04-03-2025
Big changes could be coming to cosmetology licensing. Is it a fresh new look?
Utah didn't have an esthetics license until 2001, and now a bill in the state legislature would make changes to licensing for estheticians, hair stylists, nail techs, barbers and others.
SB330, sponsored by Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, changes the type of licenses available and how many hours are required to receive certain cosmetology licenses.
But cosmetology professionals and those who teach the skills are concerned about the changes to licensing requirements. Specifically, they are worried how the changes impact what skills the students will master, and if it will impact the clients who receive those services.
The bill was put together after the Utah Office of Professional Licensure Review studied cosmetology licenses in Utah and suggested changes. The recommendations from the licensing group focused on safety, making sure people were licensed enough to practice safely, but not necessarily at a high quality.
'I do feel like that's great, the safety is important, but in hair, there needs to be just as much quality as there is safety, because there's so many bad hairstylists, and it's because we don't have to pass the test on quality, the test is to pass on safety,' said Brynn Black a hairstylist who works at Shade Nine Salon in American Fork.
Throughout the process of developing the bill, Sandall worked with professionals and school owners to make sure they are on board with the changes the bill would foster. He shared that his daughter is an esthetician, and that he helped pay for her schooling and has watched her throughout her career.
'I know how many hours she had to go. ... I watched her do it, and I've watched her practice esthetics, master esthetics. And so I understand how fast these new technologies come,' Sandall shared.
The bill would make significant changes to the licensing for estheticians in Utah, the biggest change being that it would eliminate the basic esthetician program. Currently, those wanting to study esthetics can do a basic esthetics program for 600 hours or get a masters of esthetics license for 1,200 hours.
In 2001, when the master of esthetics license was first started in Utah, Mandalyn Freeland was 22 years old and wanted to get licensed. She wanted to study just esthetics, but not do hair. When she couldn't find somewhere to do that, she decided to start her own school of esthetics where students could focus on just esthetics.
'I remember telling my mom and my husband, like, I don't want to wait and drive past someone else doing this. This is my dream,' Freeland said. 'I'm just gonna do it before someone else does.'
After hiring licensed instructors for Mandalyn Academy, Freeland earned her master of esthetics through her own school. She has been running the school for 24 years now.
Freeland explained that the skills in the basic programs are things performed at a day spa but the extra treatments under the masters level are received at a med spa.
The basic license includes learning how to do facials, wax hair removal, manicures, pedicures, eyelash and eyebrow work. Freeland's school also teaches spray tanning and teeth whitening in her basic program because those skills are not regulated through the state.
With the master program students learn more advanced treatments, including more aggressive ways to exfoliate. These treatments include microdermabrasion, chemical peels, microneedling, dermaplaning and laser.
Freeland said she doesn't think it's a good idea to get rid of the basic program, because it requires just enough hours for it to be federally funded, and students who can't afford it on their own can apply for Pell grants and loans. Without the basic license, students who can't afford esthetician school wouldn't have that option anymore.
'If you're trying to make things easier for the public to gain an education and a license and a career, then we should have kept the basic program at 600 hours, just to be able to give more people the opportunity, time and money wise, to get that foundation. And then if you want to do masters, you can go on and do that,' Freeland said.
Kenzi Hopkins is a student at Mandalyn Academy who has finished her basic training and is now working towards getting the advanced license, a decision she made as she worked through learning the basics.
'I really love to learn it, just because I feel like masters side of things is where you see more results oriented. And I really wanted to focus on helping people through their skincare and I wanted them to be confident in their skin,' Hopkins said.
Brynn Black is a hair stylist in American Fork who this year decided to take on an apprentice for the first time. Her apprentice, Melanie Wheeler, started with her in the fall. Two other stylists at her salon, Shade Nine, have also taken on apprentices. The apprentices are all working to get their hair design license.
Wheeler said she decided to do an apprenticeship instead of going to a school because she heard she would be able to learn more and would be better prepared to start working after being an apprentice.
'What inspired me to do this was because I wanted to teach girls that you can actually be good at doing hair,' Black said. 'Because a lot of girls don't continue doing hair after school, and I truly believe it's (because of) their experience in school.'
SB330 would change the hour requirements for the hair design license, requiring students to tally 1,000 hours in school or under an apprenticeship to get licensed. The hour requirements for barbers under this bill would also be 1,000 hours.
Black said she believes the apprenticeship for hair design should be less hours than going to school.
'So I don't know why they think apprenticeship need more hours, because they're already working in a salon, and that's the goal, that's why you go to school, is to be able to feel confident in working in a salon, and they already are,' Black said.
One concern when the bill was first introduced was that it would prevent high school students from attending cosmetology schools. This licensing for high schoolers can be achieved through their school's CTE programs or through the private cosmetology schools.
'I've had several high school students that have attended my school through the school district and have been able to get elected credits fulfilled to graduate and get a scholarship that the school district provides for them to come their junior or senior year and already have this license and career by the time they graduate high school. That has been phenomenal,' Freeland said.
Sandall said that he worked with stakeholders to fix the issue. Now, the bill would allow these high school students to attend cosmetology school.
'The high schools that have reached out are comfortable with the language that we've got,' Sandall said. 'It was never our intent to exclude them, yeah. So I think we got it fixed,' Sandall said
SB330 would also allow people to become licensed in smaller individual components of esthetics and hair design. These have been referred to as 'micro-licenses.' This would include being individually licensed in facial hair removal, eyelash and eyebrow work, haircutting and chemical hair services.
'So we've created components, these small health and safety permits, in hours,' Sandall said. 'And if somebody just wants to get that and do that, they can go out and try to be marketable on their own.'
There is still an option for the smaller components to be bundled together so students can learn all of cosmetology or esthetics if that's what they want to do.
Freeland said she's concerned that with the micro-licenses, students won't receive all the background and foundation that they need for sanitation and also professionalism, because of the limited amount of hours.
Another concern Freeland shared about these micro-licenses is that people who are only licensed in individual components of esthetics and not all of esthetics might still claim to be a estheticians.
'How is the public gonna know?' Freeland said. 'You're gonna have all these girls going through one of those courses, and saying, 'I'm an esthetician,' and so the public's not gonna know, like, what does your esthetician really know? What are they really certified to do?'
