DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two women challenging Iowa’s regulation on African-style hair braiding plan to drop a lawsuit they filed last year because of a change in state law.
An attorney for Aicheria Bell and Achan Agit says the lawsuit they filed in October 2015 against the state’s cosmetology board will be dismissed once new legislation takes effect Friday. The pending law will allow the women and others in Iowa to do natural hair braiding without a cosmetology license, which requires 2,100 hours of training that is mostly unrelated to braiding.
“I just want to work and make a living for my family and to teach braiding and to be able to give back to my community. I’m not trying to not pay taxes or break any laws, I just want to live,” Bell said in 2015 when the lawsuit was filed.
Iowa becomes among roughly 20 states that exclude natural hair braiding from the type of regulation that critics say can be burdensome to people in African-American and African immigrant communities. The move highlights some occupational licensing requirements around the country that research shows can hold back workers.