Cosmetology Schools in Columbus, OH, Ranked (2026)

The 6 Cosmetology Schools in and Near Columbus, Ranked on Completion

6 cosmetology programs report to the US Department of Education from inside Columbus 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 Ohio page links the board's own lookup.

1. #1

   Ohio State School of Cosmetology-Heath

   Heath, OH · Private Schools List

   84%

   Share of students who finish

   • $26,550 program cost

   What the record shows

   Ohio State School of Cosmetology-Heath operates in Heath under license from the Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board. It is the only licensed school the board lists in Heath. The school graduates 84 percent, on a fall headcount of 86. Tuition is reported at $26,550 for the full program. 35 graduates borrowed, at a median of $9,833 in federal loans. On the standard ten-year plan that is about $104 a month. Paying 28 percent over the $20,676 median buys 12 points of completion over the 72 percent median, and whether that is worth it depends on how sure you are of finishing anywhere. 51 students completed a credential here in the reporting year. License 000631 is the board's entry for it, and that is the record to confirm is still current before a deposit.

   Where it leads

   Around Columbus, the median cosmetologist earns $36,260, the bottom tenth $23,580 and the top tenth $78,040. That is a wide spread, and it is mostly the difference between building a client book and not. Columbus employs the trade at close to the national rate, around 2,420 people.

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

2. #2

   Paul Mitchell the School-Columbus

   Columbus, OH · Private Schools List

   81%

   Share of students who finish

   • $18,452 program cost

   What the record shows

   Paul Mitchell the School-Columbus is licensed by the Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board and trains in Columbus. Columbus has 8 licensed schools, so there is a real choice locally. 81 percent of its students finish, out of 200 enrolled in the fall count. Tuition is reported at $18,452 for the full program. Borrowing here runs to a median of $9,833 in federal loans, measured over 143 graduates. On the standard ten-year plan that is about $104 a month. $18,452 is within 11 percent of the $20,676 median, and the completion is not ordinary: 81 percent against 72. That is the better half of the trade. It awarded 81 beauty credentials in the reporting year. Its board record is license 000666, and that entry is the one that counts your hours.

   Where it leads

   Around Columbus, the median cosmetologist earns $36,260, the bottom tenth $23,580 and the top tenth $78,040. Most of that range is a following, which is why two graduates of the same program can end up far apart. Local concentration around Columbus sits near the national average.

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

3. #3

   Aveda Institute-Columbus

   Columbus, OH · Private Schools List

   74%

   Share of students who finish

   • $22,989 program cost

   What the record shows

   Aveda Institute-Columbus is licensed by the Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board and trains in Columbus. Columbus has 8 licensed schools, so there is a real choice locally. 74 percent of students see the course through, out of 290 enrolled. It charges $22,989 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 543 graduates. On the standard ten-year plan that is about $67 a month. Completion and price both sit close to the page median, 74 percent against 72 and $22,989 against $20,676, so the number that separates it is debt: 28 percent of the price arrives as federal loans, less than at the typical school here. 219 students completed a credential here in the reporting year. The board files it under license 000708; that record, not this one, is what makes your hours count.

   Where it leads

   Pay for cosmetologists around Columbus runs from $23,580 at the tenth percentile to $78,040 at the ninetieth, with a median of $36,260. Most of that range is a following, which is why two graduates of the same program can end up far apart. On concentration, Columbus is unremarkable, tracking the national rate closely.

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

4. #4

   The Spa School

   Columbus, OH · Private Schools List

   70%

   Share of students who finish

   • $17,415 program cost

   What the record shows

   The Spa School is licensed by the Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board and trains in Columbus. Columbus has 8 licensed schools, so there is a real choice locally. The school graduates 70 percent, on a fall headcount of 111. Tuition is reported at $17,415 for the full program. Graduates who borrowed took on $7,916 in federal loans at the median, 130 of them. On the standard ten-year plan that is about $84 a month. It charges 16 percent less than the $20,676 median and finishes about as many of its students as the typical school here, so the saving is real rather than a discount for worse odds. It awarded 119 credentials over the year against a fall headcount of 111, which is what a clock-hour course that turns over more than one cohort a year looks like. Its board record is license 000535, and that entry is the one that counts your hours.

   Where it leads

   Around Columbus, the median cosmetologist earns $36,260, the bottom tenth $23,580 and the top tenth $78,040. Most of that range is a following, which is why two graduates of the same program can end up far apart. Columbus employs the trade at close to the national rate, around 2,420 people.

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

5. #5

   Ohio State College of Barber Styling

   Columbus, OH · Private Schools List

   68%

   Share of students who finish

   • $18,000 program cost

   What the record shows

   Based in Columbus, Ohio State College of Barber Styling is on the Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board register. It trains toward a barber license only, which is a similar hour count to cosmetology, leads to men's cutting, shaving and beard work, and does not license color, chemical services or the full cosmetology scope. That makes it a different decision from the full cosmetology schools on this page rather than a smaller version of one. With 8 licensed schools in Columbus, this one is competing for students rather than the only option. Of the 406 students in its fall count, 68 percent complete the course they started. Tuition is reported at $18,000 for the full program. Completion is the one figure that compares across trades, and 68 percent, 4 points under the 72 percent median, is about what this page does. $18,000 is 13 percent under the $20,676 median for a similar hour count, which makes it the cheaper route to a chair. It awarded 82 beauty credentials in the reporting year. From 406 enrolled that is slow throughput for a clock-hour course, and it belongs beside the completion figure above. The board files it under license 000739; that record, not this one, is what makes your hours count.

