South Dakota Law Now Allows Unlicensed Braiders To Work Out Of Their Homes
This is a really interesting one. A white South Dakota woman named Rachael Gorsuch had a big battle on her hands trying to pursue her passion — braiding hair from home. The issue is South Dakota has a strict state law making it illegal to braid hair without a license. Someone reported Gorsuch to the South Dakota Cosmetology Commission and she could have ended up in real trouble, but she turned her negative into a positive, rallying her clients to help her lobby to change the law.
Before Gorsuch’s campaign, a license to braid hair required 2,100 hours of official training in South Dakota. Gorsuch has been braiding black women’s hair since she was 14, and even when she attended Black Hills Beauty College she was the only one at the school who knew how to braid black hair.
“If you call any random salon, they’re going to tell you that they don’t do it,” Gorsuch told the Argus Leader. “You’re not even teaching it in the schools, yet you’re making people get a license?”
According to Census data there are only around 11,000 black people in South Dakota, comprising 2 percent of the state’s population.
Gorsuch’s movement won support from Governor Dennis Daugaard who signed House Bill 1048, which decriminalizes the practice of braiding hair without a license.
“We rallied because it’s important to my family and it’s important for people all across the state,” Ryan Howlett told The Argus Leader. “My daughter needs protective styling for her hair to be as beautiful as it can be, and it’s a service that’s needed.”
Beautiful story right?
Featured Image: LUIS ROBAYO/AFP/Getty Images
