Was I In A Cult? - Cosmetology School: “It’s Giving Cult”

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

This week we head to Nashville, Tennessee — where a cosmetology school promising structure, opportunity, and “professionalism” turned out to be something else entirely.Our guest, Sophia, thought she was paying over $20,000 to learn how to do hair. Instead, she walked into a system obsessed with obedience, image, and silence — where being late cost money, smiling was mandatory, and your body, time, and labor were constantly monitored. Add in “motivational” rituals, public humiliation, and unpaid work dressed up as “education,” and suddenly this isn’t just cosmetology school… it’s giving cult.FOLLOW USFor more culty content — follow us on Instagram & TikTok → @wasiinacultFOLLOW SOPHIAFind Sophia on Instagram & TikTok → @styledby.sophiaeliseIf you’re in Nashville, go get your hair done and TIP WELL! SUPPORT THE SHOWIf you believe in what we’re doing — shining a light on manipulation, coercive control, and cultic abuse — please rate, review, and share the podcast.Want even more?Join us on Patreon for ad-free episodes, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes conversations.HAVE A CULTY STORY TO SHARE?If you’ve been part of a cult, high-control group, or something that didn’t look like a cult until way later — we want to hear from you.Email us → [e-mail] Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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This is your go-to for the absolute best in 2025 audio entertainment, Whether you love thrillers, romance, or nonfiction, your next favorite listen awaits. Discover why there's more to imagine when you listen at audible.com slash best of the year. The views, information, or opinions expressed by the guest appearing in this episode solely belong to the guest and do not represent or reflect the views or positions of the hosts, the show, podcast one, this network, or any of their respective affiliates. I feel like, you know, you think of a cult and you think it's like some big, scary organization, like you get taken away on the private island and you get served Kool-Aid. Like, no, girl, I was in one 30 minutes away from my house and I still got to come home at night and sleep in my bed.

Girl, there are so much more common than you think. So much more common than you think. Welcome back, everyone, to Was I in a Colt? I'm Liz Iacuzi. She certainly is. And I'm Tyler Meesam and I certainly am. And this is a show about people who have been in cults and cult-like environments and have seen the light and gotten the hell out. I was wondering what our show is about? Yes, the name, Was I in a cult?

Interesting. I'm glad you informed me of that. But also, we dive into our show. All types of cults. I mean, cult, you might not expect to be a cult like a martial arts cult. Or a cult of one, a one-on-one cult. Yeah, or a stupid thing like an acting cult. What a stupid thing that is.

So dumb. Or like, I don't know, a dental office that's actually Scientology in disguise. No, that makes no sense, except for maybe also something like a pole dancing cult. What? That's crazy or that crazy. A work cult. Yeah. And today, a school.

A school of conference. Cosmetology in Nashville, Tennessee. A place where you'd expect things like, well, I don't know, scissors, shampoo, curlers. Not chance, not humiliation rituals, and not cult-light capitalism. Just so you know, cosmetology literally means the study of beauty. The term comes from the Greek cosmos, meaning order or adornment. It was coined in the late 1800s when beauty work started being formalized into a real profession. Back in the day, they just called a beauty school. Remember that? Back in the 50s,

yeah. It's my least favorite song in Greece. Beauty school dropping. We don't need this storyline. Anyway, I'm not going to get on my Greece rant. But we really don't say beauty school anymore because it sounds dated, yes, it sounds dismissive. It doesn't reflect that cosmetology is a licensed technical trade. And trust us, we will get into more of that later. Now, myself being a straight man. I don't have a great deal of awareness around women's beauty, albeit I do care a great deal about my hair and I like to go to a good stylist and use the right shampoos, etc. Do you use conditioner? Of course I use conditioner. What am I? A caveman, Liz? Of course I use conditioner. Do you have products that you put in your hair post-conditioner? I put gel in, but you know it's the

worst thing ever, getting a bad haircut. Having a bad haircut just feels like you have to constantly apologize for your hair cut all the time. And you can't do anything about it except maybe make it shorter. You just wait. I mean, it could be worse. It could be like a doctor chopped your arm off. Your hair is going to grow back hopefully. So

I don't know much about women's beauty. I think you know way more about beauty than you are letting on. Than most 50 plus straight white men. You are correct. However, I don't really know or never would have imagined, although being the co-house,

host of a podcast. I would have imagined that a school of cosmetology could be a cult. Me neither. And our guest today, she is just so lovely. She represents Gen Z in the absolute best way. Let's just say, once she clocked the vibe, she was like, yeah, it's giving cult. I can already tell Liz is about to make me say things. That will permanently age me in real time. I'll go easy on you. So real. So real. So real. So real, Tyler. So real. So real.

