Salons and spas in Sioux Falls: what the license on the wall covers

The paperwork taped to a salon mirror answers one question: which services that person is licensed to perform, and which ones the state has not vouched for.

Three licenses, and barbering is not one of them

The South Dakota Cosmetology Commission issues three operator licenses. Cosmetology requires 1,500 hours of approved education, esthetics 600, and nail technology 400. Applicants must be at least 18 and pass a national theory exam plus a South Dakota laws and rules exam. The scopes stack in one direction: a cosmetologist covers all three, an esthetician works on skin, and a nail technician works on nails and is not licensed to wax.

Barbers answer to a different agency entirely, the South Dakota Board of Barber Examiners. A cosmetologist is not licensed to work in a barbershop, and a barber chair inside a cosmetology salon has to be inspected by the barber board and carry its own barbershop license. A shop doing both is running two licensed businesses under one roof.

The license is a public record

The Commission runs a public verification search that returns the operator or business name, the expiration date, and any disciplinary action on file. It takes a name, or a license number entered as the five middle digits, and newer licenses carry a QR code pointing to it.

Display rules are part of the inspection: the current salon license posted conspicuously, and each working licensee's original license at their own station, since photocopies are not allowed. Established salons and booths are inspected at least once a year, unannounced, and the automatic failures include a station with no disinfectant, containers too small to fully immerse the tools, and pedicure bowls not disinfected between clients.

What the license does not cover

Salons offering what the Commission calls unregulated services have to post a sign saying so. Its own list: body piercing, massage, tattooing, tanning, permanent hair removal, permanent makeup, and professional photography. Several are regulated, just by someone else: massage therapists by the South Dakota Board of Massage Therapy, and tattoo artists in Sioux Falls by the city rather than any state beauty board.

The warning printed where nobody reads it

Coal-tar hair dyes carry an FDA caution statement saying the product must not be used for dyeing eyelashes or eyebrows, and that doing so may cause blindness. The same FDA guidance describes a patch test before each coloring: a small amount inside the elbow or behind the ear, left for two days.

General information, current as of August 2026. Rules and salon practices change; the Commission's verification search and the salon itself are the current record.