*The Louisiana Cosmetology Act requires braiders to undergo at least 500 hours of training before they are legally certified.
A practical test also requires braiders to perform several different hairstyles on a mannequin, as well as take a written exam, The Advocate reports. Some permits can apparently take more than 10 months to acquire and cost more than $10,000.
“Most people in Louisiana who are braiding, if not all of them, are women who have been braiding all of their lives,” said Keith Neely, a Washington, D.C., attorney for nonprofit think tank Institute for Justice. “So asking them to turn around and spend 500 hours in school, it’s kind of insulting. It’s just forcing them to jump through these unnecessary hoops when all they want to do is support themselves and their families.”
The regulations are defended by state officials as a means of preserving public health and safety.
“The alternative hair design permit is necessary to protect the … welfare of the citizens of Louisiana by ensuring that individuals performing alternative hair design are knowledgeable about the damage which can result from poor scalp hygiene, improper grooming, excessive tension on the hair follicles and cross contamination,” said Sherri Morris, an attorney who led the board’s legal team, per The Advocate.
Some states, like Massachusetts and Montana, require braiders to obtain full cosmetology licenses.
As The Advocate reports, Louisiana state Rep. Mary DuBuisson (R-Slidell) sponsored a bill this year reducing the minimum amount of training stylists must complete to obtain their cosmetology licenses from 1,500 hours to 1,200 hours. After the House passed the proposal, salon owners lobbied hard against it, and it never reached the Senate.
“It’s all about money,” DuBuisson said about the opposition.
“In our view, it would help their businesses because more people would be able to do it,” DuBuisson added. “So it would actually grow the (industry). But they were too fearful that it would affect their bottom line.”
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