Deregulation...?

A short chat about a recent topic raised by hair professionals in California

Transcript

Bree 0:03

Welcome back to Philosophy of the Barber. Please forgive if you hear any rumbling in the background. It is the last weekend of Laconia Motorcycle Week in town, so there's only so much that I can do to uh give you proper volume while also not hearing background noise. Otherwise, uh today's episode is not what I initially planned, but I think it is worth having a chat about with the audience. And that is, I found on Instagram a posting by Barber Society LA about um a movement to deregulate the profession. And the posting that was made kick It's 14 hours ago now, so June 19th. It says um what licensing is really about. Uh these laws are brought about by the professionals. Consumer groups don't typically lobby for additional protection. As an economist, I find it hard to believe that the primary motive of these professionals is the health and safety of consumers. They have a financial motive, and we have documented that licensed professionals earn more. They can charge higher prices because of these laws. And this is from uh Charles Koch, who is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. Good for him. Well, if you are looking at anything from one particular perspective, such as if you are an economist, you are looking at it from the perspective of money. So, first and foremost, you will find that money is always a motive. It really doesn't matter what topic we're discussing, whether it's politics or uh industries doing things or not doing things. Like, if we really want to be cynical about it, yeah, you can boil pretty much anything down to money if you felt like it. So it's a very easy position to take when uh dealing with a sort of debate on any topic. Because it's kind of like the same position as going, the reason you do everything in life is selfish. Even charity and seemingly selfless acts, it is selfish because you feel good for doing it. So, like, you could have a super pessimistic view of things, and yeah, you could make that argument, just like you can make that argument of the reason why uh hair professionals want regulation to stay in place is because we can charge more. Alright, well, uh, that's that's one way of looking at it. From an historic perspective, because you know how I love to dip into my uh old barber textbook collection, I like to take us back to before regulation was a thing. And that's prior to barbering textbooks being around. And in old barber textbooks, they spend a lot of time once we got into science, not just the actual trade elements of the technical skills, but the, you know, the the diseases and stuff that we would see and have to deal with. Like, there's a reason why a certain ailment got the nickname of barber's itch, and it's because barbers before regulation was put in place for sanitation requirements, barbers, not knowing any better, were actually spreading a communicable disease by using unsanitized shaving brushes with natural occurring animal anthrax in them. Well, if you aren't required to learn those things, how are you to know that they exist? And how are you to know how to prevent the spread of them? Like, that's why Minnesota was the first state to enact barber licensure. It was because there was a very bad uh prevalence of spreading diseases, which, you know, generally speaking, I'd say it was good of them to pass a law to prevent that, because they were looking out for their constituents and their people without totally condemning a profession. Like, rather than demonizing a profession like we tend to like to do today with a lot of things, they were like, hey, we have identified the problem. Here's a possible productive solution to it. Here's a proposed bill, let's pass the law. And that's exactly what they did, which is why a bunch of other states shortly after adopted the same things. I'll use the example of Colorado and legalizing marijuana. Because that has happened in a lot of states moving forward, adopting their model in a lot of ways, while tweaking it to, you know, apply specifically to their state because everywhere is a little bit different. So the same thing happened with barbering. And now there is only one state in the entire United States that does not require a barber licensure, and that's Alabama. Correction. Alabama, as of 2014, does require barber license. It's just that barbers prior to that year, who had been practicing for at least 10 years, were exempt from an ul being required for a license. And something tells me that had something to do with the fact that Mike Rowe went and had a barber from Alabama on his show Dirty Jobs. Maybe, maybe not. Personally, I say, be glad that we have licensure. And yeah, sure, we can definitely charge more because we can guarantee that we do things in a clean, sanitary, and safe manner. However, does that mean that like if you deregulate it, it'll only be the people who are willing to pay the extra money to go to a proper barbering institution to learn these things who will be charging those prices, though those higher prices, because the people who are going to charge the lower prices aren't going to know any better. You're going to get a substandard product. So, in essence, you're making it a class issue then, where guess what? You can only get a sanitary experience if you have enough money to pay. As opposed to now, where every barber and hairstylist has to be, you know, equipped with this knowledge before they can even enter the profession, which guarantees no matter what, like whether you're lower class, middle class, upper class, elite, doesn't matter. You all get a professional service that is safe and sanitary. So my rebuttal to this economist and this billionaire is why are you trying to separate the classes even more when it comes to the quality of service that one can get with a dollar? Something to think about. Now, I'd also like to come at this topic from a different perspective, a little more optimistic perspective, giving humans, you know, the benefit of the doubt of being possibly good people who think of people other than themselves, who, you know, don't look at a