Atelier Emmanuel ACADEMY

Atelier Emmanuel has always had assistants who were also apprentices, seeking to improve on what they learned in school. Claudia and Paul are two of our current stylists who first began with Atelier Emmanuel this way. What was initially an informal process has gradually become more organized. With the move to 415 Stockton, we are now able to more formally offer an Academy and an apprentice track.

Current Apprentices, clockwise from top right: Paul Pu, Audrey Kral, Anthony Tanno, Edgar Carubio, Nicole Siri

What does it mean to be an apprentice and take part in the Academy?

Essentially it's for new stylists who wish to have a deeper relationship to their profession as they begin their career. It's for stylists who want to produce work of a higher caliber.

Emmanuel trains stylists in what we call an Old World manner. You apprentice, and graduate when your mentor sees that you have achieved a certain mastery of the skill. This could take 6 months for one person, 2 years for another — and it doesn't matter, because apprentices undertake this process out of passion for the craft and respect for their teacher. 

However long it takes, our apprentices come out of it with natural ability and the bearing of a real professional. 

Training with Emmanuel starts Karate Kid style —learning the "wax on wax off" of embodied movement— before moving on to proper shampooing, hair and scalp treatments, blowdrys, styling, cutting and coloring.

This approach is in contrast to most schooling where as long as you fulfill a certain amount of time, you graduate. Emmanuel has seen over and over that the classes on a resume and even the years in the business do not necessarily guarantee true skill. This is often a result of insufficient real world experience, or because the student were given recipes for cutting hair without either understanding the reasons behind the recipes or how to adapt them to each person. Sometimes, it's because the stylist thought that what they had learned at school was enough and never tried to deepen their craft.

The biggest shift since moving to 415 Stockton, is that the Academy is now a full day training, permitting the apprentices more time to study, train and work on clients. Supplemental product knowledge classes and creativity workshops happen Tuesday evenings (when the old trainings used to be) with the rest of the team.

In addition we've created a progression where apprentices will gradually add to the menu of services which they can offer the public. The result is that by the time they graduate to Junior Stylist, they will have developed a clientele.

The Academy is very much in the spirit of the standard we uphold as a salon. You should know that a Junior Stylist who graduates from our Academy is going to offer services of a higher quality than most regular stylists.  This means that you can get top-shelf hair services at reasonable rates.

The Academy currently includes:

Paul, Junior Stylist

Nicole, Senior Apprentice (and about to graduate to Junior Stylist!)

Edgar, Apprentice

Anthony, Apprentice

Audrey, Apprentice

For pricing and available services, please click on individual links.

To schedule a session as a model for the Academy, please call the salon (415 362 8063).

Training Prices:
Hair Cut + Style $10
Blow Dry: $10
Color Service: $20