There's no telling how many rogue hair braiders are at large in Louisiana, but common sense says they must be legion.
It takes so long and costs so much to get the license required by state law that a great deal of twisting and interweaving of hair must take place on the q.t. We are told that health and safety require extensive training and licensure, but, if that were true, reports of tonsorial disaster in unsanctioned salons would have been commonplace by now.
What we have herein is restraint of trade masquerading as a public benefit.
The problem is by no means restricted to Louisiana; it is in the nature of administrative law that busybodies knee deep in conflicts of interest will muscle in on the state boards that license and regulate businesses.
Established practitioners generally run those boards, because they are the most qualified to do so and outsiders seldom have an incentive to get involved anyway. Thus, dentists will control dentistry, and gumshoes will decide who is allowed to set up as a private detective.
The temptation to squelch the competition may sometimes be hard to resist.
Although the problems of administrative law lie right at the venal heart of American government, the conflicts of interest inherent in business licensure are seen at their most absurd in Louisiana, with hair braiders our piece de resistance. Aspiring braiders here are required to undergo 500 hours of training, complete a written exam and demonstrate various hairstyles on a mannequin. Jumping through these hoops can take 10 months and set the applicant back more than $10,000.
Braiding without a government permit in Louisiana can bring a $5,000 fine, but there's an answer to that too. Cross the state line into Arkansas, Texas or Mississippi and braid away to your heart's content; along with about half the states nationwide, they impose no requirements whatsoever.
Louisiana stands proudly alone in at least one occupational permit rule. This is the only state in the union that issues a retail florist's license, which “authorizes the holder thereof to arrange or supervise the arrangement of floral designs which include living or freshly cut plant materials and to sell at retail floral designs, cut flowers, and ornamental plants in pots normally and customarily sold by florists.”
Opinions will vary on whether objective standards exist for sizing up a flower arrangement, but such a level of detail is clearly far too picky. Licensed florists are also allowed to peddle blooms in vending machines, but a “cut flower permit” is mandatory for each one. No illicit efflorescence has much chance of slipping through the Louisiana dragnet. Prohibition was not enforced with such dedication.
An intrusive bureaucracy may warrant mockery, but Louisiana's regulatory excesses are not really anything to laugh about. They discourage enterprise and throw unnecessary obstacles in the way of people just trying to stand on their own two feet. Let us say a young woman has learned from her mother all there is to know about the art of cornrows. It would be a simple matter for her to ply her trade and stay off the welfare rolls by developing a loyal customer base.
Instead she must make a choice between breaking the law and braiding on the sly, or twiddling her thumbs and making no contribution to the state economy. Better, surely, to break the stupid law.
Email James Gill at gill504nola@gmail.com.