How to Start a Beauty Business in New Hampshire

New Hampshire runs its beauty trades out of one licensing office and three advisory boards, and the structure explains almost everything else in this cluster. The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, OPLC, issues the licenses; the Board of Barbering, Cosmetology, and Esthetics advises on the salon trades under chapter 313-A of the Revised Statutes, the Advisory Board of Body Art Practitioners on tattooing and microblading under chapter 314-A, and the Advisory Board of Massage Therapists on massage under chapter 328-B. The executive director sets every fee by rule, priced to recover up to 125 percent of the office's operating costs, and the personal licenses that result are strikingly cheap: $50 for two years across the barbering family, $110 for a body art license or a massage license. The premises side is a single $100 shop license for the salon trades, with one structural surprise: New Hampshire repealed its booth rental license in 2023, so a renter today needs nothing but her own personal license inside a licensed shop, even though the current fee schedule still prints a booth line. The edges are just as distinctive. Cosmetology hours dropped to 1,200 in 2025 while older sources still print 1,500. Lashes have no credential at all and live inside the cosmetology and esthetics definitions. Braiding is exempt by statute. Massage has no establishment license today and gains one on July 1, 2027, with a sole proprietor carve-out. Underneath sits the stack every New Hampshire business shares: a $100 LLC with a $100 annual report due by April 1, a $50 trade name that runs five years, no general sales tax, and two business taxes, the Business Profits Tax and the Business Enterprise Tax, that wait above filing thresholds most first-year shops never cross. This hub walks every New Hampshire route into the beauty business, with every figure traced to the statute, rule or agency page that sets it.

Who regulates beauty businesses in New Hampshire

One office issues nearly every license in this cluster. The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification is New Hampshire's umbrella licensing agency, and RSA 310:2 places the beauty trades' three advisory boards inside it: the Board of Barbering, Cosmetology, and Esthetics, the Advisory Board of Body Art Practitioners, and the Advisory Board of Massage Therapists. The boards advise and the executive director licenses, sets fees by rule under RSA 310:5 at up to 125 percent of operating costs, and runs renewals under RSA 310:8, which makes OPLC licenses valid for two years from the date of issuance and supersedes any conflicting term printed in a board's own chapter. That framework is why New Hampshire renewal dates run from each license's own issue date rather than from one statewide day, with one massage exception the massage guide takes up in detail.

The salon trades live in chapter 313-A: barbers, master barbers, cosmetologists, manicurists, estheticians, instructors, apprentices, and the shops and schools where they work, with the shop defined broadly enough to cover a mobile barbershop and any other business location where the trades are practiced. Body art lives in chapter 314-A: tattooing, body piercing and branding under a practitioner license, an apprentice license for those building toward it, and a microblading certificate that chapter 313-A licensees can add. Massage lives in chapter 328-B, which licenses therapists today and adds establishment licenses on July 1, 2027. The rest of the stack belongs to the general agencies: the Secretary of State's Corporation Division for the LLC, its annual report and trade names, the Department of Revenue Administration for the two business taxes, New Hampshire Employment Security for unemployment insurance, the Department of Labor for wages and workers' compensation, and your city or town for zoning and the building itself.

New Hampshire at a glance

Item	New Hampshire requirement
Licensing structure	The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification under RSA chapter 310, with the Board of Barbering, Cosmetology, and Esthetics (RSA 313-A), the Advisory Board of Body Art Practitioners (RSA 314-A) and the Advisory Board of Massage Therapists (RSA 328-B)
Salon trade licenses	Cosmetologist 1,200 school hours or 3,000 apprenticeship hours; barber 800 or 1,600; master barber 1,500 or 3,000; esthetician 600 or 1,200 by apprenticeship; manicurist 300 in school or 600 by apprenticeship. Personal license $50 for two years under Plc 1002.07; renewal runs two years from issuance under RSA 310:8
Shop license	Required for every salon, barbershop, mobile barbershop and other business location where the salon trades are practiced: $100 for two years plus a $100 inspection fee on the first application. A non-practitioner may own the shop if a licensed practitioner is employed as manager
Booth rental	No booth rental license exists. The statutory booth license was repealed by HB 409 in 2023; a renter needs only a personal license and works inside the host's licensed shop. The fee rule at Plc 1002.07 still prints a $75 booth line, a vestige
Eyelash services	No lash license exists. Chapter 313-A names applying eyelashes inside the cosmetology and esthetics definitions only, so lash work rides on the 1,200 hour cosmetologist license or the 600 hour esthetician license
Braiding	Exempt by statute. RSA 313-A:25 XIII exempts persons engaged in the practice of natural hair braiding, and the statutory definition covers extensions, fibers and accessories but excludes dyes, reactive chemicals and chemical joining agents
Microblading	Two routes: a body art practitioner license under RSA 314-A, built on three years of supervised practice, or the Plc 405 microblading certificate for licensed cosmetologists and estheticians, built on 100 hours of accredited training. Each costs $110 for two years under Plc 1002.08, and OPLC has posted a correction notice stating the current charge is $121
Massage therapist	750 hours of education across the five subject areas in Plc 902.02, a nationally recognized certifying examination, current adult CPR and first aid, and a $110 license under Plc 908.01; 12 hours of continuing education per two year cycle
Massage establishment	No establishment license exists today. Chapter 305 of 2026 adds one on July 1, 2027 for commercial locations where more than one therapist works, with sole proprietors and independent contractors carved out unless they take clients without a prior appointment
LLC formation	Certificate of Formation, Form LLC-1, $100 with the Secretary of State's Corporation Division; annual report $100, filed between January 1 and April 1 each year starting the year after formation, with a $50 late fee
Trade name	Registered with the Secretary of State under RSA chapter 349: $50, a five year term, renewable at $50, with a renewal notice from the Secretary of State at least six months before expiration
Taxes	No general sales tax on services or retail products. The Business Profits Tax takes 7.5 percent of taxable profits above a gross business income filing threshold of $103,000, and the Business Enterprise Tax takes 0.55 percent of the enterprise value tax base above a $281,000 threshold; both thresholds are adjusted biennially, and BET paid credits against BPT
Minimum wage and unemployment	Minimum wage $7.25 an hour, tied by RSA 279 to the federal rate. New employers pay unemployment tax at a 2.7 percent starting rate on the first $14,000 of wages per employee, and there is no state income tax withholding on wages

