As much as I despise DEI... my best flight instructor nearly 40 years ago was beautiful leggy blonde. My wife took one look at her and made me get a different instructor. But I did have to go back to her for my spin training because she was the only instructor at the flight school who was qualified to teach aerobatic maneuvers. She was a competitive aerobatic pilot.
Taking lessons for 18 months means lots of backtracking. You forget stuff from lesson to lesson if the previous time was 4 weeks ago. Much can be said about taking a Crash Course in getting your license. This guy apparently WAS taking a CRASH Course, just did it in a year and a half.