How to Start a Beauty Business in Indiana
Indiana runs most of its beauty licensing through one board inside the Professional Licensing Agency, and it prices that licensing at the low end of the national range. The State Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners charges $40 for a practitioner license and $40 for the salon license, and both renew on a four year cycle instead of the two year cycle most states use. Massage therapy answers to its own board in the same agency, with a license that carries a mandatory insurance requirement. Two trades sit outside licensing altogether: natural hair braiding is exempt from the cosmetology statute by name, and the application of eyelash extensions is exempt too, while microblading has no state license at all and runs on a state sanitation rule plus county health department permits. Underneath it all sits a cheap entity: an LLC costs $95 to form online and $32 every two years to keep. This hub walks every Indiana route into the beauty business, with every fee traced to the rule or statute that sets it.
Who regulates beauty businesses in Indiana
The State Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners licenses cosmetologists, barbers, estheticians, manicurists and electrologists, along with the salons, mobile salons and schools they work in, under Indiana Code Title 25, Article 8 and the board's rules at 820 IAC. It sits inside the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, and applications, renewals and reinstatements run online through the agency's MyLicense One portal. One establishment license, the beauty culture salon license, covers hair, skin and nail services under one roof, and barber shops are licensed under the same chapter of the statute. The State Board of Massage Therapy, also inside the Professional Licensing Agency, licenses massage therapists under IC 25-21.8 and 847 IAC; Indiana licenses the therapist and requires her to carry professional liability insurance, but it does not license massage establishments at the state level.
Three beauty trades sit partly or wholly outside those two boards. Natural hair braiding is exempt from regulation under IC 25-8 by an express statute, IC 25-8-1.1-1. The application of eyelash extensions is exempt under IC 25-8-1.1-2, although lash lifts, lash tinting and microneedling moved into the licensed esthetician scope on July 1, 2026. Body art, which is where microblading and permanent makeup live in Indiana, has no state licensing board at all: the Indiana Department of Health's sanitation rule, 410 IAC 1-5, sets operating standards without registering artists or shops, and county health departments layer their own permits on top. Business level rules sit with three more agencies: the Secretary of State for entities and assumed business names through INBiz, the Department of Revenue for sales tax and withholding, and the Department of Workforce Development for unemployment insurance.
Indiana at a glance
| License or filing | Indiana requirement |
|---|---|
| Cosmetologist | 1,500 hours, application $40, renewal $40 every four years |
| Barber | 1,500 hours, application $40, renewal $40 every four years |
| Esthetician | 700 hours, application $40, renewal $40 every four years |
| Manicurist | 450 hours, application $40, renewal $40 every four years |
| Beauty culture salon | $40 application, $40 renewal every four years, temporary permit valid three months |
| Natural hair braiding | No license, exempt from IC 25-8 by statute |
| Eyelash extensions | No license, exempt from IC 25-8 by statute; lifts and tinting are esthetician scope |
| Massage therapist | 625 hours, application $100, renewal $150 every four years, liability insurance required |
| Microblading and body art | No state license; 410 IAC 1-5 sanitation rule plus county health department permits |
| LLC formation | Articles of Organization $95 online or $100 by mail |
| Business Entity Report | $32 online or $50 by mail, every two years |
| Assumed business name | Secretary of State $20 online or $30 by mail for entities; county recorder for sole proprietors |
Indiana traps that catch new owners
The salon license application starts a three month clock
Indiana issues a temporary permit the moment a complete salon application lands, and that permit is valid for three months. The Professional Licensing Agency tells applicants plainly not to apply until the facility is ready to open, because an early application burns the permit window while the buildout is still running, and operating without the permit can get the application denied outright.
Lash extensions are exempt, but lash lifts are licensed work
Applying eyelash extensions is exempt from regulation under IC 25-8-1.1-2, so a lash artist needs no state license for extensions alone. Since July 1, 2026, though, eyelash lifts and tinting sit inside the esthetician scope of practice, along with eyebrow lamination and microneedling. A studio that adds lift and tint services to the menu has crossed from an exempt trade into licensed work without changing its signage.
Braiding is exempt, right up to the chemical line
IC 25-8-1.1-1 exempts natural hair braiding from the whole cosmetology article, and the definition at IC 25-8-2-20 covers weaving, locking, extensions and wig making. The same definition stops at dyes, reactive chemicals and chemical joining agents such as keratin bonds and fusion bonds. A braiding business that adds color or bonded extension work has left the exemption and needs licensed cosmetologists doing that work inside a licensed salon.
