Louisiana Now Requires Textured Hair Training for All Cosmetologists
From Vice News:
Starting next year, aspiring hairdressers will need to prove they can cut textured hair—hair typically belonging to Black and brown people—if they want to work in Louisiana, where a third of the population is Black.
From Allure:
Per reporting from KATC, the state of Louisiana's Board of Cosmetology issued a resolution on November 1 that will mandate "all licensing exams to include a section on cutting textured hair."
Renee Gadar, Aveda's global director of texture education, told KATC that Lousiana is the first state in the nation to enact a policy of this nature. Gadar tells Allure that this change may have seemed quick but has been a long time coming.
"Black women and the textured hair community have always felt left out of this — maybe not always realizing their hair isn't taught in schools or tested for standardization, but they can feel the effects of that exclusion," she says.
The Cosmetology Board chair, Edwin Neill, who owns the Paris Parker salon chain, said 65% of people have textured hair, yet "the test was always just on straight hair. We needed to recognize this competency was important.
This is a great first step in making sure, no matter what kind of hair a person has - wavy, curly or coily - hairdressers are able to accommodate that client.”