This month, Minnesota and Connecticut became the third and fourth U.S. states to require that licensed cosmetologists in their state receive training and testing on textured hair.
The new mandate is part of a state-by-state movement that extends far beyond cosmetology schools, beyond even the $91 billion U.S. beauty market.
Led by the industry alliance Texture Education Collective (TEC), the movement intends to correct glaring racial inequities in barbershops and salons across the U.S. The goal is to change the status quo, in which people of color historically have had inadequate access to professional hair services, due to a knowledge gap about hair that’s curly or coily.
This gap has long persisted even though about 65 percent of the U.S. population has that type of hair, according to Aveda.
Edwin Neill, president of Aveda distributor Neill Corp. and a founding member of TEC, describes a scenario that’s common among people of color who enter a salon or barbershop: The response ‘We can't do your type of hair.’
“Imagine if a doctor or a lawyer said that!” Neill says.
“It doesn’t fit with who we are as a profession. And it creates a deeper divide where people with certain types of hair go to certain salons, and people with other types of hair go to other salons.”
The Root of the Problem: Cosmetology Training
This issue has made beauty salons among the most racially segregated spaces in American society. It’s a problem that has galvanized industry leaders to push for change, while emphasizing the solution needs to start at the source — the schools where stylists and barbers receive their initial career training.
But this is not so simple. The priority of cosmetology schools is to prepare students to pass their state licensing exam. Naturally, they focus their curriculum on the topics that show up on the test.
For most states, that doesn’t include textured hair.
“A lot of the practical exams for cosmetology come out of the 50s,” Neill says, “and they haven't really been updated.”
As part of the TEC, Neill works with state officials to update cosmetology licensing exams to include knowledge of textured hair. This creates the domino effect of schools changing their curriculum to prepare their students for it.
The process is lengthy. It’s complicated. And it aims to fix a massive flaw in the beauty industry, Neill says. “Can you really call yourself a professional if you can only work with a certain type of hair?” he asks. “You need to have the skill level to call yourself that.”
Neill Corp. helped start the TEC along with beauty powerhouses Aveda, L’Oreal, and DevaCurl, plus the nonprofits Texture VS Race and the Professional Beauty Association (PBA).
Myra Irizarry Reddy is the PBA’s Director of Government Affairs. Even with her industry background, she was surprised to discover most American cosmetologists-in-training were not being taught how to care for textured hair.
“You think, ‘This person went to school. They had to take a state board exam to receive their occupational license. So they know how to work on all types of hair,’” she says. “Take that a step further — you think if the stylist or barber has textured hair, they themselves must know how to work with it, right?
“But that is not the case,” she says. “It’s a lot bigger and broader than I ever imagined.”
The majority of mainstream cosmetology schools have long offered texture education as a secondary topic outside the core curriculum. Though students may themselves have textured hair, they haven’t necessarily been getting professional training on how to cut, color, style, and chemically treat it. For the majority of stylists, that happens after cosmetology school in the form of continuing education.
A big improvement came when cosmetology education powerhouses Pivot Point and Milady incorporated texture training into their main textbooks, as opposed to offering it in supplemental materials.
That still didn't fix the root problem, says Shawn Stearns, L'Oreal's Assistant Vice President of Schools Education & Training. He works with the Texture Education Collective to help cosmetology schools update their programs.
“Textured hair care is in the textbooks,” he says. “Where the challenge comes in is how much time gets spent on it, and how much hands-on activity you get.”
In many schools, texture training is not only secondary, but further limited to students who have that type of hair, Stearns says.
“What happens often is: a guest will come to the school to get their hair done, and they ask for a student stylist who has hair similar to theirs,” he explains. “It’s a comfort-level thing.
“While this is not the case for every school, my personal experience was like that, and a lot of schools are like that. People will graduate without ever having touched textured hair,” he says.
“So now they’re a licensed stylist, and someone with textured hair walks in asking for a service. And they don't feel comfortable doing it. They’re afraid they’re going to ruin this client’s hair.”
As a young cosmetology student, Stearns pushed to learn about textured hair. “I told the instructors, I've applied relaxer on a mannequin. But I've never done it on a person. I don't want the first time I do it on a person to be unsupervised in a salon, with them paying full price,” he recalls.
“To this day I remember being 18 years old in school, walking up to a guest with highly textured hair saying hi, I'm Shawn, I'm going to do your hair today. And she got a very scared look on her face.”
After graduating, Stearns sought ongoing training in textured hair. This motivated him to create accessible educational materials for students and working stylists wanting to improve their skills in curly and coily hair.
He helps cosmetology schools incorporate texture training from the jump. “Everything you do, you do it on all the hair types. And then it will never feel like a challenge.”
It’s not complicated, he explains. “Day one, you teach a technique. Do it on your straight-hair mannequin. Now pull out your texture mannequin and repeat the process. How was this different? Did you need to use different products?
“So it's less about viewing texture as a special thing and more about teaching every skill on every type of hair.”
