The Art of Scary Student Competition

The Art of Scary Student Competition is happening at Empire Beauty School on Monday, October 19, from 10 AM to 12 PM. It's a student competition with Halloween-themed categories in hair and nail artistry, so the whole thing is built around the holiday. Instead of a standard beauty showcase, the students are working with a spooky theme, which means you'll see them leaning into the more theatrical side of the craft—think bold colors, dramatic shapes, and the kind of looks that wouldn't exactly fly at a typical salon appointment.

The competition is split across two disciplines: hair and nails. In the hair categories, students are tasked with creating looks that fit the Halloween theme, which usually means playing with structure, color, and maybe some unconventional additions to get that eerie effect. The nail categories follow the same prompt, with students turning nails into miniature canvases for something unsettling or otherworldly. It's a good way to see how they handle the more creative, conceptual side of the work they're learning.

Because it's a student competition, you're watching people who are still in training, so the focus is as much on the process as the final result. You'll see them working through their looks in real time, and the Halloween theme gives them a bit more room to experiment than they'd get in a standard class project. If you've ever wondered what happens when you take beauty school skills and point them toward something creepy, this is exactly that.

It all goes down at Empire Beauty School, 4768 McKnight Rd, Suite 500, in the North Hills area of Pittsburgh. The competition runs from 10 AM to 12 PM on Monday, October 19.