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How to Start a Lash Studio in New Hampshire
This guide starts with the two sentences a New Hampshire lash artist needs before anything else. There is no eyelash technician license in New Hampshire: chapter 313-A of the Revised Statutes, read in full, creates no lash credential of any kind. And there is no exemption either: the chapter names applying eyelashes inside exactly two definitions, cosmetology at RSA 313-A:1 VI, which includes "applying makeup or eyelashes," and esthetics at RSA 313-A:1 VIII, which includes "applying eyelashes," and those definitions are the whole of the law on the subject. A lash studio in New Hampshire is therefore built on one of those two licenses, most directly the esthetician license at 600 hours in an approved school or 1,200 by apprenticeship, each $50 for two years from the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, working inside premises that hold the chapter's shop license at $100 plus a $100 first inspection. A 2022 bill that would have exempted lash application outright died in interim study, and this guide treats it as what it is: a bill, not a law. Underneath sits the stack every New Hampshire business shares: a $100 LLC with a $100 annual report due between January 1 and April 1, a $50 trade name that runs five years, no sales tax on services, and the Business Profits Tax and Business Enterprise Tax above their thresholds.
New Hampshire sources last reviewed: November 3, 2026
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Who regulates lash work in New Hampshire
Lash work answers to the same regulator as every other salon trade in the state: the Board of Barbering, Cosmetology, and Esthetics inside the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, under chapter 313-A of the Revised Statutes. What is distinctive is not the regulator but the silence of the chapter it administers. States in this library handle lashes three ways: a dedicated credential, an express place inside a broader license, or an exemption. New Hampshire is firmly the second. The word eyelash appears in the chapter's definitions, inside cosmetology and esthetics, and nowhere else; there is no lash license section, no lash permit, no lash fee line in Plc 1002.07, and no exemption paragraph in RSA 313-A:25, the chapter's exemption list, which does find room for natural hair braiding. The enforcement lines are the chapter's general ones at RSA 313-A:9: practicing for pay outside a license is a class A misdemeanor for a natural person and a felony for any other person, and employing or allowing a person to practice outside her license is a misdemeanor for the shop.
The legislative history explains the confusion an arriving artist will meet online. HB 1171, filed in 2022, would have exempted eyelash extension application from the chapter outright. It was referred to interim study on April 28, 2022 and never became law, but summaries written while it was pending still circulate, and at least one secondary source describes a lash examination that exists nowhere in the official text. Work from the chapter as enacted: two licenses cover lashes, both are full practitioner licenses, and the esthetician license is the practical route for a lash-only business. The rest of the stack is the general one: the Secretary of State's Corporation Division for the LLC 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.
New Hampshire lash studio at a glance
| Item | New Hampshire rule |
|---|---|
| Regulator | Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, with the Board of Barbering, Cosmetology, and Esthetics, under RSA chapter 313-A |
| Lash license | None exists. Applying eyelashes is named only in the cosmetology definition, RSA 313-A:1 VI, and the esthetics definition, RSA 313-A:1 VIII |
| Shortest lawful route | Esthetician: 600 hours in an approved school, or 1,200 hours by apprenticeship under the board's rules, plus the examination |
| Full-scope route | Cosmetologist: 1,200 school hours, or 3,000 apprenticeship hours over at least 18 months |
| Personal license fee | $50 for two years, initial, renewal or reinstatement, under Plc 1002.07 |
| Studio license | Shop license under RSA 313-A:19, required for the premises before opening |
| Shop license fee | $100 for two years, plus a $100 inspection fee on the initial application |
| Exemption | None. HB 1171 (2022), which would have exempted lash application, died in interim study |
| Room renters | No booth license since the 2023 repeal; the renter works under the host shop's license on a personal license |
| LLC | Certificate of Formation, Form LLC-1, $100; annual report $100 due between January 1 and April 1, $50 late fee |
| Trade name | Secretary of State registration under RSA chapter 349, $50 for a five year term, renewable at $50 |
| Tax on services | None. No general sales tax; the Business Profits Tax at 7.5 percent and Business Enterprise Tax at 0.55 percent apply only above their filing thresholds |
| Minimum wage | $7.25 an hour, tied by RSA 279 to the federal rate |
The two licenses that cover lashes, step by step
Route one is the esthetician license at RSA 313-A:13, and it is the route this guide recommends for a lash-only studio. The applicant completes a course of at least 600 hours in an approved school and passes the examination the board sets, which OPLC holds at least once every six months under RSA 313-A:15. A board-approved apprenticeship may substitute for the school course, and the board's rules state the esthetics apprenticeship at 1,200 hours, double the classroom route as everywhere in this chapter. The license costs $50 for two years under Plc 1002.07. What the esthetician buys with those hours is a definition that reaches well beyond lashes: RSA 313-A:1 VIII covers the care of the skin, names applying eyelashes expressly, and reaches manicure and pedicure services, so the same license supports a facial and skin menu and basic nail services around the lash book. An esthetics apprentice may not take paying customers until 150 hours are complete under the board's rules.
