The plague of cosmetology licensure...

Today our hero gives himself a haircut that apparently involved several inches of gray matter. On barbershop licensing:

Regulation of this sort seems totally unnecessary. People don’t die of bad haircuts, and since hairstyle is a quintessential matter of taste there’s absolutely no reason to think consumers can’t figure out for themselves who has a decent reputation as a cutter of hair.

Nor do people expire when poorly mixed hair dyes are poured into their eyeballs by the Matt Yglesiases of the cosmetology universe. They do, however, go blind. But surely market forces will tamp down the number of truly dangerous salons, right? And just think of the boon to the seeing-eye-dog industry -- and everybody loves seeing eye dogs, don't they? They're so cool, even if the blind folks get a little tetchy when you try to play with them. Can everybody say win-win? Ah, the sweet lead acetate smell of a free market at work.

PS: There are other good reasons (LICE, LICE, LICE) to regulate barber shops, and good reasons why regulatory boards might include cosmetologists (they have an interest in people not thinking of LICE when they think of salons).