How to Start a Beauty Business in Maryland
Maryland splits its beauty licensing three ways. The Board of Cosmetologists and the separate Board of Barbers, both inside the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing in the Department of Labor, license the people and permit the premises for hair, skin, nail and lash work, and every salon or shop permit is gated by a use and occupancy permit from local zoning before the state will take the application. Massage answers to its own board in the Department of Health, which is in the middle of retiring its second credential tier: from November 1, 2026, every practicing massage therapist in Maryland must be a Licensed Massage Therapist. Two trades sit outside licensing entirely, in opposite directions: braiding is written out of the cosmetology definition by statute, while microblading has no state license at all and is flatly prohibited inside a licensed salon. Around the licenses sits the entity stack Maryland is known for: an LLC costs $100 to form at the Department of Assessments and Taxation, and then every entity owes Form 1, the Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return, $300 every year by April 15, whether it operated or not. This hub walks every Maryland route into the beauty business, with every fee traced to the rule, statute or form that sets it.
Who regulates beauty businesses in Maryland
The Board of Cosmetologists licenses cosmetologists, senior cosmetologists, and the limited licenses for hairstylists, blow dry stylists, estheticians, nail technicians and, since October 1, 2025, eyelash technicians, under Title 5 of the Business Occupations and Professions Article and the rules at COMAR 09.22. It also permits the premises: full-service salons and limited practice salons hold salon permits, and the statute's affiliation rule, section 5-605, means a practitioner performs services as part of a registered salon or a registered barbershop. The Board of Barbers is a separate board in the same division, licensing barbers, barber-stylists and master barbers under Title 4 and COMAR 09.16, and permitting barbershops on the same use and occupancy model. Both boards run two-year licenses, and both picked up new renewal conditions on January 1, 2026: cosmetology licensees now owe six hours of continuing education a cycle, and applicants and renewing licensees under both boards owe a one-time hour of domestic violence awareness training.
Massage therapy answers to the State Board of Massage Therapy Examiners in the Maryland Department of Health, under Title 6 of the Health Occupations Article and COMAR 10.65. The board licenses Massage Therapists at 750 contact hours and is closing the Registered Massage Practitioner tier, which has taken no new registrations since October 1, 2024. Body art has no Maryland licensing board at all: the Department of Health does not license tattoo businesses, its disease-control rules for skin-penetrating body adornment procedures sit at COMAR 10.06.01.06, and some counties regulate body art locally. Business level rules sit with three more agencies: the State Department of Assessments and Taxation, called SDAT, for entities, trade names and the annual personal property return; the Comptroller for sales tax; and the Division of Unemployment Insurance in the Department of Labor for employer accounts.
Maryland at a glance
| License or filing | Maryland requirement |
|---|---|
| Cosmetologist | 1,500 hours of school or 24 months as a registered apprentice, license $28, two-year term, 6 hours of continuing education from 2026 |
| Hairstylist, limited license | 1,200 hours or 15 months as an apprentice, license $28 |
| Esthetician, limited license | 600 hours or 12 months as an apprentice, license $28 |
| Nail Technician, limited license | 250 hours or 8 months as an apprentice, license $28 |
| Eyelash Technician, limited license | 100 hours of approved instruction or 3 months as a registered apprentice, plus written and practical exams, created by HB 1223 effective October 1, 2025 |
| Barber | 1,200 hours of school or 2,250 hours as an apprentice, license $56, two-year term |
| Salon or barbershop permit | $225 to open ($56 owner fee plus $169 pre-opening inspection), $56 renewal every two years, local use and occupancy permit required first |
| Braiding | No license and no registration: tension braiding is excluded from the cosmetology definition by statute, chemicals end the exclusion |
| Microblading | No state license for artist or studio; cosmetic tattooing is prohibited in licensed salons under COMAR 09.22.02.03.F; health rules at COMAR 10.06.01.06 |
| Licensed Massage Therapist | 750 contact hours, application $150 plus license fee $200, renewal every two years expiring October 31 of even years, 24 hours of continuing education |
| LLC formation | Articles of Organization $100 filed with SDAT through Maryland Business Express |
| Form 1, Annual Report and Personal Property Return | $300 every year, due April 15, owed by every registered entity; two-month extension to June 15 |
| Trade name | SDAT registration $25, effective five years, renewable in the last six months |
Maryland traps that catch new owners
Every Maryland entity owes $300 every April 15, working or not
Form 1, the Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return, is the filing owners from other states never see coming. Every LLC, corporation and registered entity files it with SDAT each year at a $300 fee, due April 15, even in a year the business never opened its doors. Report $20,000 or more of Maryland personal property at original cost and the personal property schedules attach, with the county billing the property tax separately. Miss the filing long enough and the state moves to forfeit the entity itself.
The state will not take your salon application until zoning has signed
A Maryland salon permit and a barbershop permit both require an approved use and occupancy permit from the local zoning agency, submitted with the application. The barber board's own guidance is to obtain it before doing anything else. The permit itself costs $225 to open, the $56 owner fee plus the $169 pre-opening inspection fee, and renews at $56 every two years. Owners who sign a lease and fit out a space in a zoning district that will not issue the permit have spent the money in the wrong order.
