Barbers ask legislators to preserve board

CARSON CITY - Nevada barbers don't want legislators to trim the state Barbers' Health and Sanitation Board.

A line of barbers, some in their 80s, turned out before the Legislature's Sunset Subcommittee to rail against any move to disband the board, which regulates the state's 800 barbers.

"Don't take this from us," said Reno barber Nancy Hathaway, the president of the board. "You hear and hear that a haircut is a haircut, but you wouldn't go to a gynecologist for heart surgery. It is the same thing."

Hathaway and others said the board makes sure proper sanitation is used in barbershops and that all barbers have proper licenses.

Eloy Maestas, secretary-treasurer of the board, added that the number of barbers in Nevada is increasing and that the state now has a barber school.

The subcommittee took no action against the barbers board, but it might in a future meeting. Members are meeting monthly to review the functions of many state boards and agencies and to decide whether to recommend next year that legislators abolish some of them.

Marcus Allen, owner of three barbershops in Southern Nevada, said barbers work in a serious profession, and the board "teaches a lot of stuff they don't teach you in school."

"The barbershop is an icon in Main Street USA," added barber Ann Gallego.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.