profession only with dollar signs and how much money they can make, especially in the short term. Where, you know, don't get me wrong, we do have plenty of people in our profession that go day-to-day counting haircuts, worrying about tips, and that sort of thing. Very, very short-term perspective. Not saying they're wrong for doing it, just saying that they exist. But I would hope that that is not the majority of the profession, because a profession that has been around this long, you know, as long as humanity has been around, has stuck around that long without any super major scandals, um, for a reason, and it's because we are a service. We serve other people. And yes, you can physically give yourself a haircut. I personally wouldn't recommend it, though I do know people who are very proficient at it, and they do a wonderful job. But how much better do they feel after they're done giving themselves a haircut? I know I feel a way better after getting out of somebody else's chair, because I can just sit there and relax, and someone else is making me look and feel better. As opposed to having to, you know, cape yourself up, having to hold your arms at awkward angles and hold a mirror, or have a mirror on the wall, and you know, really, really work and focus and hope that you have the right perspective to see whatever line you put in in order to give yourself a good fade. Like that just seems like even more work, especially when you're a barber. You go, why do you want to work more when you could just as well, you know, be a patron of another barber and support your fellow professionals. So I think that the vast majority of people sit in somebody else's chair. And that's a good thing. That builds camaraderie and you know connection in a profession that is otherwise pretty autonomous if you want it to be. But looking at it from we help other people. Like we're not in this profession to feel good about ourselves first and foremost. Like, yeah, we'll probably hit that button along the way. But we want other people to look and feel good, which thus makes us feel good. But that's anything in life. You do something good, you have a return on it, a return on your investment. As an economist, he should understand that. However, it is not always monetary. Sometimes it's immeasurable. And it's subjective as to whether or not the the good feeling you get after doing it is worth the act to get it. So I would think that the majority of people who have chosen this as a career want it to help people, to give people that ability to feel good about themselves and to have that human connection. I've had this discussion with a lot of people that I've had on my podcast and their journey into barbering, that that's why we're part of it. Like the whole reason I started this podcast was so that I could have conversations with fellow barbers about all of the not monetary reasons to be in this profession. So the fact that this is even a conversation tells you it tells you more about the man who says it than it does about the profession he's referencing. It's very easy to accuse people of having ulterior motives if you happen to be someone who has ulterior motives. Because that's we we use ourselves as a measurement for other people. Case in point, um, if you are an extremely judgmental person, you automatically assume other people are judging you harshly. And the more compassionate you are as a person and more forgiving, the more hope you have that other people are also that way. And I and conversely, I as a personal uh observation where I admit that I have done some crappy things in my life. And I would hate for people to judge me solely based on those crappy things. So I try in my life not to judge people on a limited scope of things that they have done. That's kind of how it works, give and take. Like, so we use ourselves as that that measuring stick. So if you're you've cheated on your significant other, you are far more likely to accuse people of cheating. Because you see it as one of the first possibilities. So, I kind of see that with uh this gentleman, Mr. Coke, where I get as an economist and a billionaire, yeah, you've you've made very lucrative monetary decisions. Congratulations. Our profession as a whole is not like that. So I would invite you to perhaps, you know, ask a neighborhood barber what their opinion is. Now, on and off over the last ten years of being in the profession in New Hampshire, I've had to deal with um and I as well as the entire industry. Let me put that out there. Um I'm by no means anything but like an ant in the profession uh as a whole. But like the state has had to deal with a movement here which is called the Free Stater movement, uh, on and off trying to deregulate the profession. Now, in 2007, uh their first step to deregulation was uh what I would consider a reasonable step. Like, this is a live for your die state, so we're very like, live your life, we live our lives, we're all good, leave each other alone. But so what they did was they proposed a secondary license for the profession. So in New Hampshire and in Maine, there is what we call a barber one or limited barber license, where you are licensed and you have to learn how to cut hair and shave faces? You gotta do the whole, you know, shampoo and sanitation and blood spill procedures and all that good stuff too. But it's only an 800-hour license where the master barber or what used to be the only barber license was 1,500 hours. Because, from a realistic perspective, how many barbers in a rural area do you know that offer chemical services? Like, the reality is in the state of New Hampshire, at this point in time, there were like 600 barbers that were licensed in this whole state of like 1.2 million people. And like next to none of them even used a straight razor at this point in 2007. Let alone going, yeah, sure, I'll give you a hair color or a perm. Not happening. So, one of the ways they wanted to, you know, boost the economy and offer people alternative uh trades to go into outside of college was to offer a uh limited version of the barber license so that you could do what barbers do on a daily basis without having to learn or do all of the chemical