Court Opinion

ID: 9689563
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:40:21.169443+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:50.465027
License: Public Domain

DAY, J.
(dissenting) I dissent. The training of the two occupations of barber and cosmetologist have become so similar that there is no longer any justification for prohibiting a licensed cosmetologist from operating under a master barber in a barber shop or for prohibiting a journeyman barber from operating under a managing cosmetologist in a beauty shop.
The attorney general in the oral argument of this case on behalf of the two examining boards admitted that a woman can go into a barber shop run by a master barber and get all of the services such as scalp treatment, hair styling, permanents, cutting, dyeing and a variety of other services that she could get in a beauty salon run by a managing cosmetologist. Likewise, a man can go into a beauty salon and get a plain haircut or a hair styling and all of the other types of hair and scalp treatment described above that he could get in a barber shop. The most cursory examination of the hair styles of present day men and women shows that frequently, particularly among younger people, the styles are strikingly similar.
It was conceded that the purpose of the required training is to insure competence in the cutting, trimming, styling, shampooing, and general treatment of the hair. Both barbers and cosmetologists are permitted to perform these services for either sex under licenses granted to each by the state through their respective boards. The training is conceded to be almost identical. The difference in the two is accidental rather than by design. The only difference of materiality is that cosmetologists are *189not trained to shave beards and hence not permitted to give shaves and barbers are not trained to give manicures and are prohibited from doing such. But shaves and manicures are not involved in this case before us.
The majority opinion says the factual record is not sufficient to allow a judgment that the law as applied in denying Patricia Laufenberg the right to make a living as a cosmetologist is unconstitutional. I disagree. We can take judicial notice of the absolute similarity in the training of the two occupations since the curricula is a matter of public record.
The right to choose and pursue a lawful occupation is one of the liberties protected by the fourteenth amendment and is a property right within the due process clause. 16 Am. Jur.2d, Constitutional Law, sec. 371 (1964). State v. Withrow, 228 Wis. 404, 407, 230 N.W. 364 (1938).
It was conceded that the health and safety of barber shop patrons is not threatened when a licensed cosmetologist cuts their hair. It is interesting that the inspection of both types of establishments is carried on jointly by the boards using the same inspectors.
The court below and the state on appeal relies on the theory that there is another purpose and that is to insure competency. But the fact is that there is no competency problem in allowing a cosmetologist to cut the hair of male customers in a beauty salon. The attorney general has considered this issue on two occasions. In 60 Op. Atty. Gen. 376 (October 15, 1976) the attorney general said that a proposed statute which would prevent men from going to cosmetologists would violate the equal protection clause. Similarly, in 50 Op. Atty. Gen. 169 (October 9, 1961), the attorney general concluded that the statutory terms did not prohibit a cosmetologist from cutting mens’ hair in a beauty salon. Courts have generally held that statutes restricting cosmetologists to cutting the hair of women and forbidding them from cutting men’s hair are unconstitutional. Bolton v. Texas *190Board of Barber Examiners, 350 F. Supp. 494 (N.D. Tex.), aff’d 409 U.S. 807, 93 S. Ct. 52, 34 L. Ed.2d 68 (1972); Pavone v. Louisiana State Board of Barber Examiners, 505 F.2d 1022 (5th Cir. 1974); Tuozzoli v. Killian, 386 F. Supp. 9 (D. Conn. 1974); People v. Taylor, 540 Pac.2d 320 (Colo. 1975); Maryland State Board of Examiners v. Kuhn, 270 Md. 496, 312 Atl.2d 216 (1973); People v. McDonald, 67 Mich. App. 64, 240 N.W.2d 268 (1976); Minnesota Board of Barber Examiners v. Laurance, 300 Minn. 203, 218 N.W.2d 692 (1974); New York State Hairdressers & Cosmetologists Assn. Inc. v. Cuomo, 83 Misc.2d 154, 369 N.Y.S.2d 965 (1975); Leetham v. McGinn, 524 Pac.2d 323 (Utah 1974).
Only the Iowa Supreme Court held that because of physiological differences in the skin and hair of men and women it is reasonable to restrict a cosmetologist’s practice to women customers. Green v. Shama, 217 N.W.2d 547 (Iowa, 1974). The Iowa statute was subsequently changed by the legislature to permit cosmetologists to cut men’s hair. Iowa Code, sec. 157.1.