Now, is this a typical cult, you ask? No. But after doing this show for as long as we've done it, I think it's fair to say that the definition of typical cult is widening. Typical isn't really a thing anymore. As we're seeing all the ways high control groups manipulate and use people for their own gain. Because at the end of the day, a cult stripped of its weird rituals and beliefs is just a way to control you. keep you small, keep you afraid, a way to prevent your individuality, your voice from being

the star of your own life, because that would, well, make them completely irrelevant. And so today, get out these things that Liz wrote for me to say, like your contouring pens, contouring pens. Contoring, your contour. Your contour. contour as we shed some ringlight on the cultic environments that are way more prevalent and way more universal than many of us realize at the end of the day everyone you don't need to be seeking enlightenment to you know fall into a cult don't spare my life crucify me hey well my name is Sophia

I am a newly licensed hairdresser in Nashville Tennessee born and raised Nashville Tennessee I had access to the internet when I was like pretty young And I found out really quick that I loved watching, like, makeup videos and hair videos. And that's when I realized that I could make a job out of doing makeup and playing with people's hair. Like, I didn't realize that that was actually a career. I was, be, like, goody two shoes. My faith is a huge part of who I am, which will play into why even, like, the school that I went to to begin with.

From a very young age, I knew not to act out. I knew that there would be consequences. So if there was a role, I was following it. I went to a high school that was a lot smaller. I did everything that I possibly could. I was in every club. You could either do agriculture or like nursing. But I was like, you know what?

Ag could be fun. I was in FFA, which is also crazy because you meet me and you're like, what? You were the number one milk taster in the state. I did. You know, I held that title for a year of the number. number one milk taster in the state of Tennessee. I don't know. Okay, quick sidebar, because, quote,

number one milk taster in the state of Tennessee is not something you can breeze past like it's normal. Also, I imagine that it's pretty heavy competition for milk tasters in the state of Tennessee. So, milk tasting, for those who don't know, and I would not fault you if you don't, milk tasting is a real competitive thing. It's part of FFA, Future Farmers of America.

So what you do, you get milk from a cow, you smell the milk, you taste the milk, and you have to identify whether it is good or what's wrong with it. It could be sour, it could be rancid, it could be oxidized, feed, flat, salty, all things you do not want in your dairy. It's like a sommolier, but for milk. And Sophia didn't just participate. Guys, she was the number one milk taster for the entire state of Tennessee. okay. That alone should warrant her to be on our podcast. I mean, she was also the number one

soil tester, which we didn't have time to get to. But she also won soil testing. Yeah, you apparently you probably have to eat the soil too. Is that what happens? You eat the soil and then you probably not. Now, naturally, you can't think or bring up milk testing without bringing up my buddy Jared Hess, who I co-directed a series with on Netflix called Murder Among the Mormons. It's available. This is a little drop. It's a little Tyler plug. I'm sorry.

If you're new to the show, get used to it. Did I drop that name? Let me pick that up real quick. Anyways, Jared has directed Napoleon Dynamite. You remember the scene when Napoleon tastes the milk. This tastes like the cow got into an onion patch. Correct. Yes.

Turns out milk did not light her world. on fire or soil, for that matter. Instead, she wanted to make humans happy by making them feel beautiful. But I started looking into schools when I was in high school because that's when I realized that 100% this is what I was doing.

And I started talking to my hairdresser about it. And she told me about where she went to school. And she told me it was hard. She had briefly gone over some of her experiences, but the main ones that I remember was just the dress code being insane, that they were super punctual, so you had to be on time or you didn't come in and their attendance policy. But to me, that didn't sound like the worst thing ever. I was like, okay, I love structure. I found this school. I'm not going to say the name, obviously,

just because they are crazy. And I honestly don't want to get sued. I remember setting up a meeting and I brought my parents with me. And then they give you a tour of the school. And, you know, they don't really let you talk to anybody there. You just kind of like walk around, seeing everybody working on something, doing something. And they're like, we are really firm on, you know, if you're here, you're working on your skills, whatever. And they tell you about all the opportunities that you're going to get from going to school there, how many like partner salons that they have. I don't think that they could specifically market as a Christian school just because like it's a hair school. I think they could probably see that I wear a cross necklace, like, oh, she's also a Christian.

And so by them saying, oh, we are big Christians, we have really strong faith, we like to say that this is like a Christian-based school. And I love that. God wants me to be here. And I was just so blinded by that. I was like, surely they can't be that bad of people. They're saying that they're Christian people. and I loved the way everything sounded. And at that point, I guess they decide

if you're like worthy of being there or not. But the way that they made it seem was like they're super exclusive. Like you were handpicked to be here that you're going to be part of this super exclusive handpicked private school kind of vibe of a salon. And they immediately try to get you to sign on while you're there.

I was enrolling for November of 2024, but somehow he talked me into coming in September of 2024. Well, he was just like, I mean, the sooner you get started, the sooner that you'll be done, the sooner that you'll be making lots of money, and the September class was filling up fast. And then they made it seem so amazing. And I was like, perfect. I'm sold. I was really lucky enough. And my dad was financially responsible enough that as I was growing up, he was putting money in a way in a college fun for me. So he paid something that day just to secure my spot. My tuition was like probably in total ended up being around like $28,000, which is like crazy. Yeah, that is crazy. There are many

fine in-state universities that cost the same or less for your first year of college. And that's with way more classes. Yeah, with financial aid and in-state tuition, you could be a tiger at Princeton. You could be a Bruin at UCLA, a Cardinal, at Stanford, a bulldog at Yale. I mean, you could be a Ute, a yellow jacket, a nitty lion, a blue devil, a husky, a cougar, a bulldog, a Buckeye, a longhorn, a tar, heel, a badger, a gator, a sooner, a duck, a Hoosier, or hell. For that price, you can be an actual banana slug. We'll be right back. You know, I miss when houses had frames on the wall, pictures on the wall. You know the ones

that had eight or ten photos, little tiny photos all jammed together, like birthdays and vacations and blurry Christmas mornings. Yeah, like one big bulletin. Yeah, photos. Yeah. Photos. You didn't scroll past those photos, Tyler. You walked past them. You enjoyed them.

