New rule allows hair braiders limited license after 40 - 50 hours of training.

Byline: Gabrielle Saulsbery

Hair braiders will no longer be subject to 1,200 hours ofrequired training for New Jersey's full cosmetology license, effective immediately and temporarily.

The State Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling issued a special rule adoption Friday creating the limited license and also increasing thenumber of members on the board to 13, requiring that two members own and operate a hair braiding shop in New Jersey.

The new limited license requires 40 or 50 hours of training, dependent on whether the braider has three years of experience at the time of application. According to the Office of the Attorney general, this rule aims to "remove certain barriers to economic opportunity for individuals who might pursue work as hair braiders, while maintaining consumer protections for their patrons."

A coalition of hair braiders, primarilyAfrican-American or of African and Caribbean descent, fought for years to change a law that required them to get a cosmetology license to practice hair braiding, according toInstitute for Justice Associate Director of Activism Brooke Fallon.

One of those women,Brigitte Nzali, who owns African & American Braiding in Blackwood, told NJBIZ last October that hair braiding isn't even taught in beauty schools, and that the only tool braiders use is a comb.The original bill they were working on, which would have just required braiders to register with the state, fell through with a conditional veto by Gov. Phil Murphy. The Legislature landed on the requirement of 40 to 50 hours of training before Murphy signed it.

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