Does A 'Shampooer' Really Need 70 Days Of Training?

Throughout the country, state and local regulations require Americans to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars and countless hours on training to get licensed in their professional field of choice. Sometimes, these rules may make sense. We entrust doctors to advise us on the correct procedures and medicine, expertise that takes years of training and costs a lot of money. We can argue whether medical school should cost as much as it does—one reason health care is so expensive is that we pay doctors a lot, enough to cover their initial investment—but the purpose of the licensing doctors is clear.

But why does a manicurist need thousands of hours of training? All 50 states require manicurists to licensed. Same goes for barbers, cosmetologists, and skin care specialists. Thirty-six states require a license to be a make-up artist, thirty-three to be an auctioneer, and five to be a "shampooer." Louisiana even requires florists to be licensed.

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