Exam topics
One topic per page: the exact figures, the specific confusion that loses the point, and a scored drill with an explanation on every answer.
16 topics · all free, in English and Spanish
Florida cosmetology license requirements
Almost every number on this page is different in another state, which is exactly why a national textbook will mislead you here. Florida sets its own hours, its own age and education floor, and its own renewal cycle, and the exam tests the Florida figures.
Drill it · 12 questionsFlorida salon licenses and inspections
The exam keeps returning to one idea here: the salon holds its own license, separate from yours, and neither one covers for the other. Candidates who assume the premises are somebody else's problem lose these questions.
Drill it · 9 questionsWhat a Florida cosmetology license covers
These items are written so the wrong answer is the helpful one. A client asks what something is, or asks you to remove it, and the response that feels kind is the practice of medicine. The boundary is the same every time, and once you see it the questions stop being hard.
Drill it · 12 questionsSalon disinfection rules, step by step
This is the heaviest domain on the theory exam, and it is also the one where guessing from salon habit costs the most. Nearly every answer traces back to one sentence: do what the product's label says, because the label is what the efficacy claim was tested at.
Drill it · 12 questionsCorrective color and the law of color
Coloring is the single heaviest domain on the clinical exam, and the corrective questions are where it is won or lost. All of them run on two facts: which color cancels which, and what pigment is sitting underneath at the level you stopped at.
Drill it · 12 questionsDeveloper volumes and how much they lift
Four numbers carry a disproportionate share of the coloring domain, and they are worth knowing cold rather than reasoning out under time pressure. Everything else on this page follows from what the volume number actually measures.
Drill it · 12 questionsPatch tests and strand tests
Candidates mix these two up constantly, and the exam knows it. They answer different questions: one asks whether the service may happen at all, the other asks what it will look like. Neither substitutes for the other.
Drill it · 7 questionsPerm rods, wrapping and processing
Permanent waving and relaxing is the second-heaviest clinical domain, and the wrap questions are the most mechanical part of it — which makes them the most reliably answerable if you know what each variable actually controls.
Drill it · 12 questionsHydroxide relaxers versus thio relaxers
One distinction generates more exam items than any other in this domain, and it also generates the most real-world breakage: the two relaxer chemistries are incompatible, in both directions, permanently.
Drill it · 12 questionsNail disorders: when to refuse the service
The exam does not ask you to diagnose. It asks you to sort what you see into two piles: conditions you may work over, and conditions that end the appointment with a referral. The sorting rule is whether there is any sign of infection or inflammation.
Drill it · 9 questionsGray coverage and resistant hair
Gray coverage fails for a reason that is easy to state and easy to forget under pressure: there is nothing underneath to build on. Every technique on this page exists to compensate for that one absence.
Drill it · 6 questionsWaxing contraindications and safety
Waxing questions split cleanly into two kinds: the ones where you adapt the service, and the ones where you do not perform it at all. The second kind is where points are lost, because the tempting answer is always a gentler version of the same service.
Drill it · 12 questionsElevation and guidelines in haircutting
Three degree values and two kinds of guide account for most of the cutting domain. They combine predictably, so once you can name what each one does on its own, the scenario questions answer themselves.
Drill it · 10 questionsBlood exposure in the salon
A nick during a service is common, and the exam expects a fixed sequence rather than improvisation. It also expects you to know why the sequence exists, which is a single idea applied without exception.
Drill it · 6 questionsHair and scalp analysis before a service
Four findings decide what any chemical service is allowed to be, and the exam expects you to define each one precisely rather than approximately. Texture and density in particular are routinely swapped, and an item will be written to catch exactly that.
Drill it · 12 questionsThermal styling and heat safety
Every question in this area rests on one piece of chemistry: heat styling works on hydrogen bonds, and hydrogen bonds are broken by water. That single fact explains why the set is temporary, why humidity ruins it, and why the iron only goes on dry hair.
Drill it · 11 questions