KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A group of beauty industry professionals said Monday, the fight is far from over between them and Missouri lawmakers.
They said two proposed bills mean to tear down their industry, but lawmakers say they just want to create jobs.
RELATED: Bill would deregulate many beauty industry jobs
Leila Cohoon is the owner of the Independence College of Cosmetology and the hair museum in Independence, Mo. She said she has been in the beauty industry for 65 years and has never heard of something as ridiculous as House Bill 590 and House Bill 659.
“I thought it was crazy, and then I thought it was a misprint,” Cahoon said.
Cohoon talked to a group of more than 30 other industry professionals near 18th and Vine. She was educating them about the two bills that would essentially remove the need to get a license to work as a cosmetologist, or barber.
The bill also says while you wouldn’t need a license to practice, you could not advertise as having a license. It states if you did, you could face a class C misdemeanor charge.
One of this group’s worries is being able to practice without a license, means no formal training of all the chemicals they use.
“Right now I have a lot of clients that come to me that’s already having hair loss, problems with their hair because there’s so many people holding themselves out to be a beauty industry person, and clients are losing their hair and I am the person they come to when they want to get it corrected,” said Joyce Williams, a licensed cosmetologist, who is also involved in the Missouri and Kansas Barber and Cosmetology Association.
Republican representative Paul Curtman sponsors both bills. He told Fox 4 before, he understands that concern. But Curtman said Missouri is dead last when it comes to job creation, and that these changes could spur job growth.
He, and other Republican lawmakers in support of the bills are on spring break and could not be reached for comment on the concerns raised at the meeting. But one legislative aid told us they had no knowledge of the meeting.
Other professions both these bills cover are interior designers, private investigators, landscape architects, or athlete agents.
Cohoon said there were no supporters of HB 590 at a first public hearing she attended in Jefferson City. HB 659 has not been assigned to a committee yet.
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