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Last Updated: August 26, 2026
Key takeaways
Maryland cosmetology license requirements are age 17, completion of 9th grade or a GED, and either 1,500 school hours or a 24-month apprenticeship.
The license fee is $28, not the $25 Maryland OneStop still lists, and a first license runs about $147 all-in.
School hours run from 250 for a nail technician to 1,500 for a cosmetologist, and most types accept an apprenticeship instead.
The license does not cover lasers, injections, or peels that reach past the epidermis, which need a Maryland health occupation license.
A Maryland cosmetology license lasts two years, and renewal now takes six continuing education hours plus a one-hour Domestic Violence Awareness course.
Ten state and license-type combinations need six months of documented work experience, and eleven do not qualify for reciprocity at all.
Maryland cosmetology license requirements start at age 17, with 9th grade finished or a GED in hand. From there, Maryland asks for 1,500 hours at a licensed cosmetology school or 24 months as a registered apprentice. Then come a theory exam and a hands-on practical.
The fee is where Maryland’s own pages disagree. The Board of Cosmetologists charges $28 for a cosmetologist license, and has done since May 27, 2024. Maryland OneStop still lists $25. Add both exams and processing, and the all-in licensing cost reaches roughly $140 to $150.
This guide works from the Board’s own fee schedule rather than the portal. The sections below also cover hours by license type and what the license does not permit. Reciprocity, the two-year renewal cycle and license verification follow.
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Maryland cosmetology license requirements at a glance
Here are the cosmetology license requirements Maryland applies to a first-time cosmetologist applicant, with the source behind each line.
The source column earns its place here. Maryland publishes these numbers across several sites, and the one most people find first is not the one that binds.
The Maryland Board of Cosmetologists: Who regulates your license
The Maryland Board of Cosmetologists licenses individual cosmetologists and issues permits to salons, sitting inside the Department of Labor’s Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing.
Two pieces of law sit behind that authority. Title 5 of the Business Occupations and Professions Article covers cosmetology. COMAR Title 9, Subtitle 22 carries the regulations that put it into practice.
The Board Administrator answers on 410-230-6190, from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. Two Maryland pages list different street addresses for the Board. Check the Board’s own contact page before you mail a form.
A Salon Permit is a separate credential from your individual license, so opening your own place means holding both. The Mobile Salon License application is still distributed as a Word document rather than a web form. If your plan runs to a med spa instead, the rules on who can open a medical spa stack differently again.
Military veterans and their family members have an expedited licensing route. The Board names the program but publishes no timeline or eligibility criteria for it, so call before you assume it applies to you.
Eligibility: Age, education and training hours
Maryland asks for age 17, completion of 9th grade or a GED, and either 1,500 hours at a licensed cosmetology school or a 24-month apprenticeship.
Both routes end in the same place. The apprenticeship runs inside a licensed beauty salon, and the Board issues an Apprentice Permit as its own credential before you begin.
Maryland cosmetology hours by license type
The Board licenses seven individual credentials, and the school hours behind them run from 100 to 1,500. The cosmetologist license is the broadest and the longest.
Age 17 and 9th grade or a GED apply to every type on that list. The hours are what separate them, and the spread is wider than the job titles suggest.
The eyelash extension license is the newest of the seven, and it is still arriving. A temporary license opened on April 1, 2026. It lets a technician work in a permitted salon while training. Anyone without one has to stop providing lash services after December 31, 2026.
The standard eyelash license follows in late 2026. It takes 100 hours of training through a private career school approved by the Maryland Higher Education Commission, then a Board exam.
Which training route to pick
The choice comes down to calendar time against income.
- Take the 1,500-hour school route if you can study full-time. One exam-prep resource puts that at roughly 10 to 12 months.
- Take the 24-month apprenticeship if you need to earn while you train, or a salon has already offered to register you.
- Study part-time and the school route stretches to roughly 18 to 24 months. The 18-to-24-month window matches the apprenticeship, so at that point take the route that pays.
The apprenticeship is fixed at 24 months. Working longer weeks will not shorten it. School is the only route where more hours per week means an earlier exam date. Full-time availability is the deciding factor, not motivation.
