Entrepreneur Providing In-Home Service To Elderly, Bedridden Fights Unconstitutional Regulations

PHOENIX — A cancer survivor and former hospice nurse’s assistant is suing the Arizona Board of Cosmetology over rules she says unconstitutionally deny her the right to earn an honest living – while at the same time needlessly denying services to homebound, elderly and bedridden individuals across the state.

Lauren Boice opened Angels on Earth Home Beauty, which connects the elderly, sick, and terminally ill with licensed cosmetologists. Homebound individuals desiring a haircut, manicure, or massage call Lauren, who matches them with a cosmetologist who will visit the client’s home or assisted living center.

But while Lauren’s clients see her as a blessing, the board has made her its latest target.

Even though she neither practices cosmetology nor runs a cosmetology business, the board is compelling Lauren to obey a host of cosmetology regulations. Their edict: Open a physical salon even though Boice will never use it, or close her business for good.

“Forcing Lauren to open a salon as a condition of doing business is as absurd as compelling Ticketmaster to open a concert hall or requiring Movietickets.com to open a theater,” said Christina Sandefur, an attorney with the Goldwater Institute’s Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation.

“To her homebound clients, Lauren is an angel on earth. But to the bureaucrats at the Board of Cosmetology, she is an outlaw,” Sandefur added.

Boice said the regulations do nothing to ensure the safe and sanitary practice of cosmetology. Because all of her clients are homebound, by definition, no client or cosmetologist will ever set foot in the board-mandated salon.

“The board has shown no interest in helping my elderly or sick clients,” she said. “If they’re depriving customers of services and putting people out of business, how is it helping Arizonans?”

The case was filed in Maricopa County Superior Court. Read more about the case here.