United States · Cosmetology licensing
Cosmetology license lookup by state.
Sixteen states’ official cosmetology and barber licence searches in one table, with a link to our guide for each. Pick a state to show its row.
Short answer: every state board runs its own search, and the table below links the official portal for 16 of them: Florida’s DBPR Licensing Portal, Texas’s TDLR license search, Ohio’s eLicense, Pennsylvania’s PALS verification, North Carolina’s Board of Cosmetic Art Examiners, and eleven more. Each row also links our state guide, which explains that board’s licence types, status words and renewal rules. This page searches nothing itself.
Pick a state
Result
Pick a state to filter the table.
The table
| State | Board or agency | Official portal | Guide | What our state page covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Board of Cosmetology and Barbering | Official search ↗ | Our Alabama guide | License Verification search; licence types and renewal years on our page. |
| Colorado | DORA Division of Professions and Occupations | Official search ↗ | Our Colorado guide | Barber/Cosmetology licence type, COS and BAR prefixes, roster download for bulk checks. |
| Florida | DBPR Board of Cosmetology (and a separate Barbers board) | Official search ↗ | Our Florida guide | DBPR Licensing Portal: by name, licence number, city or county, or licence type; results show status and expiry. |
| Indiana | Professional Licensing Agency | Official search ↗ | Our Indiana guide | PLA free verify search; beauty culture licence types; official proof differs from the search. |
| Kentucky | Board of Cosmetology | Official search ↗ | Our Kentucky guide | Board License Verification link; the order the board says to renew personal and salon licences. |
| Louisiana | State Board of Cosmetology | Linked from our Louisiana page | Our Louisiana guide | LSBC licensing search by licence number or name; what the data-updated date means and the restoration rule. |
| Minnesota | Board of Cosmetologist Examiners | Official search ↗ | Our Minnesota guide | Finds practitioners, salons and schools; the board says it is not an official verification. |
| Missouri | Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners (MOPRO) | Official search ↗ | Our Missouri guide | MOPRO licensee search and its expired-licence notice. |
| North Carolina | Board of Cosmetic Art Examiners | Official search ↗ | Our North Carolina guide | Licensee and salon verification; renewal windows, shop late fees and 8-hour CE. |
| Ohio | State Cosmetology and Barber Board (eLicense Ohio) | Official search ↗ | Our Ohio guide | Search by name or full licence number; what Pending, Active, Inactive and Closed mean. |
| Pennsylvania | State Board of Cosmetology (PALS) | Official search ↗ | Our Pennsylvania guide | Verify a cosmetologist, esthetician or nail technician; 1,250-hour route and two-year renewal. |
| South Carolina | LLR Board of Cosmetology | Official search ↗ | Our South Carolina guide | LLR Licensee Lookup covering stylists, nail techs, salons and booth renters. |
| Tennessee | Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners | Official search ↗ | Our Tennessee guide | State Verify a License search; which cosmetology and barber licences it covers and what expired means. |
| Texas | Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) | Official search ↗ | Our Texas guide | TDLR license search; 1,000-hour, two-year licence and CE rules. |
| Washington | Department of Licensing | Official search ↗ | Our Washington guide | DOL status lookup; hours for each licence, 2-year renewal and 1-year cancellation rule. |
| Wisconsin | Department of Safety and Professional Services (LicensE) | Official search ↗ | Our Wisconsin guide | DSPS LicensE look up; what inactive means and when a licence can still be renewed. |
Portal links and notes come from the 16 state guides on this site, each of which was built from the board’s own pages; the guide column opens the page that explains that state’s licence types, status words, renewal cycle and what a result does and does not prove. Louisiana’s search link sits on our Louisiana page rather than here.
