This year BeautySchool.com has been working with some of the most influential beauty minds to find the top beauty blogs for 2012. These blogs are the perfect example of long hours and hard work perfecting their beauty sites and Beautyschool.com wants to award them for a great job.

Who doesn’t love free stuff – especially around the holiday season?

We are on the lookout for unique and fabulous holiday hairstyles, and we want you to submit yours to our Facebook photo contest. The winner will get a collection of amazing hair care items absolutely free!

The Prizes:

• A hydration kit from Design Essentials Salon System
• A Brazilian Heat ceramic brush set by Mega Hot
• Vitae and Volumax professional hairsprays
• A hair taming system from Global Keratin

The Rules:

• This contest is only for hairstyles, so any entries focusing on clothes, makeup, nails, etc. will not be considered.
• Photo must have been uploaded to Facebook on or after Monday, November 28th.
• Participants must tag BeautySchool.com in the photo.
• Only “likes” that are entered before noon on Wednesday, December 21st will be counted.
• BeautySchool.com agrees to immediately ship the prizes to the winner once we have the correct contact information but cannot guarantee an arrival date.

Want to get an extra like? Tagging BeautySchool.com in the photo is pretty much required if you want to enter, but any participants who tag BeautySchool.com in a status update as well will get an additional like from us.

So get into the holiday spirit and show us your creative hairstyling skills! We can’t wait to see what you got!

Deidra Rains, Rains Foto

Freedom, Art, Respect, Community, Unity
By Guest Blogger: Valerie Reed

A night of hair, makeup and fashion? Yes! FARCU (Freedom, Art, Respect, Community, Unity) is brining all of those and more for this one-night event. On September 30th, at the Beaumont Club in Kansas City, come see local hair and makeup artists showcase their passion and talent on the runway!

The stylists include Mitsu Sato Salon, Jason Finney of Xenon, Shannon Layton of Shannon’s Place, Kristi Darby of Pigment Pie, Jen Thomas of Last Tangle, Sharlene Henthorne of Inner Hippie, Jami Hamilton Jewelry Designs, Artistic Beauty, and more!

Aside from all the glitz and glam of the runway creative show, live, digital art, and a visual arts gallery will also be showcased, along with an Art of Culture Influence lecture.

Need more reasons?
• Network with salon owners and fellow cosmetologists
• Surround yourself with inspirations and opportunities to learn from seasoned stylists
• Encouragement to continue in your studies and to grow as an artist

If this sounds like the event you have been waiting for, contact Valerie Reed at vkreed@gmail.com for tickets. Tickets are just $10, however, one lucky reader will receive two free tickets.

How To Win Free Tickets

Leave a comment to this blog answering the following question:

Why did you choose to enter the field of cosmetology and what are your goals?

New to FARCU? Here is what you need to know:
Started by Angela Luttrell, is a haven for artists of all kinds; cosmetologists, musicians, stylists, designers, writers, painters, photographers, the list goes on and on.  Founded with a belief of strengthening the Kansas City arts community, it has done just that. Through events and networking, FARCU has become an artist-marketing tool.
“Our goal is to provide awareness of art and how it has made an impact in our past, present, and future cultures. Within the awareness we strengthen each arts community.” – Angela Luttrell
Find FARCU on Facebook

Beauty school students dream of making the world a little more stunning. Beauty Schools Marketing Group (BSMG), the company that works with the well-known cosmetology school directory websites BeautySchool.com and BeautySchoolsDirectory.com as well as the beauty social networking site MySocialBeauty.com, wants to make that vision become real for hardworking students that want to pursue a career in cosmetology.

“We’re excited to announce that we are now taking applications for a $2,500 scholarship,” said Bridget Duffy, Director of Beauty Schools Marketing Group. “There are so many students who dream about entering the cosmetology field, but are worried about how to pay for the cost of school. We wanted to help make these dream careers a reality.”

Candidates will be selected based on their answers to various questions, including their most meaningful achievement and how it relates to their future in cosmetology and what issues they think are most important in the cosmetology industry today.

To apply for the beauty school scholarship, visit: http://www.beautyschool.com/beauty-school-scholarships

Watch the beauty school scholarship official rules here:

Photo provided by Junior Style Stars

Junior Style Stars awarded three cosmetology students over $85,000.00 in prizes during its 2011 competition season. Over 350 of the Nations top students competed in this online competition. Jenney Kohlenberg, a student at Hair California Beauty Academy has won the Junior Star Styles Peoples Pick Award and a trip to New York City to shadow celebrity stylist, Ted Gibson. Pavros Olivarez of Santa Monica College won the bridal categories top prize valued at $50,000.00. This prize includes cash, travel and one on one education with some of the industry’s most notable professionals. For the first time, Junior Style Stars had a men’s division and the winner was Jacob Nieto of Los Angeles Trade Tech. Jacob took home an all cash prize of $25,000.00.

The winners were all awarded their prize during a surprise presentation at their schools by Junior Style Stars founder Paul Barry and representatives from the competition sponsors. Each was presented their title in front of their Instructors and peers who supported and helped them win.