The trial court in the case before us held that “the requirement that an operator may not practice cosmetology unless under the supervision and direction of a licensed manager [managing cosmetologist] is reasonably related to the goal of competence. . .” But the differences in training are minimal. The only substantial difference is that barbers are trained in shaving and cosmetologists are trained in manicuring. Barbers are expected to perform 500 haircuts and stylings while cosmetologists must have forty-five hours of practical class instruction in cutting and one hundred hours in styling and must complete one hundred cutting assignments and two hundred styling assignments. The trial court noted, erroneously, that cosmetologists were not required to perform a prescribed number of each procedure. The cosmetology curriculum requires fewer assignments than *191the barbers curriculum in every area except shampooing and waving. Yet cosmetology training requires approximately the same number of hours. The circuit court noted that cosmetology training was 1,500 hours and barber training was 1,248 hours. However, this observation failed to consider the additional 288 hours of school instruction that barber apprentices must fulfill over and above the hours spent in barber college. Sec. 158.09(1) (c), Stats.
What differences there are in the curriculum of the barbers and cosmetologists must not, by force of logic, be important. If they are, then barbers should be restricted to cutting men’s hair and cosmetologists should be restricted to cutting women’s hair.
The fact is that both cosmetologists and barbers are allowed to cut the hair of either sex. If a master barber can “supervise” a journeyman barber in his shop in the cutting of men’s hair, there is no reason demonstrated in the record before us why that same master barber cannot “supervise” a licensed cosmetologist to cut men’s hair. It is especially true in this case where shortly after this action was started, Patricia Laufenberg was granted a license as a managing cosmetologist allowing her to supervise other cosmetologists in the cutting of either men’s or women’s hair.
The only justification for any of these regulations is the protection of the public and that protection is to insure competence on the part of the operator and safety and sanitation in the surroundings in which the services are performed. Nothing in the stipulation before us in any way impugns the competency of Patricia Laufen-berg to cut men’s hair, which is what she was doing in the barber shop managed by William Morrill.
It must be emphasized that neither the Cosmetology Board nor the trial court stated that Patricia Laufenberg was not competent to cut hair in the barber shop.
*192It is also interesting that the only procedure that Patricia Laufenberg was trained to perform which Mr. Morrill had not been trained in was manicuring, yet manicuring may be performed in barber shops without supervision. Sec. 159.08(7) (m), Stats.
The Barber’s Board charged Mr. Morrill with hiring a person who was not licensed as a barber to practice barbering. However, the statement of stipulated facts said that Patricia Laufenberg was “cutting hair.” There is no charge that he was permitting her to perform a procedure, such as shaving, for which she had not been trained.
The trial court also found that the Cosmetology statutes were a reasonable method to insure that cosmetology inspectors would be able to find cosmetologists in order to inspect their work and their work place. First of all, cosmetology inspectors must cope with the fact that manicurists, who are licensed cosmetologists, are practicing in barber shops. Second, the inspection of both beauty salons and barber shops is carried on jointly by the boards using the same inspectors, and so all places of business are inspected to insure health, safety and competency. Nothing in this record indicates that the health, safety or welfare of the public have been in any way threatened or jeopardized by the actions of either William Morrill or Patricia Laufenberg.
I conclude that the statutes challenged here are arbitrary and unreasonable in their application to the present fact situation. The application of the statutes to both petitioners is unrelated to the statutory purpose of protecting the public health, safety and welfare. The statutes as applied unnecessarily and unreasonably infringe on both petitioners’ right to pursue occupations for which they are trained, and thus violate due process.
I would reverse the judgment of the circuit court.
It is obvious that what occurred here was merely a challenge to test the law.
*193In the interests of justice, even under the majority-opinion, this case should be returned to the cosmetology board for reconsideration of the length of Patricia Laufenberg’s suspension. The disparity in punishment between Morrill and Laufenberg, (his suspension is for ninety days; hers for one year) and the severity of her punishment is a clear abuse of discretion on the part of the Cosmetology Examining Board.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Callow joins in this dissent.