Oregon Burns Beauty Professionals
Chefs study cooking, and pilots receive flight instruction. But Oregon beauty professionals cannot always choose what they learn in school. Many must pay for courses that have little or nothing to do with their chosen careers.
The mandatory training is not cheap.
Eyelash extension technicians, people who meticulously glue synthetic fibers to natural lashes, cannot earn income until they spend about $6,000 in a state-approved esthetician program that ignores their specialization or treats it as an afterthought.
Eyebrow threaders face the same predicament. Oregon requires them to earn an esthetician license, even though esthetician programs do not teach threading — the practice of sculpting and thinning eyebrows with a single cotton strand.
Day after day, eyelash technicians and eyebrow threaders sit in classrooms learning someone else’s occupation. And when they graduate, they must pass two state exams to prove their mastery of the mismatched material. Only then can they seek relevant training.
Options abound. Top suppliers of eyelash adhesives require completion of their own certification courses before technicians may purchase products. Aspiring threaders, meanwhile, can take classes at local spas or enroll in specialized schools. Yet the training is not part of the state’s mandates.
Eyelash technicians and eyebrow threaders still need an esthetician license no matter how much relevant expertise they gain independently. Put simply, they are stuck. And they are not alone.
Nearly all beauty professionals face onerous licensing requirements. Even when state-mandated training is on target, it goes beyond the norms in other industries more closely associated with public health and safety.
Oregon chefs, for example, can work with just a food handler’s card. The online course takes 30 to 60 minutes to complete and costs $10. Entry-level emergency medical technicians need 110 hours of training before assisting in life-or-death situations.
By way of comparison, Oregon estheticians and makeup artists need 500 hours of training to do facials or apply lipstick. Manicurists need 600 hours of training to paint nails. And cosmetologists need 1,700 hours of training to cut or dye hair — more than 10 times the state minimum for EMTs.
“Beauty School Debt and Drop-Outs,” a 2021 report from our public interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, finds a raw deal for many salon professionals based on program costs, loan amounts, graduation rates and salaries. Nationwide, cosmetology students were more likely to take loans than the average student across all federal aid-eligible U.S. universities, colleges and vocational schools. They also borrowed more per year.
Unfortunately, policymakers don’t seem to worry much about the burden — even amidst the nationwide debate on student debt and loan forgiveness.
To be fair, Oregon has made some concessions. Recent reforms allow African-style hair braiders to work after completing a short online course and passing one state exam. The requirement is the same for shampoo assistants.
These are incremental steps in the right direction, but beauty industry regulation needs an extreme makeover. Policymakers should look at all state-imposed barriers to beauty careers, especially when training requirements do not match a person’s chosen occupation.
Otherwise, Oregon might as well send eyelash technicians to welding school, and eyebrow threaders to pilot school. Graduates would learn many valuable skills. Just not the right skills.
Renée Flaherty is a senior attorney and Daryl James is a writer at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va.