One more rule applies after you are licensed. Section 5-605 of the Business Occupations and Professions Article requires affiliation with a licensed salon or barbershop before you can perform services.
Applying for your Maryland cosmetology license: Exam, fees and approval time
You sit a computer-based theory exam and a hands-on practical, then apply to the Board, which approves applications in 1 to 30 days.
No Maryland page reviewed for this guide names the exam vendor. Maryland OneStop says only that the exam is proctored by an exam vendor. Treat any vendor name you find on a third-party site as unconfirmed until your own Board paperwork supplies it.
The all-in licensing cost
Search for the cost of a Maryland cosmetology license and two figures come back. One of them has been out of date since May 2024.
The Board’s Forms and Fees page sets the cosmetologist fee at $28, and charges the same $28 for a renewal or an endorsement. COMAR 09.22.01.14 carries the identical figure. The increase from $25 took effect on May 27, 2024.
Maryland OneStop still lists an estimated cost of $25.00. That portal is an informational aggregator rather than the Board’s fee authority, so the Board’s own schedule is the number to budget against.
An exam-prep resource itemizes the rest. That breakdown gives $47 for the theory exam, $47 for the practical, and about $25 in application and processing charges. Added to the $28 license fee, the all-in licensing cost lands near $147.
Maryland’s own pages do not itemize the exam fees, so treat the $47 figures as reported rather than official. Only the $28 comes from the Board. Tuition sits outside all of it.
All fees are nonrefundable, and three separate Maryland licensing pages say so outright. Budget for the whole path rather than the line the portal shows you.
Approval takes 1 to 30 days once your documents are verified, according to Maryland OneStop. An exam-prep resource narrows the Board’s review to 10 to 15 business days inside that window, though the Board publishes no figure of its own.
Every applicant also completes a one-hour Domestic Violence Awareness course. Maryland requires it under Sections 5-304 and 4-302 of the Business Occupations and Professions Article, through a Board-approved provider only. The same course comes back at every renewal, so it is not a one-time step.
What a Maryland cosmetology license does not cover
A Maryland cosmetology license does not authorize lasers, skin injections, or any treatment that reaches past the epidermis.
COMAR 09.22.02.03 sets out the prohibitions, and it is the regulation most likely to catch a salon moving into aesthetics. Each one lifts only for someone holding a valid health occupation license from the Maryland Department of Health.
- Lasers, microdermabrasion equipment, and any other mechanical device that removes a layer of skin.
- Any product or method that causes tissue destruction or penetrates the blood fluid barrier.
- Chemical peels that penetrate the skin beyond the epidermis.
- Mechanical tissue alteration, including microdermabrasion and electrotherapy.
- Contouring or sculpting by cryotherapy, radio frequency or liposuction.
- Any procedure that ablates the dermis or hypodermis, and any form of skin injection.
Notice where the line falls. It follows the depth a treatment reaches, rather than the name on the price list. A peel that stays in the epidermis sits inside a limited esthetician’s scope, and the same acid taken deeper does not.
So a med spa offering laser hair removal or injectables needs a Department of Health licensee performing the treatment. A cosmetologist can work alongside that person, but cannot stand in for them.
The Department of Labor also takes written reports from the public about unlicensed cosmetology and barbering. The scope line is enforced from outside the practice, not only inside it.
Maryland cosmetology license reciprocity: Transferring from another state
Maryland grants a reciprocal license by endorsement to anyone holding a current, active license in good standing from a state with comparable requirements.
The endorsement fee is $28, the same figure the Board charges for an original license. Applicants who meet the equivalency criteria can have both the theory and practical exams waived.
Verification does not come from you. Maryland requires the issuing state’s licensing authority to send the record directly, disciplinary history included, and it does not accept applicant-submitted documents.
- Your original training state emails Maryland a License Certification. That document carries your name, address, license types, issue and expiration dates, exam language or interpreter use, and program clock hours.
- You send a separate email with your full name, mailing address, license number and the state you are transferring from.
