Does a med spa have to register or hold a license in Hawaii?
Facility · part of The Practice Perimeter
Short answer
No — Hawaii issues no license or registration specific to a med spa, and neither chapter 453 nor the medical board's rules license a facility where medicine is practiced; a beauty shop license is still required wherever cosmetology or esthetics is practiced.
Hawaii licenses the practitioner and, on the cosmetology side, the beauty shop; the sections cited here contain no medical-spa license. a beauty shop license names the shop, at least one licensed beauty operator, and an owner who is responsible for ensuring that only licensed individuals practice in it; no one may operate a beauty shop or practice cosmetology for commercial purposes without a license, and cosmetology may be practiced only in a licensed barber shop or beauty shop, with listed exceptions. Fees are set by the director by rule, and the fee rule prices them in dollars: a $20 application fee for a beauty operator, $50 for a beauty shop, $50 for a physician’s permanent license application, $20 for a physician assistant, and $100 for a pharmacy application with a $65 original permit fee. Physicians pay application, examination, and license fees and renew by January 31 of each even-numbered year. An esthetician applicant needs 1,200 hours of apprentice training or 600 hours in a beauty school. A pharmacy may not be opened without a permit, a permit is required to distribute or dispense samples of prescription drugs, though that paragraph does not interfere with furnishing samples directly to physicians for use in their professional practice, and a permit is required to engage in the business of preparing, manufacturing, or compounding any drug; compounding prescriptions other than by or under the immediate supervision of a registered pharmacist violates the pharmacy chapter, and the Board of Pharmacy’s rules make failure to follow USP chapters 795 and 797 unprofessional conduct.
Drawn from 16 verified rules in this section · regulatory monitoring, not legal advice
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 439A-10(a)(1)-(3) (ch. 453 and Haw. Admin. R. ch. 16-85 surveyed) · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Admin. R. § 16-53-14(1) · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Admin. R. § 16-53-24(1) · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Admin. R. § 16-53-33(1), (3) · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 439A-3(a) · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 439A-3(b) · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 439A-13 · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 436B-15 · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 453-6(a)-(b) · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 439A-6(f) · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 461-14(a) · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 461-15(a)(2) · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 461-15(a)(6) · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 461-10 · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Admin. R. § 16-95-110(a)(17) · Sep 8, 2026
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 453-8(a)(14) · Sep 8, 2026
Related Hawaii rules
An applicant for a barber shop or beauty shop license shall: (1) Identify the name and location of the shop; (2) Identify at least one barber or beauty operator to qualify the shop for licensure in the applicable license category; (3) Identify the owner of the shop who shall be responsible for all operations of the shop and be responsible for ensuring that only currently licensed individuals, apprentices, or temporary permittees are practicing in the shop; Hawaii licenses the beauty shop where cosmetology is practiced; nothing in chapter 453 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes or in the Hawaii Medical Board’s rules in chapter 16-85 of the Hawaii Administrative Rules licenses a facility where medicine is practiced, and Hawaii issues no license or registration specific to a medical spa.
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 439A-10(a)(1)-(3) (ch. 453 and Haw. Admin. R. ch. 16-85 surveyed) · verified Sep 8, 2026
The department’s fee rule sets the license fees for the board of barbering and cosmetology as dollar amounts. Its application fees are listed as Operator or instructor $ 20; Beauty shop $ 50; Beauty school $ 500; Apprentice $ 20.
Haw. Admin. R. § 16-53-14(1) · verified Sep 8, 2026
How other states answer this
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Related Hawaii questions
- What must a med spa in Hawaii report to the board?
- What are the license fees to open a med spa in Hawaii?
Get Hawaii changes as they publish
We scan the Hawaii legislature and licensing boards daily, plus the FDA and the Federal Register. Free weekly Brief — what changed, in plain language, with the source.
Free · unsubscribe in one click · we never sell your address
← All Hawaii rules and changes · MedSpaRadar is regulatory monitoring and reference: it summarizes public laws, regulations and agency actions and links each to its source. It is not legal, medical, or compliance advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. A summary can lag its source or leave out detail, and monitoring itself can be interrupted — so an absence of alerts means nothing reached you, not that nothing happened. Read the cited source, check its effective date, and confirm any change to your operations or clinical practice with qualified health-law counsel and your medical director. Legislative data via LegiScan (CC BY 4.0).