A buried provision in Ohio's administrative reform bill creates a hard cap on new regulations—and most salon owners have no idea it exists.
Most Ohio salon and personal care owners don't realize that a new state rule, effective July 1, 2025, has fundamentally changed how Ohio agencies can regulate their industry. It's not a rule that loosens existing requirements. It's something quieter but potentially more powerful: a structural limit on how many new rules can be imposed.
Here's what happened. Ohio passed HB1024, a bill focused on reforming how state agencies create and review administrative rules. Buried in that bill—on page 31, in Section 121.951(A)(3)—is a provision that creates what's called a "one-in/one-out" mandate. For any state agency that has already met Ohio's 30% regulatory reduction target, the rule now requires something specific: whenever that agency wants to impose a new regulatory restriction, it must simultaneously remove at least one existing restriction of equal or greater scope.
Why does this matter to salons and personal care businesses? Because it directly limits the volume and pace of new rules. Agencies can't simply keep adding requirements. They have to trade off. If the Ohio Board of Cosmetology or the Department of Health wants to add a new sanitation standard, licensing requirement, or inspection protocol, it now has to eliminate an existing one of comparable weight at the same time. That creates a binding compliance floor—a structural brake on regulatory accumulation.
The provision is enforced through the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, which already oversees Ohio's rule-making process. If an agency violates this one-in/one-out requirement, the rule can be invalidated. That's a serious consequence, and it means agencies will have to think carefully before proposing new restrictions.
The effective date is July 1, 2025. The 30% reduction deadline that triggered this requirement has already passed, so this one-in/one-out rule is now the permanent standard for agencies that have hit that target. If you operate a salon or personal care business in Ohio, this affects how your regulators can act going forward.
What does this mean in practical terms? It means the regulatory environment for your business won't grow unchecked. It doesn't eliminate existing rules or guarantee that new rules won't come. But it does mean that any new requirement your industry faces will come with a trade-off. Regulators will have to justify not just why a new rule is necessary, but what existing burden they're willing to remove to make room for it. That's a different conversation than the one that happened before.
The specific citation is Ohio Revised Code Section 121.951(A)(3). A new show-cause exception was also added under Section 121.953(C), which gives agencies a narrow window to request relief from the requirement in specific circumstances.
If you want to understand how this affects your specific business operations or licensing requirements, the Ohio Business & Industry Association and the Professional Beauty Association have published detailed guides to HB1024's impact on regulated trades.