Yeah. And now we have thousands of photos on our phones, but we never actually see them. Sadly, our family history has moved off the walls and into our pockets. Which is why we love aura frames. Honestly, you guys, if you don't know about aura frames, get to know it. It is a great product. And it's an amazing gift.

Right. It's a digital frame, takes all the photos stuck in your phone, and puts them back where they belong out in the open for people to see with their eyes. And it's so easy to use. And if you give it as a gift, you can preload it with photos before it even ships. And then you just keep adding photos and videos anytime from anywhere, straight from your phone. I got one from my parents.

And let me tell you, they see a lot. lot of pictures of my family. Sorry, brother and sister, but maybe you should get on the aura train. Step up, brother and sister. For a limited time, save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get 35 bucks off Ara's best selling Carver Matframes, the one I have. It's named number one by wire cutter by using a promo code in a cult at checkout. That's A-U-R-A-Frames.com promo code in a cult this deal is exclusive to listeners and frames do sell out fast

so order yours now to get it in time for the holidays support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. The owner, it's a husband and wife, they own the school. So you've got like up here

top dog, we're going to call her Timmy Turner. She's probably one of the most condescending people I've ever met. Apparently, Timmy Turner did hair for a while. I don't know why she's still not doing hair. I think if she was making so much money as a hairstylist and she was as good as she thought that she was, why did she quit doing it and open a school? And don't tell me it's for the love of the game because the way that you treat your students and your staff, I don't think you love

anything about it. So you have orientation, which is just eight hours of straight information about all the things you need to know about how school operates. This is how it's going to be. Here's how the level system works, here's what to expect on a daily basis, here's our expectations. But soon it was revealed that this school wasn't about educating. It was about control and humiliation when you didn't do it, quote, right. They really make you scared about being late. You get like the whole dress code rundown and the owner of the school is the one who is giving you all this information. She stresses, don't miss, like don't miss, don't miss, don't miss, don't miss. Like, I remember that because she said it probably 100 times that day.

And here's what happens if you do miss. So let's say I am feeling under the weather. If I would have left and not gotten a doctor's note, it would have been unexcused. And I would have had to make up the hours that I missed. And you have to pay $20 an hour for every hour that you miss. And they wouldn't let you back until around 1 p.m. You would have to pay $80 out of pocket for those four missed hours on top of what you're already. paying tuition-wise.

By the way, that's stupid. Also, how long does it take to put on hair and makeup and look really nice? I mean, add another 20, 30 minutes on top of that. My nails chipped. Uh-oh, I have to fix it because I won't get past the checkpoint. Right. I lost my mascara. And now you won't even let me in.

Yeah. Stupid. Anyways, that's my opinion that it's stupid. Anyone out there who agrees with me, raise your. hand right now. One, two, three, four, five. I'm scared to raise my hand because you'll see my terrible manicure. Home with you, Liz. You can come back at one, $80, please. And my hair. I felt very stupid during this interview because it was like on the precipice of when I needed my hair done. And my roots were just like grown out. I just was like, I was like, we should have done this

next week. I really do have good hair when I try. I have a very good friend who is a mogul in the hair dye industry. He started a company called a Pulp Riot and Danger Jones. Really cool cat. Oddly enough, I went on a Mormon mission with him and now he's a multi-millionaire doing hair dye. And every time we have lunch, I feel like he's judging my hair. Because he is. In a good way. You know you have good hair. It's fine. Some days it's not. My sister's a hairstylist and she'll just go right up to people in the streets. Oh my God, you need a haircut. You need you need something done with your hair. There's a cult leader. She is a cult leader, a sex cult leader. That sounds like predatory call leader right there. All right, where were we? Let's get back on the story, shall we? Enough of this.

That was orientation. And then you start immediately in what they call foundations, which is your first two months where you're just learning foundational skills of being a hairdresser, just literally everything that you could possibly think of from personal. hygiene to like actual hair cutting techniques to color, you know, like if you miss foundations, like you were pretty much screwed up for the rest of your time there. The main part about going to school there is you had to look a certain way. We could basically never leave the house again without doing our hair or makeup because we are a walking billboard of ourselves and we are a representation of our work and you had to come

in and your hair and your makeup had to be done every single day. no ponytails no buns like if my hair is in braids it would have to be a clear rubber band so you couldn't see any hair ties makeup had to be done they wanted you to wear everything so foundation

powder blush contour concealer eye makeup lip mascara mascara all of that especially mascara if a girl wasn't wearing mascara it wouldn't meet up to their standards and they would send you home and then you'd have to come back

and you'd have to pay and it's two students making sure that you're okay to clock in for the day. Nails would be the first thing that they looked at. All of your nails either had to be done or they had to be not done. You could not be missing an acrylic nail. Same thing for toe nails. And then you'd have to lift your arms up to make sure that your midriff is not going to like show. Or if you were in your dress, that was at your knees.