Changing the Training Involves Changing the Test
The state-by-state movement started with Edwin Neill in Louisiana. His family company, Neill Corp., is not only Aveda’s largest distributor but an owner of multiple Aveda Arts & Sciences Institutes. Neill himself is chair of the Louisiana Board of Cosmetology.
He became linked with texture education in 2019, when Aveda was preparing to launch its Nutriplenish hair-care line. “We saw the opportunity that these products are great for textured hair,” Neill says.
“From there we started looking at curriculums of the Aveda Institutes regarding texture, and realizing we had a lot of work to do.”
This involved long conversations with Aveda’s Global Artistic Director for Texture, Renée Gadar, who clued him in that what’s taught in the schools is what’s on the practical exam.
In 2021, Neill convinced other Louisiana cosmetology board members the state licensing exam needed an update. This had the ripple effect of changing the curriculum in cosmetology schools within Louisiana.
“It seems so obvious in retrospect,” Neill says now. “It wasn't something that was at all controversial. As a matter of fact, it was very much embraced.
“It involved unbundling that test, taking it apart, and figuring out what knowledge really makes sense to graduates now.”
Neill’s success in Louisiana spearheaded the Texture Education Collective and its drive to duplicate the process in every state, says Reddy, of the PBA.
“It’s too bad we can't do it nationally,” she says. “Since it's on the state level, we have to go state by state.
“How does the change happen? It happens in the schools. It happens with the test.”
There are two paths to requiring texture training and testing at the state level. One is directly through the state cosmetology board, as Neill did in Louisiana.
In other states, like New York, the state legislature needs to pass a bill allowing the board to make those changes. In 2023, New York ‘s governor signed its legislation into law, making it the second state to get on board.
This avenue involves recruiting state lawmakers to sponsor such bills, Reddy says, acknowledging this has been a challenge.
“There's not active opposition as in someone pushing back and saying no, we don't want this,” she says. “The opposition is finding elected officials to truly believe that the beauty industry is worth their time.
“We need to connect with legislators who recognize that barbers and stylists are everywhere. They're in everyone's district. Everyone goes to one at some point," Reddy says.
“There is absolutely an accessibility aspect, and a health and safety and sanitation aspect,” she says. “If clients do not have licensed professionals accessible to them, they’ll go to someone unlicensed.
“Now they’re no longer in a safe, sanitary, inspectable establishment. The accountability is lost.”
Then there’s the broader issue of inclusivity.
“All individuals with all hair types deserve someone who is licensed, who is trained, and who is going to provide them services in a sanitary environment,” Reddy says.
“Everyone's hair texture is worthy of those standards.”
A Long-Overdue Makeover for Cosmetology Schools
Getting state officials to take the issue seriously is the first hurdle. The next is the logistics involved in seeing it through to classrooms. This is where the TEC and its vast resources come in.
“It’s helpful to have others who have done this already, to show them it's doable without a major impact on their state,” Reddy says.
Once the state board exam is successfully altered to included textured hair, part two of the process kicks in: helping cosmetology schools to follow suit. Again, this is a common sticking point for state officials, and again, the TEC is willing to help.
“We have an entire program through L’Oreal to offer them,” Reddy says. “It provides a way to accomplish textured hair education within current cosmetology and barbering programs without increasing the hours.
“It’s all about getting students to work with two mannequin heads, straight hair and textured hair,” Reddy says. “They do every step in the curriculum twice — once with straight hair, once with textured hair.
“So now they don’t just see textured hair once or twice as a special part of the program. It IS the program.”
Renée Gadar started out at Aveda Arts & Sciences Institutes as a guest instructor for textured hair. She eventually spearheaded the comprehensive texture curriculum that all Aveda Institutes incorporated in 2020.
Gadar says there’s a larger, more personal reason why all beauty students need to work with textured mannequins: Representation.
“Just to see a texture mannequin in their kit changes the entire experience for the students,” Gadar says.
She describes numerous instances when she’d visit cosmetology schools as a guest instructor, and Black students would come up to her after class, crying and thanking her. “They told me it was the first time in their school experience that they ever felt seen.”
Recruiting More Advocates for Texture Education
Though the changes in Louisiana, New York, Minnesota, and Connecticut are substantial, that’s still only four states out of 50.
According to Reddy, the TEC is in it until all 50 states are covered. “This is an ongoing process and we're keeping at this for sure,” she says. “This is not going to come and go.”
There are two ways for people to push for this requirement in their own state. One is open to everyone: to sign and share the TEC’s petition on the issue.
Reddy explains they use the petition to convince state officials to get on board. “We ask, did you know this many people in your state are interested?”
The second avenue is for licensed beauty professionals. “If you have access to your state cosmetology board, or you happen to know elected officials at the state level, you’re in a great position to move the needle,” Reddy says.
“We need legislators who won’t just introduce this bill, but will advocate for it. Who will actively push that legislation across the finish line. And beauty professionals have to serve as their guide,” she says.
“If we just assume someone else is going to do it, that won't work. We need champions.”