Why there is no national cosmetology lookup
Cosmetology, barbering, esthetics and nail technology are licensed by each state, usually by a board under the state’s licensing department, and each board keeps its own register. A licence issued by Texas says nothing about standing in Florida, and the search tools differ in what they accept: Ohio wants a name or a full licence number, Florida lets you search by city or county as well, and South Carolina’s LLR lookup is split by board. That is why the useful answer to a cosmetology licence lookup is a state table rather than one form.
What the searches have in common
- A name search, often with a partial-name match, and a licence-number search that returns one record.
- A status word such as Active, Expired, Inactive or Pending, with an expiry date. The meaning of each word is the board’s and varies; our state pages quote the board where it defines them.
- Salon, shop or school licences alongside individual ones in most states, so check that the record type matches the person or business you are verifying.
- A note that the online result is not an official certificate, in states such as Minnesota and Indiana, where formal verification is a separate paid request.
Worked example
A salon owner in Tampa is hiring a stylist who trained in Georgia and says she now holds a Florida licence. The owner picks Florida above, opens the DBPR Licensing Portal, chooses Search by Name with the Cosmetology category, and reads the status and expiry on the result; the name link shows any complaints or discipline. If the stylist instead said her licence was from Ohio, the owner would pick Ohio and use eLicense, where a full licence number returns the record directly. Neither result makes her licensed in the other state.
States not in the table
Thirty-four states are missing because we have not yet built a guide from their board’s pages, and several boards (Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Virginia and Arizona among them) returned errors when their pages were fetched for this build. Their absence says nothing about whether a lookup exists; every state licenses cosmetologists and most publish a search. This page links official sources only and does not copy, scrape or mirror any register.
Figures read from the sources below on November 11, 2026. Last updated November 11, 2026.
Sources
- Florida DBPR Licensing Portal: License Search (retrieved November 11, 2026)
- Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation: License Search (retrieved November 11, 2026)
- eLicense Ohio (retrieved November 11, 2026)
Common mix-ups
-
Often assumedA cosmetology licence can be verified through one nationwide database.
What the source saysLicensing is by state board. Florida’s DBPR portal, for example, covers only professions and businesses regulated by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation and lists Cosmetology and Barbers as separate licence categories. [1]
-
Often assumedA state board’s online search only works with a licence number.
What the source saysFlorida’s DBPR portal offers Search by Name, Search by License Number, Search by City or County and Search by License Type; most boards in this table accept a name as well as a number. [1]
-
Often assumedA cosmetology licence listing shows nothing about complaints.
What the source saysDBPR’s results page says that for additional information, including any complaints or discipline, you click on the licensee’s name; other boards keep discipline on a separate page, which our state guides point to. [1]
Checked against these sources on .
Frequently asked questions
Is there one national cosmetology license lookup?
No. Each state board keeps its own register and its own search. This page links 16 of them and our guide for each.
How do I verify a cosmetology license in Florida?
Use the DBPR Licensing Portal. It offers Search by Name, Search by License Number, Search by City or County and Search by License Type, with Cosmetology and Barbers as separate licence categories.
Can I search by license number?
In every state listed, yes. A full licence number usually returns a single record, which avoids the common-name problem of a name search.
Does a license in one state work in another?
No. A licence is issued and verified by one state board. Moving states means applying to the new board, often through reciprocity or endorsement rules that each state sets.
Is the online search result an official verification?
Usually not. Boards such as Minnesota and Indiana say their public search is not an official verification; formal proof is a separate request to the board. Our state pages note where a board says this.
Why are only 16 states listed?
Because those are the states with a guide built from the board’s own pages. Several other boards returned errors when fetched for this build. More states are added as their pages are read.
Does this page search any register?
No. It filters a table and links to official portals and our state guides. Nothing you pick is sent anywhere.
Guide only — not a verification tool
This page links to official state board registers and to our guides for them. It does not check anyone’s licence status, does not copy or proxy any register, and nothing you pick here is transmitted anywhere. Boards change their tools and rules; use the official source and contact the board to confirm anything that matters. This is general information, not legal advice.