Route two is the cosmetologist license at RSA 313-A:11: 1,200 hours in an approved school of cosmetology, a figure reduced from 1,500 effective August 9, 2025, or 3,000 hours over at least 18 months as an apprentice under a licensed cosmetologist with at least two years of New Hampshire practice. The cosmetology definition at RSA 313-A:1 VI includes applying makeup or eyelashes alongside the full hair scope, so the cosmetologist is the right credential for an artist who wants lashes and hair under one license, or for a salon adding a lash room to an existing hair business. Both routes share the chapter's machinery: the temporary permit at RSA 313-A:18 lets an exam-eligible applicant work under a licensed practitioner's guidance in a registered salon while awaiting the examination, the permit fee credited as the exam fee; the license is displayed conspicuously at the work station under RSA 313-A:17; and renewal runs two years from the license's own issue date under RSA 310:8, with OPLC notifying at least two months ahead and no practice allowed on an expired license.
| Credential | School hours | Apprenticeship | Fee | Term |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Esthetician | 600 | 1,200 hours under board rules | $50 | Two years from issuance |
| Cosmetologist | 1,200 | 3,000 hours over 18 or more months | $50 | Two years from issuance |
| Manicurist (does not cover lashes) | 300 | 600 hours under board rules | $50 | Two years from issuance |
| Registered apprentice | Registered before training begins | Per credential | $50 certification | Registered with OPLC before the first hour |
Two scope warnings belong in every lash studio's training file. First, the manicurist license does not reach lashes: its scope is nail services, and eyelash application is named nowhere in it, so a nail technician offering extensions is practicing outside her license even inside a licensed shop. Second, an esthetician who wants to add microblading is looking at a different statute entirely: microblading of eyebrows is lawful for a licensed esthetician or cosmetologist only with the microblading certificate issued under the body art rules at Plc 405, and the microblading guide in this cluster works through that route and the body art practitioner license beside it.
The shop license for your lash studio
The premises license is the shop license under RSA 313-A:19, and operating a shop without one is a misdemeanor. The definition at RSA 313-A:1 XIII-a covers any business location where barbering, cosmetology or esthetics is practiced, and a lash studio is esthetics practice by definition, so a standalone studio files for its own shop license: $100 for two years plus a $100 inspection fee on the initial application, under Plc 1002.07. The application names the owner and the studio's address, the license is conspicuously posted, and a licensed practitioner who applies receives it if the premises meet the board's rules, including passing an inspection. Sanitary inspections follow at initial licensure and biannually thereafter under RSA 313-A:21 II, unless the shop holds the one-time OSHA certificate of ten or more hours in health, safety, disinfection and sanitation offered at RSA 313-A:19 V, or a board-approved equivalent; investigation inspections remain possible at any time.
Ownership and movement follow the chapter's standing provisions. A person who does not practice may hold the shop license under RSA 313-A:19 IV if the premises meet every requirement and a licensed cosmetologist, barber, manicurist or esthetician is employed as manager, and the paragraph does not authorize the owner to practice. A change of location is a transfer of licensure under RSA 313-A:19 III, issued for the new location if it meets the requirements. The alternative format avoids a second premises filing entirely: a lash artist renting a room or a bed inside an existing licensed salon works under that salon's shop license, on her own esthetician or cosmetologist license, which is the structure the booth rent section takes up next.
Forming your business: the LLC
Entity filings run through the Corporation Division of the Secretary of State, online through NH QuickStart. The limited liability company is the default vehicle, and its formation document is a Certificate of Formation, Form LLC-1, not articles of organization. RSA 304-C:191 II(c) sets the filing fee at $100, flat. The company's name must contain "Limited Liability Company" or "LLC" or a similar abbreviation under RSA 304-C:32, and the filing names a registered agent with a New Hampshire address. The recurring obligation is the annual report under RSA 304-C:194: $100, filed between January 1 and April 1 each year, the first report due in the year after formation, an LLC formed between December 1 and April 1 excused from that year's report, and a $50 late filing fee under RSA 304-C:191 II(f) after April 1. File the Certificate of Formation before the shop application, because the shop filing names the owner the state already has on record.
