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In 1980, I was a Navy veteran sleeping in a 20-year-old car, raising $700 to start a hair care company with a stylist named Paul Mitchell. We believe the American Dream was still open for business. Forty-six years later, that dream is now being shut down by federal law for the next generation.
The Department of Education has proposed an income premium metric under the gainful employment law that would judge job programs by one hard number: whether graduates, four years after graduation, earn more than the average full-time worker aged 25–34 in the same state without a college degree. Programs that fail the test two out of three years lose access to federal student aid. According to the Department's own data, more than 92% of beauty and barbering programs across the country will fail.
This is not a minor control tweak. It is a death sentence for thousands of cosmetology, barber, esthetician and nail schools across America. Without Title IV assistance, most students — many of them single mothers, veterans, first-generation Americans and working children — cannot afford the training and education required to obtain state licenses. Schools will be closed. The pipeline of new licensed workers will collapse. And right now we're being told that skilled trades and human-centered jobs are the future in an AI-driven economy, threatening to reverse investment in an industry built on human interaction, intelligence and hands-on technology.
The beauty industry is a $100 billion economic engine that employs 1.3 million Americans. It is one of the few fields where a person can get a marketing certificate in less than a year, enter a shop or salon and start a business. Our professionals are predominantly women who rely on flexible, part-time schedules to raise families while earning income. Many earn the bulk of their income from tips and building clients – income that increases significantly after the first few years but is not reflected in the Department's early model.
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The new rules put salons and barbers at risk of being excluded from Title IV student aid. (Stock)
By ignoring these realities – part-time work, tips, self-employment and the female-dominated nature of the industry – the law systematically undermines the true value of beauty education. It compares new licensees to full-time workers with only a high school diploma, many of whom have been on the job for ten years. The result is a false narrative that beauty programs can deliver, when in fact, they deliver exactly what millions of Americans need: flexible, entrepreneurial, self-sufficient jobs.
The economic collapse will be swift and widespread. School closures mean fewer licensed professionals entering the workforce at a time when demand is growing. Salons, spas and barbershops will face a chronic labor shortage. Rural communities and small towns – already struggling with service gaps – will see “beauty deserts” where basic grooming and wellness services disappear. Consumers will lose access to safe, licensed care. Small business owners who rely on barbers and stylists will watch their income plummet. Ripple effects will affect product manufacturers, distributors, real estate and local tax bases.
This is not just about beauty and hairdressing schools. It's about taking away the opportunity for those people that the American economy claims to champion. A single mother who sees beauty as her means of independence. Veteran looking for a stable second job. A young entrepreneur who dreams of owning his own salon. These are the people who built this $100 billion industry – and the people who stand to lose the most if they are starved of new talent and fair access to education.
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Congress understood this when it passed the Big One Bill. The law deliberately limits this salary range to undergraduates degrees programs and degree certificates. Undergraduate certificate programs such as cosmetology and barbering were intentionally left out. The department should follow the law, not rewrite it.
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Secretary Linda McMahon has the power – and the lived experience – to fix this. He knows what it means to build a business from the ground up. He should direct the department to exclude non-degree programs and licensed trade certificates from the wage premium assessment, which is consistent with the statutory purpose. This one change will protect opportunities, preserve career paths and protect a vital sector of our economy.
The comment period closes on May 20. Now is the time for all of us who love this industry – school owners, professionals, salon owners, manufacturers and the millions of Americans we serve – to speak up and protect the next generation.
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Beauty and hairdressing are not back-to-back jobs. They are a path to independence, business, creativity and human connection. They change lives every day behind the scenes.
We built this industry with our own hands. We will fight for its future.
