Indiana State Board of Cosmetology

The Indiana State Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners is a seven-member governor-appointed board that operates as one of many licensing boards housed within the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (IPLA) rather than as a standalone state agency. The board regulates six individual beauty culture disciplines — Cosmetologist, Barber, Esthetician, Manicurist, Electrologist, and Beauty Culture Instructor — along with facility licenses for beauty culture salons, mobile salons, schools, and tanning facilities.

The board shares IPLA's central office at the Indiana Government Center South, Room W072, 402 West Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 46204. Licensing for cosmetology and barbering is not handled in person at this address; applications, renewals, and document uploads all go through the state's MyLicense One online portal. Licensees and applicants with cosmetology- or barber-specific questions can email the profession's dedicated inbox at pla12@pla.in.gov.

General phone support for all IPLA licensing boards, including cosmetology and barbering, runs through IPLA's Customer Contact Center at (317) 232-2960, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. IPLA states that applications, renewals, and supporting documentation are reviewed in the order received, typically within 10 business days of receipt online, with an additional 10 business days if materials are mailed in.

Beauty culture education and fee requirements vary by discipline: Cosmetologist and Barber applicants need 1,500 hours of training, Beauty Culture Instructor applicants need 1,000 hours, Esthetician applicants need 700 hours, Manicurist applicants need 450 hours, and Electrologist applicants need 300 hours. Every individual license — regardless of discipline — currently carries a flat $40 application fee and a flat $40 renewal fee. Indiana licenses run on a four-year renewal cycle, and the state does not require continuing education hours, since the administrative rule article covering continuing education has been repealed.

Under Indiana Code 25-8-4-17, an individual beauty culture license expires four years after the licensing agency's initial expiration date for that license, rather than on the licensee's birthday or a fixed calendar date. A Beauty Culture Instructor license is the one exception — it expires concurrently with the instructor's underlying practitioner license (for example, their Cosmetologist or Esthetician license) and renews alongside it.

IPLA sends renewal notices approximately 90 days before a license expires. Licensees with a valid email address on file are notified by email; those without one are mailed a paper renewal notice at their address of record with the board. Renewal itself is completed online through the MyLicense One portal, the same system used for new applications, and the online renewal window opens 90 days before the expiration date.

Because submissions are reviewed in the order received, IPLA advises starting the renewal well before the deadline — online renewals are generally processed within 10 business days, and mailed submissions can take roughly 10 business days longer. Indiana does not require continuing education hours to renew a beauty culture license.

A license that has been expired for more than three years can be reinstated under Indiana Code 25-1-8-6 by paying an $80 reinstatement fee (the current $40 renewal fee plus the current $40 application fee) and completing any remediation or additional training the board deems appropriate for the length of the lapse. For licenses expired five years or more, the board requires retaking and passing the written licensing exam within one year of applying to reinstate. If the expired license cannot be verified by the board at all, the applicant must instead complete an approved Indiana beauty culture school program and apply for licensure by examination as a new applicant.

Complaints against Indiana beauty culture licensees — cosmetologists, barbers, estheticians, manicurists, electrologists, instructors, salons, mobile salons, and schools — are investigated by the Licensing Enforcement unit of the Indiana Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division, not by the board itself. The Attorney General reviews each complaint first and, if it has merit, brings it to the State Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners, which then holds a hearing and decides on discipline.

To file, a complainant completes the online LE Complaint Form (or downloads and mails a paper LE Complaint Form) and must supply the licensee's name, license number, and mailing address, plus a phone number and email if known — incomplete identifying information can limit whether the complaint can be investigated at all. Anonymous complaints are not accepted by Licensing Enforcement; a person who wants to remain anonymous must instead contact IPLA directly to file on their behalf, though doing so can limit the thoroughness of the investigation.

Investigations can take up to twelve months depending on the allegations, and under Indiana Code 25-1-7-10 all complaint information and investigative documentation is confidential, even from the complainant. If the board finds a violation after a hearing, possible sanctions include license revocation, suspension, probation, censure, reprimand, or a fine of up to $1,000 per violation.