The Ohio House of Representatives advanced a piece of Republican-backed legislation that modernizes the statutes authorizing the Cosmetology and Barber Board.
House Bill (HB) 158, sponsored by State Representatives Melanie Miller (R-City of Ashland) and Bill Roemer (R-Richfield), unanimously passed out of the Ohio House Commerce and Labor Committee advancing it to the house floor for further consideration.
The legislation aims to update the barber and cosmetology statutes creating a unified license to harmonize the regulations and processes of the board and better serve licenses.
In 2017, the separate Cosmetology and Barber Boards were merged into one board. Before the merger, the State Board of Cosmetology oversaw nearly 113,000 licensees, and the Ohio State Barber Board oversaw more than 11,000 active licenses.
According to Miller, the law is not properly adjusted to account for this merger.
“This is simply a bill to standardize Ohio’s regulation of these personal appearance service providers to create a more efficient pathway for current cosmetologists and barbers as well as the many individuals moving into the field,” Miller said.
The legislation would create a unified barbering/cosmetology school license, eliminate duplicative applications for facilities that teach both cosmetology and barbering, lower the age of applicants for barber school to 16 years old, reduce fines for disciplinary actions, and eliminate a requirement that a barber student complete 200 additional hours of training before re-taking the licensing exam.
The legislation also tries to loosen regulations on license reciprocity from other states, establish temporary pre-examination work permits for barbers, create an independent contractor license, create a process to designate a license as inactive, allow the board to independently set the passing score for the barber exam, and ease regulations for practicing a branch of cosmetology/barbering on a dead body in a funeral home.
In the last general assembly, lawmakers introduced a similar bill that also included a controversial amendment to reduce the required training required to get a cosmetology and barber license.
The bill tried to reduce the Ohio licensure requirements for a cosmetologist from 1,500 hours to 1,000 hours. Ohio’s current requirement of 1,500 hours is 250 hours more training than a cosmetologist in Pennsylvania and 500 more hours than hairdressers in New York, Texas, and Vermont. The required hours of training for a barber would go down to 1,000 from 1,800.
Although the amendment had vocal proponents such as Ohio think tank The Buckeye Institute and The Ohio Chambers of Commerce, the legislation stalled at the end of the 134th general assembly requiring its re-introduction this session.
The bill does not include any changes to current training hour requirements for initial licensure this session.
According to Miller, she is confident this legislation will encourage growth in the Barber and Cosmetology industry.
“I am confident that these and other changes that update our code will serve to encourage the Barber and Cosmetology industry to grow and thrive in Ohio,” Miller said.
The legislation now awaits consideration on the house floor.
– – –
Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected].
