Louisiana Now Requires Textured Hair Training for All Cosmetologists

BLACK LIVES MATTERLouisiana Now Requires Textured Hair Training for All CosmetologistsWill Lousiana's new textured hair training resolution pave the way for a nationwide mandate?

By Sara Miranda

November 11, 2021

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This year alone, small steps have been taken towards making the United States a more inclusive place for folks with textured hair. The state of Connecticut signed The CROWN Act in March of 2021, which has made race-based hair discrimination illegal. Meanwhile, the United States celebrated its second annual National Crown Day on July 3, a celebration commemorating the signing of the Crown Act. As of November 1, Lousiana is now the latest state to push for inclusivity for folks with natural hair by adding a section on textured hair to all of its hairstylist licensing exams. 

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. 

Edwin Neill, the chair of the Louisiana Board of Cosmetology and the CEO of Aveda Arts & Sciences Institutes, tells Allure that adding a section on textured hair for licensing exams was something he brought to the cosmetology board's attention in the summer of 2021. "Kevin Martin, a board member and cosmetology instructor, worked with [Louisiana Board of Cosmetology] staff and consulted with Renee Gadar on how to accomplish the testing," Neill explains. After two more board meetings this fall, the Louisiana Board of Cosmetology ultimately decided to proceed with the resolution on adding a section on textured hair to all hairstylist licensing exams. 

Despite the fact that Neill raised the idea of adding an assessment on textured hairstyling practices to all Louisiana licensing exams this past summer, he says that Louisiana cosmetology schools have been refining their textured hair educational practices "for several years" now. He says that Aveda Arts (Neill is the CEO of the school) implemented textured hair instruction into all sequences of its curriculum in 2020. "The passage of the CROWN Act in Louisiana definitely raised consciousness in the industry," he adds. 

Gadar expressed to KATC that she hopes Louisiana's licensing resolution will be considered by other states, and we hope so, too. Even though Gadar hopes that other states will adopt a resolution similar to Louisiana's, she told Allure that this revision to the state's hairstylist licensing testing also calls attention to "the very politicized issue of licensing and deregulation that even touches the beauty industry." She says organizations, such as the Conservative Institute for Justice, have been calling “to deregulate licensing, including for cosmetologists and estheticians.”

Unfortunately, the United States is far from being a country that is free of hair discrimination against folks with textured hair. Hopefully, lawmakers are keeping a close eye on this new development coming out of Louisiana by working towards creating laws that are in the best interest of folks with Afro and textured hair. Louisiana's licensing exam resolution will officially go into effect in June 2022. 

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