In May, the Professional Beauty Federation of California’s (PBFC) Welcome to Our World (W.O.W.) lobbying event took place at the Capitol Events Center, next door to the capitol building in Sacramento, California. Dozens of volunteer beauty professionals performed hundreds of services on more than 125 policymakers, regulators, and staffers throughout the afternoon.

PBFC’s members and industry sponsors used this opportunity to focus on the many opportunities, issues, and challenges facing the industry in California, particularly policy and regulatory issues that need to be addressed by California’s elected and appointed leaders. With most of the laws and regulations that govern salons and industry professionals created at the state level, providing these state officials with a direct connection to knowledgeable industry subject matter experts has been a proven success over the past 19 years.

This legislative session gave rise to a dozen bills that could have a direct impact on beauty students, colleges, salons, and behind-the-chair professionals. This year’s event was of particular importance to the mission of the PBFC to protect its industry by redirecting well-intentioned, but misguided, legislation to more positive ends or simply kill bad bills whose authors are not willing to compromise.

PBFC was pleased that senior officials from the state board participated in this year’s W.O.W. to help educate policymakers in support of a well-regulated, licensed profession. The PBFC and state board joined forces last month to kill one bill that would have chipped away at the licensed scope of practice, leaving more beauty consumers unprotected and exacerbating unlicensed activities that place legitimate salons at a competitive disadvantage.