A new New York law puts textured hair training in cosmetology schools—are they ready?
TheGrio...
A new bill requiring cosmetology schools in New York State to teach how to style textured hair takes effect on Sept. 1.
Shortly after winning her first election to the New York State Assembly in November 2012, Michaelle C. Solages walked into her campaign office dressed professionally and with her hair in its natural curl when a campaign adviser warned her that her hair was “unprofessional.”
“Well, that doesn’t look professional. You have to straighten your hair,” Solages recalled while speaking to theGrio by phone on Monday.
The interaction was hardly her first lesson in how the world viewed her hair. The Haitian-American lawmaker told theGrio that she grew up inundated with the message that her natural texture was somehow inadequate. Even finding someone who knew what to do with her curls proved difficult. Solages said she eventually had to hunt down a natural hair specialist online who taught her how to care for it herself because up until now, cosmetologists in New York could graduate from school without being required to learn how to work with every hair texture.
That’s all changing on Tuesday, Sept. 1, when a new bill sponsored by Sen. Jamaal Bailey and Solages officially takes effect, requiring cosmetology education and licensing exams in the state to include dedicated training on all hair types and textures.
“It’s kind of appalling that they weren’t required to learn about textured hair prior to this,” Solages said, adding that before it was optional or something students specifically had to seek out.
The bill, signed into law in November 2023 by Gov. Kathy Hochul, has given the state and cosmetology schools nearly three years to prepare for the new requirements, from updating curricula to ensuring future stylists of all backgrounds know how to work with a full range of hair textures, including Black hair. While the change is long overdue, are the beauty schools actually ready?
“It’s about making sure that we understand that all hair types and textures are beautiful and are acceptable, and that, as a professional, they should learn about this,” Solages said.
The lawmaker explained students will now have to learn hair analysis, treatment, styling, and product knowledge for curly, coily, kinky, and other hair textures. The mandate will impact everything from what they’re learning to what they’re learning on, including manequins that havve historically been predomiantely straight haired. The requirements also fit within the 1,000 hours already required for cosmetology students and 300 hours for natural hair styling students, rather than asking schools to build entirely new programs.
“This law really stands on the shoulders of the Crown Act, ending hair discrimination in the law and ending the training gap that exists. So anyone that sits in that chair [can] be comfortable knowing that that person behind them has interacted with their hair type,” the lawmaker explained.
The state has spent years developing the updated curriculum, consulting with industry representatives, and moving the regulations through the rulemaking process. However, you can mandate curriculum much faster than you can create qualified instructors. Erin Maybin, co-founder of the Natural Hairstyle & Braid Coalition and a longtime beauty professional and educator who also serves on the New York State Appearance Enhancement Advisory Committee, is considerably less convinced that cosmetology schools are ready for Tuesday.
While generations of students have been forgoing learning, just as many instructors were never required to learn how to manage textured hair, either. Maybin has seen that gap firsthand throughout her career. While training and later working in predominantly white beauty spaces, she said she often became the default textured-hair expert simply because she was Black.
“A lot of times, what happens is when a Black person comes into a hair school, we normally are defaulted to being the texture, you know, experts,” the longtime hairstylist and advocate said.
That has meant schools and salons have filled their knowledge gaps by leaning on Black stylists and educators, sometimes through unpaid or volunteer labor, rather than building textured-hair expertise throughout their instructional workforce. While the new requirements dictate what students must learn, they do not establish a separate textured-hair credential for instructors or require existing cosmetologists to undergo new training.
So far, the state has been preparing for the change through consultations with industry experts, the regulatory process, and the adoption of new curriculum requirements. The Department of State has also worked with the state Education Department, its Appearance Enhancement Advisory Committee, and industry representatives on implementation. What remains unclear is whether every school has enough instructors with the hands-on textured-hair expertise needed to actually teach the new material.
TheGrio has reached out to Solages for additional comment.
Another potential pitfall is that the change isn’t retroactive, something Solages was straightforward about. Existing cosmetologists don’t have to return to receive the training. Meaning someone who couldn’t do a proper curly cut on Monday doesn’t magically learn how on Tuesday. The new curriculum mandate applies to students beginning their education and training under the new requirements on Sept. 1 and going forward.
If Maybin were designing the ideal version, she said New York would create an instructor-training track or mandatory continuing education so already licensed professionals could develop those skills, too.
For the hair care professional, that gap gets its roots from the history of an industry that has long treated Black hair expertise as specialized knowledge rather than foundational beauty education. Black stylists and natural hair professionals developed their own techniques, training, and institutions long before mainstream cosmetology deemed it worthy.
If this mandate actually does work, though, New York couldn’t be a more perfect place for it to take off. New York is home to enormous fashion, beauty, and entertainment industries, all of which employ people whose jobs involve touching other people’s hair. The industry’s longstanding inability to adequately serve Black models, performers, and consumers means this isn’t simply about whether someone can walk into their neighborhood salon and get a decent blowout.
“Success would look like me being able to go to my local corner salon and interface with someone who knows my textured hair, and it’s not [an] anomaly,” Solages said.
Since the legislation’s inception, Solages said she has advocated for other states to adopt their own versions of the requirement, in the hope that what begins in New York can help set a new baseline for the industry elsewhere.
“This law impacts many people, but it deeply impacts women of color. And, you know, it’s important that these women know that they are beautiful as they are,” Solages said.
Whether the schools are ready remains to be seen. Solages believes the infrastructure and accountability are there. More importantly, she believes the need is too great to continue treating textured hair as an elective.
“I hope that we can change society, and that folks don’t have to straighten their hair in order to look ‘quote unquote’ professional. You know, professional is as you come and as you are,” she said, adding, “I just want to make sure that every woman and little girls throughout New York State know that their hair is not an anomaly. That it’s beautiful. That it’s normal, and that we can wear our hair as is without having to manipulate it.”
For Maybin, the real test is whether the mandate translates from the curriculum on paper to what students actually learn behind the chair.
“We can update rules and regulations, we can create bills, we can mandate this, we can do all of those things. But if there’s no change actually happening on the ground, then it’s all just for, you know, show, really,” Maybin said.
Still, she is excited about the potential.
“I’m very excited [about] any progress forward… anything that’s going to make it so we don’t have to keep asking permission to be Black,” she stressed.