State Rep. C. Denise Marcelle makes surprise appearance at Cosmetology Board meeting and states that, “it’s kind of crazy to put licensure on hair braiders.”

Louisiana State Rep. C. Denise Marcelle (D-Baton Rouge), who was a special guest at the meeting of the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) on Monday, April 7, 2025.

On Monday, April 7, 2025, State Rep. C. Denise Marcelle (D-Baton Rouge) made a surprise visit to the LSBC’s regularly scheduled meeting.

Appearing as the special guest of LSBC District Two Member Raymond Cosey, Marcelle, who appeared to believe she was addressing the Board which oversees barbers (for which she was informed there is a separate Board to handle such activities), nevertheless had plenty of both questions of the Cosmetology Board and answers for them.  Let’s take a look at her presentation (trust us, this video is WELL worth the watch!!!!):

4/7/25:  Marcelle makes statements to the LSBC and responds to questions by its Members.

One of the disappointments Marcelle expressed at the meeting is the, “difficulty of 18-year-olds to enter into cosmetology classes.”

That disappointment on Marcelle’s  part is likely due to the cost of tuition at cosmetology schools, which often runs $20,000 and up.

Marcelle may not be aware of the LSBC’s extensive efforts to shut down less expensive alternatives to having to pay that $20,000.  In that regard, let’s take a look at Raynetta Frazier’s pleas with the LSBC not to shut her public-school cosmetology program down by insisting that each school must have a minimum of two instructors:

June 13, 2016 LSBC meeting during which Raynetta Frazier pleads with the LSBC not to shut her public-school cosmetology program down by requiring that two instructors have to work at all schools.  We are happy to report that, despite the obvious efforts to eliminate Frazier as low-cost competition, her public-school cosmetology program is still going strong!

In the above video, we would make special note of the following:

==>  Board attorney Sherri Morris stresses that it is a “statute” to require two instructors.

==>  Morris’ statement notwithstanding, all anyone has to do is examine the April 13, 2015 LSBC Minutes (see page 6) to readily see how that same “statutory requirement” was ignored when the LSBC permitted an exception to the two-instructor rule for another school.  Apparently, Morris’ contention entailing a statutory requirement only applies when and if the LSBC wishes to enforce that statutory requirement.  From those minutes:

Board Meeting Minutes-April 13,2015
Page 4

6. L.B. LandrylWalker High School

Addition of an Instructor

Lora Moreau made the motion to accept LB Landry to use only one instructor as long as a substitute is available on standby provided that there are no more than 20 students in one class and they must send a letter from the substitute teacher to the Board. Michelle Hays seconded, motion carried by unanimous voice vote.

Yep!  So much for the statutory requirement, and Morris said zilch in the way of, “Hey guys, we can’t just arbitrarily ignore a state statute.” That is believed to be the case because she apparently didn’t want to ruffle feathers on the requested exception notwithstanding her emphatic statement that the two-instructor requirement is memorialized in the form of a “statute.”

Similarly, Marcelle may also be unaware of the LSBC’s extensive efforts to shut down Nelda Dural’s Cosmetology School, for which the Board expended almost $50,000 in its efforts to close her New Iberia school.  Sound Off Louisiana filmed the entirety of the nearly three-day long kangaroo “hearing” of Dural, but let’s permit her to remind everyone in her own words just what all transpired, to include her making the analogy of LSBC Members evoking parallels to the “whips and chains” used on African American slaves as they entered America:

November 7, 2016:  Dural vents her frustration with the LSBC, to include her contention that the LSBC treated her as if she came through the “back door” as if she should be subjected to  “whips and chains” as she sought for the LSBC to return her school’s license to let her resume teaching, and concluding with a declaration to the LSBC to, “set me free!”

Like Frazier, Dural was also hit with the statutory requirement for two (2) instructors as part of the LSBC’s rationale for shutting down her school; however, unlike Frazier, the Board did in fact issue a C & D (Cease and Desist) Order against Dural and subsequently formally closed her school down.

Also, we will point out that, in sharp contrast to the $20,000+ that the large cosmetology schools were charging (because they could get Federal grants to fund that tuition), Dural accepted no Federal grants whatsoever and offered the same curriculum for only $8,000 in an effort to provide opportunities to individuals such as Marcelle referenced as having so much difficulty finding teaching programs now.  Once the LSBC informed Dural that she would have to fork over $56,000 (court costs plus a $5,000 fine — see the final pages of the linked document above) in order to receive her school license back, she had little choice but to file for personal bankruptcy protection.

