Barber and barber-stylist licence: requirements, exam and renewal

This is the law regulating the barber and barber-stylist professions and creating the Board that licenses them. The Board is made up of seven people appointed by the Governor for four-year terms, and four constitute a quorum. Its members must be licensed to practice, be active members of the Colegio de Barbería y Estilistas en Barbería and have actively practiced for no less than five years; and the law expressly excludes from the Examining Board the members of the Colegio’s Governing Board, its employees, inspectors and commission members, and anyone who owns, holds shares in or directs private barbering and styling schools.

For the barber licence: being eighteen (18), in good health and of good moral character. For the barber-stylist licence: being a barber licensed by the Board, in good health and of good moral character, having passed a styling course at a school or college recognized by the Department of Education, and passing a styling exam before the Board or before three licensed barber stylists the Board authorizes. For the barber apprentice licence: being sixteen (16), of good moral character and in good health, and paying the issuance fees. The law also opens a route by outside credential: those meeting the age, health and character requirements and holding a certificate or licence as an authorized barber — or barber stylist — from another state or country where substantially the same requirements apply may take the exam.

• Eighteen (18) years of age, good health and good moral character for the barber licence. Sixteen (16) for the apprentice licence.Verified against the official source
• Having passed a barbering course at a State-established vocational school or at a barbering college accredited by the Department of Education, or having been a barber apprentice for two (2) years. The Board accredits as qualified apprenticeship salons those meeting the basic theoretical and practical teaching requirements it sets.Verified against the official source
• Passing the exam before the Examining Board or before three (3) barbers authorized by the Board, who in that case certify the result to the Board. The exam includes a theoretical and a practical part, and the applicant is further required to have basic knowledge of the laws and regulations applicable to the profession.Verified against the official source
• Presenting to the Board, after passing the exam, a medical certificate attesting that the applicant is in good health.Verified against the official source
• For the barber-stylist licence, first being a barber licensed by the Board. The law puts it as the subsection’s first requirement, so the two licences stack.Verified against the official source

• The medical certificate of good health, required both when applying and at every renewal; evidence of the completed course or of the two-year apprenticeship; and, to renew, the certification from the Colegio de Barberos y Estilistas en Barbería attesting the holder is an active member.

1. 1

   Step 1: The two routes to the exam

   Article 6(1)(b) offers an alternative, not a double requirement: having passed a barbering course at a vocational school established by the Commonwealth or at a barbering college duly accredited by the Department of Education, **or** having been a barber apprentice for two (2) years. The law adds who decides where that apprenticeship counts: the Examining Board **shall accredit as qualified barbering apprenticeship salons those meeting the basic theoretical and practical teaching requirements the Board sets**. And Article 8 clarifies the other leg: the Department of Education is authorized to accredit barbering schools and to certify teachers for those schools.

2. 2

   Step 2: The exam and who administers it

   Article 6(1)(c) allows two forums for the same exam: before the Examining Board of Barbers and Barber Stylists, **or before three (3) barbers the Board authorizes for that purpose**, in which case those three barbers certify the result to the Board. The exam must include a theoretical and a practical part, and the law adds a requirement often missed: **the applicant is further required to have basic knowledge of the laws and regulations applicable to their profession**. The same structure repeats for the stylist in subsection (2)(d), where the exam is taken before the Board or before three duly licensed barber stylists it authorizes. Article 11 says how the exam and licence fees are paid: through payment vouchers.

3. 3

   Step 3: The licence goes on the wall

   Article 5 says two things. First: anyone wishing to practice as a barber or barber stylist must hold a licence duly issued by the Board. The second is what a customer can check: **those licences must be displayed in a prominent, easily visible place at the workplace of the person in whose favor they were issued**. And there is an additional verification route in Article 3: the Board keeps a registry noting the name and address of those it licenses, the licence number and date, and also denials, suspensions and revocations; **that registry shall be open to the public during working days and hours**.

4. 4

   Step 4: The apprentice never works alone

   Article 7 asks three things for the barber apprentice licence: being sixteen (16) years old, of good moral character and in good health, and paying the issuance fees the Department of State sets. And it closes with an absolute rule: **no barber apprentice may practice their profession except under the direct supervision of a barber duly licensed by the Examining Board**. On the establishment’s side, Article 10(d) makes it a cause for suspension or revocation to employ or allow a person to work in a barbershop without holding the corresponding licence, and the law clarifies that provision applies to every owner, manager or person in charge of a barbershop requiring a licence.

