ShawneeDispatch.com

Picture relaxing on a table in a room filled with calming music as a knowledgeable esthetician applies treatments guaranteed to give skin a healthier appearance.

Think it has to cost a fortune? Not necessarily.

Malinda McHenry and Cathy Berrian, owners of Academy of Aesthetic Arts, 10316 Shawnee Mission Pkwy., found a way to provide an inexpensive pampering day spa experience while at the same time giving new estheticians the knowledge and experience they need to get a job in the real world. The partners opened the academy nearly two years ago, but they have been in the business of beauty together for almost 10 years.

Esthetician is just the Greek work for beautician, so the academy provides various services that improve skin head to toe, including facials, waxing and hydrotherapy water massages.

McHenry and Berrian first created their own business after each working in the industry for 10 years. They met while working in the beauty department of a department store and discovered they each had a desire to open their own business.

In 1997 they opened Elite Aesthetics at 6100 Nieman Rd., a skin care clinic and beauty product distribution company. McHenry said they chose Shawnee at the time because her family lived in the area -- her grandparents lived in Merriam and her husband grew up in Shawnee.

The idea to expand their business and create a school for estheticians, however, came through the distribution aspect of their company. McHenry said they had to provide advanced education and training on their products at salons and spas, and they often were having to completely retrain estheticians on techniques and products.

"Over the last 10 years, we've seen a decline in the quality of knowledge they were getting," McHenry said. "Kids were coming out of school with a license to learn, not a license to work."

When McHenry went back to Johnson County Community College to renew her beauty instructor license, she fully realized the limited training and experience aesthetic students were receiving.

"It dawned on me how big of a demand there was from the public for treatments and from the students for knowledge," she said.

But the thing that clinched the idea was a little bit more catastrophic. A fire broke out at Elite Aesthetics, and in the three months it took to rebuild the space, McHenry and Berrian lost their employees and customers, so they decided it was time to move forward with the academy.

Though they briefly considered locations in Olathe and Merriam, the partners chose the space in Shawnee because they liked the city's family ambiance and the close access to Interstate 35. Keeping their distribution business, they opened the academy Feb. 14, 2005, with 8,000 square feet in their new location.

The school takes 10 students per class and starts a new class every eight weeks. With four additional instructors, students learn about both day spa and clinical aesthetic treatments and shadow advanced students before going out on the floor to gain experience. After five months of training, they tak their state board exams.

McHenry said they are careful to hand-pick students for the school.

"We just need to make sure that this is their dream," McHenry said.

Thus far, every student has passed their state boards and gotten a job upon graduation. Three students even went out and immediately opened their own spa, McHenry said.

Because they have out-of-state students in almost every class, McHenry said she and Berrian know there is a need for the same type of school elsewhere. She said they would like to have five satellite schools across the country, and they are considering St. Louis or Chicago for their next location.

"We don't want to stay small potatoes," McHenry said.

But she said the Shawnee location will always remain the academy headquarters.

The academy has 10 rooms for facials and two hydrotherapy rooms, as well as a make-up station. Next year, the academy will add a nail salon for manicures and pedicures. And though some might call it a beauty spa, it's not all for women.

"Amazingly enough, we keep getting all these men in," McHenry said.

But she adds that the best part is seeing families make use of the quality skin care and day spa treatments. Moms can bring their teenage daughters in to learn about acne prevention or how to apply make-up, while they receive treatments to prevent wrinkles and age spots, all at a fraction of the price spas charge.

"We offer a lot of the same services they do that they charge upwards of $150 for, but we charge $5 to $50," she said. "... This is a way for a family to afford to get a pampering gift for their loved one."