Cosmetologists fearful for their livelihoods hope a bill set to be heard in committee this week will get a green light to go before the full Legislature.
House Bill 1172 is scheduled for a hearing in the Commerce and Technology Committee of the Indiana Senate on Thursday, according to a spokesman for the committee's chairman, Indiana Sen. James Buck, R-Kokomo.
The bill adds language to Indiana's cosmetology regulations specifying that licensed cosmetologists may use waxing, may shave or trim facial hair and may give facials and skin care, among other changes.
It's needed, a lobbyist says, to clarify existing regulations and avoid potential changes that would force cosmetologists to go back to school in order to continue offering services they're already doing.
The president of the Indiana Cosmetology and Barbering Association, Keith Niehaus, said in a letter to the association's members that Indiana's licensing agency, the State Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners, recently called into question whether cosmetologists can perform waxing, facials, makeup or skin care services.
It started out as an issue with cosmetologists using razors, but Niehaus is worried, he wrote, that the board could expand its actions to require cosmetologists to stop doing waxing and other services or make them obtain an esthetics license before offering those services.
House Bill 1172 clarifies that cosmetologists can offer those services without having to obtain additional licensing as an esthetician.
"If it didn't pass, sure, it'd have a huge impact locally," local stylist Christine Centers said. "There are a lot of hairdressers out there that have opted to go into doing nails, or they do a lot more waxing services."
Centers, a partner in Criss Cross Hair Designs and Day Spa on Broadway, said the day spa portion of her business opened less than a year after the salon did. She's had trouble keeping an esthetician on staff, she said, but has hired other stylists and had several trained to work in the day spa.
"Most of the skin services that an esthetician can do, we've also been trained to do," Centers said. "They just do more in depth."
She's also redecorated a room in the salon to house day spa services, she said. "I would have square footage in here that I couldn't use, and I have young girls just starting out in the industry that ... it would be a loss for them."
State Sen. Randy Head, R-Logansport, a member of the committee that will hear testimony on the bill Thursday, said he'd heard from some cosmetologists about the measure both by phone and by email.
"All I've heard is, we want this, let's pass this," Head said. He expects to familiarize himself with the bill's ramifications during the hearing, he said.