There are many professions in Missouri that require licensing and are regulated by a state professional board. For instance, what if you walk into a salon and ask for light-red highlights, but you leave with orange hair and it's so excessively damaged that you have hair loss? Or, what if you go to a nail salon and it is not sanitary? Is that cosmetologist or salon accountable to anyone?

If this does happen, you should go to the Missouri Division of Professional Registration website and do a licensee search to check to see if this person is licensed. This is critical! If the person has misrepresented himself or herself as being a licensed professional--but isn't--then you should immediately contact the Division. You can find numbers for all of the boards at the website. Further, you can click on the link of the regulated profession and fill out a downloadable complaint form. These bad cosmetology experiences are just scenarios I used for dramatic effect. There are many occupations that are regulated and licensed in this state. Consequently, they are held responsible by an administrative authority. But surprisingly there are some jobs that don't require a license, such as loan officers. So, if you have a consumer-related concern about a non-licensed field, what can you do? Again, check and make sure that the line of work is, indeed, not regulated by a state board, at the MO Division of Professional Registration website. If it is not listed, then contact your local Better Business Bureau Office or file a consumer complaint form online at the MO AG's website.