A group of stylists and their allies spoke out in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday morning about whether Missouri’s requirements for a cosmetology license should apply to African hair braiders.
To obtain a cosmetology license, stylists must complete 1,500 hours of training, which can cost around $16,000. The case against the licensing is built on the argument that the cosmetology schools require irrelevant learning for braiders. Missouri is one of 13 states that require braiders to be licensed cosmetologists.
A bill in the Missouri House of Representatives proposed that braiders register with a board that would issue an informational brochure on infection and disease control, according to previous Missourian reporting. After educating themselves, they would have a self-test portion. This would exclude the necessity of a license.
Gov. Eric Greitens addressed the problem during his State of the State address in January, but the bill did not pass in the spring legislative session.
Hair braiders Joba Niang and Tameka Stigers sued the Missouri Board of Cosmetology in the U.S. District Court in June 2014 asking them to end the licensing requirement. A judge ruled against them in September 2016, and Niang and Stigers appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Stigers said there’s only about a 7 percent overlap between cosmetology training and what braiders need to learn. She has been braiding professionally since 2008.
Those who are braiding are already equipped with the skills, but to get a license, they would need to go through training that they believe isn’t related, according to briefs filed in the case.
“Most (braiding) is taught through generations,” owner and stylist of Creative Hands salon La’Shunda McKinnie said. “How can you require a license when you don’t teach (braiding)?”
Despite the case, there are some that advocate for the current requirements. Hadje Achta Boukari Youssouf, a local hair braider from Africa who has been living in the U.S. since 2004, said she thinks cosmetology school is important.
“Everything that I learned is worth it to me,” Boukari Youssouf said. “The program was wonderful. I loved it.”
She said she started with braiding her friends’ hair, and then she braided other people’s hair before she decided to go to cosmetology school.
“Before the school, I was doing hair for cheap because I didn’t have a license,” Boukari Youssouf said. “Now, I charge double of what I charged before.”
The school also taught her things that she said no hairdresser would know without having been professionally trained. She talked about how important learning about proper sanitation methods and detecting diseases is.
“The sanitation is so important. Before I went to hair school, I had been doing hair for maybe 6 years or 7 years,” she said. “I didn’t know different types of hair and different types of sicknesses.”
However, Stigers has not allowed her lack of training to prevent her from turning people away out of health concerns, she previously told the Missourian. “I know a healthy scalp and an unhealthy scalp,” she said in a January interview.
Boukari Youssouf also talked about learning to be professional and how to communicate with clients at cosmetology school. There were plenty of things that she found useful, but she also said she didn’t learn anything about braiding.
It is expected to take several months before a court decision is made, attorney Dan Alban said.
“I’m hoping that these three judges will come to the right consensus,” Stigers said.