22.1 Shop Licenses, Experienced Practicing Licensees, Mini-Suites, and Booth Rental

Why shop law is on this exam

The NIC New Jersey Cosmetologist-Hair Stylist theory exam puts New Jersey State Law at 5 weighted items out of 110. Those items are a small slice of the paper and a large slice of whether you can legally take a paycheck. N.J.A.C. 13:28-6.29 assigns 10 classroom hours to State Laws, Rules and Regulations and Administrative Shop Operations, with 0 practical hours. Chapter 21 already mapped who you are as a licensee: Board, license types, C-H scope, student permits, shampoo permits, and temporary permits. This chapter is where you may work and who must be in the building.

A shop license is a premises credential. N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.1(a)1 is the cosmetology and hairstyling shop license that authorizes the services in N.J.A.C. 13:28-1.1(a)1 — the C-H menu from Chapter 21. The Board also issues beauty-culture, barbering, skin-care-specialty, manicuring, and hair-braiding shop licenses. The shop type caps the menu. A manicurist shop does not become a full-service salon because a C-H licensee rents a chair in it.

Board FAQ item 6 (last modified 5/2/2025): you are not required to hold a C-H license yourself to open a beauty shop if you hire a manager with at least three years of experience as a licensed cosmetologist-hairstylist and you apply for a shop license. FAQ item 5: a manicurist may operate a shop, but must apply for a shop license, hold a current New Jersey manicurist license, and have at least three years of work experience as a licensed manicurist or cosmetologist. Those sentences are the EPL idea in plain English. The personal license and the premises license are two documents.

How a shop gets, moves, or changes a license

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.1 is the application rule. Applications come from the Board office or online. If the shop is not a sole proprietorship, the application must include proof of the form of ownership: incorporation papers, a partnership agreement, or another reliable ownership document. Every initial application needs a floor plan drawn to scale that locates workstations, waiting areas, dispensary, shampoo stations if applicable, lavatories, and laundry if applicable. A copy of that original floor plan stays on the premises. The application lists all services and proposed hours; the shop-license holder must notify the Board in writing of later changes to that list. Municipal planning, zoning, or construction approval is required, or a municipal statement that approval is not required.

No shop may operate until the Board reviews an inspection report and issues the shop license (N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.1(g)). Physical expansion or alteration, including as part of an ownership transfer, needs a new Board approval package: the application fee in N.J.A.C. 13:28-5.1, a statement of the changes, the original and new floor plans, and municipal approval or a municipal statement that none is required.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.2 covers a move. Before the shop leaves one address, the holder applies for a new shop license under 13:28-2.1. An acceptable application must reach the Board not less than three weeks before the intended opening date. Cosmetology and hairstyling, beauty culture, barbering, manicuring, skin care specialty, or hair braiding shall not be performed on the new premises until the new shop license is issued. Packing the stations on a Sunday and opening Monday at the new strip-mall bay is unlicensed practice, even if the old license is still in the frame.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.3 covers transfer of ownership. The current holder notifies the Board by letter of the new owner's name and address and surrenders the shop license when the transfer is complete. The intended new owner applies for a new shop license under 13:28-2.1 before the transfer finishes. Practice shall not be performed until that new license is issued. The one published exception: if the transfer results from death or disability of a principal shareholder or partner, the shop may continue for six months under N.J.S.A. 45:5B-36 while the new-license application is completed.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.4 is shop renewal, which is not the individual 30-day rule in Section 22.3. The holder submits renewal before the current shop license expires. The Board may renew a shop license within 90 days after expiration. After 90 days, the Board will not renew; the owner must apply for an initial shop license under 13:28-2.1. Renewal or restoration does not bar the Board from penalizing operation without a valid license.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-5.1 shop dollars, so you do not mix them with the $90 individual biennial fee: shop application (includes inspection) $150; initial shop license $200 in year 1 of a cycle or $100 in year 2; biennial shop renewal $200.