It didn't come up too high. And then you wait for the nod of approval and then you could clock in. Clocking in. Yeah. That's a thing. Clocking in. At not a job you're getting paid for, but at a school you are paying to be at. A lot. WTF. The school starts at a specific time.

If it was 9 o'clock, then the doors would get unlocked at 8.55. And so in that five minutes, you are expected to go down this hallway, find your locker, set up your station for your first appointment, and then you have to go clock in. And I think there's probably like 40 girls that have to do that. all in five minutes. So you have, like, girls, like, climbing over other girls, like, trying to get into your locker. But if you're not there, by night at talk on the dot, they lock the door, they lock you out. And at that point, if you haven't called, it's a no-call-no-show. And that's where you get in trouble.

And the control extended beyond your external looks. My teacher would ask us every day when we came back from lunch, if we ate healthy. And she would ask us at the start of every single day, like, oh, who worked out? last night, like whatever. I'm in a class of, I think it was 14 girls at this point. And I don't know these girls well enough to know if any of them were struggling with like a negative body image or an eating disorder. And she would make us feel guilty about what we ate for lunch. And she's like, I ate a chicken breast and half an avocado for lunch. What did you eat for lunch? I'm like, well, I ate Taco Bill. Like, I don't care. So apparently, uh,

in editing this, I learned that there are two types of salons. There's a Summit Salon or a booth rent salon. Your sister never taught you about that? It's not something we talk about, no. You should ask her more questions, Tyler. It's likely she may have told me, and I just didn't give a shit enough to hear it or retain it. Some brother.

Difficled brother. So Summit Salons, like you have, summit commission salon or you have booth rent for the most part it's either you're a commission stylist or your booth rent stylist they hate booth rent we had an entire class explaining why booth rent was awful you're out money if your booth rent like it's stupid let us make our own decision for crying out loud like booth rent is not the devil there are very very successful hair stylist that booth rent and of course no cult is complete without insisting that their way is a the only way. So over the top is the book that defines Summit Salon as a whole because it was written by

Michael and Mary Cole and they started the whole Summit Salon structure. And of course, since my school is married to the Summit Salon idea, they love that book. Anytime we had class, we were reading that book. And we would dissect it and talk about it and talk about these are the ways that you make money. And it's just this idea and principle to really nail it in your brain that if you don't live up to these standards and if you don't do these exact things and if you don't post on social media and don't pre-book your clients and don't do this, this, this, this, this, this and this, like, you're not good enough. We would have texts about the book. You had to quote the book verbatim and fill in the blanks verbatim. So, like, essentially you have to have this entire book memorized. and I read that book and filled out the workbook,

could not tell you how many times, probably close to 20. So it's not really education, it's wrote memorization. Speaking of education, we have finally come to the huge pink elephant in this school, in my opinion. What exactly her $20,000-plus-thous-dollar tuition cost actually entails? Well, first and included the two. two-month foundation classes. It's five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday, 40 hours a week, I think. The first two months you're in these foundational classes that are rough.

Obviously, the school's never been sunshine and rainbows, but it's just like going through the motions, doing the things. The foundation classes were just what they sound like. There's a teacher in the room teaching the foundational skills of being a hair stylist from cutting techniques to color, to electricity, to personal hygiene. But what was shocking to me was that after these two months were over, you're then thrown onto the salon floor, taking actual human clients with actual human heads and actual human hair,

humans that would, I don't know, perhaps like to look nice. Before she cut these actual humans with human hair, she must have had a ton of mannequin practice, I'm assuming, lots, right? Liz, lots? No. We were given one haircut mannequin. So I did two or three different kinds of haircuts on this one mannequin. I did just like a trim, like a perimeter cut. And we did a bob.

And then we did the layered bob to learn how to do layers. And then I did one singular men's cut before I did a haircut on a real person. Yeah, I wasn't cutting up like 20 mannequins before I actually touched a real person. I did one. Okay, just so we're even. I mean, I used to cut the hair. of my sister's Barbie doll, so I can technically say that I've had just as much training on a mannequin head as Sophia has. This is my point. Are you ready for me to cut your hair, Lynn?

Please, please. How much are your cut? What's so great? There was a female comedian I saw years ago. She was great and she said, my daughter wanted to be Barbie for Halloween, so I stripped her naked, cut off all her hair and colored her with markers. She probably did it better than I, but. we have a day of haircut models and it's a requirement obviously to get two people to come in one male, one female, who have never been to the salon before

to come get a free haircut and it's your first haircut and they want you to use that as like your guinea pig but I just remember all of us being so anxious to the point that we were sick like I felt sick that day a girl threw up in the bathroom

she was so scared luckily the male model was my dad so I was like you can't get him at me like whatever it was hard because obviously all of us were asking for help like these are our first haircut okay quick reality check it's late Christmas is coming

and unlike your new year's resolution this deadline cannot be pushed so let me help you guys out flowers for the holidays what flowers you say people don't think about flowers for Christmas why wild because flowers, they're festive, they're beautiful, and they're way better than panic

buying something that you don't really want and they don't want and nobody wants. And that's where 1,800 flowers comes in because they make it ridiculously easy to send something that says, I love you and I planned this a long time ago, even though I didn't. I ordered flowers from 1,800 flowers for the holidays, picked out a Christmas arrangement. Nice, festive centerpiece. Ooh, who'd you send it to? Mom and dad. I mean, who doesn't love getting a beautiful flower bouquet?

