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Can a new law help end hairstyle discrimination horror stories?

Andre Lamar
Delaware News Journal

Your hair is your crown. But for some Black and brown people, hair can feel like a wreath of thorns due to hair discrimination in the workplace and schools.

State employee Dwayne Powell, for example, said he might have lost about $20,000 in salary, all because he wears dreadlocks.

Ariana Cannon of Newark styles the hair of Chanda Gilmore of Wilmington with knotless braids at Resh Salon and Spa in Bear Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021.

Senate Bill 32, also known as the Delaware CROWN Act (Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair), aims to prevent hair discrimination from happening, and not just on the job. 

CROWN was introduced by primary sponsor Sen. Darius Brown, D-Wilmington, in January. The bill is designed to prevent students, workers, tenants and others from being subjected to unequal treatment due to their braids, locks, twists and other hairstyles or hair textures historically associated with race. 

The CROWN Act campaign, founded by the beauty brand Dove, is gaining traction in other states.

To date, seven states – including New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia – and the U.S. House of Representatives have passed some version of the CROWN Act while more than 15 other states have introduced similar legislation.

Although research supports the need for the CROWN Act, not everyone is clear how this legislation will do more than current state laws to fight hair discrimination. Delaware law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race; supporters of the legislation say it would make clear that that includes discrimination based on hair textures and styles. 

Resh Salon and Spa co-owner Michael Flagg attends to a patron while other customers have their hair styled at the Bear salon Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021.

Erika Broadwater, who's worked in human resources for nearly 30 years, said this bill isn't going to completely solve this issue.

"People are going to make mistakes, and they’re set in their ways," said Broadwater, who's been a president of the National Association of African Americans in Human Resources since 2019.

Black discrimination 'isn't anything new'

Broadwater said she once worked a job where a manager wouldn't move forward with a candidate because the individual had locs.

"I had to explain to them the legality of their decision. This person was more than qualified for the role, and they are to make a hiring decision based on the qualifications and not based on how the person looked," said Broadwater, of Bear, who works as a talent acquisition manager for Essity North America, a global hygiene and health company.

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"This isn't anything new. It's the world we live in. It's the unfortunate reality. We have to do a better job," the HR expert said about a culture of hair discrimination by some companies against Black and brown people. 

State employee Dwayne Powell has sported locs for 21 years, nearly half his life. Of the 15 years he's worked for the state, he’s spent the last 10 as a senior social worker case manager.

Dwayne Powell, of Milford, has been growing his dreadlocks for over two decades.

Powell said he's comfortable staying at his current mid-level position because there's a lot to learn. But years ago, he felt pressured to ditch his locs in order to move up in his career.

“As I got older and was looking at career moves, there have been times I felt it was necessary to cut my hair because with me being in a more higher position, I’m going to be representing not just me, but I’ll be representing the company,” the 43-year-old Milford resident said.

“When you look at somebody with long hair, [the stereotype is] you’re a lot younger, you’re immature; you need to mature now because you’re an adult, and you need to get rid of that.

“That mindset prevented me from applying for the job because I didn’t want to deal with the rejection if I didn’t get that position,” Powell said. “Of course, they’re not going to tell you it’s because of your hair. They’ll just tell you we found somebody more qualified.” 

HR expert Broadwater said even without the new law, employers can’t deny someone a job because of their hairstyle. 

There are, however, situations when companies may have policies that employees wear hairnets because workers are handling food or working at a plant. But other than those kinds of policies, employers can’t show bias over hair, she said.

"Whether dreadlocks, an afro, straight, curly, no matter what – you can't discriminate any type of hiring decision based on how someone wears their hair," Broadwater said.

A line she was told not to cross

A 2019 study by the Unilever personal care brand Dove found Black women are targeted by workplace discrimination related to their hair more than white women.

Patrice Casey, 28, of Smyrna, said she’s been discriminated against at two different jobs because of her hair. The first was when she applied at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino. Casey interviewed twice, once in the casino sector and once in the hotel sector. 

