How to Start a Beauty Business in Idaho

Idaho rebuilt its beauty licensing in 2018 and folded barbering and cosmetology into a single act with a single board, and the result is one of the cleanest systems in this series. The Barber and Cosmetology Services Licensing Board, inside the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses, licenses cosmetologists at 1,600 hours, barber-stylists at 1,500, barbers at 900, estheticians at 600 and nail technicians at 400, and licenses the premises with a two part establishment system: a primary license for the building and a contiguous license for every operator who runs their own business inside it, which makes the salon suite a licensed form in Idaho rather than a lease arrangement. The edges of the menu are wide open. Natural hair braiding is exempt from licensure by statute, makeup artistry is exempt by statute, and microblading has no state license at all, only a criminal statute about tattooing minors. Massage therapy answers to its own board at 500 hours and licenses no premises at all. The business stack underneath is pure Idaho: an LLC filed on a Certificate of Organization for $100 online, an annual report that costs nothing to file and draws scam letters precisely because owners expect a bill, an assumed business name registered with the Secretary of State for $25 that never renews, and a flat 6 percent sales tax that lands on the products on the shelf and skips the services on the menu. This hub walks every Idaho route into the beauty business, with every figure traced to the statute, rule or agency document that sets it.

Who regulates beauty businesses in Idaho

Almost every Idaho beauty license comes out of one division. The Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses, at 11341 West Chinden Boulevard, Building 4, in Boise, houses the Barber and Cosmetology Services Licensing Board, which works under the Barber and Cosmetology Services Act, Idaho Code title 54, chapter 58, added in 2018. One board licenses barbers, barber-stylists, cosmetologists, electrologists, estheticians, nail technicians, instructors, apprentices, schools, retail cosmetics dealers and establishments, and its rules at IDAPA 24.28.01 carry the premises standards, the inspection classifications and the fee caps. Section 54-5804 states the premises rule the whole system hangs on: practicing in an unlicensed establishment is unlawful except where the chapter itself authorizes it, and an establishment holder may not employ or allow an unlicensed person to perform licensed work.

Two trades sit in the same division under different boards and different law. Massage therapy answers to the Board of Massage Therapy under title 54, chapter 40, with a 500 hour course, a national examination and a provisional permit, and no establishment license anywhere in its chapter. Body art has no board and no license at all: no chapter of Idaho law licenses tattooing, and the only statute that touches the work, section 18-1523, is a criminal law about tattooing minors. The rest of the stack belongs to the general agencies: the Secretary of State for the Certificate of Organization, the free annual report and assumed business names, the State Tax Commission for the seller's permit and withholding, the Department of Labor for unemployment insurance and the wage floor, and the cities and counties for zoning and local business licensing.

Idaho at a glance

Item	Idaho requirement
Licensing structure	Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses: the Barber and Cosmetology Services Licensing Board under title 54, chapter 58 for the salon and barber trades, and the Board of Massage Therapy under chapter 40; no body art license exists
Cosmetologist license	1,600 hours of school or 3,200 apprentice hours. NIC written and practical examinations. License $60 for two years on the board's fee schedule effective July 1, 2026, renewing at $60 biennially
Barber license	900 hours of school or 1,800 apprentice hours, the lightest barber course in this series. A barber-stylist, who adds coloring, chemical waving and bleaching to the barber scope, trains 1,500 or 3,000 hours
Esthetician license	600 hours of school or 1,200 apprentice hours, covering the act's skin paragraph, which names tinting and perming the eyebrows and eyelashes
Nail technician license	400 hours of school or 800 apprentice hours. Applying artificial nails is licensed work; the definition reaches manicuring, pedicuring and massaging the hands and feet
Establishment license	Two forms under one system. A primary establishment license, $50 for two years, covers the premises; a contiguous establishment license, also $50, covers each operator running their own business inside a licensed primary. Licenses cannot be transferred, and a change of location or a full change of ownership requires a new application
Eyelash services	No lash license exists. Tinting and perming the eyelashes are named inside the cosmetology and esthetics scopes; eyelash extensions are not named anywhere in the act's definitions, and the lash studio guide works through what that means
Braiding	No license. Section 54-5805(10) exempts a practice limited to natural hair braiding from licensure, certification and registration under the chapter, and section 54-5802(24) draws the line at dyes, reactive chemicals and chemical joining agents
Microblading	No state license of any kind. The only Idaho statute that reaches the work is section 18-1523, which defines a tattoo as an indelible mark made by inserting pigment under the skin and restricts tattooing minors
Massage therapist	500 in-class supervised hours, at least 390 of coursework and 110 of clinical work, plus a national examination. License $130 for two years; a provisional permit covers a qualified applicant waiting on the exam. No establishment license exists for massage businesses
LLC formation	Certificate of Organization $100 online or $120 on paper with the Secretary of State, then an annual report that is free to file online and due by the end of the anniversary month
Assumed business name	Certificate of Assumed Business Name with the Secretary of State, $25 online or $45 on paper. It does not expire, never renews and files no annual report; it stays active until the owner cancels it
Sales tax	6 percent state rate on retail sales of tangible personal property. Beauty services are not among the services the sales tax statute enumerates, so service revenue is not taxed; products off the shelf are
Minimum wage	$7.25 an hour under Idaho Code section 44-1502, matching the federal floor. New employers pay unemployment insurance at 1.0 percent on the first $58,300 of each employee's wages in 2026

