Oklahoma's Cosmetology and Barbering Board Names Michelle McFarland Interim Director

Michelle McFarland is the new interim executive director of the Oklahoma State Board of Cosmetology and Barbering, the agency announced at its meeting Monday in Oklahoma City.

For the state's licensed beauty professionals, the agency McFarland now runs is not an abstraction. The board licenses cosmetologists, barbers and manicurists, and it also regulates instructors, schools and the establishments that offer those services. Every salon license renewal, every school inspection and every new-hire credential in Oklahoma flows through the office she now oversees.

McFarland steps in as the board continues its search for a permanent executive director, a vacancy that opened with the May departure of Malena Curtsinger from the top job. The interim appointment restores a decision-maker at the agency after roughly two months of leadership uncertainty — a period in which license applications, enforcement actions and school approvals still needed sign-off.

Her résumé bridges both sides of the licensing desk. McFarland began her career as a hairdresser in Oklahoma City, then moved into roles in state and federal government. She later ran her own business, spent several years teaching, and ultimately accepted the interim executive director position. That mix — chair-side experience, regulatory work and small-business ownership — maps closely onto the constituencies the board regulates: working stylists, salon owners and the schools that train the next cohort of licensees.

The leadership shuffle does not end with the top job. The board also plans to fill its principal assistant position, vacant since John Funderbunk left on April 8. That means two of the agency's key administrative posts have turned over within a single quarter, a degree of churn that licensed establishments in Oklahoma will want to watch as processing times for licenses and renewals are tested.

For salon owners, the practical stakes are straightforward. An agency in transition can slow paperwork: new technician licenses, establishment permits for a second location, instructor certifications for a training program. A director who has herself held a license, owned a business and taught in the field at least reduces the risk that operational decisions lose touch with how salons actually run day to day.

McFarland's mandate is explicitly temporary. The board has not named a date for its permanent hire, and the search that began after Curtsinger's May exit remains open. Oklahoma licensees should watch the board's next meeting agenda for word on the permanent appointment — and for the naming of the next principal assistant, the second vacancy the agency still needs to close.