Beauty School Basics: Aesthetician or Esthetician?

Considering beauty school? It's time to get your terms straight. Get the scoop on aesthetician versus esthetician, medical estheticians, and how you can earn a degree or diploma that suits your career goals.Training to work in cosmetology can be challenging, rewarding, and fun. Link your passion for beautiful skin to professional-level training. With the education you receive in esthetician training, you could even go on to work in a medical esthetics office.

Aesthetician or Esthetician Training? Learn at Beauty School

Here's your language lesson for the day: the words aesthetician and esthetician are each hundreds of years old, and draw both from the German ästhetisch and the French esthétique. The words evolved to mean roughly the same thing: art for art's sake. In time, the term came to be aligned with beauty treatments and cosmetology in general. Think of the body as a work of art, and the evolution makes a lot of sense. Estheticians enjoy the following benefits of their work:

  • Helping their clients feel and look their best
  • Working closely with the latest beauty products
  • Improving clients' long-term self esteem

Which term should you use: aesthetician or esthetician? These days, they mean the same thing. Your esthetician training will be sufficient for an aesthetician career, and vice versa. So don't worry about getting the word right in beauty school; it's the skin care training that matters.

Esthetician or Medical Esthetician?

These similar terms actually do have some differences. While an esthetician works primarily in spas, retail centers, and beauty salons, a medical esthetician can be found in a doctor's office or clinic. Beyond the typical duties of an esthetician, medical estheticians may also:

  • Teach patients to apply makeup after facial surgeries
  • Provide pre- and postoperative skincare treatment in plastic surgery centers
  • Work in burn centers with severely burned patients

For medical estheticians, beauty isn't only skin-deep; it can mean improving the self-esteem of a patient undergoing chemotherapy, or help a burn victim leave her home without shame. To become a medical esthetician, supplement your beauty school esthetician training with a medical esthetics diploma and certification.

Beauty School Training Choices

You have a choice of where to attend beauty school, and once you're there, you have a choice in how you'd like to specialize. Here are just a few popular fields from which you can choose within esthetician training:

  • Skin care and hair removal
  • Cosmetology business
  • Nail technology (in some states)
  • Facialist training

While no training program can guarantee a particular career or salary, hiring managers in the fields described above typically require prior training among applicants. In fields where certification is required, training is your first step to legal practice. No matter which word you use for it, studying to become an esthetician has real benefits.

Featured Schools

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Milan Institute

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Prepare for an exciting new career at the Milan Institute.

Campus Locations:
  • Bakersfield
  • Clovis
Programs:
  • Esthetician
  • Cosmetology
Blake Austin College

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Get the hands-on training you need to succeed at Blake Austin College.

Campus Locations:
  • Vacaville
Programs:
  • Esthetics
  • Cosmetology
Milan Institute of Cosmetology

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Get hands-on training for a beauty industry career at the Milan Institute of Cosmetology.

Campus Locations:
  • La Quinta
  • Fairfield
  • Visalia
  • Reno
Programs:
  • Esthetician
  • Cosmetology
Marinello Schools of Beauty

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If you've ever imagined yourself working in the fast-paced beauty industry, Marinello Schools of Beauty has a program to get your foot in the door. Whether you choose cosmetology, esthetics, nail technology or makeup artistry, Marinello will help you turn your passion for beauty into a career. Marinello Schools of Beauty makes every student's success a top priority. Our schools are designed to simulate a working salon environment to provide students with real-life experience and a practical, hands-on education. Each campus is equipped with the latest visual and teaching aids, including the modern professional beauty equipment used in America's top salons.

Campus Locations:
  • Chico
  • Hayward
  • Los Angeles
  • Ontario
  • Redding
  • San Rafael
  • Victorville
  • Seaside
  • Santa Clara
  • San Diego
  • Huntington Beach
  • Lake Forest
  • Bakersfield
  • Moreno Valley
  • Napa
  • Stockton
  • Bell Gardens
  • Inglewood
  • Castro Valley
  • Lomita
  • Anaheim
  • Concord
  • Cathedral City
  • San Mateo
  • Paramount
Programs:
  • Advanced Facial and Body Treatments
  • Esthetics (Skin Care)
Alameda Beauty College

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Start your career with training from Alameda Beauty College.

Campus Locations:
  • Alameda
Programs:
  • Cosmetology
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