New Hampshire traps that catch new owners

No sales tax does not mean no business tax

New Hampshire's famous gap is real: there is no general sales tax, so a haircut, a facial and the shampoo a client takes home all ring up untaxed, and no city or town tax sits underneath. What replaces it is a pair of Department of Revenue Administration taxes most new owners never budget for. The Business Profits Tax takes 7.5 percent of taxable business profits once gross business income passes the filing threshold, $103,000 for periods beginning on or after January 1, 2023 and adjusted biennially. The Business Enterprise Tax is the subtler one: 0.55 percent of the enterprise value tax base, which is compensation, interest and dividends paid, so a payroll-heavy salon can owe BET in a year it shows no profit at all, once gross receipts or the base itself passes $281,000. The relief is structural: BET paid is a credit against BPT, with ten years to carry the unused part forward. A small first shop may file neither return, but a growing one meets BET first, and meeting it by surprise is the trap.

The booth license is gone, and the fee schedule did not get the memo

Until 2023, an independently operated booth in a New Hampshire salon carried its own booth rental license under RSA 313-A:19, licensed much like a small shop. HB 409, the 2023 OPLC overhaul, repealed it. Today a booth renter or suite renter needs exactly one credential, her own current personal license, displayed at her station, and she works inside the host premises' shop license; there is no renter's license to apply for and no separate sink or space rule attached to her chair. The trap is that the current fee rule, Plc 1002.07, still prints a booth rental license at $75 for two years plus a $100 initial inspection fee, and older guides still describe the license as live. An owner who budgets or collects that fee is working from a vestige. The salon suite guide works through what replaced it, including when a suite stops being a rental inside a shop and becomes a shop of its own that needs the $100 license.

Cosmetology dropped to 1,200 hours in 2025, and half the internet missed it

New Hampshire trained cosmetologists at 1,500 hours for decades, and the figure is still printed by statute republications that have not caught up and by most national licensing roundups. The current text of RSA 313-A:11, amended effective August 9, 2025, requires 1,200 hours in an approved school of cosmetology, or 3,000 hours over at least 18 months as an apprentice under a licensed cosmetologist. The apprenticeship alternative did not shrink with the school route, which changes the comparison for a salon deciding whether to train its own: the apprentice route now costs two and a half times the school hours. Anyone quoting 1,500 hours for a New Hampshire cosmetologist is quoting a repealed number, and a school contract or hiring plan priced on it is priced on the wrong statute.

Massage gets an establishment license on July 1, 2027, and the carve-out has teeth

Massage is the one trade in this cluster where the premises are unlicensed today and licensed tomorrow. Chapter 328-B currently licenses therapists only. Chapter 305 of 2026 adds a massage establishment license effective July 1, 2027, for a commercial location where massage is advertised and performed by more than one licensed therapist, run at all times under the direct supervision and management of a licensee, with operating unlicensed a misdemeanor. The carve-outs decide who actually files: a sole proprietor working alone and an independent contractor are exempt, except that either one who provides services without a prior appointment must hold the establishment license after all, and only licensed establishments may call themselves a massage establishment. A multi-therapist practice opening in 2026 should build the 2027 license into its second-year budget now, and a solo practitioner who takes walk-ins should read the exception before assuming the carve-out covers her.

