Cosmetology Schools in Virginia Beach, VA, Ranked (2026)

The 3 Cosmetology Schools in and Near Virginia Beach, Ranked on Completion

3 cosmetology programs report to the US Department of Education from inside Virginia Beach 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 Virginia page links the board's own lookup.

1. #1

   The Chrysm Institute of Esthetics

   Virginia Beach, VA

   81%

   Share of students who finish

   • 81% finish
   • 206 graduates a year
   • $10,650 program cost

   What the record shows

   Based in Virginia Beach, The Chrysm Institute of Esthetics is one of the esthetics programs the federal government tracks. The license here is an esthetics license, which means skincare, facials and hair removal rather than hair. It takes a fraction of the hours a cosmetology license takes and is a narrower ticket, and for someone who already knows they want that end of the trade, the narrowness is the point. 81 percent of students see the course through, out of 271 enrolled. The published cost is $10,650 for the full program. The median graduate left with $6,333 in federal loans, across 151 borrowers. On the standard ten-year plan that is about $67 a month. With only 3 schools on this page there is no median worth quoting; 81 percent finishing and a $10,650 price are the two figures to carry to the other 2. 206 students completed a credential here in the reporting year. That is roughly 16 percent of everything awarded by federally reporting beauty programs in the state, so it is one of the larger training operations here. The Board for Barbers and Cosmetology holds the record that counts your hours; find this school on it by its legal name and check it is current before a deposit.

   Where it leads

   Pay for skincare specialists around Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk runs from $31,290 at the tenth percentile to $50,300 at the ninetieth, with a median of $34,190. The metro median runs about 13 percent below the Virginia figure. Starting pay and typical pay are close together in this market, which cuts both ways: less of a lean first year, and less immediate reward for getting quicker. Concentration around Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk runs modestly above the national rate, about 1.5 times, or 530 people in the occupation.

   Source: US Department of Education, College Scorecard.

2. #2

   Rudy & Kelly Academy, A Paul Mitchell Partner School

   Virginia Beach, VA · Licensed school

   73%

   Share of students who finish

   • Cosmetology
   • Nail technology
   • Renews 2026-12
   • $19,575 program cost

   What the record shows

   Rudy & Kelly Academy, A Paul Mitchell Partner School is licensed by the Board for Barbers and Cosmetology and trains in Virginia Beach. Its license covers cosmetology and nail technology. With 5 licensed schools in Virginia Beach, this one is competing for students rather than the only option. 73 percent of students see the course through, out of 155 enrolled. Tuition is reported at $19,575 for the full program. Borrowing here runs to a median of $13,000 in federal loans, measured over 126 graduates. On the standard ten-year plan that is about $138 a month. With only 3 schools on this page there is no median worth quoting; 73 percent finishing and a $19,575 price are the two figures to carry to the other 2. 91 students completed a credential here in the reporting year. License 1205001053 is the board's entry for it, and that is the record to confirm is still current before a deposit.

   Where it leads

   For skincare specialists around Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, the range runs $31,290 to $50,300 between the tenth and ninetieth percentiles, with a median of $34,190. Skincare specialists are the nearest series BLS carries to cosmetologists here. Against the state as a whole, the metro sits roughly 13 percent under on median pay. There is little distance between entry pay and the median locally, so the early climb is flatter than in most trades. Concentration around Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk runs modestly above the national rate, about 1.5 times, or 530 people in the occupation.

   Sources: US Department of Education, College Scorecard; Board for Barbers and Cosmetology, Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR), read 2026-08-31.

3. #3

   Empire Beauty School-Virginia Beach

   Virginia Beach, VA · Licensed school

   37%

   Share of students who finish

   • Cosmetology
   • Renews 2026-12
   • $13,600 program cost

   What the record shows

   Empire Beauty School-Virginia Beach operates in Virginia Beach under license from the Board for Barbers and Cosmetology. The board licenses it to train toward cosmetology. Virginia Beach has 5 licensed schools, so there is a real choice locally. 37 percent of its students finish, out of 163 enrolled in the fall count. It charges $13,600 for the full program, which for a clock-hour course is the whole price rather than a yearly one. The federal file reports borrowing for Empire Beauty campuses together rather than for this one: a median of $13,583 in federal loans across 802 borrowers. On the standard ten-year plan that is about $144 a month. With only 3 schools on this page there is no median worth quoting; 37 percent finishing and a $13,600 price are the two figures to carry to the other 2. It awarded 69 beauty credentials in the reporting year. The board files it under license 1205001446; that record, not this one, is what makes your hours count.

