A $12,000 Haircut

Occupational licensing requirements are keeping a Syrian refugee from his chosen profession.

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WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina—Amar welcomed me into his home with fruit and Syrian coffee. I had come for a haircut—the first Amar would give since leaving Egypt earlier this year.

Cutting hair is how the Damascus native supported his family while living in Cairo for nine years after escaping Syria’s civil war. He first started at age 15—about 20 years ago—and he’s loved doing it ever since.

“As soon as he got off the plane, it was like, ‘How can I be a barber?’” said Ben Marsh, a local Christian pastor helping Amar, his wife Salwah, and their two sons settle into their new life in America.

Five months after moving to North Carolina, Amar’s still trying to answer that question. His roadblock has been the state’s occupational licensing requirements for barbers—which, according to a 2018 brief from George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, are the fifth most stringent such requirements in the country.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Great piece, Price. I’m glad TD is highlighting the way licensing requirements hurt some of the very people Democrats claim they most want to help.

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    MatthewRobin

    I think the debate about occupational licenses would be improved if we accept that we will never create the perfect regulatory regime, it will always be too stringent or too lenient. For barbers, we should err on the side of being too lenient. But I understand that for some professions we should err on the side of being too stringent.

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    Sara Bush

    These requirements are archaic. Yes, train. Yes, take exams pass. Yes, pay a nominal fee for licensure. I attended a two-year nursing program and received an Associate’s Degree. I was eligible to “sit” for exams (yes, we sat, and the tests took two days). I have been a licensed registered nurse since 1967. I did return to college and completed the requirements for a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, after having practiced for 20 years. My choice. The onerous requirements to be a licensed barber are mind-boggling and depressing for those affected. Unbelievable.

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  4. Trichwages

    The preliminary poverty threshold for a single person in 2021 is between $12,000 - $14,000 per year. NC has some explaining to do……

    https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/tables/time-series/historical-poverty-thresholds/prelim-threshold21.xls

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  5. R. James

    From this I can surmise that the people of NC really do not like getting hair cuts from unlicensed barbers.

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    1. Kevin Hunter

      It is much more likely the only dislike is from the majority of legislators, and it may not be their hair that matters.

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    Rjosephpaquette

    There are professions that require some basic health training before starting. Food service employees need to have a basic understanding of how food borne diseases are spread. But that should take 8 hours or less of training. If it required 800 we’d all agree it’s too high. Texas recently reduced the number of hours for Barber license, but I think it’s still too high.

    We’ve evolved past needing guilds. That’s what much of the licensing is about.

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  7. Mathew A

    Bottom line the vast majority of these regulations are government approved rent seeking by those already in the profession. Its crony capitalism, where business and government get together to bar competition and enrich those already in the profession.

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    George.Skinner

    I think I could see more need for this type of thing back in the day when barbers would provide shaves with a straight razor, but even then - $12,000? A food handler's certificate cost $100 where I live, and involves less than a day of training. I'd think we're in the same sort of ballpark with the health and safety requirements for hairstyling. If the barbers and hairstylists want to set up some sort of *voluntary* organization that they market as a symbol of quality, they're welcome to do it. However, I think people are still going to get bad haircuts once in a while even from an overlicensed practitioner.

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    Synchronize Your Dogmas (Bill B)

    These occupational restrictions serve the same function the old guilds did in restricting competition and who could be a member. It's not as if Senator so-and-so just woke up one morning with licensing requirements for dog groomers or barbers but he almost certainly received a nice campaign donation from Barbers for America.

    Reminds me that after the Powell Memorandum: "The number of corporations with public affairs offices in Washington grew from 100 in 1968 to over 500 in 1978. In 1971, only 175 firms had registered lobbyists in Washington, but by 1982, nearly 2,500 did. The number of corporate PACs increased from under 300 in 1976 to over 1,200 by the middle of 1980.". I think now it's something like 11,000 lobbyists and 4,300 corporate PACs.

    https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/assets/usa-courts-secrecy-lobbyist/powell-memo.pdf

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    Jake

    Sounds like a bunch of established barbers got together in 1929 to make it harder for more skilled competition with new ideas for styling to challenge the status quo.

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    1. Pohl

      Ah, so that’s why men wore hats back then. Makes sense now. Bad hair decade.

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      Kmregan7

      That’s why physicians in the 19th century signed on against abortions…and for doctors to take over from midwives….there is historically a lot of that.

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