First Beauty School

Rosenwald Building located at the southeast corner of 3rd Street and Central Avenue

New Mexico boasted its first beauty school in 1928.  The Chicago College of Beauty, incorporated in the state of California, teaching all branches of beauty culture, opened their school in Room 218 of the Rosenwald Building in Albuquerque.[1]  They charged customers 50 cents for a haircut and shampoo, 50 cents for a haircut and manicure, and $5.00 for 12 scalp treatments.[2]  One could also get for one cent a shampoo  or haircut if taken with their 75 cent Marcel or Finger Wave.[3]


[1] “New Mexico’s “First Beauty School,” Farmington Times Hustler, October 26, 1928.

[2] Advertisement, Albuquerque Journal, November 25, 1928, p. 14.

[3] Advertisement, Albuquerque Journal, Dec. 23, 1928, p. 8.