We should point out that, even under the Biden Administration, Federal Government leaders began to recognize the scam that these cosmetology schools are.  From the preceding AP feature:

The rules proposed Wednesday by the Biden administration aim to punish programs that leave graduates underpaid or buried in loans.

Borrower advocates say the findings reflect the realities of higher education — that for-profit colleges are more likely to leave graduates with lower incomes, heavier debt and an increased risk of defaulting on their student loans. When the Obama administration proposed an earlier version of the rule in 2014, it also found that the vast majority of failing programs were at for-profit colleges.

Cosmetology and health care have long been money makers for for-profit colleges, but offer little return for graduates, said Robert Shireman, director of higher education for the Century Foundation and a former Obama official who created an earlier version of the rule, known as gainful employment.

“People tend to think that going into healthcare means you’re going to make good money. It’s true if you’re a nurse or a doctor but there are a lot of low paying jobs in healthcare,” Shireman said. He said “it does not make sense” for students to use federal loans at cosmetology schools, which he said are better funded through job training systems.

The new rules, which would take effect no sooner than July 2024, apply only to for-profit colleges and to non-degree programs at traditional universities. They would assess programs based on whether graduates carry heavy student debt compared to their earnings and whether graduates earn more than adults with only a high school diploma.

It would be our strong recommendation to Elon Musk and the folks at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that they discontinue this scam that large cosmetology schools have perpetrated upon unsuspecting students for a rather protracted period.  The scam is costing taxpayers through the nose, and students are sold a bill of goods for which they realize they’ve been duped only after the taxpayer funds have long since flown out the window!

Now, as evidenced by the Marcelle video above, other topics were referenced to include a rerun of HB-370, which would largely make Louisiana mirror Mississippi regarding hair braiding.

Marcelle references the low number of hair braiders “registered” with the LSBC, but what she may not be aware of is that, at present, the only way a hair braider can “register” with the LSBC is if the braider first completes 500 HOURS (yes, 500 HOURS) of instruction at a licensed cosmetology school.

As we have previously reported, Mississippi has 6,700 registered hair braiders (as of 2022) whereas Louisiana has approximately 38.  As Marcelle and many others have pointed out, that’s because the vast majority (as in likely 99.992%) of hair braiding in Louisiana is done, as Marcelle readily states, “in their homes.”  Instead of receiving the funds for registration as Mississippi does (and as HB-370 proposes at a mere $25 for registration, and it’s one-time, not annually, and that compares with the present requirement of 500 HOURS of classroom instruction at present), as the just-linked feature points out, the LSBC spent $156, 603.18 defending against the Institute for Justice’s lawsuit against the LSBC over hair braiding.

While the Institute for Justice celebrated victory in Mississippi as this “Freedom Hair” movie, which depicts the trials of Melony Armstrong, a young lady from Mississippi who fought the Mississippi State Board of Cosmetology and gave hair braiders in Mississippi their “freedom,” the LSBC not only turned its nose up at the registration fees of likely more hair braiders than Mississippi’s 6,700 (since Louisiana is larger than Mississippi and almost assuredly has more hair braiders), but they flushed nearly $160,000 straight down the toilet fighting the Institute for Justice in its Louisiana efforts.

We think it appropriate to provide a preview of the “Freedom Hair” movie, which we strongly recommend everyone who has not already done so watch in its entirety:

Preview of the recently-released Freedom Hair movie, which depicts all the battles hair braider Melony Armstrong fought with the Mississippi Board of Cosmetology with the Institute for Justice and Armstrong obtaining the right to practice braiding in Mississippi with only minimal registration requirements, which is what HB-370 proposes to do in Louisiana.

Now, for those who wonder:   “Yes,” the LSBC is back once again begging for money in the form of a massive (100 percent) license fee increase again.  The latest masochist to agree to sponsor its ill-advised bill, House Bill 326, is Rhonda Butler, R-Ville Platte.

We will have plenty to say about Butler’s bill, but that’s for a subsequent Sound Off Louisiana feature.  For now, we think we’ve provided a decent background for Marcelle and other legislators to see just what a group of free-enterprise-blocking characters have historically served on the LSBC and, as we’ve stressed in a prior feature, Gov. Landry’s crew is the worst we’ve seen in our 10+ years of following, attending, and recording its meetings!