Who doesn't? Oh, you don't, huh, Jody? Well, stop picking on Jody. She's got an allergy. You're simply wrong, Jody. You don't eat peanuts if you're allergic, Tyler. 1-800 flowers has been trusted for decades, and everything comes with a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Whether it's parents, grandparents, friends, or that someone special, 1-800 Flowers has a Christmas gift that's guaranteed to W-O-W. Beat the holiday rush and save up to 40% off Christmas bestsellers at 1-800flowers.com slash cult. That's 1-800flowers.com slash cult for up to 40% off Christmas bestsellers. Flowers, the rare gift that says thoughtful, even when you ordered it yesterday because nobody has to know. Thanks, 1,800 Flowers. So Sophia's actual classroom education at this school is really only two months long.

The rest of her time is spent working in the school's salon, working on accumulating her hours. And in that time, she is making money, not for her, but for the salon. So again, I have to ask Academy, what exactly is that 20 plus thousand? dollar tuition paying for. Well, I imagine it's not paying for mannequin heads, but paying for group bonding. We're all expected to at 9 o'clock be in a room together because we would go through every morning what's called energy. We would get in a circle and dance in a circle.

There would be five girls that would be nominated every day to go up front and would do a dance move, you know, like the sprinkler or whatever you wanted you to an extent because, you know, of course, they can't give us too much freedom to do what we want. So we did have restrictions. Like there were certain dance moves that were banned because they are just too much. And you clap. Everybody claps together. Go double time. You clap. And then you go one, two, three. And everybody in unison would say the name of the school. And then you'd go, one, two, three again. And then all the girls up front would go, ta-da. And then all of the girls surrounding, not the five that are up there, would go, you're a man.

Amazing. It's just like dancing and chanting at 9 a.m. just like really screams cult to me. But there were consequences if you didn't show up to energy or you showed up and you weren't like 100% yourself. If you were late, they made you sing in front of the entire school. But it was just like you had to sing a solo by yourself. So one girl sang like the ABCs. One girl saying like the twinkle twinkle little star. But there was one girl. She had a really rough morning and she's late walking in energy. And we wrap. up and somebody goes, oh, she was late. And she was like, no, like, I'm not doing that. And she was like nervously laughing, but you could tell she was about to cry. She starts crying and she leaves the room. That's traumatic. That is so humiliating. But if you don't actually like this, well, you can take it up with the school student council, air quotes, student council, which was five girls that have a meeting and talk about the issues that the other girls in our class were having we were supposed to bring issues forward but if we had an

issue we would just get blamed for it and it was our fault and so realistically we would come with problems but no solutions were found because it was the student's fault in the first place my class honestly just stopped bringing real problems to the table because we were getting blamed for them and we were like so what's the point why are we wasting our breath so remember those awesome morning quote, beauty checks, well, one day, Timmy Turner gave Sophia a task. I was on dress code. So I was one of the two people that had to, like, check you in the mornings to make sure that you looked okay. If Timmy Turner asked you to do something, you do it. I had to tell girls, people that were my age that I was friends with, that their hair didn't look good,

or that their makeup wasn't enough, or that they needed to fix this and this. It was humiliating for me to even be like, hey, girl, like, your hair's a little messy. Like, can you brush it? But I would always try to tell them where to get the things to fix something really quick. You know, go worse your hair really quick. Like, I tried to help them get clocked in just so that they didn't have to go home. Because if I didn't say something, I would get in trouble. Like, Top Dog, Timmy Turner would come up to me and be like, why didn't you say something about her hair today?

Have you seen so-and-so's makeup today? Why isn't she wearing this? So again, maybe I'm missing something. But I am genuinely confused what this tuition is actually. paying for. Well, it's definitely not paying for room and board. Or even silverware. Sophia told me that if you needed a fork at lunch, right?

You forgot your fork. You can buy a plastic fork from the school for $1. Yeah. You know what would happen if that happened to me? I would eat with my hands. Just on principle. There's no way I'm paying a dollar for a plastic fork. And whenever they have people in the building, that's when they're making

money. And so people that were making them money because obviously we're charging prices for our services. And since we're students, we don't get paid for them. But school gets paid, obviously. And as you progress in the program and you get higher and get more experience, your prices go up. Yes, they get a ton of money from our tuition. But like them charging ridiculous amounts for hair school services is where they're getting their money. Also, those two months of foundation classes weren't even close to giving Sophia the skill set she would need to be a well-rounded stylist. I got books for an A-line bob one time, and I did not know how to cut an A-line bob. And I still don't because I wasn't really being taught in the moment. You can't even actually

even do a baliage until you're a level four. So I never even got the opportunity to do one in school. and by the time that I graduated and got booked for a balliage in the salon, I didn't know how to do it. We took maybe one upstyle class and it was like four hours. I don't know how to do an up style. We couldn't style the hair with a hot tool.

