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How to Start a Beauty Business in North Dakota
North Dakota rewrote its beauty licensing on January 1, 2026, and every number in this cluster runs on the new law. The State Board of Cosmetology administers Century Code chapter 43-11 as amended by House Bill 1126: cosmetologists train 1,500 hours, estheticians 600, manicurists 350, and a new advanced esthetician license sits at 1,100 hours, with personal licenses at $50, an establishment license at $150, and an independent licensee license at $150 that turns a chair or suite renter into a separately licensed business inside your salon. Every cosmetology license in the state expires on December 31. Barbering answers to a separate Board of Barber Examiners under chapter 43-04, where the examination route now takes 1,100 hours, certificates renew by July 1, and a barbershop license costs $50 a year with a $100 inspection fee at opening. Natural hair braiding is written out of the cosmetology definition by statute, so a braiding business needs no board license at all, while microblading is cosmetic tattooing under the Department of Health and Human Services Body Art Code that took effect October 1, 2026, licensed at the establishment for $160 a year with no individual artist license. Massage therapists answer to the Board of Massage Therapy under chapter 43-25, train 750 hours, and renew every two years at $200 on a February 28 calendar split by license number. Underneath sits the shared stack: an LLC formed for $135 with a $50 annual report due November 15, a trade name at $25 for five years, a 5 percent state sales tax that reaches retail products but not the services themselves, and a workers compensation system with exactly one seller, the state fund. The nine guides below walk each business type through its own route.
North Dakota sources last reviewed: November 3, 2026
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Who regulates beauty businesses in North Dakota
Four authorities divide the work, and a fifth writes the tax and business rules around them. The largest share sits with the State Board of Cosmetology, seven members appointed by the governor, which administers North Dakota Century Code chapter 43-11. The board licenses cosmetologists, estheticians, advanced estheticians, manicurists, instructors, schools, establishments, and independent licensees, and House Bill 1126 rewrote its hours, its fee schedule, and its license categories effective January 1, 2026. The second authority is the Board of Barber Examiners, which administers chapter 43-04 and licenses barbers and barbershops entirely separately; a cosmetologist is exempt from the barber chapter but may not advertise as a barber, so a shop offering both trades deals with both boards. The third is the Department of Health and Human Services, which licenses body art establishments, including cosmetic tattooing and microblading, under Century Code section 23-01-35 and the Body Art Code at Administrative Code chapter 33-41-01.1, effective October 1, 2026. The fourth is the Board of Massage Therapy under chapter 43-25, which licenses individual massage therapists and licenses no premises at all.
Around the licensing sit the agencies every North Dakota owner deals with. The Secretary of State takes the Articles of Organization, the $50 LLC annual report due November 15, and the trade name registrations that the cosmetology board itself requires before it will license an establishment under a business name. The Office of State Tax Commissioner issues the sales and use tax permit through ND TAP and runs employer withholding. Job Service North Dakota runs unemployment insurance on one of the highest taxable wage bases in the country, $46,600 for 2026. Workforce Safety and Insurance is the only lawful seller of workers compensation in the state. Your city holds the last layer: zoning, building permits, signage, and any local business license.
North Dakota at a glance
| Item | North Dakota rule |
|---|---|
| Regulators | State Board of Cosmetology (chapter 43-11); Board of Barber Examiners (chapter 43-04); Department of Health and Human Services for body art; Board of Massage Therapy (chapter 43-25) |
| Cosmetologist | 1,500 hours; original license $50; renews annually by December 31 at $50 |
| Esthetician | 600 hours; original license $50; renews annually by December 31 at $50 |
| Manicurist | 350 hours; original license $50; renews annually by December 31 at $50 |
| Advanced esthetician | 1,100 hours; original license $50; renews annually by December 31 at $50; grandfather route open until December 31, 2027 |
| Master licenses | Master cosmetologist, master esthetician and master manicurist after 1,000 hours of practice under a master licensee; every salon must be supervised by a master licensee present during business hours |
| Establishment | Establishment license, $150 original and $100 annual renewal, expiring December 31; notarized application filed two weeks before opening |
| Renters | Independent licensee license, $150 original and $100 annual renewal, for a separate business inside a licensed establishment |
| Barber | 1,100 hours for the examination route; examination and master barber certificate $100; renews by July 1 at $100; barbershop license $50 a year plus a $100 opening inspection fee |
| Braiding | Natural hair braiding is excluded from the cosmetology definition at section 43-11-01(10)(b) and defined at section 43-11-01(20); no board license for braiding alone |
| Lashes | No dedicated lash license; eyelash extensions, tinting and related work sit inside the cosmetology and esthetics scopes |
| Microblading | Cosmetic tattooing under the Body Art Code; the establishment is licensed by the Department of Health and Human Services at $160 a year, expiring December 31; no individual artist license |
| Massage | 750 hours including 250 practical; license $150; biennial renewal $200 by February 28 of the odd or even year matching the license number; 24 continuing education hours per cycle; no establishment license |
| LLC | Articles of Organization $135; annual report $50 due November 15; late fee $50 |
| Trade name | Registration $25 with the Secretary of State; expires every five years; renewal $25 |
| Sales tax | 5 percent state rate plus local tax on retail sales of tangible personal property; personal services such as haircuts, facials and massage are not taxed as services |
| Minimum wage | $7.25 an hour under section 34-06-22; tipped cash wage $4.86 |
| Noncompetes | Void under section 9-08-06 outside the sale of a business and ownership dissolutions |
North Dakota traps that catch new owners
The first trap is stale information, because North Dakota changed its cosmetology law on January 1, 2026 and the internet did not. Pages quoting 1,800 cosmetology hours, a $15 cosmetologist license, or an $80 salon license describe the repealed law. House Bill 1126 set the hours at 1,500, the personal license at $50, and the establishment license at $150, and it created the advanced esthetician and independent licensee categories outright. The second trap is the master rule: every salon must be supervised by a master licensee who is present on the premises during business hours, and the master license takes 1,000 hours of practice under another master licensee, so a new graduate cannot open a compliant salon alone on day one. The staffing plan has to include a master cosmetologist, master esthetician, or master manicurist whose license matches the menu, or the opening waits.
