HOUSTON - Thousands of would-be hair stylists had their educations cut short after the abrupt shut-down of a nationwide beauty school chain.
79 Regency Beauty Institute locations across the country have closed, including four in the Houston area.
“It just makes me so mad because I was so close.. I was almost done,” said student Julissa Gomez. Gomez says she needed just one more month to graduate.
“You put money and time into this and you don’t expect for this to happen, and it happened,” said Gomez. “And now I have to pay more money for a different school and wait, longer."
She’s among thousands of students nationwide affected by the Minnesota-based company’s decision to abruptly close.
Word went out late Wednesday night.
“I only had two weeks left,” said student Alex Tate. “And I paid them 800 dollars, they took all of my money last Wednesday, and with no warning they closed,” she added.
Students gathered early Thursday outside the Gessner Road location and said things ran normally on their final day. They received automated phone messages hours later.
“I’m just now starting the program, trying to better myself for my kids and something like this happens unexpectedly,” said student Queen Carter. “It’s not cool.. At all,” she added.
Regency address the sudden shutdown in a statement.
“In short, the organization does not have the cash to continue to run the business,” it read. “There are multiple intertwined reasons."
“This is not another case of a school being forced to shut down because it was accused of wrongdoing. We held ourselves to high educational and ethical standards. The environment is simply not one that allows us to remain open,” stated the release on the school’s homepage.
Regency cited declining enrollment as one of the contributing factors of the closure. But KHOU 11 News found that enrollment in Houston has actually risen over the last few years.
“I know, I feel bad about that,” said a manager outside the Gessner location. “I’ve lost my job also,” she added. “But our headquarters is handling the situation and told them the protocol they need to do.”
Regency says it’s mailing transcripts to students and working on a process to possibly help them transfer to other beauty schools.
“I’m not okay, and I’m not going to act like I am because I don’t know what I’m going to do,” said Gomez. “I don’t know what my next step is,” she added.
Students can collect their belongings again Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.