You had to do a blowout. That was how you got the best grade is that if you did a blowout. And like, I'm so sorry, this is not like the 70s anymore. People use a curling iron. When they go to get their hair done, they want somebody else to curl it for them

because they're like, oh my gosh, like, wow, like, I'm so pretty, like, my hair looks so pretty curled. I'm there to make people feel pretty, not to make money off of them. But the curling, if you curled somebody's hair, it was like an automatic lower grade. And what cult wouldn't be a cult without the requisite cult levels? Level one, level two, level three, level four. They sound nice when you say him that way. It doesn't sound as culty.

She said like nobody makes it to the upper levels. Chalker. We have never heard that before. Yeah. Every cult ever, except for the leader who's obviously in the upper levels. Except Scientology, man. You know, people go clear and we just, they just disappear. Gone. The level thing, I think, might just be my school. And you could graduate at level two. Like, once you got to level two, you could just coast until you hit your 1,500 hours.

But they were not very happy with level 2s. And they would constantly talk about them not making it. And in each level, you would have to hit marks, which included... Guest count, service count, pre-book count. So like booking your next appointment. Chemical services were their own category. Additional services, which would be like more color or an eyebrow wax or curling somebody's hair. Those were their own separate category.

You had to sell retail. Oh, and referrals. So new people. As you would progress, the goals would get. harder. You had to hit these goals that the school had set two months in a row. You could not miss by one thing. And there would be girls crying in the break room. There would be girls having panic attacks because they're not hitting their goals. You had to hit your goals every single month without fail. Because if you don't hit your goals in all the categories, you have to start

the level entirely over. Again, that's stupid. I missed one client from coming back and I have to do every single thing again. Referrals. Okay, she mentioned referrals. Let's call it what it is. Recruitment. It's your job to recruit clients. You can do services that generate revenue for them. You had business cards and you were expected to give them out, obviously. And they tell you, your job basically never stops. Like, the moment you leave, like you should be posting on, they told us to use Facebook

because I don't think they believe. and any other kind of social media. I only used Facebook because it was linked to my Instagram. That was also part of the goals. I forgot about that. You had to have 10 Facebook posts showcasing a before and after. You could not just do the after picture. And it had to be using the backdrop.

I had the school's name, obviously tagged them. So they're looking at all of the posts, getting people to come in, trying to get referrals. From the moment I started there until I graduated. Like, I was constantly a stressed state about getting people on my books. planning for the next month like I was constantly thinking about school I was just drained like physically and mentally from school and just going there and having to put a front on and pretend like I was having the time of my life I was really good at pretending like I was so happy um I feel like once you get to the point of pretending so much like you forget that you're pretending and like it's

exhausting but like that's what you have to do but every day that I would drive to school like I would literally be so upset. I left school crying so many times. I would have breakdowns at the school. I can guarantee you 98% of the girls who have gone through that school graduated. Say it was the worst year of their life. And I agree. I think it was the worst year of my life. And it was. And I would never wish that on anybody. And as students near graduation, the school's affiliated salons are brought in to pitch the students their salon to work there. And I was going to all of the salons that they were bringing into the school and I didn't like any of them. They were like, okay, what about this place? And that's when they showed me the

salon that I'm currently employed at. And I was like, oh, it's cute. So went there and I loved it. The hiring manager, she loved me. She was like, I'd love to have you. Obviously, like, when you graduate, we'll have a spot for you. Her current salon is not affiliated with the school, by the way. And we'll be right back. We're just a hair away from being right back. Oh, boy. That was not good.

That was not. Let's face it, hearing about the dark side of human nature can leave us feeling a little unsettled. But there's a type of discomfort that goes beyond being unsettled. It happens when you get hit with the disturbing, violent, or taboo thought, out of nowhere, and it makes you question everything about yourself, even though you didn't want to think about it in the first place. Here's the thing about those unwanted thoughts. They're a lot more common than you think.

In fact, almost everyone has them. But for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD, they tend to feel sticky and they cause a lot of distress. OCD latches onto these thoughts and can make you feel like a monster, even though that isn't true. But that's what makes OCD so debilitating. The thoughts and fears can feel so real that seeking help can seem like a huge risk. So instead, people get caught in a cycle of seeking relief through certain mental or physical actions, even though they never seem to help in the long run. But you know what does help when you're struggling with OCD, specialized therapy?

And that's why we want to tell you about no CD. No CD. It's a virtual therapy provider for OCD with licensed therapists who specialize in OCD. so they understand intrusive thoughts. Every no-CD therapist is trained in exposure and response prevention, or ERP. It's the type of therapy that was specifically designed for OCD, and it's considered the gold standard treatment. No-CD also accepts many major insurance plans and offers always on support between sessions,

so you're never alone. To learn more about therapy with no-CD, go to no-cd.com and schedule a free 15-minute call with their team. That's N-O-C-D.com to learn more and book a free 15-minute call. So when did Sophia's experience go from, this is just a shitty school to, wait, this might be something else. I always made jokes about how cultish my hair school was whenever I would talk to my friends about it just because I had never been somewhere with such strict rules.