5. 5

   Step 5: Renewing every three years

   Article 9 says every barber or barber-stylist licence **is renewable every three (3) years** and sets three requirements: attaching a medical certificate attesting the applicant is in good health; paying the renewal fees the Department of State sets — the law adds that the Department of State is responsible for everything relating to preparing and sending new licences and their renewal; and **presenting a certification from the Colegio de Barberos y Estilistas en Barbería attesting the licence holder is an active member of the Colegio**. Colegio membership is not merely a renewal requirement: Article 10(g) makes practicing without being duly colegiado a cause to deny, suspend or revoke the licence. And Article 10(f) addresses an expired licence: not renewing it within three years of expiry is a revocation cause, unless the fees and penalties the Department of State sets under Act 41 of 1991 and its regulations are paid.

6. 6

   Step 6: A citizen’s complaint and judicial review

   Article 4(c) gives the Board power to investigate, **on its own initiative or by virtue of a private citizen’s complaint**, any barbershop, barbering school or college in Puerto Rico, to enforce the law and its regulations. Subsection (d) lets it compel witnesses’ appearance through court-issued subpoenas, administer oaths and hear testimony and evidence. The causes for denial, revocation and suspension are in Article 10: immoral conduct in practicing the profession; habitual drunkenness or continuous use of drugs or narcotics; practicing while knowingly suffering from an infectious or contagious disease; employing or allowing someone to work without a licence; conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude; not renewing within three years of expiry; and practicing without Colegio membership. **The person complained against shall have the opportunity of a hearing before the Board to defend themselves**, and the Board’s final resolutions **may be reviewed by the Court of First Instance through a petition for review, which must be filed within thirty (30) days from notice of the ruling to the aggrieved person**.

7. 7

   Step 7: What each licence covers

   Article 16 defines both professions and is worth reading before deciding which licence you need. **Barber**: a person authorized by a Board licence to cut, touch up and shape a person’s hair by any means or method with the help of the hands and using combs, scissors, machines and manual or electric hair-cutting devices; to provide other services of a similar nature such as dyeing, shampooing and massaging the scalp, neck and face; and to shave beards by applying lathered soap. **Barber stylist**: a person trained and authorized by a Board licence to create hairstyles according to the different styles, era, personality and predominant facial features of a given person, by any means or method with the help of the hand and using their hands, combs, tonics, lotions and other manual or electric accessories or devices. Article 12 sets the general penalty: violating any provision of Articles 1 through 16 or of the regulations approved under them constitutes a misdemeanor, punished with **a fine of no more than five hundred (500) dollars nor less than fifty (50) dollars, or jail for a maximum term of three (3) months, or both penalties at the court’s discretion**.

Before the Examining Board of Barbers and Barber Stylists, attached to the Department of State’s Examining Boards Division. That is where the licence is applied for, where the exam is taken — or before the three barbers the Board authorizes, who certify the result to the Board — and where the medical certificate is presented after passing. The Department of State is responsible for preparing and sending new licences and renewals. And to verify someone else’s licence, the Board’s registry is open to the public during working days and hours. What we do not publish: the exam, issuance and renewal fees, because the law defers them to whatever the Department of State establishes "by law and its regulations" and sets no amount; nor do we publish the form, address, phone or how long the procedure takes. That is why cost and processing time stay unverified.

• Believing both the course and the two-year apprenticeship are needed: the law asks for one or the other, not both.
• Thinking the stylist licence is obtained separately: you must first be a barber licensed by the Board.
• Presenting the medical certificate before the exam: the law asks for it after passing, and again at every renewal.
• Preparing only the practical part: the exam has a theoretical part and requires basic knowledge of the profession’s laws and regulations.
• Training at a salon the Board has not accredited for barbering apprenticeship.
• Letting an apprentice work without the direct supervision of a licensed barber.
• Forgetting the Colegio active-member certification at renewal: without it there is no renewal, and practicing without Colegio membership is a revocation cause.
• Letting more than thirty days pass to seek judicial review of a final Board resolution.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Estado de Puerto Rico

  Departamento de Estado

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Puerto Rico Department of State

  Estado

  www.estado.pr.gov