Fatima Hussein| The Indianapolis Star
INDIANAPOLIS — When the Indiana General Assembly started regulatinghair-braiding salons in 1997, Nicole Barnes-Thomas lost her job, her apartmentand, quickly, her life unraveled.
Once self-sufficient, she struggled to find work for about a year, then took an office job, though she says it's not what she'd prefer to do.
"It was devastating to say the least," said Barnes-Thomas, who saw Indiana's strict regulation of an African-American tradition as being culturally insensitive at the leastand economically devastating at most.
But now Barnes-Thomas has a new ally,one who may seem unusual in these politically polarized times. Awhite conservative Republican lawmaker from Elkhart,Timothy Wesco,has taken up her cause of hair braiding, a move that is being repeated across the country.
Already, 20 states have ceased regulatingthe practice, and bills are pending in Missouri, New Hampshire and New Jersey.
Hair-braiding salons are just one of many businesses Republican lawmakers are hoping to deregulate, with Indiana lawmakers considering changes in the licenses ofpsychologists, mental health counselors and social workers. But hair braiding, which has been an African tradition for thousands of years, is an industry with a nontraditional constituency for most Republican lawmakers.
So says Nadia E. Brown, a political science professor at Purdue University. She specializes in the study of minority women and legislative decision making.
Brown says Indianapolis has a long and storied history in African-American hair, dating before Madam C.J. Walker, the famous black hair product manufacturer who built her reputation as a hair-care specialistin the early 1900s. However, "whether ill-intentionedor not, laws regulating African-American hair are also nothing new," she said.
Cautiously hopeful that the bill will serve the needs of communities of color, Brown said Wesco's bill may be indicative that "the next generation of Hoosier lawmakers will take into consideration the needs of their constituents. By 2050, this nation will be a minority-majority voting bloc, after all."
Economic independence passed into law
Barnes-Thomas, a 36year-old Lawrence resident, whose natural talent for braiding turned into a small business by the time she was 15,chargedhundreds of dollars for several hours ofintricately weavingdesigns into clients' hair. And clients were willing to spend the money. By the time she was 16,braidingput more than food on the table.
"I was independent, I loved what I did, and I enjoyed putting a smile on people's faces," Barnes-Thomas said.
That all changed when House Bill 2011 passed into law in 1997, requiring hair braiders to complete cosmetology school in order to be licensed to practice under Indiana law. The change made it an infraction to braid hair without schooling. Currently, if braiders practicetheir craft without a cosmetology license, they risk committing a misdemeanor, punishable by fine of up to $500 per infraction.
As a result, many women like Barnes-Thomas have beenforced to either give up the craft, spend up to $20,000 for tuition in beauty school to complete 1,500 hours of training or simply operate without a cosmetology degreewith thefear ofgetting caught. And while manywomen have chosen to operate businesses without a license, Barnes-Thomas said she prefers to follow the law.
Wescoproposed House Bill 1243 earlier this year,whichwould remove natural hair braiding from the cosmetologist licensingrequirement. This past week, the bill passed through the Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee and is headed for a full House vote.He said the change would create economic opportunities for potential business owners.
To Wesco, the regulation is a burden on potential small-business owners and "this is a perfectexample of regulation we don't need."
There is push back, however, from the profession itself, including hair stylists.Licensing rules ensure the safety of clients, they say.
A bad braider can cause balding in clients, saidLashon Owens, a stylist in Indianapolis. "It’s about safety first, and in my opinion, anyone touching someone’s hair needs to go to school for it,” she said.
A history passed down from generations
With a history that goes back more than 5,000 years, hair braiding has been credited to early African origins, where it is considereda traditional art and a time-tested way of naturally caring for tightly coiled hair without scissors, heat or chemicals.
In committee this past week, Wesco explained the importance of hair braiding in the African tradition.
“This is predominantly an issue in the African-American community of those who have learned this craft from someone ... from basically a mentor or even a relative,” Wesco told the committee.
The vast majority of braiders are African-American and African immigrants and are almost entirely women. Theyrange from 10 years old to their late 60s, and come from ahost of different backgrounds, saidPaul Avelar,senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, who leads the libertarian legal assistance organization's Braiding Freedom Initiative.
"Some are from here, some come as refugees, some have their bachelor's and master's degrees, and some havefallenin love with the cultural aspects of braiding, I think it attracts a whole host of people," Avelar said.
To Barnes-Thomas, braiding is part of what it means to be a free, black individual in society, unencumbered by societal expectations of appearance.
"In its natural state, African hair kept people from getting jobs, and in some ways it still keeps people from getting jobs,"she said. "Braiding solves that, and for me, to open a businessis a great form of independence."
Indiana has one of the strictest hair-braiding regulations in the country, requiring braiders to complete 1,500 hours of practice before receiving a license.
South DakotaGov. Dennis Daugaardrecently signed into law HB 1048, which exempts hair braiders from cosmetology laws requiring 2,100 hours oftraining — the strictest requirement in the nation.
Yet, some say the regulations are designed to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Complaints against braiders are so rare that a person is 2.5 times more likely to get audited by the IRS (8.6 in 1,000) than a licensed or registered braider is to receive a complaint of any kind (3.4 in 1,000), according to the Institute for Justice.
A representative from theIndiana Professional Licensing Agency toldIndyStar that the state has never actually seen a complaint from a consumer regarding unlicensed hair braiders.
That is one of the reasons why the organization has openly supported Wesco's bill.
Not everyone is convinced that deregulating the business would be good for consumers.
Owens, a licensed stylist and instructor at Elite Hair in Indianapolis said, “even though it’s being advertised as totally natural, there are some chemicals being used.”
The deregulation bill alsospells competition for Owens, though she says she does not braid hair as often as she installs a weave, which is ahairstyle created by weaving pieces of real or artificial hair into a person's existing hair, typically in order to increase its length or thickness.
Brown argues that despite intentions to help braiders build their businesses, "there are multiple sides to this issue."
"How well-vetted is the law? What are the unintended consequences of how it will affect existing business owners?" she asked.
Occupational licensing gone wrong?
For some, it's not a cultural issue. Some say unnecessary professional licenses can be a drag on the economy.
In a 2015 report on the costs of occupational licensing on American homes, Salim Furth, a researcher at the conservative Heritage Institute, stated that it costs the average American household an additional $1,000 per year.
Occupational licensure at the state level costs consumers $127 billion per year.
And research by Morris Kleiner, Alan Krueger and Alexandre Mas estimate that by restricting employment, “occupational licensing can result in up to 2.85 million fewer jobs nationwide, with an annual cost to consumers of $203 billion.”
Letitia Bailey, a stylist at Evelyn's BeautySalon near downtown Indianapolis, said she sees a middle ground where people can forego school, but could complete continuing education to keep their license.
“I think that if you’re naturally talented at something and a school can’t teach you to do something you’re naturally gifted in, there could be some sort of certification class,” she said.
“There are a lot of good braiders that should have a chance,” she said.
Avelar, who has made a mission out of deregulating the braiding craft, sees it as a bipartisan problem with a bipartisan solution.
"If a person believes strongly in economic liberty, the right to earn an honest living away from arbitrary and unreasonable government regulation, throughhard work —that is so fundamentally American," Avelar said."There is no one who disagrees with that."
FollowFatima Hussein on Twitter:@fatimathefatima