Physical list for an initial C-H shop (N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.5)

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.5 is the initial-license physical rule for cosmetology and hairstyling, beauty culture, barbering, and hair braiding shops. All of those shops must contain at least 350 square feet of floor space. An additional 50 square feet is required for every workstation in excess of two. Two stations can sit in 350 square feet. A third station makes the floor 400. A fourth makes it 450. Do not treat 350 as a flat number no matter how many chairs you add.

The lavatory rule is N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.5(a)1: at least one lavatory that includes a toilet, hand washing facilities, and a door. A curtain around a toilet is not a door. A sink in the dispensary is not the lavatory.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.5(a)2 is the equipment list every exam candidate should be able to recap without looking:

• at least one shampoo basin with hot and cold running water and a reclining chair;
• for barbering shops only, at least one chair with an adjustable headrest suitable for shaving (a C-H shop still needs the shampoo basin; it does not skip shampoo because it also offers shaves);
• a designated area for cleaning and disinfecting implements and tools;
• one ultrasonic unit for cleaning metal implements and tools;
• a clean, closed receptacle for storage of sanitized implements and tools at each workstation;
• a closed container for clean linens and a closed container for soiled linens;
• a closed waste container accessible to each workstation;
• hair drying facilities and/or hair drying equipment;
• a dispensary or place where supplies are prepared and dispensed;
• other equipment needed to offer the shop's services safely and sanitarily.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.5(b) requires a permanent sign indicating the shop name, clearly visible to the public from the exterior. N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.5(d) requires this consumer complaint notice, as applicable to the services offered, in a location clearly visible to patrons:

NOTICE

This shop and the operators herein are licensed to engage in the practice of cosmetology and hairstyling, beauty culture, barbering, or hair braiding by the State Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling, an agency of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs. Any member of the consuming public having a complaint concerning the manner in which this practice is conducted may notify the State Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling or the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, PO Box 45003, Newark, New Jersey 07101, www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/complaint/cosmocom.pdf.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.5(c) is a narrow waiver, not a DIY exception. Where the application is for premises previously licensed by the former Board of Barber Examiners or the former Board of Beauty Culture Control, or for premises that operated as hair braiding shops before January 2, 2019, and the premises do not meet 13:28-2.5, the Board may waive one or more requirements for good cause. The Board will not grant a waiver where the failure may leave the owner unable to provide authorized services in a safe and sanitary manner. Mini-suite square-footage and lavatory waivers are a different Board-FAQ path, not this historic-premises paragraph.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.7 is the home-shop rule. No portion of a licensed shop may be used as a portion of a private residence. Entrances must let patrons enter the shop directly, without passing through any portion of the residence. No C-H, beauty culture, barbering, manicuring, skin care specialty, or hair braiding services may be rendered or offered on residential premises that are not licensed under N.J.S.A. 45:5B-9 and this chapter. Board FAQ item 9: you may open a beauty shop in your house with municipal zoning permission, a current personal license, a shop license, and compliance with the regulations. The FAQ does not erase 13:28-2.7's separate-entrance and not-a-bedroom-corner tests.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.7A limits what else happens inside the licensed rooms. A C-H, beauty-culture, or barbering shop holder shall not run other businesses on the licensed premises except the licensed services, merchandise under N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.9, and ancillary beautification services under N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.10. Space used for merchandise or ancillary services is in addition to the 13:28-2.5 square footage. A tattoo parlor, a medical spa injecting fillers, or a dental-whitening booth is not "retail" under 2.9.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.14: the shop-license holder shall not aid, abet, or permit a person not licensed by the Board to render any service inside the C-H statutory definition. That is an unlawful practice by the shop owner under N.J.S.A. 45:5B-13(d). The unlicensed assistant who "just blow-dries" is still the shop's problem.

Posting: shop license, pictured practitioner licenses, prices (N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.12)

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.12(a) requires every shop to display, in a location clearly visible to all patrons:

1. the shop license;
2. signed licenses for all practitioners rendering services in the shop, each with a current picture of the licensee — and a Board wallet identification card shall not be used to satisfy this section;
3. a listing of all services performed and the charges for each service.

