Currently in the state of Virginia the required hours for cosmetology is 1500, for Barbering is 1100, 600 for Estheticians, and 150 hours for Nail Techs.  After looking through the proposal for the 1000 Cosmetology program, I was shocked to see how many educational hours will be spent on information not related to hair.  The minimum requirement for Manicuring and Pedicuring is 75 hours, half the amount of hours it would take to obtain a Nail Technician license.  The minimum requirement for skin care is 160 hours, the state requirement to obtain an Esthetician's license is 600.  The minimum requirement for makeup is 35 hours.  How can we put a minimum requirement on makeup when you don't need a license to perform makeup services?  The minimum requirement for straight razor use and shaving would be 20 hours and 12 performances of straight razor shaving on the face and neck.  In the 10 years I spent as a Cosmetology Instructor, this wasn't even a service we taught our cosmetology students.  How will this factor in with current cosmetology instructors now being forced to teach something they were never taught?  Where is the consideration for the safety of the public?  Is this now the responsibility of the school to get training for their staff when this is a service taught within a Barbering program?  Hair removal has a minimum of 35 hours and Body and other Treatments an additional 20 hours.  Combined skincare, nails, makeup, straight razor, hair removal,  body and other treatments comes out to be 345 educational hours.  We will also spend another 150 hours on orientation information, laws and regulations, general sciences, and applied sciences.  That leaves us with 505 hours to be spent on hair.  As a cosmetologist my time was spent behind the chair, cutting, coloring, chemically altering, and styling hair.  As a cosmetology instructor we focused heavy on those skills so our students can leave school with the confidence to step behind the chair, build a clientele, and make a living.  Hair bleach, hair color, chemical relaxers, perms, and scissors all have the potential to harm the client, if they are not used properly.  But we only want to dedicate a minimum of 505 educational hours to these items? From what I have heard after visiting Richmond for the past few years to battle the reduction of cosmetology hours, you believe the hours should be dropped from 1500 to 1000 to get people out of school and into the workforce.  You are reducing the hours by 500 educational hours to 1000 and then further watering down their education with the addition of information outside of hair and they are left with 505 education hours dedicated to hair.  If you look through service menus that salons offer, it is rare that you find nail services being offered.  If they offer skin services, they are performed by a licensed esthetician, not a licensed cosmetologist.  But every salon offered haircutting and haircoloring services.  And if the objective is to give them enough education to pass their state board testing, then we are doing them a disservice there too because we use mock product at their state board testing. Their curls come pre-done, they are using a cold iron to perform these services, but in a salon that iron is hot.  Behind the chair with an actual human sitting in your chair the product is real and the tools are hot. A reduction of educational hours means a reduction in practice time with real guests and real product. 

The reduction of educational hours is doing future cosmetologists a great disservice.  We are not setting them up for success by watering down their education with information and procedures that can be learned in a different profession or through a different license.  You are doing a great disservice to other occupations that require a license by adding more of their information into the cosmetology requirements.  You are harming salon businesses by reducing the hours because they will have to take time to further train new stylists.  I think the bigger question is, who is this benefiting?  Are we truly looking out for the cosmetology student?  Are we truly looking out for the good of the industry?  Are we truly concerned for the safety and welfare of the public? I often ask myself, if this were any other occupation... would we have to fight for our educational hours?