Free Texas Class A Barber Exam Flashcards

At least 17 years old with 1,000 hours of instruction at a barbering/cosmetology school licensed in Texas, plus a $50 non-refundable TDLR application fee. Hours are the gate for both exams.

The written exam opens at 900 completed hours. The practical is available only after all 1,000 hours AND a passing written score. You cannot take them out of order.

Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1603 and 16 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 83, both listed as PSI exam references. The old barber-only Chapter 1601 and 16 TAC Chapter 82 were consolidated; material citing them is outdated.

Cutting, coloring, styling, and treating hair; beard and mustache work; shaving the face or neck with any type of razor; facials and massage of the face, neck, shoulders, and arms; temporary hair removal; manicures and pedicures; hair weaving.

Apply semipermanent threadlike eyelash extensions, which 1603.0011(c) carves out of barbering, and use any product or procedure that contacts or penetrates the dermis, which rule 83.112(c) prohibits outright.

The license is valid two years. Renewal requires 4 hours of TDLR-approved continuing education: 1 hour sanitation, 1 hour human trafficking awareness, and 2 elective hours. Keep the completion certificate for two years.

Hold a Texas license for at least 15 years and CE drops to 2 hours per renewal: 1 hour sanitation and 1 hour human trafficking awareness. Only the two elective hours are waived, never the two required subjects.

Occupations Code 1603.357 requires the barbering and cosmetology health and safety rules to be posted in every licensed establishment and school. A missing posted copy is an inspection finding.

Cleaning is washing with soap, detergent, or another adequate method to remove all visible debris. Disinfecting uses chemicals to destroy pathogens on hard, non-porous surfaces. Cleaning is not disinfection, and it must come first.

Sterilize means eliminating all microorganisms with an autoclave or dry heat sterilizer. Sanitize means reducing microorganisms to a safe level with an ultraviolet sanitizer. A UV cabinet counts only as dry storage, never as disinfection.

An EPA-registered bactericidal, fungicidal, and virucidal disinfectant used per the manufacturer's instructions, or a chlorine bleach solution mixed under rule 83.101. Alcohol is not a department-approved disinfectant in Texas.

100 to 200 ppm: two teaspoons of household 5.25% bleach in one gallon of water, soak 10 minutes minimum. This is the everyday strength for cleaned implements and non-porous surfaces.

1,000 ppm: one-third cup of household 5.25% bleach in one gallon of water, soak 20 minutes minimum. This is the strength named for spraying implements after a haircut or shave service.

5,000 ppm, also called a 10% bleach solution: one and three-quarters cups of household 5.25% bleach per gallon of water. A non-porous implement contacted by blood is immersed in it for 5 minutes.

Immersion disinfectant is prepared fresh daily, or sooner if it becomes diluted or soiled. Bleach solution is mixed daily, kept in a closed covered container out of sunlight and away from other chemicals, and discarded at the end of the day.

EPA-registered disinfectants become inactivated and ineffective when contaminated with hair, dirt, and debris. Dropping a dirty comb into solution disinfects nothing, which is why visible debris must be removed first.

Multi-use items are hard, smooth, non-porous tools such as clippers, shears, combs, and tweezers that can be cleaned and disinfected. Single-use items are porous, such as cotton balls, tissues, orangewood sticks, and gauze, and must be discarded after one client.

Never touch a client's open sore or wound. Stop minor bleeding with powdered alum, styptic powder, or a liquid-type bandage applied with a disposable cotton-tipped instrument that is discarded immediately after use.

It is immediately double-bagged and discarded in a closed trash container or biohazard box. Porous items can never be disinfected and returned to service, unlike non-porous tools that can be immersed in a 10% bleach solution for 5 minutes.

When there is reason to believe the client has a contagious condition such as head lice, nits, ringworm, or conjunctivitis, or has inflamed, infected, broken, raised, or swollen skin or nail tissue, or an open wound in the service area.

Liquid monomeric methyl methacrylate (MMA), razor-type callus shavers such as credo blades, alum or astringents in stick or lump form (powder and liquid are fine), and formalin or formaldehyde fumigants.

Pseudofolliculitis barbae is razor bumps from ingrown hairs, not an infection, and is managed by shaving with the grain and avoiding a close second pass. Sycosis barbae is a bacterial infection of the beard follicles: refuse service and refer to a physician.

Tinea (ringworm) is a contagious fungal infection showing red ring-shaped patches; tinea capitis or barbae is a hard stop. Pediculosis capitis is head lice, also contagious. Both mean no service, disinfect anything touched, and refer the client out.

Fourteen shaving areas, worked in a set order. Your stance, the direction you stand, and the razor position change from area to area so the blade can travel with the grain of the beard.

Freehand, backhand, reverse freehand, and reverse backhand. The Texas practical asks you to demonstrate the freehand, backhand, and reverse freehand strokes on the mannequin after the second lather is applied.

