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#New York shampoo assistant bill is dripping with special interests

#New York shampoo assistant bill is dripping with special interests

A state bureaucrat wants to mandate 500 hours of training for anyone who shampoos hair at a beauty salon or barbershop — but something about her push for the bizarre new requirement just doesn’t wash.

That’s because she is also a beauty school owner, The Post has found, as is a second member of the state board that licenses salon workers.

A third person on the panel runs a membership and lobbying group for the cosmetology school industry.

That’s out of four total board members.

If their training-before-shampooing mandate passes, hair washers would have to spend an average of $13,354 on beauty school each to secure a “shampoo assistant” license.

Requiring such licenses could turn on a gushing spigot of hundreds of millions of dollars for beauty school owners across the state, possibly benefiting board chairwoman Michelle D’Allaird Brenner, who is pushing the state Assembly to approve the measure.

Member Anthony Fiore also owns a school and could potentially profit, as well.

As could Anthony Civitano, who serves as executive director of the American Association of Cosmetology Schools.

New York state currently has 22,997 hair salons and 4,847 barbershops — all of which could be impacted if the proposed bill becomes law.

If just one shampoo assistant from each business had to pay for training, the total learn-to-lather classwork cost could top $370 million.

Shampoo assistant Evelyn Moquette shampoos hair at Astor Place Hairstylists, at Astor Place.
Shampoo assistant Evelyn Moquette shampoos hair at Astor Place Hairstylists.Helayne Seidman

And with just 61 such schools in the state, each would be awash in cash — with a potential average of more than $6 million per school in extra revenue.

A pricy license mandate would put the “sham” in shampoo, say people who already wash hair for a living.

“It’s simple shampoo. Anyone can do it,” said Evelyn Moquete, 45, who has worked as a shampoo assistant at Greenwich Village’s iconic Astor Place Hairstylists for six years.

“I don’t think I should have to go to school for a simple shampoo. My family needs me and my grandchildren.”

D’Allaird Brenner, who chairs the state’s Division of Licensing Services advisory committee and owns the Aesthetic Science Institute, made no apologies for the arrangement.

“Our businesses thrive on the fact that these students need these hours in order to get a license and to work,” she told The Post. “We would surely be negatively impacted if there was any lack of licensure requirement.”

Co-owner John Vezza outside Astor Place Hairstylists, at Astor Place.
Co-owner John Vezza outside Astor Place Hairstylists.Helayne Seidman

“There was a time that many states looked at delicensing our profession altogether. For us, it would have been just a disaster,” she added.

Fiore, who owns Capri Cosmetology Learning Center, with outlets in Nanuet and Newburgh, said of the proposal, “I wasn’t even aware of it.”

“I’m not pushing anything,” he said.

The average tuition and fees for a cosmetology course in the state is $13,354, according to an industry estimate, though it’s less at D’Allaird Brenner’s school in Latham, which charges $9,600.

Meanwhile, a trade group for the schools enjoys a friendly connection to the bill’s backer in the Assembly.

Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, (D-Saratoga Springs), who co-sponsored the bill, employs Christopher Garofano, 25, as her legislative director.

Chris Garofano
Chris GarofanoFacebook

Garofano’s father, Todd, serves as executive director of the Salon & Spa Professionals of NYS, a nonprofit that reps cosmetology schools. Garofano’s mother, Hollene, previously served as a director of the organization.

Todd Garofano said he presented the shampoo-assistant bill to Woerner’s office and worked with her chief of staff, Mark Luciano. He said his son had nothing to do with the initiative.

Lisa Knepper, an expert on licensing requirements at the nonprofit Institute for Justice, noted research showing that the more a state’s cosmetology board is dominated by industry professionals, the stiffer barriers to entry become.

“One of the interests that have a lot of sway traditionally are cosmetology schools and barbering schools,” Knepper told The Post.

The state also expects to take its cut with applications, fees and fines from assistants and salons.

Trade groups said that they were merely trying to clarify existing law by codifying the new title of shampoo assistant, and that doing so would protect salons and barbershops.

“There are people in the state right now who have hired ‘shampoo assistants’ who are being fined now for doing it. It takes it aboveboard, makes it legitimate,” Todd Garofano said.

Part of the issue lies with what jobs a “shampoo assistant” can and can’t do under current law.

While at least some degree of licensing appears to be required if one wants to shampoo hair, the details are hazy.

Garofano and some salon owners told The Post that anyone who shampoos or “touches hair” already must have 1,000 hours of training — and that the proposed shampoo-assistant rule would make the existing law less onerous.

Others disagreed.

John Vezza, whose family has owned Astor Place Hairstylists for 75 years, said it was “news to me” that his assistants who shampoo and perform other tasks needed certification.

“I’ve had dozens of random inspections over the years, and I’ve never had a problem,” he said.

At the very least, “shampoos, rinses, conditioners and treatments” are unambiguously covered with just 80 hours of the state’s 300-hour natural-hairstyling license.

The other 220 hours cover “hair-braiding, locking, weaving and styling.

The state Division of Licensing Services declined to clarify

Additional reporting by Melissa Klein

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