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Wyoming sources last reviewed: November 3, 2026.
Wyoming is the fiftieth state cluster on Start a Beauty Business. With Wyoming live, the site covers all fifty states. Every figure on these pages traces to an official Wyoming source read for this cluster: the two licensing boards, the Wyoming Statutes, the Secretary of State, the Department of Revenue and the Department of Workforce Services. Fees and rules change; verify every figure with the licensing authority before you act.
Who regulates beauty businesses in Wyoming
Most Wyoming beauty businesses answer to the Wyoming State Board of Cosmetology, which licenses cosmetologists, hairstylists, nail technicians and estheticians, the salons they work in, and, unusually, the renters inside those salons. Training hours live in the board's rules rather than the statute: 1,600 hours for cosmetology, 1,000 for hairstyling, 600 for esthetics and 400 for nail technology. Personal licenses cost $48 a year and renew on a two year cycle in your birth month after the first year. Salon licenses cost $75 a year after a $225 application fee, and every salon license in Wyoming expires on December 31.
Barbers answer to a second board, the Board of Barber Examiners, under its own act, its own fee schedule and a July 1 renewal year. It registers two classes, barber and barber stylist, the difference being chemical services, and licenses barber shops at $85 a year. The two systems share a website and a wall: each trade practices under its own act, crossovers run through short courses (150 hours for a cosmetologist, 200 for a hairstylist), and a premises hosting both trades holds both premises licenses.
Three trades sit outside the boards. Natural hair braiding is exempt by statute, W.S. 33-12-140(d), inside limits this cluster spells out. Massage therapy has no state license at all; Wyoming law contains no massage chapter, and the regulation that exists is local, such as Cheyenne's paired city and health department licenses. Body art and microblading likewise have no state license, cosmetology licensees are prohibited from offering piercing services, and cities license establishments, Cheyenne under chapter 5.68 of its code. The only statewide body art rule is about minors, W.S. 14-3-107.
The business layer is the friendliest in this series and the easiest to lose. An LLC costs $100 to form and $60 a year in Annual Report License Tax, due the first day of the anniversary month, with no income tax behind it. Miss the report by 60 days and the state dissolves the company, with reinstatement possible only inside two years. Wyoming rewards owners who calendar three dates, December 31, August 31 and their own formation month, and quietly dissolves the ones who do not.
The nine Wyoming guides
Hair Salon
Cosmetologist and hairstylist licenses, the salon license with its December 31 renewal, and the independent contractor license every chair renter needs.
Barbershop
Barber and barber stylist certificates under their own board, a July 1 renewal year, and premises licensed under the barber act.
Nail Salon
The 400 hour nail technician license and the limited services waiver that lets a nails only shop skip the shampoo bowl.
Lash Studio
No lash license exists; extensions live inside cosmetology and esthetics scope, with a 200 hour add-on for hairstylists and nail technicians.
Esthetics
The 600 hour esthetician license, the surface only scope rule, and why Wyoming has no medical esthetician title.
Salon Suite
No suite category exists, so suites resolve into one salon license with contractor licensed renters, or a salon license behind every door.
Braiding
Natural hair braiding is exempt by statute, with the chemical and bonding lines that end the exemption spelled out.
Microblading
No state body art license exists, cosmetology licensees are prohibited from piercing services, and cities like Cheyenne license the establishment.
Massage
No state massage license exists in Wyoming; the regulation that applies is local, from Cheyenne's dual licenses to towns with none.
Official Wyoming resources
- Wyoming Board of Cosmetology
- Board of Cosmetology rules and regulations
- Board of Barber Examiners
- Board page: braiding and makeup
- Wyoming Statutes Title 33 (cosmetology chapter 12, barbers chapter 7)
- Secretary of State business filing fee schedule
- Secretary of State annual report filing
- Department of Revenue, Excise Tax Division FAQs
- Department of Workforce Services: UI taxable wage base
- IRS: apply for an EIN online
Wyoming traps that catch new owners
- The renter license. A stylist renting a chair without the board's $75 independent contractor license is operating unlicensed inside your salon, whatever her personal license says. Every contractor license in Wyoming expires August 31.
- December 31. Salon licenses expire on the same day for the whole state, in the middle of the holiday rush. A salon more than 90 days expired cannot renew at all; it applies as new.
- The dissolving LLC. Wyoming's $60 annual report has no late fee because the penalty is the company: administratively dissolved 60 days after the due date, unreinstatable after two years.
- The wage floor illusion. The statute book says $5.15 an hour. The federal $7.25 minimum governs nearly every Wyoming employer, and payroll set from the state figure alone underpays staff.
- The microblading inversion. Owners assume a cosmetology license authorizes permanent makeup. In Wyoming it prohibits it: piercing services are forbidden to licensees, and no state body art license exists to take its place.
- The bonding line for braiders. Braiding is exempt until the appointment adds dye, straightening or bonded extensions. Fusion and tape in installs are licensed hairstyling work, and crossing the line mid menu is unlicensed practice.
- The two license shop. A barber chair inside a salon needs the premises licensed under the barber act too. One premises license does not cover the other board's trade.