty Therapy teacher’s course isn’t just changing lives inside the prison, it’s also impacting their lives once they’re sentence is over.
Many women have been able to get jobs at salons and some even open up their own businesses, proving that anyone can change their life, better themselves, and become productive members of society.
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