New CA Law Relaxes Training Requirements For Cosmetology License

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California’s beauty industry is bracing for a big change after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Thursday that dramatically cuts the number of training hours needed to be a hairdresser or cosmetologist.

Barbers and cosmetologists will only need 1,000 hours of training to obtain their license, compared to 1,600 hours currently. They and other beauty professionals will no longer have to take a practical exam. Finally, a separate program will be created for hairdressers, who will only have to complete 600 hours of training.

Newsom’s signing comes after intense lobbying for and against the bill. Supporters of the bill said it would make access to the beauty industry more accessible and affordable for low-income and minority workers.

But opponents, who have staged several rallies against the bill, said the industry is now inundated with workers. The law will only make the industry less secure and increase the supply of workers, making them poorer, opponents said.

“When you take 40% of the training to mass produce technicians at a fast pace, it will be the same as what Uber did to independent taxi drivers,” said Lu Garcia Reynoso, a licensed barber who manages a store in the south of the country. California and runs Barber Society, a group that connects workers to resources.

Start a career more easily

Wendy Cochran failed her road test because a dummy head she was working on suddenly fell to the ground.

She had to wait four months to retake the test, said Cochran, who founded California Aesthetic Alliance, a group of skin care specialists. With the passage of the bill, Cochran and other scholars would not have had to take the practical test.

“I have never had the head of a customer fall on normal duty,” she said. “A practical test is not practical. “

Senator Richard Roth, D-Riverside, who introduced Bill 803 in the Senate, said it strikes a balance between protecting consumers and removing an “unnecessary barrier to employment.”

Several states such as Iowa and Pennsylvania have removed a practical exam for at least some of their beauty professionals, and others, such as Maine and Delaware, are considering the same, according to a report by the California’s Board of Barbering and Cosmetology which oversees the industry. .

Several states such as Vermont and Texas recently cut the training hours needed to obtain cosmetology licenses, he said at an assembly committee meeting in July. Vermont and Texas now require 1,000 hours of training to become a cosmetologist, who can do everything from haircuts to manicures except shaving.

“It appeared to at least some of us that 1,000 hours was appropriate. It was certainly appropriate for Vermont, Texas and New York, ”Roth said at the meeting.

The law also increases the number of hours of disinfection and sanitation training from 20 hours to 100 hours, he said.

Cochran said few community colleges offer training programs for the industry, meaning many have to go to private schools. The council report found that students pay an average of $ 15,000 to take a 1,600-hour course to become a cosmetologist.

“We have to go to private schools and they can do whatever they want,” she said.

Will the barber become less secure?

Chris Tellis, president and owner of the California College of Barbering and Cosmetology in Stockton, runs a school with approximately 270 students. For him, the law would be good for his business, he said. “I would have a lot of students.

But he and his students still traveled to Sacramento this summer to protest the bill.

Several academies such as Paul Mitchell Schools and Bellus Academy opposed the bill. Tellis noted that several large companies such as Great Clips and SportClips supported the bill.

“They are not in favor of this because they see it as a path to the future of minimum wage,” Tellis said of his students. “When you talk about lowering the barrier to entry, when you open the doors, what worries us is a flood of poorly paid workers driving down workers’ wages. “

Fred Jones, legal counsel and lobbyist for the Professional Beauty Federation of California representing thousands of workers, called the bill a “frontal attack on our profession.”

There are already about 32,000 active licenses for barbers in the state, according to the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology. More than 2% of the state’s adult population has a board license, he said.

“What a frightening barrier is it when so many people have managed to get the license? ” he said.

And those extra hours of training are needed to give students the confidence and practical skills to succeed, especially since many of them will be working as independent contractors, Jones said.

“These students have to get to work in a way that students of 30 years ago didn’t,” he said. “You move from theory to practice and the more practical opportunities you have in a controlled environment where you are allowed to fail, the more effective you will be as an independent entrepreneur. “

The bill will come into force next year.

This story was originally published October 7, 2021 6:14 pm.

CORRECTION: Approximately 32,000 people are licensed to work as barbers in California. This story has been updated to correct the number of active barber licenses.

Corrected on October 8, 2021

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Jeong Park joined the Capitol Bureau of the Sacramento Bee in 2020 as part of the newspaper’s community-funded Equity Lab. It covers economic inequalities, focusing on how state policies affect workers. Before joining the Bee, he worked as a city reporter for the Orange County Register.


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