Registering your studio name
A New Hampshire trade name is a state registration with the Secretary of State under RSA chapter 349. Section 349:5 requires anyone conducting business under a trade name, firm or style other than their own legal name to file a registration certificate; section 349:6 makes it effective on filing for a five year term; section 349:7 prices it at $50, with renewals at $50 and a $10 fee for a notice of discontinuance, addition or withdrawal; and section 349:8 has the Secretary of State forward a renewal notice at least six months before the term expires. The registration is separate from forming the LLC, whose name is fixed in the Certificate of Formation. A studio that will sign, bank and book under a different name registers that name first, so the shop application, the bank account and the storefront carry the same words.
Getting your EIN
The Employer Identification Number is the federal tax identity the rest of the stack hangs on. It is free from the IRS through the IRS online application, and no legitimate service charges for it. The studio needs the number before it registers as an employer with New Hampshire Employment Security and before payroll can run under the entity's name, and a solo artist renting a room needs one for her own business banking and taxes. Apply in the LLC's exact registered name, keep the confirmation letter with the entity records, and use the same spelling on every filing that follows. Because New Hampshire does not tax wages, there is no state withholding account to open alongside the federal number.
No sales tax, and the two business taxes instead
New Hampshire has no general sales tax, so the full set, the fill and the lash bath a client takes home all ring up with no tax added, and no city or town levies one underneath. The state's claim on the business arrives through two Department of Revenue Administration taxes. The Business Profits Tax, RSA 77-A, takes 7.5 percent of taxable business profits, with a return required only when gross business income from all activities passes the filing threshold, $103,000 for taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2023. The Business Enterprise Tax, RSA 77-E, takes 0.55 percent of the enterprise value tax base, the sum of compensation, interest and dividends the business pays, with a filing threshold of $281,000 of gross receipts or of tax base on the same vintage. Both thresholds are adjusted biennially, BET paid is a credit against BPT with unused credit carried forward ten taxable periods, and every filer also submits Form BT-SUMMARY with the return itself, Form NH-1040 for a proprietorship, NH-1065 for a partnership or NH-1120 for a corporation, due in the spring following the tax year, April 15 for calendar-year proprietorships and corporations.
A solo lash artist or a two-chair studio will typically sit under both thresholds in the early years and file neither return, which makes the thresholds a growth checkpoint rather than an opening task: the year gross income crosses $103,000 is the year the spring filing joins the calendar, and a studio whose payroll grows faster than its profit meets the enterprise tax first.
Renting a lash room in New Hampshire
For many lash artists the first New Hampshire premises are not a studio at all but a rented room or bed inside a licensed salon, and the law makes that structure simple. New Hampshire repealed its booth rental license in 2023 (HB 409), so there is no renter's license to apply for: the artist needs her own current esthetician or cosmetologist license, displayed at her station under RSA 313-A:17, and she works inside the host salon's shop license. The fee rule at Plc 1002.07 still prints a booth rental license at $75 for two years plus a $100 initial inspection fee, a surviving line that prices a license the statute no longer contains; do not pay it, and do not let a landlord charge for it.
Classification follows conduct. A renter who sets her own prices, keeps her own book and collects her own money runs her own business inside licensed premises, with her own EIN, her own trade name registration if she trades under a name, and her own position under the business tax thresholds. An artist whose schedule, prices and products the salon controls is an employee, with unemployment tax and workers' compensation attached. Either way the host shop's duties hold: the premises stay under the direct supervision and management of a licensee, and allowing a person to practice outside her license is a misdemeanor under RSA 313-A:9, so the owner verifies the artist's license, and its category, before the first client. A room rented to an artist whose only credential is a private lash course certificate is the fact pattern this chapter penalizes, because the certificate carries no licensing weight in New Hampshire at all.
Hiring lash artists: wages, unemployment and workers' comp
The wage floor is the federal one. RSA 279 ties New Hampshire's minimum wage to the federal rate, and the Department of Labor's minimum wage page states the rule directly: no employer may pay less than $7.25 an hour. Overtime runs at time and one half beyond forty hours in a week, tipped employees are paid at 45 percent of the applicable minimum wage by the employer, and wages are paid weekly or every two weeks under the state's wage payment law. Commission structures for employed artists still have to clear the floor across the hours worked.
Register with New Hampshire Employment Security when you hire your first employee, file the Employer Status Report that opens the unemployment account, and report new hires to the same agency. Unemployment tax is fully employer paid, starting at a 2.7 percent new employer rate on the first $14,000 of wages per employee under the U.S. Department of Labor's state table, experience-rated afterward, with trust fund solvency adjustments capable of lowering the effective rate. There is no state income tax on wages, so there is no state withholding to run. Workers' compensation insurance is a statutory duty for New Hampshire employers under RSA 281-A, and a registered esthetics apprentice training toward the license is an employee for these purposes from the first training day.