Microblading has no state license, but your county may have two
Indiana does not license tattoo artists or shops at the state level, and its health department rule, 410 IAC 1-5, requires yearly bloodborne pathogen training without registering anyone. The permits live at the county health department. Marion County licenses the facility and renews it annually, and Howard County requires an establishment permit with a pre-opening inspection plus a separate artist permit. Skipping the county step is the most common body art mistake in Indiana.
The Business Entity Report is biennial, and missing it can dissolve the LLC
Indiana's entity report comes due every two years, in the month the business was formed, at $32 online. INBiz charges no late fee, which makes the filing easy to shrug off, but the Secretary of State can administratively dissolve an entity that stops filing, and reinstatement means filing every overdue report. Put the biennial month on the same calendar as the four year license renewals.
Massage therapists must carry liability insurance to practice
Indiana licenses massage therapists individually, at 625 hours with a $100 application, and the license is conditioned on professional liability insurance of at least $2,000,000 per claim and $6,000,000 in aggregate, proven at application and renewal. It is one of the few Indiana beauty licenses where the insurance is a licensing requirement rather than a landlord's lease term.
Indiana guides by business type
Hair salon
The flagship route: the 1,500 hour cosmetologist license at $40, the beauty culture salon license at $40 with its three month temporary permit, and a four year renewal cycle under everything.
Barbershop
The 1,500 hour barber license, a shop licensed under the same salon chapter with barber shop stated in prominent type on the license, and straight razor work inside the barber scope.
Nail salon
The shortest course on the cosmetology board: the 450 hour manicurist license at $40, one salon license covering the premises, and the temporary permit sequence before opening day.
Lash studio
Indiana exempts eyelash extension application from licensing entirely, then draws a bright line at lifts, tinting and microneedling, which became esthetician scope on July 1, 2026. How a lash studio stays on the right side of that line.
Esthetics
The 700 hour esthetician license, a scope that covers facials, waxing and skin care, and the 2026 expansion that added lash lifts, brow lamination and microneedling with a depth limit written into the statute.
Salon suite
Two legal shapes for a suite in Indiana: rent space inside a licensed salon under the booth rent statute, or hold your own beauty culture salon license for the suite. The costs and control differ, and so does the paperwork.
Braiding
Natural hair braiding is exempt from IC 25-8 by statute: no license, no salon license, no board rulebook for the braiding itself. Where the exemption stops, and the business filings that still apply.
Microblading
Permanent makeup is tattooing under Indiana's body art framework, with no state artist license: a state sanitation rule, yearly bloodborne pathogen training, and county health department permits, with Marion County and Howard County as the worked examples.
Massage
The 625 hour massage license at $100, a national examination, mandatory liability insurance at $2,000,000 and $6,000,000, 24 hours of continuing education a cycle, and no state establishment license at all.
What this Indiana cluster covers
Each guide above follows the same structure used across this site: the licensing regulator, the practitioner license step by step, the establishment license, entity formation with the real Indiana fees, the assumed business name split the way Indiana splits it between the Secretary of State and the county recorder, the EIN, the Department of Revenue tax treatment stated precisely for that trade, booth 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 Indiana beauty businesses are opened by the license holder, and the numbers differ by trade: a manicurist is licensed in 450 hours while a cosmetologist and a barber each need 1,500, a braider and a lash extension artist need no license at all, a massage therapist carries an insurance mandate and continuing education that the cosmetology board does not impose, and a microblading artist's permits come from a county health department rather than from any state board.
Indiana is the seventeenth 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.
Official Indiana resources
- State Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners: licensing information, hours, fees and salon requirements
- State Board of Massage Therapy: licensing information, 625 hours, fees and insurance
- Indiana Department of Health: tattoos and body piercing in Indiana, FAQs on 410 IAC 1-5
- INBiz: Secretary of State business filings, entity reports and tax registration
- Indiana Department of Revenue: sales tax, Registered Retail Merchant Certificates and withholding
- Department of Workforce Development: Unemployment Insurance Employer Handbook
- Indiana Department of Labor: Indiana Minimum Wage Law poster
Indiana sources last reviewed: November 3, 2026