A Big Step Forward To Rethinking Licensing

Iowa is changing how people in the United States enter the barbering and cosmetology fields. Across the country the path to legally cutting and styling hair is fairly similar: spend months or years at a school in order to build enough hours to take the state required exams.

More than half the states require a cosmetologist to have 1,500 hours of schooling. To pay for this schooling, students typically take on student loans. In Iowa, the average cost is more than $20,000 with more than 70% of students needing a loan. Only around 4 of 10 cosmetology students in the state graduate on time and 1 out of 3 doesn’t graduate within two years.

But the Governor just signed legislation to provide aspiring barbers and cosmetologists a path that leads much more quickly to a paycheck. HF 711 lets aspiring barbers and cosmetologists work in licensed shops under the supervision of a licensed professional. When someone reaches 2,000 hours of work, they can also apply for a license themselves if they want to strike out on their own.

Unlicensed barbers and cosmetologists still have to first receive education about the laws, rules, and sanitation practices of the occupation. Customers have to be informed before they receive any services from an unlicensed employee. The law also makes it clear that the state department overseeing these businesses is empowered to inspect businesses as often as it feels necessary.

This makes learning to work as a barber or cosmetologist similar to other professions such as chefs. The government doesn’t make aspiring chefs attend culinary school before they can cook for the public. Most places let chefs get into the kitchen after they’ve passed a test on how to safely handle food. This allows chefs to pursue the training that works best for them and their aspirations—as well as their pocketbooks.

Indeed, an Institute for Justice study released earlier this year found that the number of hours required to get a license had no effect on whether salons or barbershops passed inspection. The study compared barbershops in Alabama to those of barbershops in neighboring Mississippi, which requires 50% more hours of training. Businesses in both states performed almost identically, with those nearest the border passing at least 95% of inspections on average.

Signing of the bill is welcome news to Craig Hunt, who operates two barbershops in Iowa and has seen many people give up because of the time and expense of becoming licensed. In fact, Craig dropped out of a program when he was younger. When he decided that barbering was his calling, he had to start from ground zero.

Craig was one of a dedicated group of barbers who spent months talking with lawmakers at the Iowa capitol. His message was clear: “The way we’ve been doing things for decades isn’t working. The establishment training program gives us a third option, a new way for us licensed barbers to help shape the next generation.”

With the governor’s signature, Craig can give someone a job after basic health and safety instruction instead of turning them away and directing them to get 1,550 hours of traditional and costly schooling. Craig has been teaching barbering for years through an apprenticeship program and is confident that the new model will provide his customers with good service.

Every state surrounding Iowa required less education to get a barber’s license. Now Iowa has leaped ahead of not only its neighbors but the rest of the U.S. Licenses are not going to disappear, but the barriers that stood between people and the career of their choosing are about to become easily surmountable.