The third trap is the renter rule. A chair or suite renter without an independent licensee license is not an independent business in the board's eyes; the establishment application states plainly that an unlicensed renter's suite or chair falls under the establishment license, and the holder answers for its sanitation. The fourth trap is the December 31 pileup: every cosmetology license, personal, establishment, and independent, expires on the same day, body art establishment licenses expire the same day, and the renewal form adds a $50 penalty per license paid or postmarked late, so a five-chair salon pays the penalty five ways for one missed week. The fifth trap is the barber hour split: the examination route takes 1,100 hours under section 43-04-32, while the endorsement waiver in section 43-04-38.1 still speaks of a 1,550 hour school, and quoting the wrong figure to the wrong applicant sends a barber to the wrong program. The sixth trap is workers compensation shopping that cannot happen: North Dakota is a monopolistic state fund state, private carriers cannot sell the coverage, and the account with Workforce Safety and Insurance must exist before the first hire. The seventh trap is the noncompete that was never worth the paper: section 9-08-06 voids a contract restraining anyone from exercising a lawful trade outside a business sale or an ownership split, so the salon that hands a stylist a noncompete has handed her nothing, and retention has to be built some other way.
North Dakota guides by business type
Hair salon
The flagship route under the new law: the cosmetologist at 1,500 hours and $50, the establishment license at $150 on a notarized application filed two weeks before opening, the master licensee who must be on the premises, and the December 31 renewal clock that runs everyone at once.
Barbershop
A separate board with its own arithmetic: 1,100 hours for the examination route, a $100 examination and certificate, a $50 shop license with a $100 opening inspection fee, renewals by July 1, and a mobile barbershop registration for shops on wheels.
Nail salon
The manicurist license at 350 hours, the shortest school route under the cosmetology board, with the master manicurist who can supervise a nails-only salon and the establishment license behind the premises.
Lash studio
No lash license exists, and none is needed beyond the two licenses that carry the work: extensions and tinting sit inside the cosmetology and esthetics scopes by statute, and the studio runs on an esthetician or cosmetologist license plus the premises paperwork.
Esthetics
Two licenses deep: the esthetician at 600 hours with a scope that stops at the stratum corneum, and the advanced esthetician at 1,100 hours with device and peel gates, a grandfather window open until December 31, 2027, and ablative work outside both licenses.
Salon suite
North Dakota licenses the renter directly: the independent licensee license at $150 makes a suite or chair a separate business inside a licensed establishment, with its own December 31 renewal and its own inspection exposure.
Braiding
Natural hair braiding is defined in the cosmetology chapter and excluded from it in the same breath: no board license for braiding alone, a hard edge where chemical services begin, and the entity, name, and tax filings still apply from the first paying client.
Microblading
A health department license, not a beauty license: microblading is cosmetic tattooing under the Body Art Code effective October 1, 2026, the establishment license costs $160 a year, plan review and inspections come first, and no individual artist license exists.
Massage
The massage therapist license at 750 hours with a $150 license fee, a jurisprudence examination passed at 80 percent, a biennial $200 renewal on a February 28 calendar split by license number, and no establishment license at the state level.
What this North Dakota cluster covers
North Dakota is the forty-sixth 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: Alaska, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wyoming follow this cluster. Four reading notes for anyone comparing sources: the barber hours appear twice in chapter 43-04 by design, 1,100 hours for the examination route at section 43-04-32 and 1,550 hours inside the endorsement waiver at section 43-04-38.1, and the barbershop guide keeps the two figures tied to their routes rather than blending them; no total apprenticeship hour figure is printed for the cosmetology trades, because chapter 43-11 authorizes registered apprenticeship programs at section 43-11-16.1 without stating a total in the sections the board publishes; no examination vendor or separate examination fee is printed for cosmetology, because section 43-11-28 leaves examination fees to the examination administrator; and no city body art or zoning fee is printed anywhere in the cluster, because those charges are municipal and no single official figure exists.
Official North Dakota resources
- State Board of Cosmetology: licensing, forms and rules for cosmetologists, estheticians, advanced estheticians, manicurists, establishments and independent licensees under chapter 43-11.
- Century Code chapter 43-11: the cosmetology statute as amended by House Bill 1126, with the hours at section 43-11-16 and the fee caps at section 43-11-28.
- Century Code chapter 43-04: the barbering statute, with examination eligibility at section 43-04-32 and the fee schedule at section 43-04-42.
- Body Art Code, Administrative Code chapter 33-41-01.1: the Department of Health and Human Services body art rules effective October 1, 2026, including establishment licensing and the fee schedule at section 33-41-01.1-20.
- Board of Massage Therapy, licensure and fees: the $150 license fee, the $200 biennial renewal and the application requirements under Administrative Code chapter 49-01-02.
- Secretary of State, limited liability companies: the $135 Articles of Organization fee, the $50 annual report and the November 15 deadline.
- Office of State Tax Commissioner, tax types: the 5 percent state sales tax on retail sales, use tax, and registration through ND TAP.
- Job Service North Dakota, 2026 unemployment insurance tax rate schedules: the $46,600 taxable wage base and the 1.00 percent new employer rate for non-construction employers.