Senate committee approves bill allowing unlimited cosmetology retests, emergency facility closures and broader hiring rules

Senate Bill 22, a cleanup bill for last year’s cosmetology reforms, passed the Senate Standing Committee on Licensing and Occupations on Feb. 18, 2025.

The bill’s sponsor, Senator Reginald Thomas, told the committee the measure makes four targeted changes to the cosmetology law passed last year. “If nail technicians and aestheticians can take the exam a number of times, why can’t we as cosmetologists?” Thomas said, describing the first change as extending the right to retake licensing exams to all cosmetologists with a one-month waiting period between attempts. He said the bill “does 4 things” and then outlined the exam-retake provision, emergency closure authority, broader executive director hiring qualifications and expanded reciprocity for comparable licenses from U.S. territories.

The committee’s ranking and oversight context prompted the bill. Thomas referenced a legislative oversight and investigations committee report last November…