2.4 Professional Ethics, Client Communication & Inspection Conduct

2.4 Professional Ethics, Client Communication & Inspection Conduct

Quick Answer: Professional practice in Oklahoma is posting a current license with a 2 x 2 photo, carrying photo identification for the inspector, refusing work that punctures the skin or that you are not licensed to do, stopping when infection is visible, and never handing cash to someone who claims to be from the Board. Fines come in writing.

What the Board can suspend you for — 59 O.S. § 199.11

OSBCB may deny, revoke, suspend, or refuse to renew a license, certificate, or registration for:

1. Conviction of a felony that substantially relates to cosmetology practice and poses a reasonable threat to public safety.
2. Gross malpractice or gross incompetence.
3. Fraud practiced in obtaining a license or registration.
4. Continuing to practice while afflicted with an infectious, contagious, or communicable disease.
5. Habitual drunkenness or addiction to habit-forming drugs.
6. Advertising by statements known to be false or deceptive.
7. Continued or flagrant violation of Board rules, or continued practice in an establishment where violations are committed within the knowledge of the licensee.
8. Failure to display the license or certificate as required.
9. Continued practice after expiration.
10. A salon owner or manager employing an unlicensed person to perform cosmetology or barbering.
11. Practicing in an unprofessional manner.
12. Unsanitary operating practices or unsanitary conditions of a school or establishment.
13. Unsanitary operating practices of a licensee.

Substantially relates means the criminal conduct has a direct bearing on fitness to perform the occupation. Poses a reasonable threat means the conduct involved an act or threat of harm against another and bears on fitness to serve the public. Those definitions matter if a stem asks whether every felony automatically bars licensure — the statute uses those two tests, not a blanket lifetime ban for any conviction.

Schools must post a Code of Ethics (OAC 175:10-7-17(c)). Salons must post sanitation and disinfection rules, not a substitute ethics poster that hides an expired license.

Communicable disease and skin integrity — OAC 175:10-7-20 and 175:10-7-18

Licensees use universal precautions: treat blood and other body fluids as infectious.

If a licensee, student, or apprentice has reason to suspect a patron is suffering from any communicable or infectious disease, the licensee's hands shall be washed and disinfected, services shall be discontinued, and the patron shall be referred to a physician. That is a stop-and-refer rule, not a finish-the-color-then-suggest-a-doctor rule.

No person in charge of an Establishment or school, if knowingly infected, shall work there, nor permit any person infected with a communicable disease to work there. No licensee, student, or apprentice shall massage any person when the surface to be massaged is inflamed or has open cuts, lesions, or infection (OAC 175:10-7-20(d)).

Before and after each patron service, wash hands and examine the integrity of the skin. If an abrasion, cut, scratch, open lesion, or infection is evidenced, wear protective or disposable gloves (OAC 175:10-7-18(a)). Wash hands with running water and soap, then dry with a disposable towel, before any service and after eating, smoking, or using the restroom. The rule states antibacterial soap is not recommended. Implements that cannot be disinfected are single-use. Tools that will contact the patron shall not be placed in the licensee's mouth or other mucous membranes.

Blood spots: styptic pencils and lump alum are prohibited. Use liquid or powdered astringent applied with separate, clean, sterile gauze or cotton, then dispose of it immediately. If you can reasonably anticipate contact with blood or other potentially infectious material, use universal precautions and wear disposable gloves; do not reuse gloves.

Talking to the client without overselling the license

Ethics here is accurate scope, not a script of compliments.

• Name the service you are licensed to perform. If the client asks for microblading, tattoo removal, a Class 3 laser, or microneedling deeper than 0.25 mm, say those services are outside Oklahoma Cosmetology scope and refer to an appropriate licensed health professional. Do not call a puncture service a facial upgrade.
• Explain chemical-exfoliation limits in ordinary language: you work on the stratum corneum, generally at 30% or less or pH not less than 3, unless every manufacturer exception is documented.
• If the client's skin is inflamed, cut, or infected, decline the massage or service on that surface and explain why. Referral is part of competence, not a lost sale.
• For in-home work, distinguish patron-requested § 199.18 visits (patron assumes liability for home equipment; still work sanitarily) from emergency invalidism visits that need a doctor's statement booked from a licensed Establishment. Do not market door-to-door canvassing as either statute.
• Do not advertise a Blow-Dry/Styling certificate as a license to cut hair or apply keratin or color. HB 2141's definition excludes those acts.
• Do not tell a shampoo-only hire they need a Cosmetology license for washing hair, and do not tell a Cosmetology candidate to skip shampooing theory because Oklahoma deregulated the standalone occupation. Those are different layers; client communication should not collapse them into one slogan.

Inspection conduct — cooperate, post, do not pay cash at the door

OAC 175:10-15-2 gives the Inspector or authorized representative authority and right of entry into Establishments and schools during reasonable business hours to check sanitation and licensing. Inspectors list who is working, license type, file number, and expiration date. They file reports on alleged violations. Refusal to permit, or otherwise interfering with, an inspection is cause for disciplinary action and can lead to revocation or suspension. Establishments are inspected a minimum of two times a year; schools every 10 to 12 weeks.

Inspection-day checklist you can rehearse:

• License and current 2 x 2 photo posted in public view.
• Current inspection report posted in public view.
• Sanitation rules posted.
• Wet and dry sanitizers in use, not in a drawer.
• Photo ID on your person.
• No unlicensed worker performing Cosmetology or barbering (59 O.S. § 199.11(10)).
• No MMA, credo blade, fish spa, or styptic pencil on the cart.
• Animals out of the salon except ADA service animals.

OSBCB's homepage notice is an ethics item as well as a consumer-protection item: the Board will never call or come to any establishment requesting or demanding money for any reason. Contact the Board immediately if that happens. When a violation warrants a fine, you receive written notification detailing the violation and fine procedures. Paying cash to a walk-in stranger does not satisfy 59 O.S. § 199.6.

Administrative fines under 59 O.S. § 199.6: not to exceed $50 for those licensed and not to exceed $500 for those not licensed, with each day a violation continues construed as a separate offense (the statute also states the administrative fine shall not exceed a total of $500). Licensed versus unlicensed status changes the cap — working expired is also a 199.11 ground.

Board contact for a suspected impostor or a written-notice question: 2401 NW 23rd Street, Suite 74, Oklahoma City, OK 73107; homepage portal and (405) 521-2441 as posted by the agency. Office hours on the homepage: 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Independent OpenExamPrep teaching for this chapter: ethics questions on Oklahoma materials usually recycle posting, photo ID, communicable-disease stop rules, scope limits, and inspection cooperation. They are not a request to invent continuing-education hours OSBCB has not published.

Official sources for this section

• 59 O.S. §§ 199.6, 199.11; OAC 175:10-7-17, 175:10-7-18, 175:10-7-20, 175:10-15-2
• OSBCB homepage — written-fine warning; last modified September 3, 2026
• 2025 OSBCB rule book effective December 1, 2025