A Baton Rouge judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of hair braiders who claim the state’s requirement to obtain an expensive and time-consuming license for natural hair braiding goes against their constitutional right to earn money and make a living to support their families.
The state’s licensing process demands completing 500 hours of training, passing an exam, and paying annual fees. The braiding license regulations are burdensome, their attorneys claim, because those who want to comply with the regulations have to also travel four hours away to the only available cosmetology school offering the course in New Orleans.
The hair stylists and their attorneys argued that braiding is a common practice that has been carried out safely for thousands of years, deeply rooted in African and African-American culture.
“So I’m supposed to go to these white-owned schools and pay you to teach me how to do something that I probably already know how to do and do well. It doesn’t make any sense to me,” said Michelle Robertson, who was one of the plaintiffs in the case. “It always comes down to money. Who owns the schools? No one that looks like us, and if they do, it’s not a majority.”
Many hair braiders have had to move to neighboring states where braiding doesn’t require a license, such as Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas. According to the Institute of Justice, a public interest law firm representing the braiders, 29 other states have no licensing requirements for braiding.
Yet in Baton Rouge, Ashley N’Dakpri and her aunt Lynn Schofield said the state law has impacted their business. They’ve had to shutter some of their salons because of the regulations.
N’Dakpri is the manager and the sole braider at her family’s hair-braiding salon, Afro Touch Braiding. She obtained a cosmetology license while residing in the Ivory Coast and has braided hair for over a decade at Afro Touch. N’Dakpri learned to braid by…
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