Maryland sorts applicants into three buckets, and the Board publishes them as two long lists rather than a table. Here is the same information, condensed.
Pennsylvania is the awkward one. Pennsylvania cosmetologists and nail technicians tested after November 24, 2014 appear on both of the Board’s lists. They need the six months of documented experience and both Maryland exams.
Several other entries turn on the date you were tested rather than the state alone. Read the Board’s list against your own certification before you count on a waiver.
Because the certification reports your program’s clock hours, what your origin state required is what Maryland reads. Washington cosmetology license requirements, for one, set different hour totals for each license type.
Applicants trained abroad and not yet licensed in the US need a credential evaluation. Every transcript goes to a NACES-accredited agency before Maryland approves them for the exam.
If your Maryland school has closed, the Maryland Higher Education Commission holds the transcripts on 410-767-3300. For a Maryland public high school program, call the State Department of Education on 410-767-0100.
A cosmetology license transfer does not exempt you from the Domestic Violence Awareness course. Endorsement applicants complete the same one-hour course as everyone else.
Maryland cosmetology license renewal: What the two-year cycle requires
A Maryland cosmetology license runs for two years, and renewing it now takes six continuing education hours and a one-hour domestic violence course.
The Maryland cosmetology license renewal requirements are short, but two of them have moved recently. Both changes catch people who last renewed before 2024.
Since March 1, 2024, the Board no longer mails paper licenses. Licenses arrive as a PDF by email instead, so you need an email address on file and access to a printer.
The Board mails renewal materials about 60 days before your expiration date. If they do not arrive, request an application no later than 30 days before expiration, on 410-230-6190.
- Click the Renew a License Online link on the Board’s renewal page.
- Enter your registration number.
- Log in with your password, or create one if this is your first online renewal.
The Board recommends an up-to-date browser for the renewal portal, which is worth checking before you start rather than halfway through.
Continuing education is the newer requirement. House Bill 1600 made six approved hours a condition of renewal, effective January 1, 2026. Those six hours split two ways.
- Two required hours, covering health, safety, welfare, sanitation, or Board laws and regulations.
- Four elective hours, chosen freely as long as they fall inside the scope of your own license type.
Approved providers began offering compliant courses on June 1, 2024. The hours have to be completed before your renewal date and inside your current renewal term, so hours banked early do not carry forward.
The Domestic Violence Awareness course is a renewal condition too, not only an entry step. House Bill 1547 applies the same one-hour course to everyone renewing a license, on top of the six continuing education hours. The Board does not say whether that hour counts toward the six, so budget for both.
Let a license expire and a $28 reinstatement fee is assessed automatically. That charge is separate from the $28 endorsement fee, despite the matching number.
The renewal fee itself is $28, the same as an original license under COMAR 09.22.01.14. Your renewal notice confirms the amount, and the Board will restate it by phone.
Maryland cosmetology license lookup: How to verify a license
Maryland verifies a cosmetology license through the Board’s own record, and the Board issues a written License Certification on request.
A Maryland cosmetology license lookup is not the one-click public search some other states publish. None of the Board’s cosmetology pages reviewed for this guide carry one.
That matters most when you are hiring. Maryland holds its own endorsement applicants to the same standard, taking the record from the issuing authority rather than from the applicant.
Since March 2024, a licensee’s own copy is a PDF sitting in their inbox. A PDF is exactly the kind of applicant-submitted document Maryland declines for endorsement, so treat one as a starting point rather than proof.
Request a License Certification through the Department of Labor’s cosmetology licensing services, or call the Board on 410-230-6190. COMAR 09.22.01.01 B(2) also requires a current photo affixed to the license, which gives you a second check on the copy in front of you.
Credential checks belong with the rest of a practice’s paperwork rather than in a separate folder. A medical spa requirements checklist is a sensible place to file them.
How Pabau keeps staff licenses and renewal dates in one place
Most salons and med spas track license numbers in a spreadsheet, and renewal dates in whoever’s head is nearest. In practices we onboard, the staff license list is usually the last one to leave paper.
