How do I renew my cosmetology license in Ohio?
Ohio cosmetology licenses are renewed through the Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board on a two-year cycle, and the current period ends on 15 January 2027. The continuing education comes from two places, and that is the thing worth understanding before you buy anything.
What Ohio asks for
- Hours required
- 4 hours of approved continuing education
- How often
- Every 2 years
- Deadline
- 15 January 2027, for the 2025-2027 renewal period
- Who sets it
- Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board
- Who is exempt
- You are exempt from CE if you were 65 or older before the renewal period began, or had held a Board license for 30 years or more. Hours taken for one license count for any others you renew.
- Reporting
- We report your hours to CE Broker, which is where the Board checks them. Ohio gives approved providers 10 days to report, and your hours have to show in CE Broker before you can finish your renewal.
Made up of
- Safety and infection control 3 hours This course. Sanitation, sterilisation and HIV/AIDS.
- Board laws and rules 1 hour Free, and offered only by the Board itself. Not ours to sell.
Ohio requires 4 CE hours in total. This course covers the 3 hours of safety and infection control. The remaining 1 hour of Board laws and rules is offered only by the Board, free of charge, so you must take that hour from the Board in addition to this course.
Checked against the board's own pages on 2026-08-09.
Why our course is 3 hours when the Board asks for 4
The Board's 4 hours are not four hours of the same thing. Three of them are safety and infection control, which is what our course delivers. The fourth is one hour of Board laws and rules, and only the Board offers that hour. It is free.
So buying our course alone leaves you one hour short of renewing, and no paid provider can sell you that hour. Take the 3 hours here, then take the free laws and rules hour from the Board's own site. We would rather say this plainly than let you find out at renewal.
Check whether you are exempt before you buy
Two groups do not need continuing education at all: anyone who was 65 or older before the renewal period began, and anyone who has held a license for 30 years or more. If either applies to you, you renew without CE, and there is nothing here for you to buy.
If you hold more than one Ohio license
The hours count once. Continuing education you complete applies to any other license you renew in the same period, so holding a cosmetology and a barber license does not double the requirement.
The renewal itself
- Take the 3 safety and infection control hours. Ours is the Ohio cosmetology CE course.
- Take the free Board laws and rules hour from the Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board. This is the step people miss.
- Renew through the Board before 15 January 2027 and pay the current fee, which the Board publishes.
- Keep your certificates. Ohio audits continuing education, and the certificate is what you produce if you are asked.
The deadline is a hard date rather than a rolling anniversary, so everyone in the state is working to the same one. That makes the last fortnight before 15 January the worst time to discover you are an hour short.
