How to become an esthetician in 2026

Every big US state licenses the esthetician — the hours, the exams and the fees are the state's, not the school's. Google's answer of "600 to 750 hours" hides the spread: 220 hours and no exam in Florida, 300 in Pennsylvania, 1,000 in Georgia, and a second "master" tier in Washington, Virginia and Utah. Here is the list from the boards and the statutes, biggest states first:

• Texas — 750 hours, two exams, $50 to apply. The licensing agency: "Before applying for an Esthetician license, you must complete an Esthetician course consisting of 750 hours of instruction at a barbering/cosmetology school licensed in Texas." "You must pass written and practical licensing exams to obtain an Esthetician license", "There is a non-refundable application fee of $50", and "You must be at least 17 years old to apply." The temporary license that prints with a passing practical "is good for 60 days while TDLR sends the two-year license in the mail" (TDLR, apply for an esthetician license). The exam vendor's bulletin dated January 1, 2026 prints the test fees — "Written Examination only: $55 USD", "Practical Examination only: $76 USD", "FEES ARE NOT REFUNDABLE OR TRANSFERABLE" (PSI, Texas esthetician candidate bulletin) — so the state side of becoming a Texas esthetician is $181. Your own room is an Establishment License or a Specialty Establishment License at $78, or a Mini-Establishment License inside a licensed salon (TDLR, establishments).
• California — 600 hours, a 90-minute written exam, $115 to apply. The board's FAQ: "Cosmetologist = 1000 hours, Barber = 1000 hours, Hairstylist = 600 hours, Esthetician = 600 hours, Electrologist = 600 hours, Manicurist = 400 hours" (California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, FAQ); the exam is "Esthetician: 75 scored questions, 10 pretest, 90 minutes to complete" (the board, applicants); the application form prints the price — "APPLICATION FOR EXAMINATION AND INITIAL LICENSE FEE $115.00 Fee (non-refundable)" (the board's esthetician application) — against a statute that caps the initial license alone at "not more than forty dollars ($40)" (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §7423). The statute's door: the applicant "Is not less than 17 years of age", "Has completed the 10th grade in the public schools of this state or its equivalent", and has "Completed a course in skin care from a school approved by the board" or the apprenticeship in Article 4 (§7324). What the license covers: "Giving facials, massaging, stimulating, exfoliating, cleansing, or beautifying the face, scalp, neck, hands, arms, feet, legs, or upper part of the human body by the use of hands, esthetic devices, cosmetic products, antiseptics, lotions, tonics, or creams for the purpose of improving the appearance or well-being of the skin that do not result in the ablation or destruction of the live tissue" (§7316). Working without one: "a $1,000 fine" (the FAQ).
• Florida — a 220-hour "facial specialist" registration, no exam, 16 to start. Florida does not license estheticians; it registers specialists: "Any person is qualified for registration as a specialist in any specialty practice within the practice of cosmetology under this chapter who: (a) Is at least 16 years of age or has received a high school diploma" and holds a certificate for "Two hundred and twenty hours of training, as established by the board, which shall focus primarily on sanitation and safety, to practice the specialty as defined in s. 477.013(6)(c)" — facials — and "Pending issuance of registration, a person is eligible to practice as a specialist upon submission of a registration application that includes proof of successful completion of the education requirements and payment of the applicable fees required by this chapter, provided such practice is under the supervision of a registered specialist in a licensed specialty or cosmetology salon" (Fla. Stat. §477.0201). The board's curriculum rule, amended December 21, 2020, adds up to the same number — 149 hours of theory and 71 of services (Rule 61G5-22.017) — so the 260-hour figure in older guides is stale. The fees are capped: "For specialists, fees for application and endorsement registration shall not exceed $30" and "For specialists, fees for initial registration, registration renewal, and delinquent renewal shall not exceed $50" (§477.026). The scope line that matters: "Skin care services must be performed by a licensed cosmetologist or facial specialist within a licensed cosmetology or specialty salon, and such services may not involve massage therapy, as defined in s. 480.033, through manipulation of the superficial tissue" (§477.013).
