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In taking on cosmetologists — and other licensed professions — the White House may have picked a fight it can’t win. Susan Peterkin-Bishop owns a salon in Silver Spring, and thinks natural hair care stylists should have to be licensed. (Lydia DePillis/The Washington Post) FOR 17 years, Susan Peterkin-Bishop had the natural hair care market pretty much to herself on Bonifant Street in Silver Spring, Md. But then, a few years ago, salons started popping up right and left — cutting into her business. “Right now anybody can just open up shop and say 'I’m a natural hair care stylist,'” she says. That’s literally true, and unusual in the beauty

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industry. Most hairdressers need to graduate from a training program with at least 1,500 hours of training before the state of Maryland will grant them permission to practice; Peterkin-Bishop herself is a licensed cosmetologist. “Natural” hair stylists, who don’t use chemicals or heat treatments, can just hang a shingle and start braiding. Peterkin-Bishop is trying to change that. She and a collection of salon owners have banded together to push a bill in Annapolis that would require practitioners of their craft to be trained and licensed. “At least it will weed out those ones who are really really bad,” says Peterkin-Bishop, who oversees three employees working quietly in her brightly lit salon. In doing so, she’s picked a much bigger fight than she may have realized — with the White House, which thinks that the expansion of such occupational licenses has created a substantial drag on the economy by making it harder for people to start their own businesses, while usually adding little public benefit. "The evidence in terms of occupational licensing is that it really matters,” said Jason Furman, chair of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, at a think tank last week in Washington. The share of the workforce that has a required state license — for everything from hearing aid dealers to funeral parlor owners — has grown from 5 percent in the 1950s to nearly 29 percent today, he said, sometimes with the effect of raising prices for consumers. “We’re just trying to put a big thumb on the scale on behalf of the workers who don’t have those licenses, and the consumers that buy their services." — Council of Economic Advisors chairman Jason Furman The White House put out a report on the issue over the summer, and has since then been encouraging state legislatures and governors to take a closer look at their licensing laws with an eye towards rolling some back. It's also requested $15 million for the Department of Labor to identify places where licensing requirements might be excessive. “We’re just trying to put a big thumb on the scale on behalf of the workers who don’t have those licenses, and the consumers that buy their services,” Furman said. So far, however, the pushback against occupational licensing hasn’t been terribly successful — in large part because of people like Peterkin-Bishop, who’ve been able to convince lawmakers that their professions are worth protecting. Cassandra Williams, left, gets her hair done at Jaha Hair Studio every few weeks. (Lydia DePillis/The Washington Post)