More deregulation proposed for professional hair cutters in Iowa

DES MOINES — The Iowa Senate has unanimously approved a bill designed to let licensed professionals cut hair in far more locations.

The bill also would let cosmetologists have mobile salons-on-wheels. Senator Jason Schultz, a Republican from Schleswig, said it follows the 2020 law that legalized mobile barber shops.

“Removing the last of our own restrictions. allowing the industry to operate under its own practices and having its own governing board,” Schultz said in the Senate yesterday. “We can always come back if something happens, but I have a feeling that this is the final stroke in the modernization of the industry from the state perspective.”

State regulations currently require salons to be in fixed locations. The bill passed by the Senate says professional hair cutters in Iowa would not longer be restricted to cutting hair in a cosmetology school or a licensed barbershop or salon. Bill backers originally envisioned the change would let customers get their hair cut at their own homes.

Last year, a law change let cosmetologists style hair in a wedding venue without getting a temporary license to do so.