Cosmetology licensure requirements could change in Utah under new bill

SALT LAKE CITY — A bill that would reduce the number of hours cosmetology students in Utah need to get their license has advanced.

Cosmetologists are currently required to train for 1,600 hours to get their license. If SB330 passes, that number would be cut to 1,250 hours.

Mixed reviews on potential cosmetology changes

There are mixed reviews on these changes, according to Jeff Shumway, the director of the Office of Professional Licensure Review.

“There are people who really want the bigger licenses because they want to try out everything within cosmetology,” Shumway said. “And there are also folks that came to us and said ‘I don’t want to pay that much money, I don’t want to spend that much time to get licensed.”

Shumway said his office was created to take a look at these licenses and evaluate the changes. He said they talked to training programs and cosmetologists to get input.

“We also ran a lot of focus groups and did this full survey … because we wanted to hear directly from people in the industry, not necessarily people who are running schools.”

The bill closely follows their findings, Shumway said, but negotiations with lawmakers and professionals are ongoing.

Will quality suffer?

Barbers are just one of many professionals whose training hours will be cut down. Right now they are required to hit about 1,000 hours. If the bill passes, it would drop to 130 hours. Some professionals said that less experienced barbers getting licensed will bring down the quality of service.

“The purpose of licensure is not to set a ceiling to tell people how much training they need. It’s actually to set a floor right? It’s a floor not a ceiling. So the state sets the floor of what you need to be safe and above that, you can pursue whatever training you’d like,” Shumway said.

The cosmetology bill passed the Utah Senate on Tuesday, but it will likely go through more revision as it heads to the House.

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