Lashes have no license, no exemption, and one dead bill

A lash artist moving to New Hampshire looks for the lash license and finds nothing, then looks for the exemption some states grant and finds nothing there either. Chapter 313-A creates no eyelash technician credential; it names applying eyelashes inside two definitions, cosmetology and esthetics, and stops. The lawful routes are therefore the full licenses behind those definitions: esthetician at 600 school hours or cosmetologist at 1,200. A 2022 bill, HB 1171, would have exempted eyelash extension application outright; it was referred to interim study and died, so any source describing New Hampshire lash work as exempt is describing a bill, not a law. The lash studio guide is built as an honest map of the two routes and the shop license the studio still needs.

Every license runs on its own two year clock, except the one that does not

RSA 310:8 makes OPLC licenses valid for two years from the date of issuance, so a New Hampshire salon's renewals scatter across the calendar by hire date rather than landing on one statewide day, and a license not renewed by its expiration date cannot be practiced on at all. Underneath the licenses, the fixed dates pile up: the LLC annual report is due between January 1 and April 1 every year with a $50 late fee, business tax returns follow in the spring, and the trade name renews on a five year cycle the Secretary of State flags six months ahead. Massage breaks the pattern in print: chapter 328-B still expires therapist licenses on the last day of the birth month in even-numbered years, while RSA 310:8 states that its terms supersede conflicting chapter terms and a 2026 amendment conforms the massage text effective July 1, 2027. The calendar discipline in this state is per-license, and the owner who tracks expiration dates person by person is the one who never closes a chair.

New Hampshire guides by business type

Hair salon

The flagship route: the cosmetologist license at 1,200 school hours since 2025, the $100 shop license with its licensed manager rule for hands-off owners, and the two year renewal clock that runs from each license's own issue date.

Barbershop

The barber license at 800 hours, the master barber license at 1,500 that carries the chemical services, the mobile barbershop as a licensed category of its own, and the two-apprentice allowance barbers get that cosmetologists do not.

Nail salon

The manicurist license at 300 school hours or a 600 hour shop apprenticeship, the shortest practitioner route in the chapter, and the esthetics definition that also reaches manicure and pedicure services.

Lash studio

No lash license exists: the studio is built on the esthetician or cosmetologist license that names eyelash application in its definition, inside a licensed shop, and this guide states exactly what the chapter does and does not say.

Esthetics

The esthetician license at 600 hours, a definition that reaches skin care, eyelashes and nail services, and the microblading certificate that an esthetician can add under the body art rules.

Salon suite

The renter's position in a state that repealed its booth license in 2023: a personal license inside the host's licensed shop, the point where an independent suite becomes a shop of its own, and the fee schedule vestige to ignore.

Braiding

Natural hair braiding is exempt by statute, definition and all: extensions and accessories are inside it, dyes and chemical bonds are outside it, and the full business stack applies to a braiding studio even though the license does not.

Microblading

Two lawful routes into the same service: the body art practitioner license built on three years of supervised practice, or the certificate a licensed cosmetologist or esthetician earns with 100 hours of accredited training and two live model sets.

Massage

The 750 hour therapist license at $110, the birth month renewal the chapter prints and the framework statute overlays, and the establishment license arriving July 1, 2027 with its sole proprietor carve-out.

What this New Hampshire cluster covers

Each guide above follows the same structure used across this site: the licensing regulator, the practitioner credential step by step, the premises position stated exactly as New Hampshire law supports it, which in New Hampshire means a $100 shop license for the salon trades with booth and chair renters working inside it rather than beside it, a braiding position that rests on a statutory exemption with a written definition, a body art framework for microblading that offers a practitioner license and a certificate route side by side, and a massage system that licenses the therapist today and the establishment from July 1, 2027, entity formation with the real Secretary of State fees, the trade name position, the EIN, the tax treatment stated precisely, which in New Hampshire means no sales tax and the two Department of Revenue Administration business taxes above their thresholds, 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 New Hampshire beauty businesses are opened by the license holder, and the clocks differ by credential in ways that matter: OPLC licenses run two years from their own issue dates, the LLC report lands every spring by April 1, and the massage establishment license joins the calendar in 2027.

New Hampshire is the forty-first 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. Five reading notes for anyone comparing sources: the cosmetologist requirement is printed as 1,200 hours from the current text of RSA 313-A:11 as amended in 2025, and sources printing 1,500 hours, including some statute republications, are behind the amendment; the booth rental license is treated as repealed, on the 2023 statutory text, and the $75 booth line still printed in Plc 1002.07 is flagged as a vestige wherever it matters rather than quoted as a fee; body art fees are printed at the Plc 1002.08 figure of $110 with OPLC's posted correction notice stating $121 flagged alongside, because the regulator's own forms tell applicants to disregard the printed amounts; no per-block curriculum split is printed for the 750 massage hours, because Plc 902.02 lists the five subject areas without apportioning hours among them, and the splits circulating on secondary sites could not be traced to the rule; and the business tax filing thresholds are printed at the levels the Department of Revenue Administration publishes for periods beginning on or after January 1, 2023, with the biennial adjustment stated, because the adjusted figures reported for 2025 periods rest on secondary summaries of the department's form instructions.

Official New Hampshire resources

New Hampshire sources last reviewed: November 3, 2026