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Hair braider lawsuit heard in 8th Circuit

ST. LOUIS – Arguments were heard before the 8th Circuit Wednesday about a lawsuit against the Missouri Board of Cosmetology regarding hair braiding, a topic that has arisen in recent past sessions to be de-regulated.

Ndioba “Joba” Niang and Tameka Stingers filed the suit in the U.S. District Court against the Missouri Board of Cosmetology, alleging that the Board’s requirement for African-style braiders be licensed cosmetologists, “prevent [braiders] from lawfully pursuing their chosen livelihood by threatening to impose fines and enforcing arbitrary, excessive, and anachronistic occupational licensing laws.”

Niang and Stingers are being represented by the Institute for Justice, who have been fighting laws in court for over 25 years. Missouri is one of 13 states that require African-style braiders to be licensed cosmetologists.

Cosmetology licensing laws were founded in the early 20th century and stipulate that people must attend a cosmetology school which requires over 1,500 hours experience and sometimes more than $12,000 in tuition. The Missouri Board of Cosmetology includes African-style braiding in the definition of cosmetology, even though the practice is wholly different from the practice of cosmetology. Yet, state statute requires people who are in the business of “arranging or dressing hair” to be licensed cosmetologists.

“The reason that [the laws] shouldn’t be applied to African-style hair braiders is because [the laws] have virtually nothing to do with hair braiding,” says Dan Alban, a lawyer from the Institute for Justice, representing Niang and Stingers. “Requiring African-style hair braiders to spend 1,500 hours learning completely irrelevant information about services they won’t offer and techniques they won’t perform – chemical and heat treatments they will never use – is a waste of time and money.”

The Missouri Board of Cosmetology could not be reached for comment.

Currently, 22 states – including Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia – do not require African-style braiders to have cosmetology licenses.

“It’s a particularly pernicious example of occupational licensing being overly burdensome and being applied in an arbitrary way to shut people out of an occupation and prevent them from being able to earn a living,” Alban says. “The people who affected by this… are typically low-income women of modest means… they don’t have the resources to spend $11 or $12 thousand on tuition and a year or more of their lives taking cosmetology or barbering classes in order to not practice cosmetology or barbering.”

The court has just heard opening oral arguments on the appeal. The judges are engaged and interested in the case, according to Alban – some are even doing additional research into relevant statues. “We think [our] oral argument went well and we are cautiously optimistic that the court will rule in our favor,” Alban said.

FEATURED IMAGE/Institute for Justice