8 Ways Natural Hair Could Leave You Needing a Lawyer

Can you imagine needing a lawyer because you have natural hair? Sadly, in this day and age, you it’s not so impossible to imagine. Here are 8 ways that natural hair could leave you needing a lawyer.

1) You come up with a product marketed for natural hair and it really, really messes someone up. If your new sweet hair marmalade is leaving people with bald spots, you may want to get yourself a lawyer. This happened to Unilever, who found themselves in the middle of a class-action lawsuit for false advertising.

2) You’re Melphine Evans, a former executive who was fired from her job at British Petroleum Oil Co. because of her natural hair and her “ethnic” clothing. She was accused of intimidating her colleagues with her cornrows, twists and braids.

3) Or you could be Rhonda Lee, who was fired from her meteorologist anchor position after defending her natural hair on her station’s Facebook page.

4) You could be a professional hair braider in Arkansas, dealing with irrational regulations while you’re only trying to make an honest living. Professional hair braiders there are being forced to spend thousands of dollars many hundreds of hours obtaining licences that have nothing to do with hair braiding.

5) You could also be the same, but in Texas. Natural hair braiders in Texas filed a federal lawsuit in 2013. Those women need to spend 750 hours in barber school, pass four exams that do not teach braiding, and spends thousands of dollars on tuition.

6) Renee Rogers was fired from her job with American Airlines in 1981 for wearing braids at work. She was a pioneer in this arena, filing suit against the company.

7) Again, if you decide to make a product for natural hair, try not to violate federal or state law. Try to make sure that your product doesn’t contain too many carcinogens, as did Organic by Africa’s Best, Organix, nutresshair, Paul Mitchell, Moroccanoil and just tons of other companies, many of which falsely claim to be organic, as well.

8) You don’t have to be at work to need a lawyer because of your natural hair. Because of her dreadlocks, Kimberly Haines was refused entry into a nightclub in 2006. Haines also filed suit.

If any of these unfortunate occurrences has happened to you, especially with regards to your job, check out the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, they can help you out.