A group of legislators on Capitol Hill are turning their attention to the hair on top of your head. Democrats in both chambers have reintroduced the Crown Act, a bill passed by the House in the previous session that would provide protections against discrimination in the workplace for how people decide to wear their hair.
Minorities in America have often faced discrimination and pushback from employers for wearing their hair in natural styles. In particular, Black women have been pressured to conform to traditional societal norms and have often damaged their hair from processing and using straighteners.
Kim Kimble, celebrity hairstylist, told Cheddar the bill is a step in the right direction, stating no one should be discriminated against because of how their hair comes out of their head or should have to damage themselves just to meet corporate standards of beauty.
"It's nothing like really embracing what God gave you and learning how to work with what's natural," she said. "I'm not saying I only do natural hair, but I think it's important to love yourself, love your hair, and do what's the healthiest for your hair. And sometimes wearing your own hair is definitely healthy."
When it comes to beauty marketing and campaigns geared toward haircare, Kimble said companies should focus on promoting hair-healthy lifestyles and helping people understand that what they were born with is both beautiful and manageable.
Kimble, a stylist to some serious heavy hitters, including Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, and Tyra Banks to name a few, said the looks she helps bring to life are helping people embrace their own natural beauty.
"The fact that the masses can see themselves on TV in a way that's just beautiful and natural, I think that's just awesome," she noted.
After three decades of styling hair, Kimble said one of the most important things she's learned is at-home maintenance should be taken more seriously. Finding a great conditioner to increase a person's porosity, she said, is one of the keys to maintaining healthy hair.
This year Kimble launched an exclusive hair care line at Walmart that she said can help with maintaining health and "make a difference in you rocking your natural hair."
"For Black women, it's like we're always in search of how to take care of our hair, grow our hair, and how to maintain our hair so that it looks good without damaging it, and for years it has been so much damage in our hair," Kimble said.
