Screen shot of Adrian Powe’s 2/18/25 Facebook post lamenting the alleged adverse impacts he endured from the Mississippi Cosmetology Board once it merged with the Mississippi Barbering Board, with our sources indicating that his frustrations arise from that Cosmetology Board and that the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) engages in similar, and according to some complaints we’ve gotten in the last week, worse, practices in Louisiana.
As we pointed out in our most recent feature, the LSBC, during its last two appearances before the Louisiana Senate Commerce Committee, provided plenty of comedy for folk who have keen awareness of accounting principles as folk representing the LSBC demonstrated their complete and total lack of comprehension of even the most basic of such accounting principles.
We pretty much expected that commentary because it’s merely stating the obvious.
What we were not expecting is the fresh wave of complaints we’ve gotten from folk displeased with current operations of the LSBC with particular focus on the inspections taking place by LSBC inspectors.
We want to ensure all who have complained that we have made extensive notes of the complaints, and we commit to commencing with public records requests to begin the process of substantiating the substance of those complaints.
Obviously, those individuals complaining to us are adamantly opposed to any additional license fee increase when it comes to the LSBC hiring even more inspectors to engage in what those who have contacted us have complained of as constituting abrasive inspection tactics.
Further, at least if one set of allegations is true, it constitutes criminal activity very similar to Winn Johnson’s act of selling exam answers for $500 per exam taker.
We will begin our quest for the public records to more fully investigate the claims of those individuals who contacted us but, in the meantime, we’ve been directed to a Facebook Post by Adrian Powe on February 18, 2025 wherein Powe expressed frustrations regarding Mississippi’s regulatory framework, particularly after the merging of the Mississippi Cosmetology Board and the Mississippi Barbering Board.
Our problem is that, as we’ve expressed in the past, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns has been off Facebook since early February of 2021 (read into it what anyone may desire as to why he abandoned Facebook at that particular time period), so he can’t view it.
Nevertheless, a good friend was gracious enough to play it for Burns over this extended Memorial Day Weekend and, furthermore, Burns was able to create an audio file of Powe’s commentary and capture a screenshot of Powe’s Facebook post.
Accordingly, we are going to utilize an improvised method to present Powe’s frustrations on trying to become a barber in Mississippi.
Sources tell us that his quest has been made far more difficult because the Mississippi Cosmetology Board is causing much of the same type problems as the LSBC does as it relates to blocking young entrepreneurs from being able to practice a profession free from governmental agency harassment.
So, here is our improvised replication of Powe’s Facebook post:
2/18/25 Facebook post by Adrian Powe venting frustration at what he has endured by the Mississippi Board of Cosmetology in the aftermath of its merger with the Mississippi Barbering Board. Our sources indicate the problems originate with the Cosmetology Board in Mississippi and that the LSBC has even worse oppressive tendencies and has inspectors who have engaged in problematic actions for which we’ll be making public records request to attempt to substantiate.
So, what is ahead is a strong focus on the Louisiana Senate and whether or not it ends up granting a “blank check” for $400,000 a year in estimated license fee increases.
Those increases would, according to testimony last week before the Senate Commerce Committee, facilitate spending $1 million plus on a building worth barely half that. The fact that such an irresponsible outlay (which we contend should not be made with the existing building sold and the LSBC leasing new facilities) is a one-time expense apparently didn’t sway the Louisiana Senate Commerce Committee from recommending approval of the increase permanently!
Further, according to sources who spoke with us in the aftermath of the Senate Commerce Committee presentations over the last two Wednesdays, any surplus funds would be utilized to hire more inspectors to “wreak even more havoc” upon cosmetologists in this state similar to that experienced by Powe in the video above.
We’ll let everyone know how it plays out on the Floor of the Louisiana Senate!