Cosmetology Schools in Tucson, AZ, Ranked (2026)

The 4 Cosmetology Schools in and Near Tucson, Ranked on Completion

4 cosmetology programs report to the US Department of Education from inside Tucson or within 30 miles of downtown. Every one of them had at least 40 students and a published completion figure, and they are ordered on the share of students who finish within half again the program's normal length.

Where a school's board record was matched, the card carries it. A school that appears here without one is not unlicensed; it means the board's file and the federal file did not agree on its name, and the Arizona page links the board's own lookup.

1. #1

   Pure Aesthetics Natural Skincare School

   Tucson, AZ · Aesthetician School License

   91%

   Share of students who finish

   • Esthetics
   • $12,717 program cost

   What the record shows

   Based in Tucson, Pure Aesthetics Natural Skincare School is on the Barbering and Cosmetology Board register. It trains toward an esthetics license only, which is a fraction of the hours a cosmetology license takes, leads to skincare, facials and hair removal rather than hair, and does not license you to cut or color hair. That makes it a different decision from the full cosmetology schools on this page rather than a smaller version of one. With 16 licensed schools in Tucson, this one is competing for students rather than the only option. The school graduates 91 percent, on a fall headcount of 53. Tuition is reported at $12,717 for the full program. Borrowing here runs to a median of $6,333 in federal loans, measured over 62 graduates. On the standard ten-year plan that is about $67 a month. Completion is the one figure that compares across trades, and 91 percent, 8 points over the 83 percent median, is a good sign. $12,717 is within 3 percent of the $12,459 median for a course shorter than cosmetology, which is dear for esthetics and worth asking about. 45 students completed a credential here in the reporting year. Verify the school's standing with the Barbering and Cosmetology Board before any deposit changes hands, since that record and not this one governs your hours.

   Where it leads

   Around Tucson, the median skincare specialist earns $51,030, the bottom tenth $37,670 and the top tenth $70,310. Few people hold this occupation locally, so a graduate is competing in a small pool and is likely to be known in it quickly. Tucson employs the trade at close to the national rate, around 200 people.

   Sources: US Department of Education, College Scorecard; Barbering and Cosmetology Board, read 2026-08-31.

2. #2

   Empire Beauty School-Tucson

   Tucson, AZ · Cosmetology School License

   83%

   Share of students who finish

   • Cosmetology
   • $19,200 program cost

   What the record shows

   Based in Tucson, Empire Beauty School-Tucson is on the Barbering and Cosmetology Board register. Its license covers cosmetology. With 16 licensed schools in Tucson, this one is competing for students rather than the only option. The school graduates 83 percent, on a fall headcount of 203. Tuition is reported at $19,200 for the full program. Borrowing is pooled across Empire Beauty campuses in the federal file, 817 borrowers at a median of $13,000 in federal loans. On the standard ten-year plan that is about $138 a month. It charges 54 percent over the $12,459 median and finishes about as many of its students as the typical school here, so the extra price is not buying a better completion rate. 126 students completed a credential here in the reporting year. Check its license with the Barbering and Cosmetology Board before enrolling, because that record and not this card is what makes your clock hours count.

   Where it leads

   For cosmetologists around Tucson, the range runs $30,580 to $61,620 between the tenth and ninetieth percentiles, with a median of $38,590. A 2.0-to-one spread from bottom to top is ordinary for the trade, and here as everywhere the top belongs to a client book. The work is somewhat more concentrated around Tucson than nationally, at roughly 1.2 times the usual rate.

   Sources: US Department of Education, College Scorecard; Barbering and Cosmetology Board, read 2026-08-31.

3. #3

   Aveda Institute-Tucson

   Tucson, AZ · Cosmetology School License

   82%

   Share of students who finish

   • Cosmetology
   • $12,200 program cost

   What the record shows

   Aveda Institute-Tucson operates in Tucson under license from the Barbering and Cosmetology Board. The board licenses it to train toward cosmetology. Tucson has 16 licensed schools, so there is a real choice locally. Of the 240 students in its fall count, 82 percent complete the course they started. Tuition is reported at $12,200 for the full program. Borrowing here runs to a median of $6,333 in federal loans, measured over 416 graduates. On the standard ten-year plan that is about $67 a month. Completion, price and borrowing all sit near the page's middle here, 82 percent against 83 and $12,200 against $12,459, 52 percent of the price borrowed against 60 for the page. Nothing federal separates it, so the clinic floor and the board file will. It awarded 183 beauty credentials in the reporting year. Verify the school's standing with the Barbering and Cosmetology Board before any deposit changes hands, since that record and not this one governs your hours.

   Where it leads

   Pay for cosmetologists around Tucson runs from $30,580 at the tenth percentile to $61,620 at the ninetieth, with a median of $38,590. Neither end of this market is extreme: the top tenth earns about 1.6 times the median and the floor sits 21 percent under it, which makes the first year a budget question rather than a survival one. The work is somewhat more concentrated around Tucson than nationally, at roughly 1.2 times the usual rate.

   Sources: US Department of Education, College Scorecard; Barbering and Cosmetology Board, read 2026-08-31.

