Colorado Barber License Requirements

Colorado licenses barbers through the Office of Barber and Cosmetology Licensure, part of the Division of Professions and Occupations at DORA. It is a mandatory practice act state — in the state's own words, you may not practise as a Barber, Cosmetologist, Esthetician, Hairstylist, or Nail Technician in this state without a Colorado licence.

The Requirements

Colorado is notably light on personal prerequisites. There is no minimum age and no minimum education level written into the licensure-by-examination rule. What Rule 1.2 requires is:

1. 1,500 contact hours or 50 credit hours of approved barber training;
2. a completed application, the requested documentation, and the fee to the Director's examination vendor; and
3. passing the PSI examination.

You Apply to PSI, Not to the State

This is the structural quirk worth understanding first. Colorado has authorised PSI to process initial licensure applications by the examination method. You send your application and a $32 fee payable to PSI — not to DORA — at PSI/Colorado Barber Cosmetology Program, PO Box 887, Wheat Ridge, CO 80034.

Everything else runs through DPO Online Services: licensure by endorsement, reinstatement of an expired licence, renewal, and contact updates. New examination candidates go to PSI; everyone else goes to DORA.

Hours or Credits, Your Choice

Colorado is one of a small number of states that states the requirement in both currencies: fifty credit hours or 1,500 contact hours. If you train at a community college on a credit-hour transcript, you are not forced to convert it into clock hours to satisfy the board.

Barbering in Colorado is 1,500 contact hours or 50 credit hours — exactly the same as cosmetology, and 300 hours more than hairstyling.

• Barber — 50 credit hours / 1,500 contact hours
• Cosmetologist — 50 credit hours / 1,500 contact hours
• Hairstylist — 40 credit hours / 1,200 contact hours
• Esthetician — 20 credit hours / 600 contact hours
• Nail technician — 20 credit hours / 600 contact hours

The Required Subjects

A barbering programme must cover treatment of hair and scalp; facial massage and treatment; facial shaving; haircutting; hairstyling; permanent waving and chemical hair relaxing; hair colouring; laws and rules; management, ethics, interpersonal skills and salesmanship; and disinfection, cleaning and safe work practices. Hours per topic must be substantially equivalent to those provided in accredited schools approved by DPOS or CCCS.

What "Substantially Equivalent" Actually Meant

For students who enrolled before 28 February 2018, the rule published the exact table — and it remains the clearest picture of how Colorado expects the 1,500 hours to be divided:

• Haircutting — 270 hours (9 credits)
• Hairstyling — 270 hours (9 credits)
• Chemical hair services — 240 hours (8 credits)
• Hair colouring and tinting — 240 hours (8 credits)
• Disinfection, cleaning and safe work practices — 180 hours (6 credits)
• Facial massage and treatments — 90 hours (3 credits)
• Shaving — 90 hours (3 credits)
• Treatment of hair and scalp — 60 hours (2 credits)
• Law, rules and regulations — 30 hours (1 credit)
• Management, ethics, interpersonal skills and salesmanship — 30 hours (1 credit)

Two things stand out. Colorado devotes twice as many hours to disinfection and safety as to shaving, and colouring and chemical services together take 480 hours — nearly a third of the course. This is not a razor-centric curriculum.

Apprenticeship Is a Real Alternative

Training hours may be completed through an apprenticeship programme approved by the US Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship or Colorado's State Apprenticeship Agency, as well as at a DPOS- or CCCS-approved school. The Director will also accept a DPOS- or CCCS-approved internship or externship as proof of training.

Hours Transfer Between Licence Types

Rule 1.2(B)(3) is generous: training hours earned for one licence type may be applied towards the subject areas and hours required for another, provided they were earned at an approved school or apprenticeship. A hairstylist with 1,200 hours is materially closer to a barber licence than the raw numbers suggest.

Foreign Work Experience Substitutes, With One Exception

Applicants may substitute work experience obtained in a foreign country for required contact hours at a ratio of three months of experience for every 100 contact hours. But PSI is explicit about the carve-out: the hours required for disinfection, cleaning, safe work practices, and review of laws and rules are not eligible for substitution. Colorado will credit your skill but not your knowledge of its own rules.

If You Trained in Another State and Fall Short

Applicants who trained elsewhere but do not meet Colorado's minimum may obtain the remainder at a Colorado approved school. The school reviews your existing hours, and the Director may give deference to the school's recommendation on whether they count.

Colorado uses the PSI Cosmetology and Barber National Exams, and PSI administers the application process as well as the test.

