Indiana House Bill outrages cosmetology community

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - A potential change to an Indiana law has many cosmetologist and barbers upset.

House Bill 1006 could eliminate the Cosmetology and Barber Board in its entirety including each of the 25 license types (including 5 temporary license types) associated with the Cosmetology and Barber Board.

Kaydean Geist, the owner of Masters of Cosmetology College in Fort Wayne said everyone at her school is very aware of the bill and very opposed to it. She said the bill could put her out of business and really hurt her students.

“It's going to make their the time and the energy and money they spent going to school, getting this license and out there working its going to make them really null and void,” she said.

Tina Thieken, an instructor at the college, said she agrees, but wants consumers to think about what could happen if anyone could do what they learn there.

“Now when you go in to get a service or say you're getting a chemical peel, microdermabrasion, even a hair cut, a perm, or any of those, coloring, if you don't have someone that's skilled and knowledgeable you don't know what kind of situation you're going to get yourself into and the result is going to be,” she explained.

On Wednesday, Thieken’s class was learning to apply false eyelashes. She said it was a perfect example of why experience and training are necessary.

“If they're not well trained in the application process they could actually cause blindness, they could glue their clients’ eyes together and it can be very painful and that's a very small example,” she said.

Supporters of the bill agree there are risks, but according to the Regulated Occupations Recommendations Report, “While these risks are real, they are not completely eradicated by the presence of a licensing process."

The report also states the “benefits of licensing do not seem to outweigh the costs of having a state administered process of licensing our 66,000 professionals.” The report says the average annual licensing fee for the entire board costs $791,925.

There’s an online petition against the bill with thousands of signatures, but in the meantime, the bill has been passed to a committee for further review.