And one of my friends one day probably said, like it sounds like a cult. And I probably was like, you know what? Yeah, like it is. in that last week of school when I was writing my graduation speech and so that's when I started looking into it I was like, characteristics of a cult

and I was like listing them and I was doing side by side. I was like, okay, characteristics of a cult characteristics of the school I went to like what makes up a cult and it's one leader, it's one way, it's my way or the highway and the free labor

that was a really big one and just like being silenced. I kept reading and reading and I was like, oh my gosh, The group chants and dances like that, I laughed out loud when I read that, and I was like, that's literally energy. That's literally us every single morning, just participating in a cult ritual. And the more I read about it, the more I was like, what was I doing for the past 12 months, 11 months of my life? It was so eye-opening. And I was talking to my dad about my graduation speech,

because not that I was asking for his permission, but I was giving him a heads up, like, hey, we ride at dawn. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm about to blow the lid off this joint. And he was like, oh my gosh, like, are you going to, like, talk about how much of a cult it is? And I was like, oh, that's genius. So Sophia decided her graduation speech wasn't going to be your usual follow your dreams boilerplate. She was going to tell the truth, all of it, out loud, into a microphone in front of the people who had controlled her life for a year. The girls in my class knew I was doing it. I never told them what the speech was.

I just said that I was going to be honest, and they were so excited for me. And I think knowing that I was getting to speak for everybody was like the best feeling in the world. So graduation day finally arrives, the crowd assembles, the parents, the teachers, friends, and family. I was shaking to no end because I had no idea what was going to happen, but I did not care. I also was the last person to give my speech because of my name. adorned in her robe with her matching cap, she steps up to the podium. You need the families, friends, faculty, and sitting in full of us to have spent every day counting down the minutes until tonight. So my class needs, we survived everything together, from early mornings questioning our career choices to late nights questioning our sanity, we truly did become bonded.

Trauma bonded, maybe, but bonded nevertheless. And of course, our beloved energy, nothing bonds a group of girls more than dancing and chanting at 9 a.m. It was either a pep rally or an initiation ceremony. I'm just surprised we never got handed matching rogues. In all seriousness, I'm thankful we learned everything the right way, which conveniently meant one brand, one technique, and one opinion since the rest of the industry is doing the wrong. And let's not forget how much we gave to this school. Our time, our labor, our money, lots and lots of money, all in the name of experience. But we came out stronger. We learned how to work under pressure and

how to survive and environment for creativity took second place to compliance. A special thank you to Cali, Lily, and Amy Grace. They were the only ones brave enough to attend the student council meetings because nothing says leadership quite like silencing feedback. But we made it. We walked into students and tonight we are walking out of stylists who know exactly what Hansloin culture will never repeat. So here's us. The ones who didn't just learn how to style hair, we survived. Thank you. And that is what we're claiming your voice looks like.

Oh, it was the best feeling in the world. I don't think I've ever felt so, like, euphoric before. For somebody to, like, sit there and treat me like crap for 12 months, and then me finally get to, like, give it right back to them was the best. And I had so many parents come up to me afterwards and say, thank you so much for saying what everybody's been wanting to say this whole time. But when I tell you that like my speech broke that school, it broke the school. Because obviously work out fast, people are recording it, people are sending it to everybody.

And then she remembered, we live in a world where there's a platform created exactly for your voice to be heard. And dancing. And other things. TikTok is weird. I started posting TikToks about school while I was in school. Once I knew that I could give them a speech directly and directly tell them, how I felt. I was like, that's enough. It wasn't until the owner of the school was trying to reach out to my current workplace and warn them about me, as if they didn't already know, as if I'm not working with students, alumni, who went through the same things that I did, who are actually

cheering and applauding for me for saying what I did. And then I just flipped a switch. And I was like, you know what? This actually can go both ways. Like, if you want to play games, girl, let's play games. let's do it. So I set up my phone, I hit record, and I decided to really give them 100% of how I felt and my true feelings about the school. And I posted it and it blew up in nine years. Like, I have over a thousand comments on it. And it's everybody sharing their experiences, whether it be at the school I went to or the school that they went to. And it's just like everywhere. And today, Sophia is at a great salon, surrounded by mentors that actually support her. You know, I don't know if I'll do hair forever, but as of right now, I'm loving it,

and I'm super passionate about it. And I've learned more in the salon that I've been at for two months than I did, I think, the entire time that I was in school. I've learned so many new techniques. It's actually insane. And I'm so thankful that I am where I am and that I have who I have, because, like, if I were out on my own, I would have been screwed. I'm in an environment where my opinion is heard and valued,

and if I have a problem, I actually can bring it up and not be blamed for something that I have a problem with. But I'm just, I'm thankful that they weren't able to make me hate doing hair. Because to me, it's not about the money. It's about making girls feel beautiful and making girls feel confident and enjoying my job. I feel like, I don't know what it is about being in a salon and having that cape around you, but people will share their entire life stories with you the first time you met.

It's like, oh, hi, my name's Sophie. And you're like, hi, my name's Abigail. And like, here's all of my trauma and here's everything that I've been through. And I'm just like, girl, I thought we were just, you know, doing a blowout. But, you know, I'm here for it. And I love that. And I love that too. Thank you, Sophia, for bravely showing us that cults and cultic abuse doesn't have to hide

behind white robes and affirmations. It can hide behind perfect manicures and all black business casual. Or not just robes, but maybe those capes that they put on you. Yeah. That are kind of robed-like. So this is the part of the haircut where they bring out that mirror and show you the back of your head. And then that little brush comes off and they brush off the little hairs. But they never get all of them.

