HAIRDRESSER LICENSE NOT NECESSARY AND NOT LEGAL

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Posted June 27, 2017

There have been a number of conversations happening in the industry recently about creating a licensing/registration program. Hair and Beauty Australia are firmly behind the movement to create stronger regulation in the hair and beauty industry, both to protect the integrity of the profession and to ensure that clients are ultimately better cared for in salons across the country. However, we would like to reiterate to our members and non-members that at this time, there is no need to worry about licensing within the hair and beauty industry.

 

Regulation allows clients to fully understand the quality of hairdressers, beauty therapists and barbers who are simply working in the industry without training or formal qualification. It allows the industry to protect our skills and register ourselves as professionals within the industry and offers clients the opportunity to correctly choose salons that offer qualified and highly skilled staff while recognising the work done by and money invested in our profession.

 

However, the idea of a single organisation creating a license/registration in isolation is laughable. The main objective behind creating a license/registration of this nature is to ensure that there is regulation within the industries – but without involving government bodies, other industry-based organisations and education partners, such a license/registration is meaningless.

 

Licensing/registration of hairdressers, beauty therapists and barbers is currently not required, legally binding or a symbol of any kind of standard in our industry. In previous times, there was a hairdresser’s trade license which was abandoned, without consultation with the industry. Re-establishing such a license would need to be done in conjunction with governments and education partners like TAFE’s and Private Colleges to ensure that the necessary awareness and legal processes are followed. Simply announcing that you are creating a license/registration for employees, and charging on the spot, simply won’t cut it.

 

The future for hairdressers, beauty therapists and barbers absolutely lies in regulation of the industry and creating national standards for qualification, quality and establishing a system by which clients can be more educated about their choice of hairdresser. But this must be done in a legal manner, following the correct process. For without doing this, we are simply creating another fee for hairdressers, beauty therapists and barbers to pay, in a market where margins are increasingly being cut.

 

The team from HABA are working with other industry associations, state and federal governments and trade unions to create a fair, correct way of regulating the hair and beauty industry that is inclusive of all professions that fall under that banner, including barbers, hairstylists and beauty therapists. We will, as always, keep our members updated as changes and progress is made on this highly contentious, but very important issue.

 

It is worth considering the day to day implications that such a license/registration would have on your salon – for our mind, we think it wouldn’t be much.