Maple Grove Graduate Finds Success with Styling

When you combine art and science, you can often create something beautiful. That’s the ultimate career goal for a former Maple Grove Senior High student.

Joey Posner was practically made for hair styling. The 18-year-old has always been fascinated by hair.

“Our preschool teacher use to notice I braided all the Barbies hair. All the Barbies had little braids,” Posner explained.

Look created by Joey Posner.
Instagram: @joeystyleshair

Posner Wins Prestigious Award

Just barely out of high school, Posner won one of the most prestigious hairstyling awards in the country. It’s called the North American Hairstyling Award (NAHA).

“All the finalists, they’re going to Las Vegas for the award ceremony in late August,” said Posner. “I get to walk the red carpet and meet celebrities and very influential people in the industry, so that could be a lot for my career.”

But Posner’s art goes beyond hair and it truly showed during the Aveda Institute Scholarship competition he entered during high school.

Look created by Joey Posner.
Instagram: @joeystyleshair

The challenge was to create full outfits out of recyclables. Posner used newspapers and plastic bottles. He also applied the make-up and styled a wig. The high school student, at the time, created and photographed the model right in his living room.

A month later, Posner received good news that he got a perfect score in all categories. Posner got a full-ride scholarship to Aveda Arts and Sciences Institute in Minneapolis.

Posner enrolled in Aveda even before finishing high school.

“I’m finally expressing what I always wanted to do on a bigger scale,” he said.

To graduate from Aveda’s Cosmetology program, students are required to complete 1,550 hours of schooling. Many days they’re working on real clients, other days, they’re styling mannequins that have real hair.

Joey Posner working on hair at Aveda Institute.

Post-Graduation Dreams

The 18-year-old is half way done with cosmetology school and has big dreams including traveling the world, doing immaculate crazy hair and working with famous celebrities’ like Lady GaGa.

Whether Posner is styling on a large or small scale, he said it’s important to know that beauty is not just superficial.

“You change someone’s day and life by doing their hair,” Posner explained. “Sometimes you do their hair and they’re so happy and overwhelmed, that they start to tear up because you brought out something they wanted to show.”