Specialty Instructors in Texas Need Their Own Schools

When it comes to specialty schools, Texas has the cart before the hours, as Sue Abbott sees it. Abbott worked hard last year on a bill to allow licensing of specially instructors in nails and facials and to establish specially schools. But only half the bill passed.

"We can now get licenses to teach nails and facials without being fully licensed cosmetologist. Now we’d like to have the schools,” she says.

Abott’s problem is rallying support. The original bill would have allowed specialty schools that taught only nails or skin care. But the school portion of the bill was killed by opposition from owners of private schools, she says, who are worried that specially schools would take business away from the.

Current state law says private cosmetology schools can have as many as 25 students per instructor. “An instructor can teach all the students at the same time. If 18 of them are cosmetology students, four of them are facial students, and three of them are nail students, who do you think is going to lose out?” Abbott asks.

Abbott, who has been in the beauty industry for 25 years, holds a cosmetology instructor’s license plus a nail specially license, and has owned her own salon and taught in private schools.

“At one private school, I was there for a week before I know I even had a nail student. She wasn’t doing anything. When I spoke to her about it, she said, ‘But I’m here to learn manicuring.’

“Nobody told me and that girl missed a week of her education.” Abbott says.

Sen. Frank Madla carried the specialty schools bill last year and might be interested in carrying another bill, an office spokesman says. But the senator felt that many in the beauty industry didn’t understand the concept when the issue came up last year.