The ‘Drybar Bill’ Creates a ‘Blowout Only’ Cosmetology License

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Drybar’s founder Alli Webb is the first to acknowledge that she didn't necessarily invent the blowout — she invented a new blowout experience, one that offered messy, beachy "Mai Tai" hair with Sex and the City episodes playing in the background on loop. But Drybar is now responsible for a piece of legislation that could possibly shake up the licensing process for hairstylists across the country.

The bill, which Drybar is calling "the Drybar Blowout License Bill," makes it easier for cosmetologists to get licensed to give blowouts. A full cosmetology license in Maryland requires 1,500 hours, a process which can take students up to a year to obtain. According to this new bill, the Maryland State Board of Cosmetology will offer a "limited license" that requires only 350 hours of training for people to give professional blowouts.

This bill which takes effect October 2016, is the first of its kind in the U.S. — and is a major indicator of how widespread the blowout bar phenomenon has become.

With a whopping 60 locations and 3,000 employees across the country, Drybar is constantly in search of stylists who can serve up "Cosmo-Tai" wavy blowouts and more. Webb hopes that the limited license will make working at Drybar more accessible. "[It will] give people the opportunity to hone in the one thing that they want to do which might just be blowdrying and styling," she told Racked. Cosmetology students in Maryland will also be able to work at Drybar while they’re finishing school.

The bill passed easily through the state legislature, something that Webb credits to its promise of job creation. The bill is also a sign that Drybar and the blowout bar trend is here to stay and beauty regulations are adapting to keep up.

"The states have their own [cosmetology] licensing programs and they have been in place for many, many, many years. Drybar and blow-dry bars didn't exist," Webb said. "So this is kind of a 'moving with the times' thing. It's a real thing now; we're not going anywhere."

She added, "This is our first step, and we would like to bring this bill to every state that has a Drybar and beyond."

This is actually the second bill Drybar has pushed through Maryland legislature. A 2014 bill allowed salons in Maryland's Montgomery County to serve complimentary wine and champagne to patrons. As for whether Webb ever imagined herself drafting bills when she started Drybar in 2008, Webb laughed. "I'm not super political, this is like crazy to me," she said.

Thankfully, the passage of all these new laws allows for priceless photo opps — including this one, in which Webb, Maryland Delegate Ariana B. Kelly, and Drybar team members chatted with Maryland's Governor Larry Hogan, a sort of "Buttercup the Hair Dryer Goes to Washington" moment.