• New York — 600 hours, a state exam, $40 for four years. "No person shall engage in the practice of nail specialty, waxing, natural hair styling, esthetics or cosmetology … without having received a license" (N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law §401); "Any person seventeen years of age or older may apply", with "evidence of having taken and passed the appropriate examination" and "evidence of the successful completion of an approved course of study … in a school duly licensed pursuant to the education law" (§406). The course is 600 hours by regulation — "Facial and Body Procedures | 240", "Make-Up Techniques | 70", "Superfluous Hair | 60", "Total | 600" (19 NYCRR §162.2). Fees: the license "shall be forty dollars initially and for each renewal thereof the fee shall be forty dollars; the fee for a temporary license and each renewal shall be ten dollars", the written exam "fifteen dollars", and the business license "sixty dollars" (§409); "All licenses shall expire four years from the date of issuance" (§408). The practice is "services to enhance the appearance of the face, neck, arms, legs, and shoulders of a human being by the use of compounds or procedures including makeup, eyelashes, depilatories, tonics, lotions, waxes, sanding and tweezing … but shall not include the practice of electrology" (§400).
• Illinois — 750 hours over at least 18 weeks, a $175 exam. The applicant must "Be at least 16 years of age", "Be a high school graduate or its equivalent or be beyond the age of compulsory school attendance", and "Graduate from an esthetics or cosmetology school approved by the Division to teach esthetics in accordance with Subpart H, which includes a 750 hour program in the study of esthetics extending over a period of not less than 18 weeks nor more than 4 consecutive years" (68 Ill. Admin. Code §1175.700); the exam fee from October 1, 2026 is "Esthetician (English/Spanish/Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese) $175" (IDFPR).
• Pennsylvania — 300 hours, $26. "An applicant for an esthetician license shall have completed three hundred hours of instruction in esthetics in a licensed school of cosmetology and passed an examination limited to that practice", "An applicant may be permitted to apply to take a written examination upon completion of at least two hundred fifty hours of instruction", and "Licensed estheticians may operate a salon limited to that license" (Beauty Culture Law, §5(b)(1)); the rule adds "Be 16 years of age or older" and "Have completed a minimum of 300 hours of instruction in skin care in a licensed school of cosmetology" (49 Pa. Code §7.32e); the fee table reads "Esthetician | $25 | $26" for the initial license from July 1, 2024 and "$97" for the biennial renewal (49 Pa. Code §7.2).
• Georgia — 1,000 credit hours over at least nine months, $30. "The curriculum for students enrolled in an esthetician school for a complete course of at least nine (9) months and 1,000 credit hours of training shall be as follows", with no clinic work until "the student has completed 250 credit/clock hours of training" (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 130-3-.05); "Application for license to practice- $30.00" and "Application for Salon/Shop License - $75.00" (130-7-.01).
• Connecticut — licensed only since July 1, 2020; 600 hours, $100. "On and after July 1, 2020, except as provided in subsection (g) of this section, no person may practice as an esthetician without obtaining a license or temporary permit from the Department of Public Health"; the application carries "an application fee of one hundred dollars and evidence that the applicant (1) has completed a course of not less than six hundred hours of study", renews "every two years, for a fee of one hundred dollars", and "No person shall use the title 'esthetician' or similar title unless the person holds a license or temporary permit" (Conn. Gen. Stat. §20-265b). Until 2020 Connecticut did not license estheticians at all.
• Virginia, Washington, Utah — the states with a second, "master" tier. Virginia's esthetics course is 600 hours — "Skin care - minimum of 255 hours of instruction", "Hair removal - minimum of 50 hours of instruction" among eight lines — and master esthetics 600 more, including "Advanced procedures and chemical exfoliation - minimum of 270 hours of instruction" and "Lymphatic drainage - minimum of 120 hours of instruction" (18VAC41-70-190); the application is "$120" (18VAC41-70-120), the exam "will not exceed $225 per candidate" (18VAC41-70-40), currently "$99.00 for the written (theory) exam and $95.00 for the practical exam" with a "$7.25 per year" technology fee from July 1, 2026 — and "State law prohibits any person from practicing or offering to practice barbering, cosmetology, nail care, waxing, tattooing, body piercing, or esthetics in the Commonwealth without a Virginia license" (Virginia DPOR). Washington: "Esthetician, 750 hours" at school or 800 as an apprentice, and master esthetician as "Esthetician licensure plus 450 hours of training" (RCW 18.16.020; WAC 308-20-080), with "License application | $35.00" and "Renewal (two-year license) | 66.00" (WAC 308-20-210). Utah's master esthetics license is "the 1,200 total hours requirement for a master esthetics license" (Utah Code §58-11a-302). Colorado's statute caps the course at "Six hundred contact hours for an esthetician" (C.R.S. 12-105-111); Nevada asks "A minimum of 600 hours of training, which includes theory, modeling and practice, in a licensed school of cosmetology" or "At least 1,200 hours of service as an esthetician's apprentice" (NRS 644A.330). Ohio, Arizona, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan and North Carolina license estheticians too, on pages that refused to open to our reader — their hours are not printed here.