The local layer: towns, zoning and premises
The state licenses the artists and the studio; your city or town decides whether a lash studio may exist at your address. New Hampshire issues no general state business license beyond the licenses in this guide, and land use, building permits, signage and occupancy run through the municipality under its zoning ordinance and the state building and fire codes as locally enforced. A lash studio is a quiet commercial use, but it is a commercial use, and the home-based version draws the recurring question in this state: a studio run from a residence is still a shop under RSA 313-A:1 XIII-a, needing the shop license and inspection, and it separately needs the town's home occupation position. The shop license adds a state premises review with sanitary inspections at opening and biannually. Confirm zoning with the town before the lease or the conversion, because beds, plumbing and signage are sunk costs by the time a local problem surfaces.
Insurance for a New Hampshire lash studio
No provision of chapter 313-A sets a liability insurance minimum for an esthetician, a cosmetologist or a shop, so the coverage stack is a lease and judgment question, with one statutory exception: workers' compensation, which RSA 281-A makes an employer duty. Lash work concentrates its risk in one place, the client's eyes, and professional liability written for lash and esthetic services is the core purchase, with general liability set by the lease and property coverage for beds, lighting and product stock behind it. A room renter running her own business inside a host salon should carry her own professional policy, named in the written agreement, because her clients are her business even though the premises license is the salon's. This guide quotes no premium benchmarks; a broker pricing your actual service menu is the only reliable source.
Renewal and filing calendar
| Item | When | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Personal license renewal, $50 | Two years from each license's issue date | OPLC notifies at least two months ahead under RSA 310:8; an expired license may not be practiced on |
| Shop license renewal, $100 | Two years from issuance | A relocation takes a transfer of licensure filing under RSA 313-A:19 III |
| Sanitary inspections | At opening and biannually | Skipped where the shop holds the RSA 313-A:19 V OSHA certificate or equivalent |
| LLC annual report, $100 | January 1 to April 1 every year | First report due the year after formation; a $50 late fee applies after April 1 |
| Business tax returns | Spring following the tax year | Forms NH-1040, NH-1065 or NH-1120 plus Form BT-SUMMARY, only above the BPT or BET filing thresholds |
| Trade name renewal, $50 | Every five years | The Secretary of State sends a renewal notice at least six months before expiration |
The licenses run on their own two year clocks; the entity report and the tax filings run on the spring calendar underneath them.
Official sources
- Office of Professional Licensure and Certification: Board of Barbering, Cosmetology, and Esthetics, the board for RSA chapter 313-A
- NH Administrative Rules, Plc 1002.07: the $50 personal license and the $100 shop license; no lash fee line appears
- RSA 310:8: two year license terms from issuance, renewal and lapse rules for OPLC licenses
- RSA chapter 304-C: the LLC Certificate of Formation and the annual report
- New Hampshire Secretary of State: Corporation Division, NH QuickStart and trade name registration
- Department of Revenue Administration: Business Profits Tax and Business Enterprise Tax rates and filing thresholds
- Department of Labor: minimum wage under RSA 279, overtime and tipped wages
- IRS: apply for an Employer Identification Number online, free
New Hampshire lash studio FAQ
Is there an eyelash technician license in New Hampshire?
No. Chapter 313-A creates no eyelash license, permit or certificate. It names applying eyelashes inside two definitions only: cosmetology at RSA 313-A:1 VI, which includes applying makeup or eyelashes, and esthetics at RSA 313-A:1 VIII, which includes applying eyelashes. Lash work is lawful under one of those two licenses.
Which license should a New Hampshire lash artist get?
For a lash-only practice, the esthetician license is the shorter route: 600 hours in an approved school, or 1,200 hours by apprenticeship under the board's rules, plus the examination, at $50 for two years. The cosmetologist license, 1,200 school hours or 3,000 apprenticeship hours, covers lashes as well and adds the full hair scope for artists who want both.
Can a manicurist apply eyelash extensions in New Hampshire?
No. Chapter 313-A names applying eyelashes in the cosmetology and esthetics definitions only. The manicurist license covers nail services, and nothing in its scope reaches lash application, so a manicurist performing extensions is practicing outside her license.
Did New Hampshire exempt eyelash extensions from licensing?
No. HB 1171 in 2022 would have exempted eyelash extension application outright, but the bill was referred to interim study on April 28, 2022 and never became law. Sources describing New Hampshire lash work as exempt are describing that bill, not the statute.
Does a lash studio need its own premises license?
Yes. A lash studio is a shop under RSA 313-A:19 and needs the shop license, $100 for two years plus a $100 inspection fee on the first application, with sanitary inspections at opening and biannually after unless the shop holds the OSHA certificate alternative. A lash artist renting a room inside a licensed salon works under that salon's shop license instead.