House committee adopts amendment merging barber and cosmetology rules, advances H4752 to full committee

The House regulatory review subcommittee on Feb. 24 adopted an amendment to House Bill 4752 that would merge South Carolina’s barber and cosmetology statutes and boards and change training and enforcement rules for those professions.

Chairman Chris Wooten summarized six elements of the amendment: combine the barber and cosmetology statutes and boards; create a hairstylist license for hair-only training (roughly 1,100 hours); recognize portable cosmetology services (for example, on-site wedding hair services) while excluding mobile operations such as vans; cap sanitation and health penalties at one citation and one administrative penalty per violation so owners and licensees are not penalized twice; align esthetician (aesthetician) license hours with federal student loan requirements (600 hours); and set an effective date of Jan. 1, 2027 to allow LLR and the boards time to implement changes.

Three members of the public who identified themselves with barber or cosmetology schools spoke in favor of parts of the amendment. Antonio Rivers, vice president of the Palmetto State Barbers Association, said he remained cautious about merging boards and wanted clearer guidance on tuberculosis testing frequency; he asked that barbers retain representation on any combined board. Garrett Schuler, vice president of Kenneth Schuler School of Cosmetology, asked that a school representative have a seat on the merged panel and said increasing aesthetics hours to 600 was necessary so students can access federal financial aid. Paul Robinson, a barber and current barber board chair speaking for himself, supported eliminating the year-long apprenticeship requirement but expressed concern that barber representation could fall if a board is reconfigured and warned about conflicts when school owners sit on disciplinary panels.

Several speakers representing schools and LLR also said statutory language needs to be clarified so agencies can implement changes without years of conflicting interpretations. The amendment explicitly gives LLR time to make necessary technical and conforming changes prior to full committee consideration.

Representative Mark Smith moved to adopt Amendment 1 to H4752; Representative Roger Kirby seconded. The chair called for the committee to raise hands for the favorable report; the chair stated the vote was unanimous and announced H4752 as amended would be sent to the full Legislative Committee Initiative (LCI) committee with a favorable report. The committee also approved a motion allowing staff to make technical and conforming changes before full-committee consideration.

The amendment sets Jan. 1, 2027, as the effective date to allow time for LLR and the boards to complete rulemaking and implementation tasks. The committee emphasized that the change is not final law and may be further amended in full committee.

H4752 as amended will move to full committee for additional review and any further amendments.