Opening a Salon or School in Louisiana: Equipment, Curricula and Mobile Salon Rules

Certificates, signs and where you may work

R.S. 37:591 makes it unlawful to operate a beauty shop or salon in Louisiana without a certificate of registration from the board. To get one the owner certifies that everyone employed is appropriately licensed, demonstrates the required physical, sanitary and administrative facilities, submits the application with the R.S. 37:599 fee, includes the words beauty shop or salon in any sign or advertisement, and designates with a sign of at least four-inch lettering the areas where only cosmetology and only barbering may be practised. No person may accept or continue employment in a facility that has no certificate. Services must normally be provided inside a facility licensed by this board or the barber board, and R.S. 37:591(D) lists the only exceptions: the residence of a client who is chronically ill or disabled and has produced a physician's certificate or evidence of Social Security or Supplemental Security Income disability benefits, a hospital or infirmary for a patient, a funeral establishment, a temporary site such as a television, motion picture, video or theatrical production or photographic session, and a retail establishment to demonstrate cosmetics in connection with their sale.

Curricula and what schools owe the board

The cosmetology curriculum is at least 1,500 hours and must cover scientific concepts, physical services, chemical services, hair designing and styling, and study of the Act and the rules. Esthetics is at least 750 hours, manicuring at least 500, and the instructor curriculum at least 500 hours covering teaching methods, effectiveness of instruction, instructor qualities and the learning environment. The blow-dry technician course splits into at least 500 hours of theory and at least 500 hours of clinical instruction. A school must maintain a faculty of at least one instructor for every 20 students enrolled, must include at least two board-registered teachers with at least one in active practice for at least 18 months, and must be supervised by a registered teacher with at least 24 months of teaching experience in an approved school. Schools register students with the board within 45 days of their start, and the late fines climb steeply: $250 for 1 to 29 days late, $500 for 30 to 59, $1,000 for 60 to 89, $1,500 for 90 to 119 and $2,500 at 120 days or more. Student hours are filed electronically by the tenth of the month for the previous month, no overtime or double time is permitted, and no student may earn more than 48 hours in a calendar week. Schools keep hour reports for at least three years, post a Student Work Only sign no smaller than 6 by 10 inches at each entrance, may not pay a student any commission or fee for training work, and may not let a student on the clinic floor before 100 curriculum hours.

The equipment lists, service by service

The rules do not have one equipment list; they have one per service, and the exam tests which item belongs to which. Before hair dressing may be performed a salon must have a shampoo bowl for shop purposes only, a utility chair, a dryer, a cabinet for accessories, a covered waste container, a cabinet for clean linens, a container for soiled linens, and a sterilizer or sanitizers for each occupied station. An esthetics salon needs a flexible treatment bed or chair capable of multiple positions, an operator's stool, trolleys or a utility table, sanitizers or a sterilizer, a magnifying lamp for skin analysis, a closed storage cabinet with a wash basin for hand washing and towel storage, and a facial steamer, plus a long basic implement list and, where waxing is offered, a wax pot and wax, disposable applicators, wax remover, a skin cleanser, a wax equipment cleanser and a comb and scissors for trimming. A manicuring salon needs a sanitizer or sterilizer, covered waste containers, cabinets for accessories and clean linens, a container for soiled linens, a manicuring table and a lavatory with hot and cold running water, plus a water basin or pedicure chair where pedicures are offered, and it may not keep the Section 707 wax pot and waxing equipment on the premises at all. A cosmetology school has its own list: six shampoo bowls, three hair dryers, three manicuring tables, cold wave equipment sufficient for six permanents, a sanitizing station with wet sanitizer, six extra mannequins, twenty working stations, covered waste and soiled-towel containers, and locker space for each student, inside a minimum of 3,500 square feet with at least one theory classroom of at least 400 square feet per approved curriculum.

Booth rental and mobile salons

Anyone performing cosmetology services in a salon who is not paid by commission, an hourly rate or a salary must obtain a booth renter's permit. A copy of the executed agreement goes to the board with the application, the permit issues only after an inspection of the booth and before services are performed, and the permit is not transferable except when the salon changes ownership or location. The agreement, whether or not it is on the board's own form, must state that the cosmetologist is not an employee, that the salon has no right to control the methodology used to produce a given result, and the basis of the cosmetologist's compensation. Mobile salons run under LAC 46:XXXI.1201. A mobile salon may operate no further than a 50 mile radius from its designated storage location and only in cities and parishes where it holds permits, must file a written itinerary before the first of each month listing dates, hours, locations and the individuals performing services, signed by the owner or manager, and may operate only at the times and places that itinerary lists, only with the prior permission of the property owner, and only in compliance with all zoning restrictions. The salon name must appear in lettering at least 5 inches high on at least two exterior sides. It may operate only while parked. It must carry the greater of 100 gallons of clean water or 35 gallons per working cosmetologist, with equal or greater waste water capacity, and must cease operating promptly when the clean water runs out, when waste water capacity is reached, or when the restroom needs emptying.