Proposed licensing makeover prompts concern among Utah’s beauty professionals

A crowd of beauty professionals, from estheticians to cosmetologists, lined the halls and overflow rooms of the Utah Capitol to make their presence known while the Utah Legislature’s Business and Labor Interim Committee discussed plans to significantly restructure licensing Wednesday.

Professional licenses in the cosmetology industry are the most common given out in Utah, with over 60,000 currently active, according to the Division of Professional Licensing.

To give perspective, there are around 56,000 active nursing licenses in the state and 33,000 contracting licenses

Jeff Shumway, director of the Division of Professional Licensing, shared the department's concerns and recommendations about the current structure of those cosmetology licenses with legislators during a committee hearing. These recommendations will be crafted into potential legislation that is likely to be voted on by the same committee in October.

The current approach, Shumway said, is complicated, with many different "micro-licenses" nested inside "sub-licenses" nested inside broader licenses. It also forces those wishing to specialize in one procedure, like eyelash extensions or tattoo removal, to spend significant amounts of time and money learning about procedures they aren't going to practice.

Finally, and maybe most significantly, Shumway argued that it is not the state's responsibility to legislate skill. Its responsibility is to regulate safety, he said, leaving quality of service for the market to sort out.

Some procedures, like chemical peels or laser treatments, pose a higher safety risk than a haircut, but the training requirements did not reflect the difference in risk, he said.

A study conducted by the division found that current licensees spent an estimated 5 million training hours on subjects unrelated to consumer safety, leading to market inefficiencies that drive up consumer costs, burden self-employed workers and exclude qualified individuals from the market.

A large number of those who spoke out against the bill at the Capitol were students or instructors at beauty schools across the valley. Ben Powell, an educator who works with a number of schools, said these smaller licenses would make it very difficult for professionals who move out of state. "If I move to Arizona, they won't recognize it," Powell said. "It's only valid in the state of Utah."

Powell argues that smaller courses would force instructional institutions to raise the cost per hour of each class, leading to more expensive tuition for students who already struggle to afford the training without taking on debt. A survey conducted by the Division of Professional Licensing showed “85% of licensees have less than a four-year college degree,” and the average held by those who were licensed between 2014 and 2024 is $4,000.

Shumway proposed an "innovative and new" approach, expanding the "micro-licenses" to every facet of the industry and creating bundled certifications that resemble what are currently held. A person looking to just perform cosmetic laser procedures or artificial nails could jump in with a "micro-license" and have the opportunity to make money while they collect other certifications as part of a broader program.

"I'm not sure there's buy-in yet," state Sen. Karen Kwan, D-Salt Lake City, said after the presentation, referencing the numerous beauty professionals — all dressed in black — in attendance.

State Rep. Brady Brammer, R-Highland, said that the House is motivated to decrease the required hours needed for these certifications “substantially,” and called Shumway’s proposed recommendations a good compromise because, “if left to its own devices,” legislators likely would have “cut way deeper.”

One beauty professional at the Capitol, Kris Creamer, who works in admissions at the Taylor Andrews Academy, said that a large number of students rely on federal aid to complete their education, but "micro-licenses" do not qualify for Pell grants.

Creamer said that the goal of the restructuring, to reduce economic barriers to education, would still leave out lower-income students. They would be unable to afford the "micro-licenses" without federal aid while facing increased competition due to the ease of obtaining the license.

Other students, who held up signs on the Capitol steps, said that they were worried they would be forced to renew a large number of licenses every year, which gets expensive, and that the reduced requirements could result in lower safety standards for consumers.

The changes being considered come on the back of revisions to licensing requirements that just went into effect in May, significantly reducing the required hours of experience needed to obtain many different licenses in the field.