Idaho traps that catch new owners

The annual report is free, and the scam letters know you do not know

Idaho charges nothing to file an LLC annual report online. The report is due by the end of the month in which the company was formed, every year, and the filing itself takes minutes in the Secretary of State's SOSBiz system. The trap runs in both directions. Owners who expect a bill wait for one that never comes and drift toward administrative dissolution, while scammers mail official looking notices demanding payment to file the report, a fraud common enough that the Secretary of State and the Attorney General carry a standing scam alert on the state's business portal, which also warns that assumed business name registrations file no annual report at all. The only correct price for the Idaho annual report is $0, paid to nobody, filed by you.

Your suite is a second establishment license inside someone else's

Idaho licenses premises in two layers, and suite renters who miss the second layer are practicing in an unlicensed establishment. The building holds a primary establishment license, and every operator who runs their own business in a designated area inside it holds a contiguous establishment license of their own, certified as associated with and operating within the licensed primary, at $50 for two years. The split of responsibility is written into Rule 200.01: the primary holder answers for safety and disinfection compliance across the designated licensed area including the common areas, and the contiguous holder answers for their own designated area. A booth renter under the salon's own license needs no second license; the moment the renter operates as their own establishment, the contiguous license is the price of doing it lawfully.

The establishment license cannot move and cannot be sold

Rule 100.03 makes establishment licenses nontransferable in terms. A change of location requires a new license application, and so does a full change in ownership, which means buying a salon does not buy its establishment license and moving a licensed shop across town starts the premises license over at the new address. The rule leaves one narrow door: in a multiple ownership establishment, an owner may be removed on a written statement signed by all owners including the one withdrawing. Owners who paper a purchase as a membership change without reading the rule, or who sign a new lease assuming the license follows the business name, find out at the first inspection that the premises they are standing in is unlicensed.

The braiding exemption ends where the chemicals begin

Section 54-5805(10) exempts a practice limited to natural hair braiding from every credential in the chapter, and section 54-5802(24) defines that practice generously: twisting, wrapping, weaving, extending, locking and braiding by hand or mechanical device, with extensions, fibers, beads and accessories, minor incidental trimming, wig making, and topical agents like conditioners, gels, moisturizers, oils, pomades and shampoos. The same definition then closes the door: services using dyes or reactive chemicals, services that alter the structure of the hair, and chemical hair joining agents such as synthetic tape, keratin bonds and fusion bonds are outside natural hair braiding. A braiding studio that adds color services or bonded extensions has walked out of the exemption and into cosmetology licensure, establishment license included.

