Barber Schools and License Requirements in Alaska

Written by Barber-License.com Editorial Staff, Last Updated: November 13, 2026

The Alaska Board of Barbers and Hairdressers licenses barbers, along with hairdressers, estheticians, manicurists, and body artists. It’s a seven-member board, one of them a licensed barber, inside the Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing. The law is Alaska Statutes chapter 08.13, and the details sit in the board’s regulations at 12 AAC 09.

Under that law, barbering means shaving, trimming, cutting, styling, curling, permanent waving, bleaching, coloring, cleansing, or chemically straightening hair or beards for a fee. If you only want to cut, shave, and style without chemicals, Alaska also offers a separate non-chemical barber license with shorter training. If you’re still deciding where to train, you can compare barber schools in every state. Here’s the Alaska path as of November 2026, with what each step costs.

To become a barber in Alaska, follow these steps:

1. Complete 1,650 Hours of Barber School or a 2,000-Hour Apprenticeship
2. Apply to the Alaska Board of Barbers and Hairdressers
3. Pass the NIC Barber Styling Written Exam Through Prov
4. Start Working and Renew Your License Every Two Years

Step 1. Complete 1,650 Hours of Barber School or a 2,000-Hour Apprenticeship

You qualify for the barber exam by finishing either 1,650 hours at a barber school the board approves or 2,000 hours in a board-approved apprenticeship (12 AAC 09.090). The board can also credit a mix of school and apprenticeship hours. It counts one school hour as 1.212 apprenticeship hours.

The School Route

You train under a student permit from the board. Your school files your registration and permit application within 30 days of enrollment, and no more than 300 hours you complete before that application is filed will count (12 AAC 09.130). A barber student permit is good for two years and costs $125 (12 AAC 02.140). Your 1,650 hours have to include at least 185 hours of theory, five of them on Alaska’s barber law, the board’s rules, and the state’s sanitation regulations (12 AAC 09.160). Up to 25% of that theory can be done online through Milady, Pivot Point, or a similar provider the board approves.

The rest is hands-on work, and the board sets a minimum number of practical services you have to complete. Here are the big ones for barbers:

• Haircutting: 400 cuts with razor, scissors, clippers, and thinning shears.
• Thermal styling: 180 services, including blow drying, hot combs, and curling irons.
• Color and bleaching: 75 services.
• Shaving and beards: 50 beard shaves and 50 beard trims.
• Chemical services: 50 permanent waves and 10 chemical straightening services.

Time spent laundering towels or cleaning floors doesn’t count toward your hours. When you finish, you pass a proficiency exam given by your school in each required subject. That school-level test replaced Alaska’s state practical exam in December 2020.

The Apprenticeship Route

You can train in a shop instead of a school, but Alaska sets tight rules for it (AS 08.13.082 and 12 AAC 09.190):

• Your sponsor: A licensed barber who also holds an Alaska instructor license, working in a board-licensed shop. One instructor can sponsor no more than two apprentices, and each apprentice gets their own station.
• Permit first: You need the same $125 two-year student permit, and the board won’t credit any hours you log before you have it. Your instructor files the program application and curriculum with the board.
• Hours and timing: 2,000 hours, finished in no less than 12 months and no more than two years. You can’t be credited for more than 10 hours in one day.
• Supervision: You can’t work in the shop unless your instructor is on the premises. The shop keeps a time clock, and your instructor reports your hours and services to the board every quarter.
• Finishing: You pass the same proficiency exam as school students, and your instructor files an affidavit of completion with the board.

If you stop training for two years in a row, you lose credit for the hours you’d already logged.

The Non-Chemical Barber License

The non-chemical barber license covers shaving, trimming, cutting, styling, and curling, with no perms, color, bleach, or relaxers. It takes 1,350 school hours or a 1,600-hour apprenticeship, and the exam skips chemical services (12 AAC 09.090). Hours you earn can count toward the barber, non-chemical barber, and hairdresser licenses if they meet each license’s curriculum.