The Junior Style Stars competition invited cosmetology students to create a theme-inspired style demonstrating their skill at hair design and color. All students competed on identical Clic mannequin heads and had their creations photographed at J.C. Penney Portrait Studio locations across the country. All 2011 competition submissions reflected a style themed as either “Real Life Bridal” or “Men’s Open”. “We wanted the students to focus on the types of styles they will be creating once they graduate from cosmetology school, versus focusing on more fantasy-inspired looks,” noted Paul Barry.

Junior Style Stars is for the enhancement of careers in the cosmetology field by providing the platform for the future hairstylist to develop their artistic skills. Unlike other competitions, Junior Style Stars allows all students, regardless of location, to compete on a completely level playing field, void of all the usual politics. For information or sponsorship opportunities please contact, 1- 800-SHOW-432.

To view the competition and be a part of our over 4.5 million visitors, go to www.juniorstylestars.com.

We are thrilled to announce Cindy Batchelor from Rock Spring, WY as our winner of the Artisan Naturals Skincare contest. Batchelor has won a complete skincare prize pack valued over $200 dollars. To learn more about the contest, you can visit our contest page here.

Check out the BeautyschoolAdvice YouTube Channel to hear the official announcement.

Be sure to read our interview with the winner: http://www.beautyschool.com/skincare-products-winner

Beautyschool.com would like to extend a special thank you to Artisan Naturals for helping making this contest possible.

Have a beauty blog or a beauty webpage? Beautyschool.com is a huge supporter of beauty – as if you couldn’t tell. To spread the world on how awesome beauty is, we’ve created fun beauty badges for beauty lovers and users alike to repost on their blogs and share their beauty personalities.

Check out the entire beauty blog badge collection and pick one that describes you!

After a two week long twitter frenzy where followers were campaigning to win Professional Japanese Hair Shears, a winner has finally been chosen. Beautyschool.com is proud to present the winner of the Professional Japanese Hair Shear Twitter Contest via video, and also kick off the launch of their brand new YouTube channel. Look for us (username beautyschooladvice) and subscribe to stay up-to-date on the latest contest news and beauty school information.

Who claimed our pro shears (valued at $229)? Watch the video below and discover for yourself which contestant is the winner. If today wasn’t your lucky day then check back for another amazing beauty giveaway coming the beginning of June! Thank you to everyone who entered the twitter contest and special congratulations to our lucky winner! And if you’re not already, follow us on Twitter – @BSDiva.

Do you love to win free beauty products? BeautySchool.com has teamed up with Hair Royalty to giveaway a pair of Bushido professional Japanese hair shears – a $229 value! These sleek and sassy shears would be a great addition to your cosmetology kit.

Enter to win professional Japanese hair shears by following these three easy steps:

1)   Log on to Twitter
2)   Follow @BSDiva
3) Retweet the following message up to once a day during the duration of the contest:

Want to WIN professional Japanese shears from Hair Royalty? Follow @BSDiva and RT this to enter. Pick me! http://bit.ly/i1XYO0

The contest ends May 18th. The lucky winner of the professional Japanese hair shears will be announced on the BSDiva Twitter profile, BeautySchool.com, BeautySchoolsDirectory.com, and MySocialBeauty.com shortly after the contest closes.

All you have to do is enter! Get the full details and official rules here.

BeautySchool.com would like to thank Hair Royalty for donating the Bushido Japanese hair shears for this contest. Hair Royalty designs and sells “apparel, jewelry, accessories and gifts for the hairstylist to display the passion that is within”. Want to show off your love for the beauty industry? Check out the Hair Royalty store!

For the eighth consecutive year, the nationwide network of Paul Mitchell beauty schools will spend the months of February through April raising money for charitable organizations. In 2010, the schools raised an all-time high of $1.2 million, bringing their seven-year total to over $4.6 million.

This year they plan to raise $1.5 million for seven organizations: Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, Andrew Gomez Dream Foundation, Food 4 Africa, Fran Drescher’s Cancer Schmancer Foundation, and newcomers Morris Animal Foundation, represented by Betty White, and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

“We’re so excited to welcome Betty White and Dolly Parton this year, and we’re thrilled to welcome Leeza Gibbons, Donny and Marie Osmond, and Fran Drescher back again,” said Paul Mitchell Schools Dean and Cofounder Winn Claybaugh. “All of these incredible superstar celebrities will play an active role in motivating and encouraging our 12,000 future professionals as they take part in thousands of grassroots ‘FUNraisers,’ from cut-a-thons and car washes to fashion shows and charity balls. They’ve also joined an elite group of wonderful celebrities who’ve supported us in the past, including Larry King and Vidal Sassoon.”

Leeza Gibbons, whose Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation has been a supported charity since the FUNraising campaign began, says, “If I could start all over, I swear I would sign up to be a student at the Paul Mitchell Schools. These future professionals prove over and over again that they are committed to using their talents and passion for the greater good, and they really know how to spread the love!”

Returning to the campaign for the second year, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals founders Donny and Marie Osmond said, “In our family, we were raised to believe we all have a responsibility to give back and help others. We feel like we’ve found an extended family in Paul Mitchell Schools. From last year’s generous donation (twice the amount they originally promised) to the way they’ve reached out locally to the 170-plus Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals with their love, service, and passion, Paul Mitchell Schools have shown that giving back is not just about raising money.”