The wallet-card sentence is the exam trap. The Board issues a pictured wall license and a wallet card. The wall license, signed, with a current picture, goes where the patron can read it without asking. Taping the wallet card to the mirror, sliding it under the glass of the station, or keeping it in a drawer "for the inspector" does not satisfy 13:28-2.12(a)2.

Scenario: wallet card on the station

Dana is a newly licensed C-H at a licensed shop in Cherry Hill. She keeps her wallet identification card taped to the station so clients "can see she is licensed," and she leaves the pictured wall license at home in a frame. An inspector asks every person on the floor to show the posted license. Dana points to the wallet card. That display fails N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.12(a)2. The shop also fails if Dana's pictured license is in the back office, in a binder, or behind the reception computer that patrons cannot see. The shop license, every working practitioner's signed pictured license, and the price list all have to be in the patron-visible set. The EPL name posting in 13:28-2.13 is a fourth required posting, not a substitute for Dana's own pictured license.

The experienced practicing licensee (N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.13)

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.13 calls the person experienced practicing licensee. The Board FAQ abbreviates EPL. Same role. Except as provided for certain pre-1985 shops in 13:28-2.13(c), every shop must have at least one EPL present to generally oversee management, with credentials that match the shop type:

This exam is C-H. For a C-H shop, memorize the first row: C-H license plus three years. A brand-new C-H licensee cannot be that shop's EPL. A three-year manicurist cannot be the EPL of a C-H shop.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.13(e): the designated EPL's name shall be posted where patrons can see it. N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.13(f): a practitioner may be designated as EPL for one shop only. N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.13(g): when the designated EPL is absent, the owner must have another practitioner physically present who has three years of experience and who meets this section; that substitute's name is posted for patrons.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.13(b) is the student-permit trap for limited-license EPLs. A shop that meets 13:28-2.13(a) by using a beauty-culture, barbering, skin-care, manicuring, or hair-braiding EPL shall not employ senior students with student permits other than students being trained in that EPL's practice, unless the shop also employs a C-H EPL with at least three years as a cosmetologist-hairstylist. Pre-1985 C-H shops under 13:28-2.13(c) may use a C-H, beauty-culture, or barbering EPL with three years; if that EPL is only a barber, the shop still cannot host senior C-H students unless a three-year beautician or C-H EPL is also there.

Scenario: one EPL covering two addresses

Luis has held a New Jersey C-H license for eight years. He is the posted EPL at Shop A on Bloomfield Avenue. The same owner opens Shop B three blocks away and tells Luis he can "cover both places" because he can drive over in five minutes and his pictured license is already copied for the second wall. That arrangement fails N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.13(f): one person, one shop as EPL. It also fails 13:28-2.13(a) whenever Shop B has no qualifying EPL present. Posting Luis's name at two addresses does not split him into two people. Shop B needs its own three-year C-H EPL on the floor, with that person's name posted. If Luis is the designated EPL at Shop A and he leaves for lunch, Shop A still needs a posted three-year substitute under 13:28-2.13(g) — not a junior stylist "watching the desk."

Mini-suites (Board FAQ, last modified 5/2/2025)

A mini-suite shop is a Board-licensed shop that provides Board-regulated services in a small enclosed space. It is not a chair along a gallery wall. It is its own shop license, with its own application, inspection, and EPL.

The FAQ numbers to memorize:

• at least 100 net usable square feet for one practitioner;
• at least 200 net usable square feet for two practitioners;
• not more than two working practitioners present at a time;
• not more than 349 net usable square feet (so the space stays under the ordinary 350-square-foot initial-shop floor, which is why the Board waives 13:28-2.5(a)).

An EPL for a mini-suite is a licensee with at least three years' experience who manages a Board-licensed shop congruent with that EPL's license. A C-H may be EPL for a C-H mini-suite; a manicurist may be EPL for a manicuring mini-suite. Each mini-suite must have one EPL present when services are rendered. One C-H cannot serve as EPL for more than one mini-suite. That is the FAQ restatement of the one-shop EPL rule inside a suite building.