services side of things. Because that if all you want to do is cut hair and shea faces, then boom, there's a license. You don't have to do the other 700 hours for the chemicals. So you could go right into your profession after only six months of training, which is great for from an economic perspective. Then, however, they tried to push to deregulate a ton of professions that have licensures as a requirement. Like chiropractors and all sorts. I can't even begin to list them. It was a very, very long list. You don't realize how many professions require a license until somebody wants to take all the license away. So on and off over several years, they tried to push bills to deregulate, and our profession as barbers and cosmetologists has always been on that chopping block. So I've had the opportunity to go to uh committee meetings and and watch people testify uh on behalf of keeping the regulation for the profession, because even even the the president of Barberside at the time, back in I don't know, 2011, 2012, spoke to the committee, the subcommittee, and told them, you know, this is important. We need to have licensure and regulation for the safety and welfare of the public. That's why it exists. Which is also why when you are tested for your license, at least here in the state of New Hampshire, can't speak for any other state, but you are tested on your ability to safely perform certain techniques and skills, and you have to demonstrate a proper blood spill procedure. Like, they can't test you on whether or not you did a good haircut, because that's subjective. They can't tell you whether or not, you know, the the shave was smooth or really close. They just need to make sure that you can do the proper clipper holding techniques and cutting techniques, holding the shears properly, being able to hold the shears while combing the hair, you know, basic things without lopping off somebody's ear or poking them in the eye, or, you know, leaving stuff in their orifices, uh, you know, from the neck up. And, you know, that's that's the reason. And that's where the regulation ends. Like, nobody from the state is coming to your barber shop and telling you that you suck at doing fades, so you shouldn't be allowed to do them. Nobody's doing that. And even more in the state of New Hampshire, when somebody files a complaint, which I think is phenomenal, and I think all complaints should be, or not all, but this is a really nice practice, generally speaking, is that you cannot make an anonymous complaint. Like, a barber has a right to know their accuser when it comes to you filing a complaint with the barber board. Because how are they to know what occurred if they don't know who they gave a service to was complaining. So, I personally, for the most part, like how the state of New Hampshire does their stuff. Every state is different. I'm not saying that anybody is right or wrong, just everybody's a little bit different. But I don't think deregulation of a profession past a certain point does anyone any good. Both from an economic perspective, from the consumer standpoint, to the elevation of a profession in the long term. Cause I'm gonna be honest, I have an old book sitting right in front of me called Beauty and Health, and this is like an old drugstore book like full of beauty tips and stuff from like turn of the century-ish. And there is legitimately a treatment suggested in this book for gray hair. That is a gasoline shampoo. And this is when my brain goes. Alright, so. People can crap on millennials and and internet challenges and like Tide Pods and all that kind of mess. All you want. And they think it's like a generational thing. But this book proves it is not a generational thing. Moreover, I think it is a particular mindset of somebody like what line of thinking can occur where someone now keep in mind, this is before electricity was common. So someone thought, hmm. I wonder if gasoline can have any positive effect on gray hair. Like, how I I don't know how you connect those dots. I really don't. Uh, I'm very curious of whoever came up with that kind of uh concept. But saving Grace, they at least put a caution after that tip going, don't do it in the same room as a lamp. Keep in mind, lack of electricity, kerosene lamps were used for light. They said they talked about a case where a lady was doing this treatment. She wasn't in the same room as a lamp. She was in uh the next room, but it was only separated by a half wall, not a full wall, and she barely escaped with her life after bursting into flame. And even with that story, they still published that tip as like a legitimate grey hair treatment beauty tip. It's things like that that make me go, yeah. Yeah, some regulation would be good. You know, just just for the sake of people being educated, not maiming themselves, uh, you know, escaping with a little more than their life after a haircut. Like, come on. We we we always have to remember that there will be the most ignorant of people, and there will be the most intelligent of people, and there are all the other ones in between. And regulation has to cover all of them. So, yeah, I'm I'm very much for having a license. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. Um next episode, I'm hoping to cover that very book that I just mentioned about the gasoline treatment. There's some other like really wonky funny ones that are in there, and uh, along with this this barber book that was published in 1931, that we're gonna we're gonna cover some topics that you wouldn't think uh barbers would uh normally care about or bother putting in a book. Like why females have double chins, and I'm gonna save the reason why for that next episode, so feel free to tune in. If you have feedback, if you have comments, questions, anything at all, feel free to find me at Fellow the Barber on Instagram. Philosophy of the Barber has a channel on YouTube. If you would rather listen to these things on a video, and you're welcome to shoot me an email too. Uh, there's a website, philosophy of the barber.com. You can listen to the podcast directly from there. Anywhere you find podcasts. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time.