Step 2. Apply to the Alaska Board of Barbers and Hairdressers

You apply to the board before you can book the exam. The board’s barber application instructions (form 08-5009, revised October 2026) and its regulations (12 AAC 09.002) list what goes in:

• Application: A completed, notarized application form.
• Proof of training: Your Alaska school or apprenticeship instructor files a completion affidavit with the board. If you trained outside Alaska, your school, instructor, or state board sends official records straight to the board.
• Application fee: $150, nonrefundable, paid to the State of Alaska (12 AAC 02.140).
• License fee: $180 for your initial license, covering all or part of the current two-year licensing period (12 AAC 02.140). You can pay it with the application or after you pass.

Mail checks or money orders payable to the State of Alaska. The board’s office is in Juneau, and you can reach it at (907) 465-2550 or [email protected]. Its application forms are posted on the board’s website.

Once you’ve applied for the exam, you can work under a temporary license while you wait, as long as a barber licensed in Alaska directly supervises you in person. It costs $100, lasts 120 days, and can’t be renewed (AS 08.13.175).

Licensed in Another State?

Alaska calls this a license by waiver of examination (12 AAC 09.095). You need a current barber license from another state and training and experience that add up to one of the routes below. On exams, the regulation asks for proof that a state where you were licensed required a written exam, while the board’s current barber application instructions ask for a passed written exam and a passed practical or proficiency exam. If you didn’t pass both, plan on completing them in Alaska before you’re licensed.

• School: 1,650 hours at an approved school.
• Apprenticeship: 2,000 hours in an approved program.
• One year of work: At least one year as a full-time licensed barber, averaging 32 hours a week or more, plus 1,500 hours of training.
• Two years of work: At least two years full time plus 1,000 hours of training.

Your current state sends a verification form straight to the board. You pay the same $150 application fee and $180 license fee. While the board reviews your file, a $100 temporary permit lets you work. It lasts until the board issues or denies your license, and the board has to act within six months (AS 08.13.170). That’s different from the 120-day temporary license for exam candidates.

Step 3. Pass the NIC Barber Styling Written Exam Through Prov

Alaska’s barber exam is a single written test: the National-Interstate Council (NIC) barber styling exam (12 AAC 09.056). There’s no state practical exam anymore. The board contracts with Prov, Inc. to give its written exams on computer. Here’s how it works, according to Prov’s Alaska candidate bulletin (AK CIB 2026.11.09, revised November 9, 2026):

• Scheduling: The board has to approve you first and sends your registration to Prov. Once you’re notified, you book online at Prov’s scheduler or by calling or texting Prov at (801) 733-4455.
• Format: 110 questions in 90 minutes, 10 of them unscored, offered in English, Spanish, Korean, and Vietnamese.
• Fee: $90 per attempt, paid to Prov by card when you book. It’s the same price for a retake.
• Where: Prov’s four Alaska testing centers in Fairbanks, Juneau, Palmer, and Soldotna, or from home with Examroom.ai remote proctoring.
• Passing score: 75 (12 AAC 09.056). Interpreters aren’t allowed in the exam room.
• Results: Prov grades your exam as soon as you finish and sends the result to the board.
• Changes: Cancel or reschedule for free at least 3 days ahead, or you lose the fee.

NIC publishes the exam’s content outline and study references in its candidate bulletin on the NIC website.

Retakes

You can retake a failed exam, and each try costs another $90. You wait at least one day between attempts. One board approval is good for one year and up to three attempts, and then you reapply. Once you’ve failed three times, you have to finish at least 50 hours of theory training at an approved school or apprenticeship, under a valid student permit, before the board schedules you again (12 AAC 09.075(c)).

Step 4. Start Working and Renew Your License Every Two Years

Once the board has your passing score and fees, it issues your license, and you display it where clients can see it (AS 08.13.130). You can work only in a licensed shop or school, with a few exceptions such as clients in health care facilities, clients with limited mobility, charitable events, and workshops (AS 08.13.160). Many new barbers start on commission or by renting a booth in an existing shop.

One rule is unique to Alaska. The licensing rules don’t apply to someone cutting hair in a community of fewer than 1,000 people that isn’t within 25 miles of a larger one, as long as they use no chemicals or only chemicals sold to the public (AS 08.13.160).