Microblading has no license, no board and no training standard

Idaho is one of the few states in this series where the microblading answer is an absence. No chapter of Idaho law licenses tattooing or permanent makeup, the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses has no body art credential, and the cosmetology act's definitions never reach inserting pigment under the skin, so neither a cosmetologist nor an esthetician license authorizes or is required for the work, and no establishment license category covers a tattoo studio. What does exist is section 18-1523: tattooing a child under 14 is prohibited, clients aged 14 to 18 need a parent or guardian's written informed consent signed in the artist's presence, and a violation is a misdemeanor. The microblading guide works through what fills the space where a license would normally sit: local permits, insurer requirements and the consent statute.

The fee schedule changed on July 1, 2026, and the renewal calendar is moving

Idaho's board reset its fees effective July 1, 2026, and most secondary sources still quote the old ones. The practitioner license that older pages price at $25 a year is now $60 for a two year license, the establishment license is $50 for two years rather than $20 a year, and the endorsement license for an out of state practitioner is $90. At the same time the division is transitioning this board to a two year renewal cycle under which licenses will expire on the licensee's birthday, or on the original issue date for businesses, with the new dates fully in place in 2028 and renewal opening 60 days before expiration. An owner budgeting or calendaring from an older guide gets both the prices and the dates wrong.

Idaho guides by business type

Hair salon

The flagship route: the 1,600 hour cosmetologist license, the NIC written and practical examinations, and the $50 primary establishment license that anchors every other license in the building.

Barbershop

Two licenses where most states have one: the 900 hour barber, who cannot color, and the 1,500 hour barber-stylist, who can, and the crossover hours that move a practitioner between them.

Nail salon

The 400 hour nail technician license, the pedicure disinfection rules the board inspects against, and a premises license that follows the primary and contiguous split.

Lash studio

No lash license exists: tinting and perming sit inside the cosmetology and esthetics scopes by name, extensions are named nowhere, and the studio is built by choosing the license that carries the rest of the menu.

Esthetics

The 600 hour esthetician license, the act's skin paragraph with its device limits, and the apprenticeship route at twice the hours under a licensed instructor.

Salon suite

The renter's position under the primary and contiguous system: practicing inside the host's license, or holding a contiguous establishment license of your own, and what the primary holder still answers for.

Braiding

No license, no registration and no premises license for natural hair braiding inside the statutory definition, the chemical line that ends the exemption, and the full business stack that still applies.

Microblading

Permanent makeup in a state with no body art license: the minors consent statute that is the only law on the books for the work, the local layer, and the standards insurers and landlords substitute for a license.

Massage

The 500 hour therapist license at $130 for two years, the provisional permit that lets a qualified graduate work while the exam is pending, and a chapter that licenses people and leaves premises alone.

What this Idaho cluster covers

Each guide above follows the same structure used across this site: the licensing regulator, the practitioner credential step by step, the establishment position stated exactly as Idaho law supports it, which in Idaho means a primary and contiguous establishment split for the salon trades, a documentation free statutory exemption for braiding inside its definition, no premises license of any kind for massage, and no license at all for microblading, entity formation with the real Secretary of State fees, which in Idaho means a Certificate of Organization at $100 online and an annual report that is free and due in the anniversary month, the assumed business name position stated exactly as the sources support it, which in Idaho means a $25 Secretary of State certificate that never expires or renews rather than a county DBA, the EIN, the tax treatment stated precisely for that trade, which in Idaho means services outside the sales tax and retail products inside it at 6 percent, booth and room rent classification, hiring, the local layer, insurance, a renewal calendar, and official sources for every figure. The shared business stack appears in every guide because most Idaho beauty businesses are opened by the license holder, and the clocks differ by credential in ways that matter during the current transition: practitioner and establishment licenses are moving to two year terms expiring on the licensee's birthday or the business's original issue date by 2028, while the LLC report runs every year in the formation month and the assumed name never comes due at all.

Idaho is the thirty-eighth 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. Three reading notes for anyone comparing sources: the board's school license fees are not printed in these guides, because the board's fee page, its rule and a division news post state three different figures and no guide in this cluster turns on a school fee; the massage continuing education hours are not printed, because the Board of Massage Therapy's current rule chapter contains no continuing education section and the secondary sources disagree with each other; and no numeric passing score is printed for the NIC examinations, because the board's rule names the examinations without stating a score in the text read for this cluster.

Official Idaho resources

Idaho sources last reviewed: November 3, 2026