At the meeting of the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) on Monday, April 13, 2026, Rev. Freddie Phillips demonstrates the throwing of a “challenge flag” regarding the Board’s claim that 570 permitted braiders exist in Louisiana.
We are going to begin this feature by doing something we have never before done in the history of Sound Off Louisiana, and that is for founder Robert Burns to take a point of personal privilege. The content of that personal privilege is contained in this email to Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) Executive Director Erin Marceaux. From that email:
Ms. Marceaux:
As I indicated that I was going to do, I am drafting this email to voice my extreme frustration and anger regarding the utter failure of the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology to provide an acceptable venue for conducting its meetings.
I maintain fully my emphatic statement that “a circus tent” would be a drastic improvement over your existing venue; furthermore, your continued insistence on violating the Louisiana Fire Marshall’s maximum room capacity of 22 persons in this atrocious excuse of a meeting venue is completely and totally unacceptable!
We are going to produce a feature in coming weeks with considerably more detail regarding this ongoing battle between Burns and the LSBC in which we demonstrate in excruciating details some of the acts of complete and total unprofessionalism which the Board has engaged in recent weeks regarding this matter.
That is going to conclude the point of personal privilege, and we’re now going to move on to the latest salvo of the annual saga of whether Louisiana will ever free its hair braiders to legally work without the need for an utterly absurd 500 hours of instruction (emphasis on “legally” as we contend about 98.4 percent of Louisiana braiders simply ignore the absurd law and don’t dignify the LSBC).
We believe our contention is sound given that one State Representative, C. Denise Marcelle, appeared before the LSBC a year ago and, during her presentation, she stated that it is, “kind of crazy” to license hair braiders! Those are her words, not ours, and we believe she is in a better position to know than us. Furthermore, Marcell indicated that, even if licensure was required, “the braiders are not going to submit themselves to you.”
That fact notwithstanding, two bills are expected to soon obtain their first House Commerce Committee hearings. One bill would deregulate hair braiding, and the other would actually increase the number of hours required to “legally” braid hair from 500 hours to 600 hours.
At the April 13, 2026 LSBC meeting, Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips brought a white towel to symbolize the equivalent of an NFL challenge flag to the Board’s utterly false assertion that Louisiana has 570 permitted braiders today. Here’s Phillips’ public comment on the matter:
4/13/26: Phillips reviews paperwork he obtained from the LSBC which he lambasts as being “unacceptable.”
A little background is in order regarding Phillips’ commentary. First, Phillips has been testifying before both the House and Senate Commerce Committees entailing deregulating the hair braiding industry for eight (8) years. He plans to testify again this year, and he made a simple request for Burns to inquire about the current number of braiders in Louisiana in order that his testimony could be based on facts. Accordingly, what ensued was this email exchange trying to ascertain the answer to Phillips’ extremely simple and basic question. Here is the initial response from the LSBC:
From: Tisha Butler <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2026 9:45 AM
To: Robert Burns <[email protected]>
Cc: Erin Marceaux <[email protected]>; ‘Sheri Morris’ <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Very Simple Public Records RequestGood morning,
I have conferred with our IT department and we have a total of 570 alternative hair design permit holders.Tisha
Immediately, and we do mean immediately, upon being provided with that number, Phillips said, “Rob, if we were coaches on an NFL team with you as head coach and me as an assistant coach, I would be imploring you to throw the red challenge flag on that last play immediately! There is no way there are 570 braiders holding permits in this state! No way!”
Phillips’ emphatic statement prompted us to do exactly as he said do and even making a football analogy in the process in our correspondence back to the Board, to wit:
Tisha:
I want to again thank you for your prompt response to my previous public records request and the fact you were even willing to just answer a question rather than forcing the issue of mandatory request for documents.
I don’t know if you are a fan of NFL football or NCAA football, but I need to make an analogy in making this latest public records request:
I am the head coach of the team, and your response to the last public records request is the latest play in the game. After the play concluded (i.e. once you sent the email), several of my assistant coaches, most especially Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, Jr., whom I’ve copied on this email, have approached me and asked me to essentially throw the equivalent of the “red challenge flag” in an NFL or NCAA football game.
If you’re unfamiliar with that aspect of football, each team is permitted a certain number of challenges per half and, based upon my assistant coaches (again, most especially Rev. Phillips), and the repeated publications which have been made that, as of 2022, only approximately 38 permitted hair braiders existed in Louisiana in contrast to 6,700 in Mississippi at that same timeframe, and I want to refresh anyone’s memory by providing the link to this feature on Sound Off Louisiana from nearly a year ago: https://www.soundoffla.com/state-rep-c-denise-marcellmakes-surprise-appearance-at-cosmetology-board-meeting-and-states-that-its-kind-of-crazy-toput-licensure-on-hair-braiders/
In that article, I draw particular attention to this passage:
“As we have previously reported, Mississippi has 6,700 registered hair braiders (as of 2022) whereas Louisiana has approximately 38.”