Patrice Casey, of Smyrna, rocks a blond low cut.

Casey didn’t get the job in the hotel sector. So her mom suggested she call back and ask for feedback on her interview because Casey was a young college student at Delaware State University who didn’t have a lot of interview experience.

"The woman told me on the phone it was because I didn't smile enough,” she said. “However, when I got hired in the casino sector, I found out the woman didn't like my hair. At the time, I had dreads. This was one of the first times [discrimination] was made obvious to me."

Dover Downs didn’t return calls from Delaware Online/The News Journal seeking comment about Casey's allegations.

The second time Casey said she faced discrimination was at her previous job as a car saleswoman. Instead of locs, Casey was sporting a low cut. But she still felt targeted by management.

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"I was basically told I wasn't allowed to get lines cut into my hair by the barber,” she said. “Because I was the only Black person there who did anything like that, of course, I felt offended. I understood what he was trying to say, but I definitely felt there were white guys who got their hair cut and got parts cut in. But it was only a problem when I did it.”

When employees or candidates tell her about instances where they felt a manager overlooked them because of their hair, Broadwater said she looks for certain clues.

She asks employees or job candidates to provide specifics about why they felt targeted by managers. “[Was it] the fact they were staring more at your hair than listening to you?” the HR expert said.

Erika Broadwater, of Bear, has been the national president of the National Association of African Americans in Human Resources since 2019.

Once Broadwater's collected all the information, she'll ask the manager if they knew they made the candidate feel uncomfortable. If it was purely innocent, Broadwater said, she'll ask: “Why didn't you move forward with this person? Tell me what about their qualifications and competencies made you decide they were not the person to move forward with?"

Hair stylists tell horror stories

Sherell Flagg, owner of Resh Salon & Spa in New Castle, said some of her Black and brown clients get their hair styled conservatively to help them make a good impression on job interviews.

Tamina Walston of Newark (left) works with a patron while Ariana Cannon of Newark (center) and Resh Salon and Spa co-owner Sherell Flagg are reflected in a mirror as they work on other clients at the Bear salon Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021.

“Once they actually get the job, I’ve seen them come back to my salon and have their hair styled the way they like to wear it. But you shouldn’t have to do that,” said Flagg, who runs her salon with her husband, Michael Flagg.

Corey Collins owns the Good Hair Lounge in Laurel. The 26-year-old stylist said he’s had many clients express frustration over whether they’ll lose a job because of their hair.

Most of those clients have natural hair, including locs. Collins said Black men might have it worse because the workplace is more familiar with Black women wearing long hair than guys.

Stylist Corey Collins is the owner of the Good Hair Lounge in Laurel.

“I recently had a client, who I think is a correctional officer or security officer, and he has problems. His locs are long. They’re reaching his mid-back and he says all the time he gets problems from his chief, telling him his hair is too long. They tried to get him to cut it,” Collins said.

First impressions are crucial for Blacks

Tywanda Cuffy of Newark is co-administrator of the Facebook group Naturally Redefined with Akira Grenardo-Drummond. The group has 5,000 members and encourages healthy discussions about natural hair products, as well as tips and tricks for styling "ethnic'' hair.

Tywanda Cuffy, of Newark, shows off her curls.

In 2014, Cuffy organized the third and latest Naturally Redefined Natural Hair and Holistic Health Expo. It attracted 1,000 people to the University of Delaware. She organized the first expo with Latoya Watson and the last two with Grenardo-Drummond,

Cuffy works in higher education and said she’s free to wear headwraps and blonde hair on the job.

While Cuffy has no stories about being barred from getting a job or advancing in her career due to her hair, she said she has had to consider the way she prepared her hair, both when it was natural and relaxed, for interviews in order to succeed. 

"I think in the Black community we really understand the importance of first impressions being a last impression," the Newark woman said. "It's been drilled into us how we present ourselves ... so [employers] can look beyond, essentially sometimes, our Blackness and our exterior to get to know who we are internally."

Resh Salon and Spa co-owner Sherell Flagg works with Tracie Dixon of New Castle at the Bear salon Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021.

