Barber, esthetics and nails, how the written exams differ

People talk about "the state board exam" as if it were one test. It is four, and they are not the same length, the same price or the same shape.

The written exams side by side

California, all written only, no practical exam since January 1, 2022.

Texas, written plus a separate practical exam for every license.

Texas charges 55 dollars for any written exam and 76 dollars for any practical exam.

Barber

The barber exam is the cosmetologist exam with one big addition and one big subtraction. Shaving is 22 percent of the California barber exam and 18 percent of the Texas one. Nail care is almost absent.

California barber weights: safety and infection control 31 percent, shaving 22 percent, consultation and analysis 15 percent, haircutting 8 percent, haircoloring 7 percent, chemical texture 7 percent, hairstyling 5 percent, skin care 5 percent.

Shaving questions are mostly safety questions. Honing and stropping, the angle and the stroke, skin preparation, and above all what happens when the skin is cut. If you learn the blood spill procedure well, you have already covered a share of this topic.

The Texas Class A Barber bulletin is the only one of the eight that publishes item counts without percentages. Thirteen of its 85 scored questions are licensing and regulation.

Esthetics

California esthetician weights: safety and infection control 40 percent, consultation and skin analysis 19 percent, skin care 17 percent, hair removal 15 percent, eyelash and eyebrow 6 percent, makeup 3 percent.

Forty percent infection control, and makeup is two questions. That surprises nearly every candidate, because makeup is a large part of school.

Texas splits the skin content differently and the naming is the reverse of California's. Texas calls the analysis half "Skin Care" at 16 percent and the treatment half "Facial Treatments" at 28 percent, then adds licensing and regulation at 20 percent and hair removal at 11 percent. A page that mixes those two Texas headings up is wrong in both states, so read the heading before you trust a practice set.

Hair removal is where esthetics questions get specific. Waxing temperatures and the direction of the strip, contraindications, the medicines that make waxing unsafe, and threading and electrolysis as separate methods with separate rules.

Nails

California manicurist weights: safety and infection control 50 percent, nail care 22 percent, consultation and nail analysis 18 percent, skin care 10 percent.

Half the exam is infection control. The nail exam is the clearest case in the whole family where the exam is not about the service you practice. It is about implements, single use items, disinfection, and the nail conditions you must not work on.

Texas puts nail care first at 41 percent, then infection control at 34 percent, licensing and regulation at 20 percent, and nail structure and analysis at 5 percent.

Learn the nail anatomy words properly. Matrix, nail bed, nail plate, lunula, free edge, cuticle. Questions are often a one-word answer about which structure does what, and the Spanish and English words for the hair cuticle and the nail cuticle are easy to confuse.

What this means for your practice

Do not practice a cosmetology bank for a nail license. The topic weights are different enough that an even spread wastes half your time.

Pick your license and your state, and practice against that exact outline. Our mock draws its questions by the published weights of the state and the license you choose, which is the point of doing it that way.