Kit Day: What You Get and Why It Matters

Every cohort has a day early on that students remember, and it is usually not the first day of class. It is kit day, the day you are handed the tools you will use for the rest of the program and, for most graduates, well past it.

• Your kit is professional equipment, issued to you, that you keep
• Learning on your own tools is what builds the muscle memory the work depends on
• Kit day is also the first time the program stops feeling like school and starts feeling like a trade

What Is In It

A cosmetology kit is built around the work you will actually be doing.

Shears and razors, combs and brushes, clips and sectioning tools, thermal tools, a mannequin for practice outside class hours, color and chemical service supplies, and the Aveda products you will use through the program. An esthiology kit is built the same way around treatment work: implements, linens, analysis tools, and the product line you will train on.

It is professional equipment, not a starter set. These are the tools you will still be reaching for in your first job.

Why Your Own Tools Matter

Anyone who has borrowed a pair of shears knows the answer to this.

Tools have a feel. The weight of your shears, where the balance sits, how your comb moves through wet hair. Muscle memory is built on consistency, and you cannot build it on whatever is available that day. From kit day forward, every cut, every section and every service is performed with the same equipment, and your hands learn it.

Taking Care of It

Part of kit day is learning maintenance, and it is worth paying attention to.

Cleaning and sanitizing, storing tools properly, keeping shears sharp and knowing when they need service, tracking what needs replacing. Professional tools reward care and punish neglect, and the habits you build in the first month tend to be the habits you keep.

The Day Itself

Kit day has a particular feeling to it.

Students who have been sitting in theory suddenly have equipment in their hands with their name on it. The program stops being something you enrolled in and becomes something you are doing. More than one graduate has told us that kit day was the moment it became real.

When It Happens

Kit day comes about a week after each class begins.

Our September cosmetology student artists receive their kits on October 1. Our next esthiology class starts November 12, with kit day on November 18. Cosmetology starts again in December: December 7 on the Monday through Wednesday schedule, with kit day on December 14, and December 10 on the Thursday through Saturday schedule, with kit day on December 17.

Financial aid may be available to those who qualify, and our FAFSA school code is 041745. Aid packages are often a mix of grants and loans, and loans are repaid. Kit costs are part of the total program cost, and admissions will show you the full figure rather than a piece of it.

Applications open October 1. If you want to see the tools before you commit to the program, come by. Call 505.294.5333 or visit avedanm.com to book a tour.