N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 430
The need for technical skill, training and experience, good health, good moral character and other fundamental qualities and qualifications in persons engaged in the practice of barbering, as herein defined, having been unquestionably established and demonstrated and in order to safeguard the health of the persons who patronize the barber shops of our state and because of the evils connected with itinerant barbers and barber shops and because of the inadequacy of local regulation, it is the purpose of the legislature, in enacting this article, to safeguard and protect the barbers of this state from the evils of itinerant barbers and barber shops and to safeguard and protect the lives, health and well being of those persons who patronize the barber shops of our state by making adequate provision for the examination, licensing and regulation of the barber shops and the barbers and apprentices to whom such persons submit themselves for barber work.
N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 430