Textured Hair and Cosmetology
Story time!
When I was 23, the company I worked for transferred ownership and got rid of my position. I was demoted, got paid $5 less and was scheduled less hours. I can’t remember if it was assumed that I would still carry some of the same duties, but knowing the type of person I was and am still, that would be definite NO for me.
I decided I was tired of placing my lively hood in someone else's hands. So, I signed up for a natural hair care program very soon after the demotion. It was a program that began every Monday. The natural hair licensing requirements in Tennessee are: you have to be at least 16 years of age, 300 hours of education (150 theory and 150 practical), and passing the theory and practical state test.
So, why did I choose a natural hair program over a traditional cosmetology school?
Well, I’m glad you asked. In 2010, rocking and caring for your natural hair was still in it's infancy stage. I was a newly natural myself and I wanted to understand how to properly care for it. I had to choose a totally segregated program because textured hair is not properly explored in cosmetology school. Still isn't properly explored and taught, 10 years later!
Plus, I truly felt that knowing how to care for textured hair would be profitable and the timeline to being a licensed professional was super attractive. Three months, plus testing! That’s it. It seemed too good to be true. I worked at the job that demoted me part-time and went to school in the morning. While attending the natural hair program, I quit my part-time job and started working a full-time job. No worries, I finished the natural hair program right on time.
I was one of the first group of people to hold a natural hair license in Tennessee. However, the masses weren't ready to care and understand their hair. At least not professionally. Many people had the notion that natural hair meant no professional hair care. Many opted for YouTube University. I was too ahead of the curve. I wasn’t making the money I needed to be able to enter the beauty industry full-time.
And so, back to school I go.
Remember, I was working full-time. Usually, the morning shift from 6:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. Naturally, I got caught up in the rat race yet again. It took three years but I decided to go to a traditional cosmetology school. Again, the job I was working was showing more and more signs of relocation and I wanted no parts in that. So, at 26 years old, I enrolled into a traditional cosmetology school.
Why did you choose to go back to school instead of diving back into natural hair care?
It’s simple really. The natural hair care license is extremely limiting. You can’t alter the hair pattern in any way. That means no coloring or straightening. As mentioned before, many woman who wore their natural curls were not interested in professional care and those who were interested in professional hair care didn’t wear their hair in its natural state. So, I was at a crossroads of sorts. I felt it was necessary to be licensed in everything.
At cosmetology school, I learned color, cut, and chemical theory. At this school, they loved to say "hair is hair." Which is a nice notion, but meaningless when you never actively bring in kinky and curly models during the core learning phase (the first 6 weeks). This left non students of color to continue to be ignorant about textured hair and the Black students using European techniques on hair types that would have benefited from Afrocentric knowledge.
First day as a full-time beauty professional (June 2015).
All of that to say this…
To truly be knowledgeable in hair texture outside of the traditional European hair texture, a student will have to invest into an entirely different program, classes and training. Why is that? Well, Angela Ivana with CosmoSafe created texturedhairmatters.com to help change that narrative of this grave disparity with the #texturedhairmatters movement.
The history that set up the legislation and the cosmetology school as we know it today are beautifully laid out on the website. The way we think about cosmetology education must change and now is the time. Read up about it today and join the movement.
Images owned by texturedhairmatters.com and CosmoSafe