   Where it leads

   For skincare specialists around Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, the range runs $31,290 to $50,300 between the tenth and ninetieth percentiles, with a median of $34,190. Skincare specialists are the nearest series BLS carries to cosmetologists here. Against the state as a whole, the metro sits roughly 13 percent under on median pay. Wages start near the local middle, so the question here is not surviving the first year but whether you build a book in it. The work is somewhat more concentrated around Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk than nationally, at roughly 1.5 times the usual rate.

   Sources: US Department of Education, College Scorecard; Board for Barbers and Cosmetology, Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR), read 2026-08-31.

Other Licensed Cosmetology Schools in Virginia Beach

Board for Barbers and Cosmetology, Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR) lists 5 currently licensed schools in Virginia Beach. These 3 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.

Virginia Licenses Beauty Schools by Delivery Mode, Not Just Discipline

A cosmetologist license in Virginia takes 1,000 clock hours, one of the lowest counts in the country, set by the Board for Barbers and Cosmetology at the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation. Fewer hours means less tuition and a shorter run at it. It also means that moving to a state that wants 1,500 leaves you short, and the receiving board decides what your training is worth.

The Virginia roster is unusually detailed. It runs 24 pages and roughly 136 school records, each carrying a license number, an expiration date, an address, a phone number, an email and the exact program types the board approved. That last column is the useful one, because Virginia licenses a school as a classroom program or a hybrid program, so the record tells you which schools may teach theory online.

There is no percentage cap on online theory. Instead, 18VAC41-20-200 requires identity verification by secure login or passcode, technology able to monitor your time and activity, and a competency exam on the online material taken in a brick-and-mortar classroom. How states handle online hours shows how far that sits from the usual approach.

Barbering moved recently. Virginia cut the barber requirement from 1,100 hours to 750, effective December 1, 2025, which makes it a markedly shorter route to a license than cosmetology in this state. If clippers rather than color are the goal, what barber training involves is worth reading before you enroll in a 1,000-hour course.

Figures in this section: Board for Barbers and Cosmetology, Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR); College Scorecard, June 2026.

Three Ranked Virginia Beach Schools and a Roster of Five

Three ranked schools is a short list, and the honest way to use it is as a starting point rather than a verdict. The ordering is the federal completion figure, and the methodology sets out what that number does and does not carry. The board roster of five is the wider set, and every one of those five is licensed whether or not it appears below.

The Chrysm Institute of Esthetics leads at 81% of 271 students, five miles from the center, at $10,650 with $6,333 in median debt. Both figures are the lowest of the three. Virginia also publishes separate rosters for barber, nail, esthetics, wax and tattoo schools, so an esthetics school is recorded on a different list from the cosmetology one.

Rudy & Kelly Academy, A Paul Mitchell Partner School is second at 73% of 155 students, 13 miles out. It charges $19,575, the most here, and its graduates carry $13,000 in median debt. The board holds it under license 1205001053 and approved it for cosmetology and nail technology, which is the kind of detail the Virginia roster gives you and most states do not.

Empire Beauty School-Virginia Beach is third at 37% of 163 students at $13,600, with $13,583 in median debt, the highest of the three. Three more licensed schools in the city sit outside this ranking: Beauty Concepts Academy, Faith Lenise Beauty Academy and Sharpen Your Skillz Continuing Education. Having no federal completion record is ordinary for a clock-hour school.

Figures in this section: Board for Barbers and Cosmetology, Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR); BLS OEWS, May 2025; College Scorecard, June 2026.

What Beauty Work Pays Around Virginia Beach and Norfolk

The Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Norfolk metro crosses the state line into North Carolina, and BLS counts the whole thing as one labor market. It employs 2,060 hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists, 1.37 times the national concentration, which is denser than Virginia as a whole at 1.26. There is more of this work here per resident than in most of the country.

Skin work pays less here than it does statewide. Skincare specialists in the metro earn a median of $34,190 on 530 employed, against $39,350 across Virginia, and the local top tenth stops at $50,300 where the state's reaches $67,520. The trade is more concentrated here than nationally, at 1.49 times, so there is volume without the ceiling. Esthetician pay by state has the comparison.

Nails are steadier. The metro's 790 manicurists and pedicurists report a $35,770 median against $36,630 statewide, with the bottom tenth at $29,090 and the top tenth at $55,720. Concentration is close to average, at 1.06 times the national rate, so it behaves like the national picture in nail technician pay.

Barbering is a small statewide market with better money in it: 160 barbers employed across Virginia at a $46,730 median, and even the bottom tenth is $37,270. All of these figures count wage and salary workers, so booth renters, who make up a large share of this trade, are outside every one of them.

Figures in this section: BLS OEWS, May 2025.

What Cosmetology Careers Pay in Virginia Beach

Median annual pay in the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC metro area, from the May 2025 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release. 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 Virginia Beach

Answers draw on Board for Barbers and Cosmetology, Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR), the College Scorecard and the May 2025 BLS wage release.