Applying

Since 14 October, all test takers must use PSI's online application inside a PSI test-taker account rather than the older paper process. Scheduling by telephone remains available on (855) 744-0312 with a credit or debit card. The application fee is $32, payable to PSI.

What Must Accompany the Application

• All sections completed with an original signature
• Your Social Security number or ITIN
• An original Record of Completion or original out-of-state school records or transcripts
• An original official transcript of education completed, or a Certificate of Completion of Apprenticeship approved by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment

If you have been convicted of, pled guilty or nolo contendere to a felony, or accepted a deferred judgment or prosecution on a felony charge, you must complete a Felony Conviction Form from DORA's website.

You Can Test From Home

PSI offers Colorado candidates a Remote Theory examination and a Virtual Practical examination, both takeable from home, with published tutorials for each. From 28 July 2026, remote theory candidates must bring a mobile phone into the testing area for an enhanced check-in room scan.

Reinstatement Runs Through DORA, Not PSI

PSI notes that a candidate applying for reinstatement must apply with DORA after passing the test. The two agencies handle different stages, and getting this the wrong way round is a common source of delay.

Colorado barber licences renew every two years, through DPO Online Services.

A Fixed Statewide Expiry Date

Colorado does not tie renewal to your birthday or issue date. Barber, esthetician, hairstylist and nail technician licences all expire on 31 March of even-numbered years. Cosmetologist licences run on a different date entirely — 30 April, in odd or even years depending on issuance.

The 120-Day Rule Protects New Licensees

A fixed statewide date would otherwise leave someone licensed in February with a six-week licence. Colorado prevents that: any new applicant issued a licence within 120 days of the upcoming expiration date receives the subsequent expiration date instead. In practice a licence issued after 30 November 2025 runs to 31 March 2028 rather than 31 March 2026.

No Continuing Education to Renew

Colorado requires no continuing education for an ordinary renewal. CE appears only in the reinstatement rules, as one of three ways to demonstrate competency to practise:

• Expired up to five years — an active out-of-state licence with practice in the last two years, or 16 hours of approved continuing education, or passing the written examination.
• Expired more than five years — the same options, but the CE requirement rises to 24 hours.

Renewal Fee

Colorado does not publish its biennial barber renewal fee on a public board page — the amount is quoted to licensees at renewal time inside DPO Online Services. Rather than repeat a figure from a third-party summary, we have left it unstated here; confirm it when you log in to renew, or by contacting DPO licensing on 303-894-7800.

Holding More Than One Licence

Colorado allows licences to be combined and separated, and barbering interacts with both directions:

• A licensee holding all three limited licences — esthetician, hairstylist and nail technician — may on written request consolidate them into a single cosmetologist licence.
• A licensee holding an active cosmetologist licence may on written request also hold one or all three limited licences.
• In either case, the licensee may also hold a Barber licence, subject to completing the training requirements in Rule 1.2 or 1.4.

Each licence type carries a separate fee to keep it active, so combining credentials is a cost decision as well as a scope decision.

Colorado regulates barbering under Title 12, Article 105 of the Colorado Revised Statutes, administered by the Office of Barber and Cosmetology Licensure. It is a mandatory practice act: practising without a licence is prohibited, not merely un-credentialled.

What the Barber Licence Covers

Colorado defines the scope through the required curriculum rather than a separate list of permitted acts. A barbering programme must cover:

• Treatment of hair and scalp
• Facial massage and treatment
• Facial shaving
• Haircutting and hairstyling
• Permanent waving and chemical hair relaxing
• Hair colouring
• Disinfection, cleaning and safe work practices

The chemical services sit squarely inside the barber licence — colouring and chemical work account for roughly a third of the mandated hours.

The Five Licences and How They Relate

Colorado issues one broad licence and four narrower ones:

• Cosmetologist — the composite licence, 1,500 hours
• Barber — 1,500 hours, standing outside the limited-licence group
• Hairstylist, Esthetician, Nail technician — the three "limited licences" that combine into a cosmetologist licence

Barbering is deliberately not one of the three limited licences. It cannot be consolidated into a cosmetologist licence and it is not created by splitting one apart. A cosmetologist who wants to barber must complete the barbering training requirements and hold a second licence, paying a second fee.

Foreign-Trained Applicants

Credential reviews for foreign-trained applicants must be conducted by AEQUO International or an organisation that is a member of NACES or AICE. The evaluator recommends to the Director whether the education is substantially equivalent to Rule 1.2, and all costs of the evaluation fall on the applicant.

Colorado also flags one practical timing issue for anyone endorsing in: verification of licensure from California may take up to three months to arrive, and the application cannot be processed without it.