Empire Education Group Introduces the Empire Style Council

The Empire Style Council with a model (L to R) Lindsey Watts, Nick Arrojo, Marc Galgay, La Sonya Gunter and Yvette Caballero

This week I had the pleasure of attending a luncheon at Manhattan's Chelsea Piers to meet the Empire Style Council, a new initiative from the Empire Education Group, provider of 107 Empire cosmetologist schools nationwide.

The Empire Style Council is headed by the esteemed stylist Nick Arrojo—the lead for Empire’s Masters of Beauty program—and has a plan to be a 'one-stop-expertise-shop' in instructional how-to’s, insider tips and trend forecasting.

Joining Arrojo on the council are Empire Beauty Schools artistic advisors Marc Galgay, Lindsey Watts, La Sonya Gunter and Yvette Caballero. According to Franklin K. Schoeneman, CEO, Empire Education Group, each member shares a cosmetology commonality through Empire, but also specializes in a specific facet of the industry including styling, hair coloring, makeup artistry, nail design and barbering. “The Style Council is an arsenal of esteemed beauty experts in their respective disciplines, whose strength as a single unit outweighs any one of them individually. It's an honor to have them on board,” said Schoeneman.

Along with the introduction of the Style Council, Arrojo briefly spoke on what is happening in hair right now saying that the biggest trend is "hair painting", a concept to create dimension in a free fall fashion in sync with the hair style. "We will see more funkier, bolder and stronger colors that is painted through the hair; there is going to be more texture and movement and when it comes to hair cutting, haircuts will be layered internally," said Arrojo.

CEO of Empire Education Group Franklin K. Schoeneman (second from left) speaks at the luncheon with the Empire Style Council.

American Salon's Jolene Turner with Nick Arrojo