Practice management software like Pabau stores each provider’s license number, license type and expiration date on their staff profile. Role-based permissions then keep booking inside what that license covers, so nobody gets scheduled for work they are not licensed to perform.
That second part matters more in Maryland than it looks. The scope line runs through treatments a salon may already offer, so the calendar is where a laser or injectable booking should be caught.
Pabau is software for med spas and aesthetic practices, so the credential fields sit beside the calendar rather than in a system nobody opens. Maryland’s two-year cycle and the January 1, 2026 continuing-education deadline give every cosmetologist on your team a date to hit.
If you are still choosing a system, our roundup of med spa scheduling software compares how the main platforms handle calendars and staff records.
Keep every staff license current and on file
Pabau stores each provider’s license number, type and expiration date on their staff profile, so renewal dates surface before they lapse. Role-based permissions keep bookings inside the scope each license covers.
Conclusion
Three issues trip up Maryland applicants, and none of them is the training. The first is the money. The $28 license fee is a line item rather than the bill, and the all-in licensing cost is closer to $147.
The second is reciprocity. Your state’s name on its own is not the deciding factor. Maryland’s lists turn on your license type and the date you were tested. Read your own certification before you count on an exam waiver.
The third is scope. A cosmetology license stops at the epidermis, so lasers, injections and deeper peels need a Department of Health licensee on the treatment.
Settle those three questions and the rest is paperwork on a two-year clock. Book a demo to see how Pabau tracks license numbers and renewal dates across a whole salon or med spa team.
Continue your research
Holding a Washington license and moving east? Washington cosmetology license requirements: Hours, fees and scope sets out the hour totals your certification will report.
Comparing states before you commit to a school? Colorado cosmetology license requirements: Hours, fees and renewal covers a state with a very different hour count.
Licensed in the southeast? Georgia cosmetology license requirements: Costs, hours, and how to apply walks through the application steps in Georgia.
Training or hiring in Texas? Texas cosmetology license requirements and how to get certified explains how the Texas route differs from Maryland’s.
Running the practice, not just working in it? Med spa compliance for owners covers the obligations that sit on top of individual licensing.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to get a cosmetology license in Maryland?
The training is the long part. Maryland requires 1,500 school hours or a 24-month apprenticeship. One exam-prep resource puts the full-time school route at roughly 10 to 12 months, and the part-time route at 18 to 24. Board approval then takes 1 to 30 days once your documents are verified.
Can you get a cosmetology license without going to beauty school?
Yes. Maryland’s cosmetology license requirements accept 24 months as a registered apprentice in a licensed beauty salon instead of 1,500 school hours. The Board issues an Apprentice Permit for it. You still sit both the theory exam and the practical unless a reciprocity waiver applies.
How do I transfer my cosmetology license to Maryland?
Apply for licensure by endorsement. A cosmetology license transfer starts with your origin state emailing Maryland a License Certification, which reports your license dates and program clock hours. You then email your name, mailing address, license number and transferring state. The fee is $28 and it is nonrefundable.
How much is a cosmetology license in Maryland?
The license fee is $28. The Board sets that figure on its Forms and Fees page, and COMAR 09.22.01.14 confirms it. Maryland OneStop still shows the old $25, which the Board replaced on May 27, 2024. Add roughly $47 for the theory exam, $47 for the practical and about $25 in processing. The all-in licensing cost then runs about $147, with tuition separate.
What are the Maryland esthetician license requirements?
A limited esthetician license takes 600 hours of instruction in a cosmetology school, or 12 months as a registered apprentice. The age and education rules match the cosmetologist license, so you need to be 17 with 9th grade completed or a GED. Estheticians renew on the same two-year cycle, under the same six continuing education hours and the same one-hour domestic violence course.
Can a cosmetologist do laser hair removal in Maryland?
No. COMAR 09.22.02.03 bars the use of lasers, microdermabrasion equipment, or any other mechanical device that removes a layer of skin. That prohibition lifts only for someone holding a valid health occupation license from the Maryland Department of Health. Skin injections, and chemical peels that go beyond the epidermis, sit outside a cosmetology license too.
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