Pennsylvania Cosmetology Law, Board Rules, and Professional Ethics
The regulatory frame
Esthetics in Pennsylvania is regulated by the State Board of Cosmetology within the Department of State's Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs. The Commonwealth licenses estheticians, cosmetologists, nail technicians, and electrologists. The esthetician license requires 300 hours of approved instruction, a minimum age of 16, and passing the licensing examination. Licenses renew on the Board's biennial cycle - confirm current fees, deadlines, and any continuing-education requirement on the Board's website, because these change.
Both the salon and the individual must be licensed. Display your license as required; a booth renter still holds a personal license and must work in a licensed facility. Only licensed persons may perform services for compensation.
Scope of practice
Estheticians cleanse, treat, and beautify the skin; apply makeup; perform waxing and other non-medical hair removal; and provide services defined in the regulations. They do not diagnose or treat disease, prescribe, inject, or perform medical procedures, and medical laser or light devices generally require physician supervision under Pennsylvania's medical practice rules. Referring a client with a suspicious lesion is compliance, not failure.
Ethics
Confidentiality, informed consent, honest advertising, no promises to "cure," consistent sanitation, and refusing services you are not trained or licensed to perform. Never share client photos or health information without written permission.
Traps: assuming another state's hour or scope rules apply here, using a title or credential you do not hold, and treating a condition because "the client asked."
Rule of thumb: license plus regulation plus scope - if a service is not clearly within your license, get supervision or refer.