Freehand covers six of the fourteen areas, backhand four, and reverse freehand four. Reverse backhand is the least-used stroke, reserved for the neck behind the ear on the barber's opposite side.

The first-time-over is the standard shave, stroking with the grain over fresh lather. The second-time-over re-lathers and shaves across or against the grain for a closer finish, and it is where irritation and ingrown hairs start.

A steam towel softens the beard and relaxes the skin, then lather is massaged in to lift the hair. The Texas practical scores preparing the client, preparing the face, removing that first lather, and re-lathering before the shave begins.

The free hand stretches the skin taut against the direction of the stroke. Slack skin lets the blade catch, nick, or scrape. Never shave over moles, warts, skin tags, or inflamed skin.

You must bring a disposable-blade straight razor with a blade installed. The blade is a single-use item discarded after the service, and the razor itself is cleaned and disinfected under rule 83.103 like other non-single-use implements.

Draping must be maintained throughout the service, waste disposed of properly, contaminated items replaced, containers kept closed when not in use, the kit kept sanitary, and cross contamination avoided. Each is a separate scored safety criterion.

Every trace of lather must be removed, a scored step in the Texas practical. A cool towel followed by an astringent, freshener, or toner then contracts the skin and soothes it.

Zero degrees is a blunt one-length cut that builds maximum weight, 45 degrees creates graduation and a stacked weight line, and 90 degrees produces uniform layers. Elevation decides where the weight sits.

A stationary guide brings every section back to one fixed line, building length and weight such as in a blunt cut. A traveling (mobile) guide moves with each new section, producing layers or graduation.

Both use the comb as the moving guide. Clipper-over-comb removes bulk quickly through the taper area; shear-over-comb refines and blends. The Texas practical scores clipper-over-comb from nape to parietal ridge, then shear-over-comb blending.

Freehand clipper cutting works the clipper directly against the head without a comb, used throughout the nape. Arching outlines the hair around and behind the ears. Both are three-point procedure steps in the Texas practical haircut.

It is the widest part of the head, where the top surface meets the sides. Taper work runs from the nape up to the parietal ridge, and the top is cut from it, so blending problems usually show up right at that line.

Recheck the cut using partings that run opposite to the ones you cut on. Balance is explicitly scored in Texas: both sides must match in length and weight before you clean the loose hair from the mannequin and sweep the floor.

Test the iron's temperature on a damp towel or tissue before it goes near hair, and place a comb between the iron and the scalp while forming the curl. Both testing the iron and protecting the scalp are scored steps.

Level is lightness or darkness on the 1 (black) to 10 (lightest blond) scale. Tone is the warmth or coolness of the color. Judge the level first, because tone can only correct a result you have already lifted or deposited correctly.

The patch (predisposition) test goes on the skin 24 to 48 hours before an aniline derivative tint to screen for an allergic reaction. The strand test is done on hair to predict processing time and final color. Texas scores both in the practical.

10 volume deposits with little to no lift, 20 volume lifts one to two levels, 30 volume two to three, and 40 volume three to four. Higher volume swells the cuticle more, so it lifts faster and damages more.

Product goes on the new growth only, then is blended. Overlapping onto previously colored hair causes banding, breakage, and a visible line of demarcation. Keep chemicals off the client's facial skin and ears.

Waving lotion, usually ammonium thioglycolate, breaks the disulfide bonds by reduction so the hair takes the shape of the rod. The neutralizer rebuilds those bonds by oxidation. Skip or shortcut the neutralizer and the curl relaxes out.

Rod diameter sets curl size, not the strength of the lotion: a smaller rod gives a tighter curl. A test curl, unwound partway, shows whether a firm S-shape has formed before you neutralize.

Hydroxide relaxers (sodium hydroxide lye, guanidine hydroxide no-lye) break bonds permanently and are stopped with a neutralizing or acid-balanced shampoo. Thio relaxers use a separate neutralizer. Never apply one system over the other, and protect the scalp and hairline with base cream first.

Cuticle, the overlapping protective scales; cortex, roughly 90% of the hair's weight, holding the melanin and the disulfide bonds every chemical service targets; and medulla, the central core, often absent in fine or naturally blond hair.

Anagen is active growth and lasts roughly three to five years on the scalp, catagen is a brief transition, and telogen is the resting phase that ends in shedding. Only anagen hair is actively growing, which is why regrowth timing varies by client.

The matrix, tucked under the eponychium at the base, produces the nail plate; injuring it deforms the nail permanently. The nail bed is the skin the plate slides across, and the free edge is the part extending past the fingertip.

Effleurage (light stroking, which opens and closes the massage), petrissage (kneading), tapotement (percussion), friction, and vibration. The Texas practical requires demonstrating at least one manipulation, and no procedure may penetrate the dermis.