Louisiana Barber License Requirements

Louisiana barbers are licensed by the Louisiana State Board of Barber Examiners, which is a separate agency from the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology. The governing law is the Louisiana Barber Law at La. R.S. 37:341 and following.

The Qualifications

Section 354 requires an applicant to satisfy each of the following:

1. Be at least eighteen years of age;
2. Be of good moral character and temperate habits;
3. Pass an examination conducted by the board; and
4. Meet one of three training routes.

Three Ways In — Including a Cosmetology Shortcut

• Barber college. Complete a course of instruction and receive a certificate of graduation from a barber college approved by the Board.
• An existing cosmetology licence. Simply holding a current certificate of registration as a cosmetologist issued by the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology satisfies the training requirement outright.
• Apprenticeship. Complete the Barber Apprenticeship Program registered with the Apprenticeship Council of the Louisiana Department of Labor.

The middle route is remarkably generous. A licensed Louisiana cosmetologist needs no additional barbering hours at all — only to pass the Board's barber examination. Most states require a crossover course of anywhere from 100 to 1,000 hours.

The Twenty-Five Year Rule

Section 354(C) contains one of the most unusual provisions in American barbering law:

Twenty-five years of practice overrides the whole section — age, character, examination and training alike.

What It Costs

• Examination, in-state applicant — $40
• Examination, applicant from another state or country — $80
• Annual renewal of a barber's certificate — $50

And a discount worth knowing: the board waives the initial examination fee for a graduate of a Louisiana barber college who holds a certificate of registered student. Register as a student at the outset and your first examination is free.

A Board-approved Louisiana barber college must require, as a prerequisite to graduation, a course of instruction of not less than fifteen hundred hours completed within nine months, with no more than eight hours in any one work day.

Nine Months Is a Ceiling, Not a Floor

Read that carefully, because it runs the opposite way to most states. Georgia and Illinois require at least nine months. Louisiana requires the 1,500 hours be completed within nine months. Combined with the eight-hour daily cap, Louisiana expects a full-time, continuous programme rather than a part-time one stretched across years.

Section 364 allows the Board, in its discretion, to extend the time for completing a course for a reasonable period on a showing of good cause.

Entry Requirements Are Split Between Two Sections

• Section 358: barber colleges shall not admit as students persons under the age of 17.
• Section 361: the Board shall not approve a college unless it requires, as a prerequisite to admission, graduation from high school or its equivalent as determined by a board examination approved by the vocational educational office of the State Department of Education.

So you may enrol at 17 but must be 18 to be licensed — the year in between is spent in school.

The Required Curriculum

• Scientific fundamentals of barbering, hygiene, and bacteriology
• History of the hair, skin, muscles, and nerves
• Structure of the head, face, and neck
• Elementary chemistry as it relates to sterilisation and asepsis
• Diseases of the skin and hair glands
• The massaging and manipulating of the muscles of the body above the seventh cervical vertebra
• Hair cutting and shaving
• The arranging, dressing, colouring, bleaching, and tinting of hair

That anatomical boundary — above the seventh cervical vertebra — is the base of the neck, and it is Louisiana's way of drawing the line between barbering and massage.

Opening a New Barber College Is Not Automatic

Section 360 requires every applicant for a new barber college to offer proof that establishing it in that area will not be detrimental to the public welfare. The Board weighs the economic character of the community, the adequacy of existing barber shops and colleges, the community's ability to support the college, the character of adjacent communities, the social and economic effect — and, distinctively, the expressed opinion of the registered barbers in the area, in person or by written petition.

Louisiana gives working barbers a formal say in whether a competing school opens near them.

The Louisiana State Board of Barber Examiners conducts the examination itself. There is no national testing vendor between you and the Board.

Fail and Come Back in Three Months

Section 354(B) sets the retake rhythm: an applicant who fails may continue to appear before the board for examination every three months thereafter until passing. There is no cap on attempts, but there is a fixed quarterly cadence — you cannot rebook next week.

The fee to retake any examination is the same as the initial examination fee, so a failed in-state attempt costs another $40.

