Hanover County, VA Business Licensing & Operations: Massage Establishments (2026)

Section 17-9 regulates massage services and the establishments that provide them, not through a separate license application, but through a conduct rule built into the county's offenses chapter: it is unlawful for any person to provide massage services in exchange for consideration, or to operate a public or private establishment providing such services, where any physical contact with the recipient is provided by a person of the opposite sex. The prohibition reaches the establishment operator as well as the individual providing the service, so both can be charged.

Subsection (b) carves out several exemptions: a physician, surgeon, chiropractor, osteopath, naturopath or physical therapist duly licensed by the Commonwealth of Virginia is not covered, nor is a massage therapist certified by the state board of nursing. The section also exempts barbershops and beauty parlors, but only for massage limited to the scalp, the face, the neck or the shoulders, meaning a barbershop offering a full-body massage would fall back under the general prohibition. Because the rule sits in chapter 17 rather than in a licensing chapter, Hanover County does not operate a separate massage-establishment permit system alongside it; compliance turns on who performs the service and the client's sex relative to that person.