SafePedicures Research — Texas licensing data

Nearly 1 in 5 Texas cosmetology establishment licenses on the state roster is past its expiration date

19.7%

14,033 of 71,213 cosmetology establishment licenses — about 1 in 5 — were past their expiration date when TDLR generated its roster (2026-07-16)

Texas rule is blunt about what an expired license means for a business: per TDLR, "an establishment whose license has expired may not continue to offer services to clients." Texas also gives owners a long runway to fix it — late renewal at escalating fees for up to three years (past 18 months, only with executive-director approval) — which is why expired records remain on the roster.

For consumers there's one practical takeaway, and it costs nothing: read the expiration date on the license posted at the front desk. It is the single easiest public fact to check before you book.

How far past expiration?

Time past expiration (at roster date)LicensesShare of expired
Under 3 months2,90021%
3–6 months2,45618%
6–12 months4,09929%
Over 12 months4,57833%

Most expired records are recent — consistent with ordinary renewal lag rather than mass abandonment. But 4,578 licenses on the roster had been expired for more than a year.

Where expired records cluster

Counties with at least 500 establishment licenses, ranked by expired share.
CountyEstablishment licensesPast expirationShare
Dallas County7,3671,64122.3%
El Paso County1,63735821.9%
Hidalgo County1,98541821.1%
Cameron County80316720.8%
Bell County82617020.6%
Tarrant County6,6261,35720.5%
Harris County11,4912,32920.3%
Collin County3,75776220.3%
McLennan County58611920.3%
Nueces County74314719.8%
Fort Bend County2,01239719.7%
Brazoria County83816119.2%
Williamson County1,78634019%
Comal County53410118.9%
Montgomery County1,54729218.9%
Bexar County4,81390118.7%
Lubbock County84615818.7%
Jefferson County53910018.6%
Travis County3,18357818.2%
Galveston County83914717.5%
Smith County59010317.5%
Denton County2,04634016.6%

The renewal wave now underway

Separately from the already-expired records: 12,707 establishment licenses — 17.8% of the roster — come up for renewal between July and December 2026, and another 29,286in 2027. If you are checking a salon's posted license this year, there is roughly a 1-in-5 chance its renewal date falls in the next six months.

What this data does — and doesn't — tell you. These figures count license records on the state roster. They say nothing about cleanliness, inspection results, or safety — Texas publishes no establishment-level inspection or disciplinary data in this dataset. A licensed establishment is not certified safe, and an expired license on the roster does not mean a business is operating unlawfully: it may have closed, relocated, or renewed after the state generated the file. In particular: do not read the county table as a ranking of "risky" places — an expired record can mean a closed business, a relocation, or a renewal completed after the roster date.

Methodology

Source: Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation (TDLR), "TDLR - All Licenses" open dataset, dataset 7358-krk7. TDLR last regenerated the dataset on 2026-07-16; we retrieved our snapshot on 2026-08-02. County populations: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024 County Population Estimates (co-est2024-alldata.csv) (retrieved 2026-07-01).

Query logic:we downloaded every row whose license type is one of TDLR's cosmetology establishment classes (Full Service Establishment, Mini Establishment, Manicurist/Esthetician Establishment, Esthetician Establishment, Manicurist Establishment, Eyelash Extension Establishment, Mobile Establishment), kept the 71,213 rows with a parseable Texas business address (of 71,350 downloaded; 33 out-of-state and 104unparseable-address rows excluded), and computed all expiry figures against the dataset's own generation date. "Nail-specialty" means the Manicurist Establishment and Manicurist/Esthetician Establishment license classes. County analyses use TDLR business_county reconciled to Census county names; rows with blank or OUT OF STATE county are excluded from county tables (but included in statewide totals).

Late-renewal rules cited from TDLR's establishment renewal page (retrieved 2026-08-02).

Limitations:

  • TDLR last regenerated this dataset on 2026-07-16; all "expired as of" figures are computed against that date, not the retrieval date (2026-08-02). A license shown as expired may have been renewed after the file was generated.
  • The dataset has no license-status field, no issue dates, and no disciplinary or inspection data. Nothing here measures cleanliness, inspection results, or safety.
  • An expired license on the roster does not mean the business is operating: it may have closed, relocated, or renewed after the file date. Texas allows late renewal (with higher fees) for up to three years after expiration.
  • Nail-specialty counts cover the Manicurist Establishment and Manicurist/Esthetician Establishment license classes only. Full Service Establishments may also offer nail services, so these figures undercount where nail services are available.
  • Counts are of licenses on the roster, not confirmed open businesses.

Every figure on this page is computed by scripts/research/analyze-tdlr.mjs from the committed snapshot data/research/tdlr-establishments-2026-08-02.json.gz— the analysis is re-runnable end to end. Cite as: "SafePedicures analysis of TDLR licensing data, 2026-08-02" with a link to this page.

Data update history

When we refresh the snapshot and a published figure changes, the change is recorded here with the prior value — numbers on these pages are never silently replaced.

Related

We publish the license record — number, type, and expiration on file — for individual salons in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and Plano. Or take the free safety checklist with you.

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