Cosmetologist in tussle with state over barber pole

By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian

WHITEFISH – The state of Montana just wants to protect its people, and that includes protection from bad hair days.

Either that or a small group of “marginal bureaucrats” is sticking its regulatory nose into places it doesn’t belong.

State Sen. Verdell Jackson, R-Kalispell, suspects the latter, saying “these state boards certainly have a lot of authority, and they can be very abusive in terms of protecting their turf. Even when it comes to a haircut.”

It depends upon whom you ask, really, but in Whitefish the overwhelming opinion is government has no business taking down Melissa Franklin’s historic striped barber pole.

The Montana Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists disagrees, though, and last month ordered the pole gone. Now even the bracket that once held the pole is black-bagged, shrouded from public view.

“I’m really stumped,” Franklin said. “I don’t know where to turn or what to say. I’m done. I’m tired. I’m over it.”

But Jackson’s not, and he intends nothing short of changing state law to bring back the colorful striped barber pole.

“This is not about barbers,” the conservative lawmaker said. “This is about freedom.”

Back in January 2006 – back when Franklin’s barber pole still stood for a haircut, not freedom – a state barbering inspector showed up at the Clip Joint in downtown Whitefish.

There’s been a barbershop here since 1947, making it one of the oldest establishments in this fast-changing resort town.

Franklin, trained under three master barbers and veteran manager of large barbershops, is the latest owner, been here most of a decade. She still does all the clipper cuts – the crew cut, the flattop, the taper, the butch, the Ivy League, the high-and-tight – has done them 16 years now. She trims beards and eyebrows and ears, too.

Thing is, she’s not a barber, at least not according to the state of Montana. To the inspector who walked in that wintry day two years ago, she’s a cosmetologist. That’s what her state license says.
And as of 2004, the Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists requires an official barber’s license for anyone displaying the traditional pole.

She asked the inspector for advice, who told her to ask the board directly, whose staff told her to change the colors from red, white and blue to a simple red and white.

So she did.

And a year later, the inspector came back. This time, he took pictures of the pole before reporting back to his bosses.

Three days later, a letter arrived at the Clip Joint. Get rid of that pole.

And not just that pole out front. The painted pole on the window, too. And the little antique wooden pole on the wall that advertises shave and a haircut 5 cents, tooth pulling 2 cents. And the plastic spray bottles, whose cylindrical bodies are colored to look like poles.

Anything short of that would constitute “unprofessional conduct,” and Franklin could be fined, could even lose her license. This was serious business.

It sounded more like a joke to most who heard it, “but it’s not very funny when it’s you,” Franklin said.

Franklin asked if she could meet with the board, but says she was dissuaded by the same people there who initially had advised her that changing the colors would do the trick.

“They told me not to bother,” she said. “It was a done deal. But I couldn’t let it go. I thought that I was a unique case, because of my 16 years’ experience in barbershops. Because of the history here.”

Last month, Franklin finally played her last card, asking the barbering board if she could skip the 150-hour barber school and simply challenge the state barbering test. Otherwise, she said, she’d have to shut down her business, travel to Billings or perhaps even farther, and pay for a school that would teach her to do what she already does.

“Let me challenge the test,” Franklin said. “Let me show that I know how to do the job.”
But the board declined. No school, no license, no pole.

The board’s program manager would not discuss that decision. The board members themselves do not talk with the public.

“There’s no accountability,” Jackson said. “They answer to no one.”

Except, it seems, through their lawyer.

Anjeanette Lindle, legal counsel for the board, said the pole is critical, because it tells the public there’s a licensed barber working the chair. She said allowing a cosmetologist to barber without a barbering license was akin to allowing someone without a law degree to be a lawyer.

Jackson says that’s simply absurd. Cosmetologists, especially ones trained as Franklin has been, are fully capable of giving a haircut, the senator said, and that’s what the pole tells the public.
This is not the first time the state senator has challenged regulatory boards for, as he says, overstepping their bounds.

Last year, when state gaming regulators seized historic gambling tables from a high-end antique store, just blocks from the Clip Joint, Jackson successfully carried legislation that returned the merchandise and rewrote the law on antiques.

The regulators, he said, had overstepped the intent of the law in their zeal to crack down on gambling. Now, according to Jackson, they’ve done it again.

“I think the barbers’ board, with this rule, went way, way, way beyond what was directed by state law,” Jackson said. “That actually happens a lot with these kinds of boards.”

Jackson calls the Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists “unreasonable” and “inflexible,” saying “freedom is the main issue at stake here.”

The law enabling the regulation is clear, he said. The board exists to protect the health, safety and welfare of citizens. The pole, in Jackson’s estimation, threatened none of those.

The Clip Joint is clean, sanitary, all the snippers sharp and shiny. It meets every state standard for health and safety.

Except for that pole.

Lindle, however, disagrees with the lawmaker’s reading of the law, and insists the Clip Joint’s pole represents “a huge health and safety issue. People without a barber’s license wielding clippers and razors and such – that’s a huge safety concern.”

But not, apparently, a concern for the hundreds of customers who continue to support Franklin. Customers have called their legislators, signed petitions, even come into the shop wearing barber poles around their necks to show support.

“It’s not that I don’t understand where the board’s coming from,” Franklin said, “trying to protect the barbering tradition. I just find it strange the way they choose to do that.”

She still worries that, even with the pole now gone to storage, her push to preserve it might cost more than it’s worth. “In this country, you shouldn’t be punished for questioning your government,” she said. “I hope it doesn’t come to that here.”

Jackson said the board still could fine the Clip Joint, even though the pole is mothballed as ordered, but he, like Franklin, hopes it doesn’t come to that.

“I hope the board can keep things in perspective here,” he said. “I hope they can see some sense.”
And so does Franklin.

“The government’s priorities seem kind of mixed up,” she said. “We can’t get a stoplight up here on the corner, but the state has the time to police barbershops. Whatever. You can’t fight that.”
“But you have to fight,” Jackson countered. “That’s what I told her. We’re losing our freedom, one rule at a time.”

Reporter Michael Jamison can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at mjamison@missoulian.com.