The Fee Waiver

Section 375(B) waives the initial examination fee for a graduate of a Louisiana barber college who holds a certificate of registered student. Registering as a student with the Board while you train removes the cost of your first attempt.

Two Photographs, Precisely Specified

Applications require two new five-by-three inch photographs of the applicant, taken within ten days of the date they are submitted and signed by the applicant. The Board retains one and attaches the other to the certificate before returning it. Louisiana specifies both the dimensions and the freshness.

Coming From Another State

An applicant from another state or country pays $80 for the examination that determines their qualifications, double the in-state fee. Louisiana routes out-of-state barbers through the examination rather than through a separate endorsement pathway.

Louisiana barber certificates renew annually for $50, and the deadline is a fixed calendar date rather than an anniversary.

31 January, With a Two-Stage Penalty

Section 375(D) sets the schedule precisely:

• The annual registration renewal fee is due and payable no later than 31 January each year.
• Received after 31 January but before 31 March — an additional charge of $10.
• Received after 31 March — an additional charge of $20.

The penalty is modest by national standards, but it escalates on a second fixed date rather than accruing continuously.

No Continuing Education for Barbers

Louisiana requires no continuing education to renew a barber certificate. Instructors are a different matter entirely.

Instructors: 16 Hours, Half at the Board's Own Workshop

Section 363(7) requires an instructor to attend sixteen hours of continuing education annually, and specifies where half of it must happen:

• Eight hours must be through attendance of the Barber Board education workshop;
• The remaining eight through any board-approved continuing education programme.

Requiring instructors to attend the regulator's own workshop every year is rare. Instructors must also always maintain current barber certificates to keep or renew their instructor certificates, and an instructor certificate is $70 annually against a barber's $50.

Restoring an Expired Instructor Certificate

Restoration of an expired instructor certificate costs $70 plus $10 for each year the certificate has been expired — a per-year accrual rather than a flat penalty.

If You Own the Shop or College

• Initial certificate to operate a barber college — $350
• Annual renewal of a barber college certificate — $80

A barber college certificate must be displayed at all times in a conspicuous place on the premises, and each separate location where barbering is taught counts as a separate college requiring its own certificate — unless it sits in the same central area as the main establishment.

Barbering in Louisiana is governed by the Louisiana Barber Law, administered by the Louisiana State Board of Barber Examiners.

The Barber Pole Is Protected by Statute

Louisiana is one of the few states to legislate the barber pole itself. No person shall use or display a barber pole unless he holds a barber shop registration issued under the Chapter, and the statute defines the term: a barber pole means a cylinder or pole with stripes running diagonally along the length of the cylinder or pole.

Putting a pole outside an unregistered shop is a violation in its own right, independent of whether anyone is cutting hair inside.

Where Barbering Sits Anatomically

The required curriculum places massage and manipulation of the muscles above the seventh cervical vertebra — the base of the neck. That is the anatomical ceiling on the barber scope in Louisiana, separating it from massage therapy.

Apprenticeship Certificates

A person participating in the Barber Apprenticeship Program registered with the Apprenticeship Council may engage in the practice of barbering if they hold an apprenticeship certificate issued by the Board on payment of the appropriate fee. Employers may not permit anyone in their employ to practise without a certificate of registration or an apprenticeship certificate.

Late renewal of an apprenticeship certificate is priced on the same two-stage calendar as barbers, at $60 before 1 April and $110 after.

Grounds for Losing a Certificate

Section 372 lets the Board refuse, suspend or revoke a certificate for, among other causes:

• Conviction of a felony, evidenced by a certified copy of the court record
• Gross malpractice or gross incompetency
• Continued practice by a person having an infectious or contagious disease
• Advertising by means of false or deceptive statements
• Practising under a name other than one's own name or trade name
• Habitual drunkenness or habitual addiction to habit-forming drugs
• Immoral or unethical conduct

No certificate may be refused, suspended or revoked until the holder has been given written charges and a public hearing before the Board.

The Public Record

The secretary of the Board keeps a record of all proceedings, and records relating to the issuance, refusal, renewal, suspension and revocation of certificates must contain the name, place of business, and residence of each barber and barber college, and the date and number of the certificate.