Top hairstylists started somewhere, right?

If you aren’t risk-averse, you can save a lot of money by getting your hair cut or colored by a stylist in training: Beauty-school cuts cost as little as $10.

The tradeoff: Because trainees are methodical and supervisors check the work, appointments take time.

If a student armed with dye makes you nervous, consider that beauty schools also offer cheap massages and facials.

What follows are beauty schools and salons that offer inexpensive student services or training nights. Many other salons, including the PR at Partners chain and Ronnie Elias Salon in Oakton have junior stylists or apprentices who charge less. Places like Hair Cuttery can be a deal, too.

In nearly ten years with Washington-based beauty outpost bluemercury, spa director Lance Etchison has achieved a cult following for both his facial techniques and his eyebrow-shaping skills. Over the years, he’s unclogged the pores and streamlined the brows of everyone from Harrison Ford to Lauryn Hill to Monica Lewinsky (back in her carefully groomed deposition days, of course).

Etchison works out of the store’s Georgetown branch but oversees the spa menu and aesthetician training for bluemercury’s growing national reach—now nearly 30 stores and counting. We sat down with Washington’s best-known extraction expert to get his take on everything from do-it-yourself skincare secrets to who’s got the best brows for the White House. It was all so good, we came up with ten foolproof quotes that make up Lance’s Guide to Great Grooming.