Licensing restricts the right to work in NH

Union Leader ^ | 3/21/17 | Grant Bosse

[198ml]

Rest assured, Granite Staters. Your state government is hard at work protecting you from violent crime, dirty water and bad hair days.

The state Board of Barbering, Cosmetology and Esthetics regulates who can cut hair professionally in New Hampshire.

In order to obtain a barber’s license, you need to have a high school degree, 800 hours of instruction at a state-approved barbering school, 1,600 hours apprenticing under an already licensed barber, pass a test and pay a fee. There are even steeper requirements for cosmetology, defined as “arranging, dressing, curling, waving, cleansing, cutting, bleaching, coloring or similarly treating the hair of any person.”

If you want to be an esthetician, which means someone who applies makeup professionally, you only need 600 hours of training.

Until last year, New Hampshire was one of only five states that required shampoo assistants, who don’t actually touch the scissors, to get a state license. Hey, getting shampoo in your eyes can really sting, so we needed protection.

[2banana]

Live free or die?

[Hegemony Cricket]

Live free or dye...

[Celerity]

Lots of states require this. You’d be surprised what kind of horrible things can go down at the beauty salon.

But 800 hours ? 1600 hours ? WTF that’s a long time. I recall that bartenders need instruction too, and it’s like 20 hours or something. (I don’t know for sure, my mother was a NH licenced mixologist)

But when any state looks to NJ for how to do things, you know you’re about to regulated.

[Blood of Tyrants]

When I was in the Navy, a sailor would be assigned the task of cutting the other sailors’ hair. The seaman who cut my hair said he had never cut hair before he was assignetold to do it.

[sergeantdave]

“you need to have a high school degree, 800 hours of instruction at a state-approved barbering school, 1,600 hours apprenticing under an already licensed barber, pass a test and pay a fee.”

My wife once cut my hair in San Fransico, and I looked like Moe from the Three Stooges. She would need all the above schooling and hours of OJT before I would let her cut my hair again.

I now have an Italian barber who gets it right 75% of the time. And yes, I tip him generously for not making me look like Moe. Nyuck! Nyuck! Nyuck!

Haircuts, as long as I have a big, bushy clump of natural hair atop my head is a damn serious business.

[Ace's Dad]

Haircuts, as long as I have a big, bushy clump of natural hair atop my head is a damn serious business.

I don't know your age, "Sarge," but at 75 with all my natural hair, it is at critical stage. I'm blessed with a brilliant student as a granddaughter. Now I have a rather simple style, but it it's reassuring to have somebody who cares.

[Pollster1]

In order to obtain a barber’s license, you need to have a high school degree, 800 hours of instruction at a state-approved barbering school, 1,600 hours apprenticing under an already licensed barber, pass a test and pay a fee.

This is insane: 20 weeks of school, and then 40 weeks as an apprentice just to cut hair. I've seen what the apprentices do in my state - sweep up the mess made by their co-workers, fold towels, and shampoo hair if their co-worker is busy. It is, like so many similar requirements, just an effort to restrict competition.

[198ml]

I can’t tell — are you saying you’re in favor of these occupational licensure laws?