JILL SCHRAMM/MDN Sadie Bessette, left, and Ryen Ballentyne, right, practice using rollers to style the hair of fellow student Lili Rutherford Wednesday, May 6, at UNISS, the new cosmetology school in Minot.

The first students at Minot’s new cosmetology school are a month into their classes and eager to eventually help fill the demand for hairstylists and estheticians in the region.

“I love it. It’s great. The passion of the instructors makes it a great school to go to,” cosmetology student Skylar Keelan said. “I like being in a school where they love what they are doing.”

UNISS (Union National Institute of Salon Sciences) was conceived by Miranda Nichols with the skin care salon Nickle & Dodge in Minot. Nichols said her original plan to purchase and restore a more than 100-year-old building for a salon in downtown Minot took a detour.

“We just noticed that there were so many people leaving the community to go to school and then not coming back, even though that was their plan. I think four salons have closed in the past three or four years. So, it was becoming an issue,” she said. “We just saw a need and we just knew that we have the resources and we have a good team.”

She and partners Katie Conley and Julie Post head up that team.

They will be hosting a grand opening with refreshments on Friday, May 8, from 3-7 p.m., with a ribbon cutting at 3:30 p.m., at the school at 7 Central Ave. E.

The historic building had housed a barbershop and Turkish bath in its early history, Nichols said. The building was constructed as an annex to Union National Bank, from which comes the school’s name.

“We chose ‘salon sciences’ because, at its core, all the stuff we do is chemistry based, pH based, anatomy based, and we just thought that would let us set from the get-go that this isn’t just some secondary choice for a career. It’s something that people do that is a very valuable trade in the world,” Nichols said.

Nichols and Conley are instructors at the school. Two part-time instructors also are on staff. The school will have another full-time instructor in June with the arrival of a second class of students, Nichols said. The school also will be adding an instructor for a manicurist program that will be starting. Also pending are advanced courses for estheticians.

Nichols said the school teaches technical skills but also leadership, soft skills and financial literacy that can benefit students in their careers.

“We want to make sure they’re set up for success,” she said. “We have plans for alumni membership, so that we can continue to mentor them.”

UNISS Student Adviser Kayla Olander said the school can accept up to 24 students in a class, but to enhance learning, class sizes are being held to about half that. The school currently has 13 students, Olander said.

The next class openings are in June and August, and both have a little room left for more students. The first 2027 class would begin in April.

The cosmetology course is 1,500 hours, giving UNISS its first graduating cosmetology class next March. The manicurist program that will be starting is 350 hours. The esthetics class is 600 hours, and those students already are offering services to the public under the monitoring of an instructor as part of their training. Hair salon services for the public are expected to be available in June.

“There’s lots and lots of opportunity,” Olander said of the job market for students. Many practicing cosmetologists have their schedules full with regular clients while others are looking to scale back or retire. With the loss of a local cosmetology school about eight years ago, there hasn’t been a local pipeline of new workers, she said.

Students must be at least 16 years old and have finished 10th grade.

Petra Peterson transferred to UNISS after the closure of the Williston cosmetology school she had been attending. She said she was sold on UNISS after attending an open house for prospective students. A native of Tioga, Peterson said her plan after graduation is to return to the Tioga-Williston area to work.

Student Kale Lakoduk, a Butte native, works part time at a Minot salon and hopes to become a hairdresser there once she graduates from UNISS. She said she was on a waiting list for the Bismarck cosmetology school when she learned that UNISS was preparing to open.

“They looked really educated and promising on their online platform, and so I was really excited to give it a chance, and I’m glad I did,” she said. “I’m so glad I made this choice. They’ve done an excellent job at instructing.”