---
type: "Bill"
title: "Professions and occupations; hair braiding."
description: "Clarifies that hair braiding is not a practice included under the definition of \"cosmetology.\""
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2018"
identifier: "HB 555"
citation: "Virginia HB 555 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Professions and Occupations"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Nicholas J. Freitas"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 18
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2018-01-08"
last_action: "2018-03-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/6b56ffe8-b1a8-4738-bc1c-07edf8b705fa"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+sum+HB555"
source_hash: "2dd636a71bf86c78dc6fdcd6c0e6584d8ecb07fdd2325616f9d86c7823dc694e"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 555 (2018) — Professions and occupations; hair braiding.

Clarifies that hair braiding is not a practice included under the definition of "cosmetology."

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB555ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB555ER)
2. **House: Committee substitute printed 18105817D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB555H1)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/18 18101042D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB555)

## Votes

- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from General Laws and Technology — **15–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from General Laws with substitute — **22–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **8–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Nicholas J. Freitas — primary (person)
- Mark L. Cole — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-01-08** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/18 18101042D `introduction`
- **2018-01-08** Referred to Committee on General Laws `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-19** Assigned GL sub: Subcommittee #1 `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-01** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2018-02-02** Passed by for the day
- **2018-02-05** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2018-02-05** Committee substitute agreed to 18105817D-H1
- **2018-02-05** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB555H1
- **2018-02-06** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2018-02-07** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2018-02-07** Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-22** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2018-02-26** Enrolled
- **2018-02-26** Signed by Speaker
- **2018-02-28** Signed by President
- **2018-03-02** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 2, 2018
- **2018-03-02** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 9, 2018
- **2018-03-09** Approved by Governor-Chapter 219 (effective 7/1/18) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/6b56ffe8-b1a8-4738-bc1c-07edf8b705fa`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).