Given the response you provided below, one can only conclude that some 530 braiders have obtained permits since 2022.
Burns then requested actual documentation to demonstrate precisely who all hold braiding permits in Louisiana, and the Board responded with this documentation outlining how many permits have been issued each year since 2023 and a master listing of ALL permitted braiders. There was also this correspondence to accompany the preceding documentation:
On Mar 20, 2026, at 1:08 PM, Tisha Butler <[email protected]> wrote:
Good afternoon,
I am truly sorry and I appreciate the fact that you were able to reference the previous numbers that were given from past years and as a result, we have looked into the figures given. Our technology department is truly antiquated and running reports is not as simple as it once was, because of that we gave you an inaccurate number of alternative hair design permitters of 570. We have since re-ran the report and the true figure is 124.
What boggles our mind is that the email inquiry was sent to the Executive Director of the LSBC, the Assistant Executive Director of the LSBC, and the attorney for the LSBC, and the reply email back indicating “570 braiders” was also received by everyone in the email chain. That fact notwithstanding, and with all of the testimony and integral institutional knowledge that should exist among the LSBC, especially given the legal expenditures it has expended fighting hair braiders (approximately $156,603, or $1,262 per permitted braider in Louisiana) , it took an “outsider” (though we maintain Phillips knows a ton about the braiding industry in Louisiana) to catch such a glaringly exaggerated number!
We also have to concur with Phillips in his statements on the video above that, “You don’t need a computer program to keep up with that few braiders.”
We can only assume that Legislative testimony will once again be downright comical based on some other public comments made at yesterday’s LSBC meeting, to include most notably Lynn Johnson, who warns of “strokes” if this year’s cosmetology deregulation bills all pass:
4/13/26: Johnson outlines all of the apocalyptic developments she says will unfold if Louisiana lawmakers pass deregulation bills for the cosmetology industry, yet she fails to mention why such developments have not transpired in the 37 states requiring no license or permit for hair braiding.
Notice that, in her introduction, Johnson asks in advance to exceed the Board’s “three-minute rule” indicating that she expects to take four (4) minutes. For members like Phillips making public comment, the Board sternly enforces the three-minute rule; however, as noted by one audience member and as reflected in the duration of the above video, the Board had no qualms permitting Johnson to ramble on (and we do mean ramble) for in excess of six minutes.
This behavior is absolutely not how a public body is supposed to operate! Either the rule is enforced or it is not, but no public body should allow the rule to be relaxed when hearing commentary the Members find soothing to their ears and demand a cessation of public comment when hearing words they don’t want to hear!
Johnson actually reached out to us via email after the meeting, to wit:
From: Lynn Johnson <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2026 1:17 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: LSBC meetingRobert,
I attended the LSCB meeting today. I would like to sit down with you to discuss your ideas for the bills that are currently in office and any other issues you have with the LSBC.
Let me know if you are open to this kind of conversation. If you are then we can set a meeting day and time that is convenient for both of us.
Regards
Lynn Johnson
Given the diametrically opposed viewpoints of Johnson and Burns, there’s a better chance of President Donald Trump and the top Iranian leaders having a meeting and peacefully and graciously exiting that meeting saying, “We’re all now in one accord,” than anything productive coming from a meeting between Johnson and Burns!
Further illustrating the total unprofessionalism of the Board Members in insisting on violating the State Fire Marshall Code capacity of 22 people, let’s take a look at another rambler, whose first name is “Paula,” and we think the last name may be Downing, but with all of the background noise, it’s tough to make out the letters Member Rene Bosworth says when Chairman Reed asks for her name. Please note that viewers are forced to stare at the back of her head for the vast majority of the presentation! That goes directly to the unprofessionalism of the LSBC Members regarding the meeting venue and, again, we are going to have another feature in coming weeks on that one issue alone. In the meantime, here’s Paula’s public comment:
4/13/26: Paula provides her public comment and, toward the end, makes sure to note that increasing the hours to 600 from 500 will enable students to qualify for a Pell Grant.
Former LSBC Chairman Frances Hand stated years ago that cosmetologists are not mere “hairdressers” and stressed how much more “professional” the industry has become. It becomes extremely hard to accept that premise when one observes the kind of utterly unprofessional behavior we’ve seen exhibited by these Board Members, who clearly are focused solely and exclusively on a desperate attempt to obtain more Federal funds by trying to increase the number of hours for a braiding permit from 500 to 600, over the last few weeks, but we’re going to have much more to say on that in a subsequent feature!
Until then, pop a huge bag of intensely buttered popcorn because it seems obvious the LSBC plans to provide more propaganda at these upcoming Legislative Committee hearings than even the utter falsehoods uttered about the Board’s financial position at last year’s Legislative Session.
Fortunately, we citizens have Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips around to have them “toe the line” by throwing challenge flags when they make absurd representations like having 570 permitted braiders in Louisiana.
CLICK HERE for the meeting in its entirety.