So you spend the rest of your day kind of scratching your neck a little bit. But it doesn't matter, because you look good. Your face looks great. It's thinner. You look a little younger. Got a little good therapy, little gossip with your stylist. What do you talk about with your stylist, Tyler? Isn't she like a 90-year-old woman?

She's not, she's older, but she's wonderful. She's funny, and we laugh and we tell stories. I'm not one to gossip, but there's just something about the snip, snip, snip of the hair. It makes you want to tell some stories. Get it off, right? you just all of a sudden, you're just unleashing your childhood try. I guess it makes the, if you think about the haircut cost, maybe it's cheaper than therapy. Perhaps.

I mean, I'll tell you what, if I wore a business, a local business, I would go to every salon and give them free meals or whatever. Because these hairstylists, they have you in their chair listening to you, and you could go, oh my God, I just had this really great meal down the street. And if they did that to every single person, those tacos pay for themselves. Anyways, business idea. I love this idea. I can't wait for you to make this a reality.

But in the meantime, Sophia is in Nashville, everybody. So if you're in Nashville, you should go get a haircut by her. You should take photos. You should video record it. Video record it? You should tag us in the posts and tip her heavily on Venmo. get a tip on Venmo these days, right? It's an easy way to do it.

Or cash. Good old fashion cash works. But I always feel bad if I'm paying with a credit card and you put the tip in the credit card. I'm like, is she really going to get this? Is it really going to her? You'll never know. Just slip her that $2 sliz that you'd give her anyways. Those two crinkly dollar bills, but do it sly like you're walking into a Vegas casino.

Yeah. Don't spend this all. You can go buy. two forks with this money. And if you're in Nashville, there's a good chance you're wearing those short shorts and cowboy boots. I don't know if you've been to Nashville lately, but that's pretty much the uniform of Nashville. The uniform. Short shorts, cowboy boots.

What does that have to do with hair? Everything. Because when I was there and I was wearing that, I had leg hair and I should have shaved it. That's what it has to do with hair. next week. What are we doing next week? Sophia can be found on TikTok and Instagram styled by

period Sophia Elise. It's at styled by period Sophia, S-O-P-H-I-A-E-E-L-I-S. Just put in the show notes. People can click on it, Liz. It's in the show notes. I'm not going to spell it. There you know. Okay, next week, we are going to be back on time.

We got something funky, guys. early for Christmas we have our special Christmas episode It'll be a Christmas miracle That we are on time next week Right There will be three wise men delivering our podcast

But it's a crazy tale It's filled with music And Christmas carols And comets It's the worst cult that ever existed It's children of God Yes it is a terrible cult It's the worst

The Children of God David Berg We've done a couple episodes on Children of God. If you haven't listened to them, they are probably one of the harder listens of this podcast. Pretty brutal. So that's it as we wind down this wonderful 2025. Oh, we'll miss you. We'll miss you. Why do you have to go? It's not going to get better in 2046. Just so you know, a turning of the calendar does not necessarily change all our, all our ills. A mental trap that we're in.

But thank you guys for supporting us and this little show we do. We are forever grateful for you. We could not do this show without you. And we appreciate you continue to spread the word of mouth of this show. Because honestly, it is literally how we get all of you. We don't really have marketing. We don't really have anything. We just have you guys.

We're Luddites. We're really lousy at things. things like Instagram, we are just not that good at it. We're not lousy at it. We just don't have all of the time. Yeah, we're not that good at it. We're not that good at it. We're not that good at it. But we do respond. I will say this. When people send us it messages and we love getting messages, we respond to them. In fact, I just got a great message the other day from a dude named Ryan Boggs who responded and said, yeah, I love your show and I want more ACDC. So thanks, Ryan I'll give you some of that.

Tyler feels so seen. Where my girls at? Give me some messages, okay? And if the feeling just happens to be mutual and you are in turn grateful for us, consider joining our Patreon. It helps us. It keeps us going more than you even realize.

So you get all these episodes ad free so all you people that complain about all the ads, well, pay up. It's called subscribe. subscription-based services you do with Hulu, you can do with your podcast. No, but seriously, we do give you ad-free episodes, bonus content, and we appreciate you, like these badasses, Layla Farabukush, Kim, she's just Kim, I love it, like Madonna, Deborah Anderson, Paper Doll 13, you guys imagine you could be them.

And Sophia, I'll see you in a few weeks for a blowout. That sounds like a party. Take out your night. Pureify me. Don't spare my life. Crucifery. Hi, I'm Jesse Prey. And I'm Andy Cassette.

Welcome to Love Murder, where we unravel the darkest tales of romance turned deadly. Our episodes are long form, narrative-driven, and deeply researched, perfect for the true-crime officinados seeking stories beyond the headlines. Like the chilling case of Blanche Taylor Moore, the so-called Black Widow who left a trail of poisoned lovers.

Or the shocking murders. of Chad Shelton and Dwayne Johnson, where family ties masked a sinister plot. Subscribe to Love Murder on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Joy to the world,

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