Regency Beauty Institute campuses close

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Akeisha Wharton was scheduled to graduate from Regency Beauty Institute on Oct. 14. Instead, she says she cried all of Wednesday night knowing that she and her classmates would have to share a tearful goodbye on Thursday.

Wharton was notified in an email sent out late on Wednesday that the campus she attended in Spring would be permanently closing.

"I really want to cry, but crying is not going to solve the problem," says another student. "It's sad, because I'm so close, I only had a little bit over a month and two weeks left -- that close to graduation, that close and it's like, gone, horrible."

Many students cried as they carried their belongings to their vehicles trying to understand how and why after 50 years, a national fixture in the cosmetology world closed its doors.

Regency Beauty Institute does not have the financial means to continue operating, according to the school's website. It also cites declining enrollment, but defends its reputation by stating, "this is not another case of a school being forced to shut down because it was accused of wrongdoing." But some say that is not enough and this is just not fair.

"We (are) out here on our own trying to figure out what is the next move we need to make and me, I really want to finish, I want to achieve my license because I worked to hard," explains Wharton. "I studied too hard and for all of this to go down the drain, it's just not right."