Photo: puroticoricoA headline in our local paper screams: “Barbers, Cosmetologists in Turf War Over Shaving.” The question is where sideburns end and beards begin.
In Texas, only barbers are licensed to trim beards, and they are unhappy that cosmetologists are cutting into their market.
This fight illustrates the effects of occupational licensing — legal restrictions on workers’ ability to enter certain markets.
Barbers have benefited over the years from the exclusion of cosmetologists in what was essentially a restriction on supply. Along with the high entry costs (nearly a year of required training), this has raised the equilibrium wage of barbers — and the equilibrium price of a haircut. Licensing of medical doctors, where the consumer lacks information on quality, might be sensible. But barbers and cosmetologists?
As one party to this controversy noted, “Most of the rules are so archaic and pathetic. They’re prehistoric.” True — and it’s the consumer who suffers.
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I take it then you have never been shaved by a straight razor. Beleive me, knowing the barber studied cutting hair for a year rather than how to apply make-up, apricot scrubs and seaweed wraps, is comforting when there is knife at your throat! Then of course there is the sterility issue. If you have fewer appliances to maintain it’s easier not to screw that up.
It’s not a bad thing that there is a barrier to entry to barber shops.
He clearly does not know the definition of prehistoric.
For the record, I am a Chicago trained economist. Despite this, a little training (“barrier to entry”) in the hair cutting profession is not necessarily a bad thing. My dad had a scar on his face for 60 years following a bad shave he had in Europe after the war. The barber’s razor transferred some micro-organism to his skin and his face was infected following the shave.
If only barbers alone are allowed to trim beards, they reserve this right and therefore get more customers. The demand for barbers is not that high, given how most men simply shave at home in their own bathrooms. If cosmetologists are allowed to enter the shaving beards business, then the demand for barbers would be even lower. Barbers would definitely make less money, and some barber shops might even go out of business.
To protect the business of barber shops and prevent them from disappearing (all barbers would just adapt into being cosmetologists to earn more money, or face bankruptcy), cosmetologists should simply stay out of the business of shaving beards, and stick to haircuts.
In India, there’s no entry or exit barriers. no mandatory training, no need for premises even, sometimes these guys will just have a chair on a side walk. the average haircut will cost you in the range of 0.5 to 1 USD and even less outside the cities. this is of course valid only for men, the women’s side of the industry follows more western norms.
Why should the consumer lack information on anything in this day and age?
I think barbers, hairdressers, etc. should not require a license.
Now fortune tellers and economists should require special training and a license.
Do fewer men die in Texas of botched shavings?