Hair Braiders Fight for Right to Practice Their Craft

By Minerva Canto

The Associated Press

September 16, 1999

SAN DIEGO — Gently pulling aside a tiny clump of hair from the woman sitting in front of her, JoAnne Cornwell deftly maneuvers the tresses into a tightly coiled lock.

There was a time when such a simple action could have resulted in a hefty fine because Cornwell, like thousands of other braiders of African-style hair designs, doesn't hold a state cosmetology license.

So before the state could come knocking on her door, she took them to court.

The result: Cornwell is celebrating a federal court victory that she and her fellow hair braiders nationwide hope will pave the way for them to keep practicing their craft without a license they feel is unnecessary.

"We don't shampoo. We don't use chemicals. And we don't cut hair," said Cornwell, a university professor who developed her own trademarked styling technique called Sisterlocks. "Yet they want us to take 1,600 hours of cosmetology training that never addresses what we do."

U.S. District Court Judge Rudi Brewster agreed.

"The court concludes that requiring a would-be African hair braider to attend a school of cosmetology is irrational and certainly unreasonable," the judge said in a 26-page ruling issued last month.

But he declined to issue a summary judgment extending that kind of blanket protection to the American Hairbraiders and Natural Hair Care Association in general, partly because their stylists' practices vary widely.

While the association argues its case, the Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the state's Barbering and Cosmetology Program, is waiting for a final ruling before deciding whether to appeal.

State and cosmetology officials have argued that hair braiders need to be licensed to ensure consumers are protected.

"They're working in an environment where diseases and where head lice can be transmitted from person to person," said Gordon Miller, executive director of the 30,000-member National Cosmetology Association. "Sanitary procedures are things that need to be learned and understood."

There are believed to be thousands of people operating small, home-based businesses around the country offering such African-styled braiding as corn rows and dreadlocks.

But many have been pushed underground by state cosmetology boards that want them to undergo training, said attorney Clint Bolick of the Washington, D.C.,-based Institute for Justice, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Cornwell and the hairbraiders association.