   Where it leads

   Half of cosmetologists around Columbus earn under $36,260, with the tenth percentile at $23,580 and the ninetieth at $78,040. Cosmetologists are the nearest series BLS carries to barbers here. A gap that size tracks clientele rather than seniority. Local concentration around Columbus sits near the national average.

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

6. #6

   Ohio State School of Cosmetology-Canal Winchester

   Canal Winchester, OH · Private Schools List

   61%

   Share of students who finish

   • $22,900 program cost

   What the record shows

   Ohio State School of Cosmetology-Canal Winchester trains in Canal Winchester, licensed by the Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board. It is the only licensed school the board lists in Canal Winchester. 61 percent of its students finish, out of 57 enrolled in the fall count. The published cost is $22,900 for the full program. Graduates who borrowed took on $9,833 in federal loans at the median, 59 of them. On the standard ten-year plan that is about $104 a month. The price is close to the $20,676 median and the completion is not: 61 percent against 72. In a clock-hour course that is the wrong half of the trade, and the reason to ask hard questions before a deposit. It awarded 40 beauty credentials in the reporting year. Its board record is license 000629, and that entry is the one that counts your hours.

   Where it leads

   Half of cosmetologists around Columbus earn under $36,260, with the tenth percentile at $23,580 and the ninetieth at $78,040. A gap that size tracks clientele rather than seniority. Local concentration around Columbus sits near the national average.

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

Other Licensed Cosmetology Schools in Columbus

Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board lists 8 currently licensed schools in Columbus. These 4 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 Ohio Requires Before Your Columbus Hours Count

The Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board licenses both the schools and the people who finish them. It sets 1,500 hours of board-approved training for a cosmetologist license, and 1,000 hours if you already hold an Ohio barber license. That barber credit is the thing to know if you are licensed already and adding a discipline.

Ohio is unusually specific about online hours. It caps distance learning at 20 percent of your required program hours and bars distance delivery of clinical services on a live model, which have to be done on a mannequin instead. The board has to approve the distance content itself before a school can teach it.

Ohio also makes schools put a warning in the student contract: distance hours may not be recognized by other states or schools. Read that line twice if there is any chance you move. Online hour rules by state shows how far the rules move once you cross a border.

Since October 24, 2024, one school license has covered barbering, cosmetology or both, after Ohio merged the two under ORC 4713.44. The board still publishes three separate rosters, private, career-technical and adult education, so a Columbus school can be properly licensed and still sit on a different list from the one you happen to be reading.

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

What the Columbus Ranking Shows on Price and Completion

Ohio's rosters tell you a school is licensed, not how it performs, so the ordering here is the federal completion figure. Ohio State School of Cosmetology-Heath leads at 84 percent, but it is 30 miles out and charges $26,550, the most expensive of the six. Paul Mitchell the School-Columbus is second at 81 percent on 200 students, eight miles out, at $18,452.

Aveda Institute-Columbus is third at 74 percent with 290 enrolled, at $22,989, and its graduates carry the lowest median debt on the list, $6,333. It also conferred 219 cosmetology credentials in the reporting year, against 119 for the next highest, The Spa School. The Spa School follows at 70 percent and $17,415, with $29,111 median earnings five years after entry.

Ohio State College of Barber Styling is the outlier. It enrolls 406 students, more than any other school here, and finishes 68 percent of them. Nearly seven in ten of its students are 25 or older, the oldest group on the list, and it charges $18,000.

Columbus Downtown High School and Capital City Prep sit on the board's career-technical roster and outside this ranking, because the federal completion series does not reach them. The Ohio ranking covers the rest of the state, and our methodology explains exactly what the completion figure counts.

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

What the Trade Pays in the Columbus Metro

Columbus has a BLS metro of its own, so these figures are the city's rather than a regional average shared with anywhere else. Hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists in the metro earn a median of $36,260, which is exactly the Ohio median, on 2,420 employed here out of 12,890 hairdressers statewide.

The top end is where Columbus gets interesting. The 90th percentile for hairdressers here is $78,040 and the 10th is $23,580, a spread of more than $54,000 between a first-year stylist and one with a full book. Quoting only the median hides that.

BLS builds these figures from employer payrolls, so booth renters, chair renters and salon owners are missing from them. In a trade where renting a chair is a normal way to work, treat the median as what employed stylists earn rather than what the job pays. Skincare specialists in the metro post a $39,150 median, on 340 employed.

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

What Cosmetology Careers Pay in Columbus

Median annual pay in the Columbus, OH metro area, from the May 2025 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release. A cosmetologist here earns a median of $36,260 against $36,260 across Ohio, with 2,420 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.

Common Questions About Cosmetology School in Columbus

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