Application documents the FAQ lists: lease or deed; LLC or INC documents, tax identification number, and Alternate Trade Name Form if applicable; certificate of occupancy, fire and zoning permit, or a municipal letter if a permit cannot be provided; designation of an EPL; and a request for waiver of regulations. The two waivers the FAQ says a mini-suite must request are:

• N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.5(a) — square footage, so 100 / 200 / max 349 can be licensed;
• N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.5(a)1 — lavatory, if the mini-suite has access to a lavatory nearby that staff and customers can use.

Every unwaived 13:28-2.5 item still applies: shampoo basin and reclining chair for a C-H suite, ultrasonic unit, closed sanitized-tool receptacle at each station, closed linen and waste containers, dispensary, exterior sign, consumer complaint notice. The Board does not require a gallery shop license for the landlord that rents space to mini-suites. The Board inspects the mini-suites under its purview; it does not inspect tattooing, permanent makeup, or body-piercing businesses in the same building, which are not this Board's licenses.

Scenario: mini-suite without an EPL on the floor

Priya leases a 180-square-foot C-H mini-suite in a Jersey City suite hotel. The Board issued her shop license after waiving 13:28-2.5(a) and the on-suite lavatory. She has been licensed as a C-H for 14 months. She works alone and posts only her pictured license and the shop license. When an inspector asks who the EPL is, she says she is the owner so she must be the EPL. She is not. The FAQ and N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.13(a)1 require three years as a licensed C-H for a C-H shop EPL. Owner status does not shorten the three years. She must designate a qualifying EPL who is present whenever she renders services, post that name, and she cannot borrow the EPL from the suite next door. If she later qualifies as EPL, she still cannot be EPL for two mini-suites at once.

Chair and booth rental: teach the Code and the FAQ without inventing a third license type

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.8 is still titled Leasing space prohibited. No shop-license holder shall lease or sublease space, or provide space on the licensed premises, to a non-employee for C-H, beauty culture, barbering, manicuring, skin care specialty, hair braiding, or ancillary services as part of a separate business conducted by that non-employee. The sentence that follows is the exam quote: Practices commonly known as chair rentals or booth rentals are prohibited by this section. The last Cornell-noted amendment to that section in the 2021 hair-braiding adoption did not delete the prohibition.

The Board FAQ (last modified 5/2/2025) and the applications page currently describe a chair/booth rental process anyway. Teach what those pages actually say, and do not invent a dollar fee or a seventh practicing-license title:

• the individual must already be licensed as a cosmetologist, beautician, barber, skin care specialist, or manicurist, in good standing;
• a copy of a written contract or agreement with the licensed shop owner must be submitted;
• the applicant submits an online application and pays the application fee (the FAQ does not publish the dollar amount; N.J.A.C. 13:28-5.1 does not list a separate booth-rental line item in the fee table extracted for this guide);
• the chair or booth must pass inspection before the renter may begin practicing there;
• a chair/booth rental license must be renewed biannually;
• relocating to a different salon requires a new application, a new inspection, and a new license number;
• the renter is an independent contractor, not classified as an employee; the shop has no right to control the methodology the renter uses;
• the renter does not need to be the shop EPL;
• the renter shall not offer services beyond the shop owner's licensed scope.

If a theory item cites 13:28-2.8, the Code answer is that chair or booth rental as a separate non-employee business is prohibited. If a theory item tracks the current Board FAQ, the operational path is: already-licensed practitioner, written contract, online application, inspection first, biannual renewal, independent contractor, not the EPL, stay inside the shop license menu. Do not collapse those two sources into a fake sentence such as "New Jersey replaced shop licenses with booth licenses" or "there is no booth process at all." The lawful small independent space the FAQ does fully specify as its own shop license is the mini-suite (100 / 200 / max 349, own EPL when services are rendered).

Student permits, shampoo permits, 120-day temporary permits, and unlicensed-practice theory remain Chapter 21. This section only adds that 13:28-2.14 makes the shop holder responsible for unlicensed hands on the premises, and that 13:28-2.13(b) limits which student-permit holders a limited-license EPL may supervise.

The $150 shop application fee in N.J.A.C. 13:28-5.1 includes the shop inspection. Do not substitute the $90 individual biennial fee for a shop application.