Afro man stands ground, gets promoted 

DeLonzo Powell of Dover has been growing locs for more than 15 years. He’s accumulated a number of hair stories over the years, including one where he said he was denied an office job.

DeLonzo Powell, of Dover, has been growing his locs for over 15 years.

Another job candidate, a woman, told him, “I kinda knew you weren't gonna get the job,” he said. Powell said he wasn’t offended. “She wasn't being rude or anything because she said it was because of my hair."

Before he had locs, the Dover man used to get stares for having a big afro. In high school, he interviewed at a major retail store.

“One of the Black managers, the one who actually interviewed me, she told me, 'I know your hair is long,''' Powell, a cousin of Dwayne Powell, recalled. "'Do you plan on braiding it or anything?' She said she didn’t know how the other supervisors or the people above her would view me or like that kind of representation."

The manager, Powell said, hinted it wouldn’t be good for him to braid his hair. He got the job and continued to wear the afro. One day he was called into the office about his hair.

“How much hair are you gonna grow out?" he said a manager asked him. “It was kind of a little problem. After a while, when they saw my work ethic, they made me into an assistant manger."

What is professional hair?

It’s hard to define what professional hair is, Broadwater said, because it’s different from company to company.

Is it hair that’s combed? If so, people with locs or curly hair wouldn’t make the cut.

Is it natural hair? If so, what about people who wear wigs or extensions due to chemo treatment, hair disease such as alopecia or individuals who just have damaged hair?

Is it short hair? That would exclude people from multiple religious groups, including women who are Apostolic Christians. Rastafarianism was created in Jamaica, and folks who practice it grow locs. It's storied that Rastafarians won't cut their hair because they believe their hair gives them strength. 

So what is professional hair?

“I don't think anyone has that magic ball to say, 'This is a professional style' versus a non-professional style,” Broadwater said. “That’s really a matter of perception.”

Hair also poses problems for parents

Hair discrimination is common in the workplace, but it’s not limited there.

White mother Janice Savage said her 10-year-old Black son, Colton, was treated like he had a bad attitude by parents when he used to rock blond curly hair like NFL player Odell Beckham Jr.

Dover natives Jada, 13, and Colton Savage, 10, show off their hair.

Adults would accuse her son, she said, of being too demonstrative when he would get excited on the basketball court.  

“Because of the way [Colton] looks, when he does even the slightest action, it shows how different that's looked upon than [if it were] another kid,” said Savage, a Dover native who's been living with her kids in Georgia the last few years.

Savage, head coach of South Georgia State College’s softball team, has a 13-year-old daughter, Jada, who’s following in her footsteps.

While she said her daughter hasn’t faced discrimination in softball, the 38-year-old mom pointed out that Jada used to constantly straighten her big curly hair to fit in with her mostly white teammates.

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It got so bad she’s had to limit how often Jada can straighten her hair because she doesn’t want her to change the curl pattern.

The Dover native isn’t a fan of talking to her kids about racism and discrimination. But she said parents must do it because you have to train your kids so that they’ll know how to prepare their own children once they become parents.

"I wish that we could grow, obviously, as a country and a community and be past this. But unfortunately, we're not. We still have a long ways to go,” Savage said.

“The earlier that I do it, the more often we talk about it, the more awareness that we make, the more we celebrate who they are – I think that helps them understand and celebrate both their cultures.”

CROWN isn't 'foolproof' 

The Delaware CROWN Act is waiting to go to committee. Although the bill won’t completely bar employers from practicing discrimination, Broadwater said, that shouldn’t stop it from becoming law.  

“It’s almost impossible for it to be full foolproof," she said. "Even if you put a plan in front of them and you pass a bill [or] legislation, people are going to still violate that. I think we saw that clearly from the last presidential administration.

“The best you can do is put something forward," she said. "The worst you can do is not do anything at all.”

Andre Lamar is the features/lifestyle reporter. If you have an interesting story idea, email Andre Lamar at alamar@gannett.com.