Florida Cosmetology Law, Rules, and Regulations
What this domain tests
The Florida cosmetology statutes sit in Chapter 477, Florida Statutes, and the Board of Cosmetology's rules in Chapter 61G5, Florida Administrative Code. DBPR's Division of Professions licenses and disciplines. Florida's skin care credential is the facial specialist license - the exam may use "esthetician," but the license, scope, and renewal requirements are written for facial specialists.
Scope of practice
- A facial specialist may cleanse, tone, massage, apply masks and makeup, perform superficial exfoliation, temporarily remove hair by waxing, tweezing, or depilatory, tint brows and lashes (with a prior patch test), and provide related skin care.
- A facial specialist may not diagnose or treat disease, prescribe, inject, or perform deep or resurfacing peels. Anything that wounds or reaches the dermis is medical practice; suspicious lesions, rashes, and eye conditions are referred out.
- "Under a doctor's supervision" does not enlarge the statutory scope.
Licensing and premises
- Each salon location needs a salon license; each practitioner needs an active individual license, available for inspection and displayed as the rule requires.
- Only licensed persons may perform services; letting an unlicensed person work is itself a violation.
- Renewal is biennial and carries continuing education requirements for that cycle - confirm current hour counts and required topics on DBPR's renewal page, since the Board revises them.
Enforcement
The Board may reprimand, fine, restrict, suspend, or revoke a license, and unlicensed practice adds criminal exposure to administrative penalties. Advertising must not be false, deceptive, or misleading.
Worked example
A client requests a "medical peel," and the salon owner says you can do it "because a doctor owns the spa." Correct reasoning: depth of wounding controls, not the owner's profession. A peel that penetrates to the dermis is medical practice, so the facial specialist declines and refers. Performing it exposes the practitioner and the salon to discipline and the client to injury.
Traps that cost marks
Assuming a physician's presence expands scope; advertising yourself as a "medical esthetician"; treating the statute and the rule as interchangeable; forgetting the salon license is separate from the personal license; assuming a Florida license transfers automatically to another state (it does not).