Lash artists finally have their own license, and the detour is closed
When SB 1044 folded lash services into esthetic services in 2024, lash work legally required a full cosmetologist or esthetician license, and the Board held enforcement until October 1, 2025. HB 1223 then created a limited license to provide eyelash extension services: 100 hours of approved instruction or three months as a registered apprentice, plus the Board's written and practical exams. Working unlicensed on the old assumption, or still sending staff through a 600-hour esthetics program for lash-only work, are now opposite mistakes.
The massage RMP credential sunsets on October 31, 2026
Maryland has taken no new Registered Massage Practitioner registrations since October 1, 2024. Registered practitioners could convert their registration to a license on request through October 31, 2026, and beginning November 1, 2026, state law requires every person practicing massage therapy in Maryland to be licensed. A studio staffed on RMP credentials that treats the tier as permanent is building on a credential with an end date, and the conversion fee in the board's schedule is $100.
Microblading cannot happen inside a Maryland salon, at all
COMAR 09.22.02.03.F prohibits cosmetic tattooing in any full service or limited practice salon and for any salon-sponsored services, and the Board of Cosmetologists states plainly that microblading and other permanent, semi-permanent or long-lasting makeup are cosmetic tattooing. No Maryland agency issues a state tattoo license to fill the gap. A microblading business is a standalone premises, built on the Department of Health's disease-control rules and whatever body art ordinance its county has adopted.
Braiding is exempt, and one chemical service ends the exemption
Section 5-101 of the cosmetology statute excludes services that create tension on hair strands or roots by twisting, wrapping, weaving, extending, locking or braiding, by hand or mechanical device, from the definition of practicing cosmetology. No license, no registration, no board. The exclusion carries its own boundary in the same sentence: it does not cover applying dyes, reactive chemicals or other preparations that alter color or hair structure. A braiding studio that adds a color service has crossed into licensed cosmetology.
Maryland guides by business type
Hair salon
The flagship route: the 1,500 hour cosmetologist license with its registered apprentice alternative, the salon permit gated by a use and occupancy permit, the new six hour continuing education rule, and the $300 Form 1 underneath everything.
Barbershop
The separate Board of Barbers: a 1,200 hour barber license or 2,250 apprentice hours, the barber-stylist limited license, master barber at 15 months of experience, and a shop permit that starts with zoning and a $225 application.
Nail salon
The shortest cosmetology course on the board: the 250 hour Nail Technician limited license or eight months as an apprentice, and the Limited Service Salon Owner permit a manicuring-only premises runs under.
Lash studio
Maryland's newest license. HB 1223 built a limited license for eyelash extension services at 100 hours or a three month apprenticeship, replacing the esthetician detour that SB 1044 created in 2024.
Esthetics
The 600 hour Esthetician limited license, the limited practice salon permit for esthetic services, the 2026 continuing education rule, and the hard boundary at cosmetic tattooing, which no salon may offer.
Salon suite
Maryland has no suite license and no booth renter license. The suite model is built from the affiliation rule and the salon permit: rent inside a permitted salon, or hold your own $225 permit for your own space.
Braiding
Fully deregulated by statutory definition: tension braiding, weaving and locking sit outside the practice of cosmetology, with no license and no registration. The chemical line, and the business filings that still apply.
Microblading
No state license exists for the artist or the studio, cosmetic tattooing is prohibited inside licensed salons, and the state layer is the Department of Health's disease-control rules. How a Maryland studio is actually assembled.
Massage
The 750 hour Licensed Massage Therapist credential, two examinations including the state jurisprudence exam, the Registered Massage Practitioner phase-out ending October 31, 2026, and no state establishment license at all.
What this Maryland 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 or the reason there is none, entity formation with the real Maryland fees including the Form 1 annual report and personal property return that replaces the cheaper reporting regimes in most states, the SDAT trade name registration, the EIN, the Comptroller's 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 Maryland beauty businesses are opened by the license holder, and the numbers differ by trade: a nail technician is licensed in 250 hours while a cosmetologist needs 1,500 and a barber 1,200, a lash technician qualifies in 100 hours under the state's newest limited license, a braider files no license at all, a massage therapist carries 24 hours of continuing education and an October 31 renewal cliff in even years, and a microblading artist's only state rules are a prohibition and a set of health regulations.
Maryland is the nineteenth 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. Two naming notes for readers comparing sources: Maryland forms its entities at the State Department of Assessments and Taxation, not a Secretary of State, and its massage board's older name, the Board of Chiropractic and Massage Therapy Examiners, still appears in older material for what is now the State Board of Massage Therapy Examiners.
Official Maryland resources
- Board of Cosmetologists: license requirements, training hours and salon permit categories
- Board of Cosmetologists: salon permit renewal, the $225 original and $56 renewal structure
- Board of Barbers: barber, barber-stylist and master barber requirements
- Board of Cosmetologists resources: the cosmetic tattooing prohibition, the eyelash license and the Cosmetology Licensure Compact
- State Board of Massage Therapy Examiners: licensure requirements for LMT and RMP applicants
- State Board of Massage Therapy Examiners: renewal, continuing education and the October 31 deadline
- Maryland Business Express: SDAT entity formation, trade names and business registrations
- State Department of Assessments and Taxation: Form 1 annual report and personal property return filings
- Comptroller of Maryland: sales and use tax licensing and the taxable services list
- Department of Labor, Employment Standards Service: Maryland minimum wage and tipped employee rules
Maryland sources last reviewed: November 3, 2026