4. #4

   Tucson College of Beauty

   Tucson, AZ · Cosmetology School License

   76%

   Share of students who finish

   • Cosmetology
   • $7,800 program cost

   What the record shows

   Tucson College of Beauty trains in Tucson, licensed by the Barbering and Cosmetology Board. Its license covers cosmetology. Tucson has 16 licensed schools, so there is a real choice locally. The school graduates 76 percent, on a fall headcount of 144. It charges $7,800 for the full program, which for a clock-hour course is the whole price rather than a yearly one. Borrowing here runs to a median of $6,333 in federal loans, measured over 123 graduates. On the standard ten-year plan that is about $67 a month. That is most of the $7,800 price arriving as debt, so the published cost and what a student actually finances are close to the same number here. Cheap, but 7 points fewer of its students finish than the 83 percent median, and in a clock-hour trade an unfinished course is the expensive outcome: you have paid for hours that never become a license. 120 students completed a credential here in the reporting year. Confirm the school's current license with the Barbering and Cosmetology Board first: that entry is what qualifies your hours, whatever the federal figures say.

   Where it leads

   Around Tucson, the median cosmetologist earns $38,590, the bottom tenth $30,580 and the top tenth $61,620. A 2.0-to-one spread from bottom to top is ordinary for the trade, and here as everywhere the top belongs to a client book. The work is somewhat more concentrated around Tucson than nationally, at roughly 1.2 times the usual rate.

   Sources: US Department of Education, College Scorecard; Barbering and Cosmetology Board, read 2026-08-31.

Other Licensed Cosmetology Schools in Tucson

Barbering and Cosmetology Board lists 16 currently licensed schools in Tucson. These 12 appear above, either because the school takes no federal aid and so reports no completion figure, or because its cohort was too small to rank. Being on this list means the board licenses the school, which is the thing that makes your hours count.

What Arizona's Merged Board Asks of Tucson Schools

The statute is specific: a cosmetology course of at least 1,500 hours of training, in a school licensed by the board. The second half is the part that bites. Hours earned somewhere the board had not licensed do not count toward a cosmetology license, whatever a school told you when you enrolled.

The board itself is recent. HB2029 folded the Board of Barbers and the Board of Cosmetology into a single Barbering and Cosmetology Board on January 1, 2022, and it now licenses barbering, cosmetology, esthetics, nail technology and a separate 1,000-hour hairstylist credential. One Tucson school holds a hairstyling school license alongside its cosmetology one.

On online study Arizona caps nothing by percentage. The rule lets a school move its theory curriculum to a screen and keeps the practical hours in the building, a looser shape than the flat 50% ceiling most states write. Our guide to online hours by state sets the two kinds side by side.

Two more Arizona details matter if you are looking past graduation. State law treats a board-licensed school as a postsecondary educational institution, which few licensing acts say outright. And Arizona joined the Cosmetology Licensure Compact, with multistate licenses offered at renewal from 2026, which concerns a license you hold rather than hours you are still earning.

Figures in this section: Barbering and Cosmetology Board; BLS OEWS, May 2025; College Scorecard, June 2026.

Four Ranked Schools and Twelve More on the Tucson Roster

Pure Aesthetics Natural Skincare School is first at 91% completion on 53 students, three miles out, at $12,717 for the program. It is licensed for esthetics rather than cosmetology, so it trains toward a different license than the three schools below it, and its graduates report $29,730 five years out.

Empire Beauty School-Tucson is second at 83% on 203 students and $19,200, with $13,000 in median debt, the heaviest here. Aveda Institute-Tucson is third at 82% on 240 students at $12,200, and its graduates report $31,501 five years out, the strongest earnings figure on this list.

Tucson College of Beauty is fourth at 76% on 144 students at $7,800, which is $11,400 less than Empire charges toward a license Arizona defines the same way. That price gap is the biggest thing on this page. Our methodology covers what the ranking reads and what it cannot.

The twelve schools with no federal record are worth a look on the board's map, because they change the shape of the choice. Six train barbers, one trains nail technicians, and the rest hold cosmetology licenses. Barbering is a separate license in Arizona, with its own schools and its own credential.

Figures in this section: Barbering and Cosmetology Board; BLS OEWS, May 2025; College Scorecard, June 2026.

What the Trade Pays Across the Tucson Metro

The metro employs 890 hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists at a $38,590 median, about 1.2 times the national concentration. That is $1,780 above the Arizona median of $36,810, and the top of the range is higher here too, $61,620 at the 90th percentile against $57,790 statewide.

Skin work pays best in Tucson. Skincare specialists earn a $51,030 median on 200 employed, roughly $12,440 above stylists, with a floor of $37,670. Arizona reaches much further at the top than Tucson does, $103,950 against $70,310 at the 90th percentile, so the biggest skincare paydays are elsewhere in the state.

Nail work is the flattest pay on this page. Manicurists in the metro earn a $30,870 median with a 10th percentile of $30,660, $210 apart, on 500 employed, and that median is $4,420 under the state's $35,290. Manicurist pay is worth checking before you settle on a discipline. None of it counts the stylists and nail techs who rent their own chair.

Figures in this section: BLS OEWS, May 2025; College Scorecard, June 2026.

What Cosmetology Careers Pay in Tucson

Median annual pay in the Tucson, AZ metro area, from the May 2025 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release. A cosmetologist here earns a median of $38,590 against $36,810 across Arizona, with 890 employed in the metro. Booth renters and salon owners are self-employed and outside the survey, so these figures describe stylists on a payroll.

Each occupation has its own salary page with the range and every state, and a career page on the work and the license it needs.

Cosmetology Schools in Nearby Cities

• Cosmetology schools in Phoenix, AZ
• Cosmetology schools in Mesa, AZ
• All of Arizona
• All 50 cities

Common Questions About Cosmetology School in Tucson

Answers draw on Barbering and Cosmetology Board, the College Scorecard and the May 2025 BLS wage release.