Your license is the state's, for now. Three states — Alabama, Kansas and Virginia — enacted the Esthetics Licensure Compact in 2026: "The first few months of the 2026 legislative session delivered a clean sweep: Alabama, Kansas, and Virginia officially enacted the Esthetics Licensure Compact" (ASCP, April 22, 2026), and "The Compact shall come into effect on the date on which the Compact statute is enacted into law in the seventh member state" (Va. Code §54.1-700.2). Until then, moving states means your new state's endorsement rules.

What the license will not let you do. California draws it at "the ablation or destruction of the live tissue" (§7316); Florida at "massage therapy … through manipulation of the superficial tissue" (§477.013); Pennsylvania says "An individual holding an esthetician license is qualified to perform esthetician services only" (49 Pa. Code §7.14a). There is no "medical esthetician" license in any of these states — the word is marketing; the second tier where it exists is the master esthetician above, and the estheticians quoted below who work in medical spas work under a doctor's delegation.

How you learn it, and what it costs. Every statute above puts the hours "in a licensed school" — no state in this list has an online route. One school's price is on its own page: an Aveda Institute's 600-hour esthiology program in Tucson prints "Application Fee: $50.00 Registration Fee: $150.00 Kit: $2,000.00 Tuition: $12,000.00 Total Investment: $14,200.00" (Inspire Greatness Aveda Institutes, Tucson); the other schools we tried would not open their tuition pages to a scripted reader, so no other figure is printed. The estheticians quoted below did six months, four months and a year part-time. After the license, the first job: a chain waxing studio, a franchise lash bar, a dermatologist's office or a medical spa — on a wage plus commission, which is where the speed comes from.

You are self-employed from the first suite. In the US a one-room esthetician is a sole proprietor by default: "Use Schedule C (Form 1040) to report income or (loss) from a business you operated or a profession you practiced as a sole proprietor" (IRS, Schedule C instructions); "The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%" once your "net earnings from self-employment (excluding church employee income) were $400 or more" (IRS), and sole proprietors "generally have to make estimated tax payments if they expect to owe tax of $1,000 or more when their return is filed" (IRS). If you want an LLC: Texas "for filing a certificate of formation, $300" (Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code §4.152); Florida "$100" plus "For filing an annual report, $50" (Fla. Stat. §605.0213); New York "two hundred dollars" (N.Y. LLC Law §1101); California "Seventy dollars ($70)" (Cal. Gov. Code §12190) and "Every LLC that is doing business or organized in California must pay an annual tax of $800" (Franchise Tax Board). Workers' compensation: "In Texas, private employers can choose to carry workers' compensation insurance coverage, but it is not required in most cases" (Texas Department of Insurance); "All California employers must provide workers' compensation benefits to their employees under California Labor Code Section 3700" (California DIR).

