Guides by beauty business type
Most startup advice treats "a salon" as one thing. Your state board does not. Each of these business types carries its own practitioner license, its own training hours and its own establishment rules, and the differences change from state to state.
Hair salon
Cosmetology operator licensing, salon establishment licenses, booth rent vs. employment, and the retail tax split, starting with Texas.
Barbershop
A separate barber license and board history in many states, merged into one regulator in others. Texas first, under TDLR's Class A Barber license.
Nail salon
Manicurist licensing hours vary more by state than almost any other beauty trade, and sanitation and ventilation rules are state-specific.
Lash studio
The newest specialty license in beauty. Some states have a dedicated lash license, some allow only cosmetologists or estheticians, some are still unclear.
Esthetics studio
Esthetician licensing everywhere, with a hard legal boundary where skincare ends and medical services begin. We draw that line from the board's own text.
Salon suite
An operating model with its own licensing hooks in some states, including Texas's Mini-Establishment license for suite-style businesses.
How each guide is built
- Start with the regulator. Every guide names the state board that licenses the business, links its official pages, and works from the statute or code chapter the board enforces.
- Verify the numbers. Training hours, application fees, exam rules and renewal terms are taken from the board and state agency pages, and each guide carries a "state sources last reviewed" date.
- Show the free route first. Every paid formation or insurance option sits next to the official do-it-yourself route, with the state's own filing fee stated plainly. Paid help is optional, and we say so.
- Cover the whole setup. Practitioner license, establishment license, LLC and DBA, EIN, sales tax, employment rules, insurance, startup costs and a renewal calendar, in the order you actually have to do them.
Start with Texas
Texas is our launch state because one regulator, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, covers hair, barbering, esthetics, nails and lashes under a single code chapter. One state's research done properly compounds across five business types. Florida and California follow.