Four Steps To Becoming A Licensed Nail Technician
Are you passionate about nail care and creating beautiful looks for a variety of occasions? If so, becoming a licensed nail technician is the right path for you! Before you can embark on your career, however, you will need to complete the necessary training, obtain certification and build up a portfolio of your work. Read on to find out the steps you need to follow!
Meet the Requirements for a Cosmetology or Nail Care Program
While each state may have slightly different requirements, most of the time you will need to have completed high school before you can enroll in a cosmetology or nail care program. If you go to a technical high school, your school may offer a cosmetology course you can sign up for to give you a boost after you graduate. [1]
The next step is to enroll in a nail care program or cosmetology program, where you can start working towards becoming licensed. Once you have graduated, you can find programs to attend at technical colleges, cosmetology schools, and even community colleges. You may also be required to take courses in hand hygiene, chemistry, customer relations, and more while training to be a licensed nail tech or cosmetologist.
Enroll in and Complete a Nail Care Program
Throughout the course of the program, you will learn more about health and safety, hand hygiene, artificial nail application, nail art techniques, and lots more. Here, you will want to do your best work so that you can include them in your portfolio for when you start seeking employment afterward.
If you are working at the same time or have other commitments to fit your training around, you may want to consider a nail care hybrid program. The combination of online and in-person sessions will allow you to obtain your certification with a degree of flexibility. Depending on your state, the number of hours you have to complete will differ. You may also choose to complete an apprenticeship instead of a training course to obtain your certification. Each state has different licensing requirements in terms of the number of education hours and exams required, and administration fees for license applications. For example, you would be looking at completing at least 1,000 hours of education if you would like to be licensed as a cosmetologist in New York, as opposed to 1,000 hours of education and an additional 2-years of experience just to get licensed in Massachusetts.[2]
Obtain Certification and Start Practicing
Once you have completed your course and passed any tests you need to take, you can start practicing as a licensed nail tech and growing your career! Whether you choose to work out of home, seek employment at a salon, or freelance by traveling to clients’ homes, you can start building up a base of clients and expanding your portfolio.
Renew Your License and Undergo Continuing Education
You would be mistaken to think that once you have obtained your license, that’s all there is to it. In order to maintain your nail tech license, you will need to renew it every two years. Each time, you will have to undergo five hours of continuing education[3] to be eligible for license renewal.
Over time, you may also decide to expand your repertoire of skills and become proficient in a wider range of beauty services. For instance, on top of doing nails, you may also wish to train to become a makeup artist. This will provide you with more options when deciding where to take your career and allow you to provide value-added services to clients![4]
Even though nail care is under cosmetology in state board, we offer nail care as a separate program and don’t want people to be confused. I included cosmetology and nail care so that readers know that nail care can be trained in both programs. The nail portion in a cosmetology program is very minimal compared to a nail care program. 4 weeks of nail training in a cosmetology program versus 6-8 months.
Should you include the Georgia hours since we are in Georgia?
I dont think this is correct I will confirm.
They don’t learn makeup in the nail program, not sure what you are suggesting here. We do teach makeup in the cosmetology and esthetician program though.