How to Start a Beauty Business in Delaware

Who regulates beauty businesses in Delaware

Three regulators divide the work. The largest share sits with the Board of Cosmetology and Barbering, a licensing board in the Division of Professional Regulation, part of the Delaware Department of State. The board administers Title 24, chapter 51, which licenses cosmetologists, master barbers, barbers, aestheticians, nail technicians, electrologists and instructors, and licenses the premises as the Cosmetology/Barbering Establishment or Shop, the mobile salon or shop and the school. Fees are set by the Division and printed on the board fee schedule: $128 for a cosmetologist, master barber or barber, $101 for an aesthetician, $103 for a nail technician or electrologist, $205 for an instructor, and $142 for an establishment or shop. Applications and renewals run through DELPROS, the Delaware Professional Regulation Online Services system. Sanitation sits partly outside the board: all shops and salons must comply with the Division of Public Health Cosmetology and Barbering Regulations, and the Division of Public Health investigates sanitation complaints.

The second regulator is a health division, not a licensing board. Body art, which includes tattooing and permanent cosmetics, belongs to the Division of Public Health in the Department of Health and Social Services, under 16 Delaware Administrative Code 4451. That framework permits the establishment rather than the individual artist, and there is no individual tattoo or permanent makeup artist license in the regulation. The third regulator is the Board of Massage and Bodywork, also in the Division of Professional Regulation, which licenses massage therapists and certified massage technicians under Title 24, chapter 53 and its rules at 24 Delaware Administrative Code 5300, and licenses massage establishments alongside people. Around the licensing sit the business agencies every Delaware owner deals with: the Division of Corporations, which takes the LLC Certificate of Formation and the flat annual tax; the Division of Revenue, which issues the state business license, administers trade names through Delaware One Stop and collects the gross receipts tax; and the Department of Labor, which sets the $15.00 minimum wage and runs unemployment insurance. Your city or town holds the last layer: zoning, building permits and any local business license.

Delaware at a glance

Delaware traps that catch new owners

The first trap is the calendar, because Delaware runs three separate renewal clocks inside one board. Cosmetologists renew October 31 of even numbered years, and they are the only personal license on that clock. Barbers, master barbers, aestheticians, nail technicians, electrologists and instructors renew March 31 of even numbered years. Shops, mobile salons and schools renew June 30 of odd numbered years. An owner who puts licensing on a single reminder will miss at least one of these clocks, and the late rules differ too: individuals may late renew for up to five years with a late fee of 50 percent of the renewal fee, while an establishment gets only 45 days before a new application is required. The second trap is the LLC tax. Delaware charges every LLC a flat $400 annual tax due June 1 for the prior year, with a $200 penalty plus interest of 1.5 percent per month for failure to pay and no proration. Owners used to annual reports in other states wait for a report form that never comes, because Delaware requires no annual report for an LLC at all; the tax is the whole obligation.

The third trap is the tax assumption. Delaware has no sales tax, which simplifies the register, but no sales tax does not mean no tax: the Division of Revenue imposes a gross receipts tax on the provider of services, with no deductions for labor or materials, and occupations and general services pay 0.3983 percent above a $100,000 monthly exclusion. The fourth trap is stale name advice. For generations a Delaware trade name was filed with the county Prothonotary; beginning February 2, 2026 the Division of Revenue runs a statewide registry through Delaware One Stop at $25 one time, with no per county fees and no notarization, and any guide still sending an owner to a county office is out of date. The fifth trap is the boundary of the braiding exemption. Hair braiding alone is exempt from chapter 51, but the exemption ends where chemicals and cutting begin: braiding does not include hair cutting, and does not include applying dyes, reactive chemicals or other preparations to alter color or hair structure, and extensions may be used only when attached by natural means. The sixth trap is departmental. Permanent makeup is not cosmetology in Delaware: the cosmetology board classifies it as body art and tattooing and directs practitioners to the Division of Public Health, where the permit attaches to the establishment. The seventh trap is a closed credential. The certified massage technician route closed to new applicants after December 31, 2024, so a new massage hire trains as a licensed massage therapist, and the hour count for that license rose to 625 for programs begun on or after July 1, 2024; pages still quoting 500 hours or a new CMT application are describing a route that no longer exists.

Delaware guides by business type

What this Delaware cluster covers

Delaware is the forty-fourth state cluster on this site. The national hubs compare the same business type across every researched state, and the remaining states are in production in population order. Four reading notes for anyone comparing sources: barber hours are printed at 1,250 from the statute at section 5107, because the board FAQ lumps the barber in with the 1,500 hour licenses while section 5107(a)(3)e and the board reciprocity page state 1,250, and the statute governs; no individual body art artist license exists in the Delaware framework, so no fee is printed for one, and the pages describe only the establishment permit that 16 DAC 4451 and the Division of Public Health support; the LLC annual tax is printed at $400 from the Division of Corporations current tax instructions page, because older Division pages still show the superseded $300 figure, which is not published here as a current amount; and renewal fee amounts are not printed for either professional board, because both boards set the renewal fee by the Division and notify licensees at renewal time, so the pages print the cycles and the late fee rules without inventing amounts.

Official Delaware resources

• Board of Cosmetology and Barbering, fee schedule: application fees for every license type under the board, including the $128 cosmetologist fee and the $142 establishment or shop fee.
• Board of Cosmetology and Barbering, FAQs: the board answers on hours, lashes, shaving certification, permanent makeup as body art, continuing education and sanitation.
• Board of Massage and Bodywork, fee schedule: the $175 licensed massage therapist application and the $50 massage establishment fee.
• Division of Public Health, Body Art program: the establishment permit framework for tattooing and permanent cosmetics under 16 DAC 4451.
• Division of Corporations, LLC tax instructions: the flat $400 annual tax, the June 1 due date, the $200 penalty and the statement that no annual report is required.
• Division of Revenue, gross receipts taxes: how the gross receipts tax falls on services, with the activity categories and filing periods.
• Delaware One Stop, trade names: the statewide trade name registry run by the Division of Revenue since February 2, 2026, at $25 one time.
• Department of Labor, Unemployment Insurance employer services: employer registration, the 2026 taxable wage base of $14,500 and the 1.0 percent new employer rate.