Sales tax on the work — four states' rules, and one city taxes it. Texas's list of taxable services names massage parlors — "Personal services provided by a massage parlor, Turkish bath or escort service are taxable" — and not facials or waxing (Texas Comptroller, Publication 96-259); the products you retail are taxable everywhere. New York: "Personal services are exempt from sales tax in most locations in New York State. However, these services are taxable if you sell them in New York City", and the table prints "Hair removal services, such as electrolysis or waxing | 4½% NYC local rate" (New York TB-ST-575); hair services the same way — "exempt from state and local sales tax everywhere in New York State outside New York City, but subject to New York City's local sales tax when sold in New York City" (TB-ST-60). Florida taxes only a short list of services — detective and protection services, nonresidential cleaning and pest control — and skin care is not on it (Fla. Stat. §212.05). California taxes the products, not the service: "Persons engaged in the business of rendering service are consumers, not retailers, of the tangible personal property which they use incidentally in rendering the service" (CDTFA Regulation 1501). Confirm the details with your accountant.

The money to start. Our arithmetic from the pages that print each price. A lean start — a licensed esthetician renting a suite in Texas — a portable treatment table at its $379 sale price (Pure Spa Direct, read October 26, 2026), a two-in-one facial steamer and magnifying lamp at $771 (Pure Spa Direct), a year of professional and general liability at $179 (Elite Beauty Society) and Texas's $78 establishment license — comes to $1,407. The fuller start, from school to a studio of your own in Texas — the Aveda Institute's $14,200 all-in, the $50 TDLR application and the $55 and $76 PSI exams, the table at its $421 list price, the same steamer, the $78 establishment license and a year of general liability at Insureon's $350 median — is $16,001. The hot-towel cabinet, the wax warmer and the back bar are the lines left out: the suppliers' pages for them refused to open to our reader, and no salon-suite operator prints a rent — Sola describes the model only: "Your flat weekly rate covers utilities, Wi-Fi, and laundry access", "At Sola, you pay a flat weekly rental rate instead, and keep what you earn beyond that" (Sola Salon Studios). The insurance is a median, not your quote: "Beauty professionals like estheticians pay an average of $29 per month, or $350 per year, for general liability insurance" and "Estheticians pay an average of $42 per month, or $500 annually, for professional liability insurance" (Insureon, estheticians); the associations price it flat — "a one-year policy for $179, a two-year policy for $299 total, and student coverage for $49 per year" (Elite Beauty Society), "an annual rate of just $169" (Beauty Insurance Plus), and ASCP's membership "For only $259 per year or $23 per month" with "$2 million per occurrence" (ASCP). The plan page for the business side is the esthetician business plan, the step after this guide is how to open a spa, the menu's numbers are in spa pricing, the name goes on the door from esthetician business names, the business license question is answered in do I need a business license, and the site comes from the esthetician website builder.

In the UK: no license for beauty therapists nationally; the government's career profile puts pay at "£23,000 Starter" to "£29,000 Experienced", through "a college course" or "an apprenticeship" — the "Beauty Therapist Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship, or Advanced Beauty Therapist Level 3 Apprenticeship" (National Careers Service, GOV.UK). London is the inversion: under Part II of the London Local Authorities Act 1991 a borough council licenses the premises, not the person — an "establishment for special treatment" covers massage, manicure, acupuncture, tattooing, cosmetic piercing, foot care, light or electric treatments of a like kind, and steam, sauna or other baths, and no premises may be so used in the borough without the council's permit, which runs for 18 months (London Local Authorities Act 1991, Part II). In Australia there is no license either, but New South Wales treats waxing as a skin-penetration procedure — "any procedure (whether medical or not) that involves skin penetration (such as acupuncture, tattooing, ear piercing or hair removal or the penetration of a mucous membrane)" — which "requires operators to be registered with the local council", while "laser hair removal is not a skin penetration procedure" (NSW Health, skin penetration); the trade's qualifications are the "Certificate III in Beauty Services" with 18 units of competency, 14 of them core (TAFE NSW, SHB30121) and the Diploma of Beauty Therapy with 29 units of competency, 20 of them core (TAFE NSW, SHB50121). Check your own state's board, and your city's business license desk, before you book the first client.