For lack of a state license required to shampoo hair, a Holland woman can’t help a customer who came to her for hair braiding, according to WZZM-TV. Under the terms of the cosmetology license Shaketra Payne would need to shampoo the customer’s hair, a shop owner must put in 1,500 hours of training or complete a two-year apprenticeship, pay $200 in fees and pass an exam.

Payne does not offer cosmetology services and is not a cosmetologist. Instead, she is a natural hair culturist, working in an occupation that does not require a license, unless one plans to teach others. In that case, the person needs 500 hours of training and a license. It is unclear why a hair culturist who wishes to shampoo a client’s hair must obtain a cosmetology license or work under someone who has one, which requires as many training hours as a licensed airline pilot. Those requirements are set by the Legislature.

Hair care professionals have, over the years, been targeted and fined by state regulators for shampooing hair without a license. In several cases, hair braiders have received a cease-and-desist-order after an inspector found a shampoo bowl at the shop.

During professional hair braiding, clean hair is essential. But hair braiding does not deal with life-or-death situations, such as those faced by emergency medical technicians. EMTs need only 194 hours of initial training to get a state license. An EMT also must receive 30 hours of continuing education per year.

Becoming a cosmetology instructor requires 500 hours of training and three years of experience. An esthetician who recommends skin care treatments needs only 400 hours of training to obtain a state license.

An electrologist treats unwanted hair by destroying the growth centers of individual hairs, using a fine needle. This person must complete 400 hours of training to acquire a state license.

The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs noted that licensing requirements are set by state lawmakers. In a response to an email sent by Michigan Capitol Confidential, the department said:

MCL 339.1207 lists the following qualifications for licensure as a cosmetologist in Michigan:

The department shall issue a cosmetologist license to an individual who fulfills all of the following requirements:
(a) Is not less than 17 years of age.
(b) Is of good moral character.
(c) Has had an education equivalent to the completion of the ninth grade.
(d) Has completed either not less than a 1,500-hour course of study in a licensed school of cosmetology or has served as an apprentice for not less than 2 years in a licensed cosmetology establishment in which hair care services, skin care services, and manicuring services are offered. The training shall include a minimum number of practical applications as prescribed in rules promulgated by the director.
(e) Has passed an examination prescribed by the department and the board.

LARA also noted that cosmetology students can shampoo hair after 350 hours of instruction, provided they are doing so in a licensed cosmetology shop and continue to be enrolled in a school of cosmetology.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with a response from LARA. It initially said the department had not responded, which was incorrect.

The city of Petoskey is getting a hazy reply on the question of whether it can regulate psychics.

Petoskey City Council members repealed an obscure fortunetelling ordinance in April, after a resident complained about the ban it imposed. The ordinance, which had most recently been updated in 2014, states, “It shall be unlawful for any person to engage in fortunetelling or pretend to tell fortunes for hire, gain, or reward.”

One of the remedies suggested for replacing the ordinance is not lawful in this state.

The city council initially aimed to regulate the practice of fortunetelling through imposing strict licensing requirements. A proposed ordinance would establish thorough rules for allowing the practice in the city. It calls for fortunetellers to provide detailed receipts to customers, submit to inspections, post their rates in a conspicuous place, and comply in “investigation of character” procedures, according to April 18 meeting minutes.

This licensing requirement would violate a state law, made effective Jan. 1, 2018, which says that municipalities cannot create new occupational licenses and that licensing requirements are now controlled by the state.

Several cities, such as Warren and Bay City, have licensing restrictions for fortunetelling. These were, however, enacted prior to the 2018 state law and are therefore grandfathered into the new law. Warren’s licensing regime, which requires a $150 application fee and fingerprints, is considered one of the most stringent in the nation.

Petoskey’s exhaustive definition of fortunetelling includes most of the biblical categories of interpreting omens, as well as many other modern and ancient practices:

The term “fortunetelling” shall mean the telling of fortunes, forecasting of futures, or reading the past. Examples of methods of fortunetelling regulated by this ordinance include, but are not limited to: means of any occult, psychic power, faculty, force, clairvoyance, cartomancy, psychometry, phrenology, spirits, tea leaves, tarot cards, scrying, coins, sticks, dice, sand, coffee grounds, crystal gazing or other such reading, or through mediumship, seership, prophecy, augury, astrology, palmistry, necromancy, mindreading, telepathy or other craft, art, science, talisman, charm, potion, magnetism, magnetized article or substance, or by any such similar thing or act. It shall also include effecting spells, charms, or incantations, or placing, or removing curses or advising the taking or administering of what are commonly called love powders or potions in order, for example, to get or recover property, stop bad luck, give good luck, put bad luck on a person or animal, stop or injure the business or health of a person or shorten a person’s life, obtain success in business, enterprise, speculation and games of chance, win the affection of a person, make one person marry or divorce another, induce a person to make or alter a will, tell where money or other property is hidden, make a person to dispose of property in favor of another, or other such similar activity. (b) Fortunetelling shall also include pretending to perform these action.

During a February hearing on the ban, a former public safety director testified that Petoskey authorities had probed an illegal fortunetelling business for its alleged ties to organized crime in 2013. But the ordinance seems rarely to have been enforced. The city is now considering alternatives for regulating paranormal businesses.

“City Staff is reviewing our transient business requirements as they apply to any type of business,” Brian Wagner, a Petoskey City Council member, said in response to an email. “We eliminated the rule against fortune telling.”