Opening Your Own Shop or Renting a Booth

Every shop needs a shop owner license, one per location, and the board’s application instructions say independent contractors need one too. It costs $260 for two years (12 AAC 02.140). You also need an Alaska business license. Here’s what the shop application covers (12 AAC 09.110):

• Sanitation: A certification that the shop meets the state’s sanitation rules in 18 AAC 23, or a recent local health inspection where the city handles it.
• Manager: If you aren’t a licensed barber yourself, the name of the licensed practitioner who manages the shop.
• Inspections: Board members and state staff can inspect the shop any time during working hours.
• Home shops: A shop in a private home has to be in a separate room apart from the living quarters (12 AAC 09.905).

A shop owner license can’t be transferred. A new owner has to get their own before opening. Mobile shops can be licensed too.

Renewing Your License

Every Alaska barber license expires August 31 of odd-numbered years, no matter when it was issued, so the next deadline is August 31, 2027. A license issued within 90 days of that date runs to the following expiration. The board’s renewal forms say there’s no grace period, and it’s illegal to work on a lapsed license.

• Fee: $180 every two years (12 AAC 02.140).
• Continuing education: Alaska’s barber statutes and regulations don’t set any continuing education requirement for barbers.
• Lapsed license: If it’s been lapsed three years or less, you apply and pay the back renewal and delinquent fees. After more than three years, you also pass the written exam again (12 AAC 09.930).

Teaching Barbering

An instructor license lets you teach in a school or sponsor apprentices. You need a current Alaska barber license plus either three years of licensed practice or one year of practice followed by 600 hours of student-instructor training (12 AAC 09.106). You pass the NIC instructor written exam through Prov, and the instructor license costs $260.

Barber Salary and Jobs in Alaska

BLS doesn’t publish a barber wage for Alaska. Nationally, barbers earned a median annual wage of $38,210 as of May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or $18.37 an hour. These BLS estimates include reported tips but leave out self-employed barbers and owners of unincorporated shops, so they don’t fully reflect booth rental or shop ownership earnings. For comparison, hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists in Alaska earned a median of $32,150 as of May 2025.

The employment column counts only workers on a payroll, not the many barbers who rent a booth or own a shop. Projections Central doesn’t publish a state job projection for barbers or cosmetologists in Alaska. Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects barber employment to grow 3% from 2025 to 2035.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many hours of barber school does Alaska require?

Alaska requires 1,650 hours at a board-approved barber school, including at least 185 hours of theory. If you train as an apprentice instead, you need 2,000 hours in a licensed shop under a licensed instructor. The non-chemical barber license takes 1,350 school hours or 1,600 apprenticeship hours.

Can you become a barber in Alaska through an apprenticeship?

Yes. You get a student permit first, then train for 2,000 hours under a licensed barber instructor in a board-licensed shop. The apprenticeship has to take at least 12 months and no more than two years. You then pass the same proficiency exam and NIC written exam as school graduates.

How much does an Alaska barber license cost?

Plan on $125 for your student permit, $150 for the board application, $90 for the written exam, and $180 for your initial license. That’s $545 in permit, application, exam, and license fees if you pass on the first try. Each retake is another $90. Renewal costs $180 every two years. Tuition and your kit are separate, and they’re the biggest costs by far.

Does Alaska have a practical barber exam?

No. Alaska dropped its state practical exam in December 2020. You now pass a proficiency exam given by your school or apprenticeship instructor, then the NIC barber styling written exam through Prov. You need a 75 to pass.

When do Alaska barber licenses expire?

Every Alaska barber license expires August 31 of odd-numbered years. The next deadline is August 31, 2027, and renewal costs $180. There’s no grace period, and the board sets no continuing education requirement for barbers.

• Licensing agency: The Alaska Board of Barbers and Hairdressers, under AS 08.13 and 12 AAC 09.
• Training: 1,650 hours of barber school or a 2,000-hour apprenticeship under a licensed instructor, plus a school or instructor proficiency exam.
• Exam: The NIC barber styling written exam through Prov, 75 to pass, in person or from home. There’s no state practical exam.
• Fees: $125 for the student permit, $150 to apply, $90 for the exam, and $180 for the license, renewed every two years.
• Renewal: Every license expires August 31 of odd-numbered years. The next deadline is August 31, 2027.

2025 US Bureau of Labor Statistics salary figures for Barbers and for Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists. Figures reflect state and national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary. Data accessed November 2026. National job outlook figures (2025-2035) are from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.